Week Eight Writing Assignment

I will admit, I have illegally downloaded a large amount of music. It all started around middle school when Napster was popular. My brother and I would download music on our families computer and we were not aware that it was even a bad thing. After Napster was shut down, new illegal downloading programs became available, such as Kazaa, Bearshare and Limewire. The premises from A Better Way Forward article states, "Killing Napster only spawned more decentralized networks. Most evidence suggest that file sharing is at least as popular today as it was before the lawsuits began." 

My personal ethics regarding file sharing is that it is so normal and common to me, I feel it is okay. I do however understand that file sharing is wrong and is taking away profit from artists who work hard at their job and could potentially be loosing money. But the way I see it, in order to get music around, just like the news or any means of communication, the music has to be bounced around and shared through people. I myself love when friends introduce me to new music, especially since they know what kind of person I am so they know what genre and styles of music I will be interested in.  People are lazy in society and do not always go out looking for new bands and music to listen to, but rather wait and get introduced to it by someone else. Although sharing music with friends can help promote the bands and lead to branching the music off to more people, it "robs the people who created the music of compensation" - stated in the RIAA article. It sort of has a domino affect, as when the record companies are deprived, employees loose their jobs, artists get taken off rosters, and fewer bands are able to be signed. In the long run this is not going to help the music industry. 

In comparing shoplifting a CD from a store and downloading free music on the internet, I feel the two differ on many accounts. As the RIAA article states, "When you go online and download songs without permission, you are stealing. 

The illegal downloading o music if just as wrong as shoplifting from a local convenience store - and the impact on those who create music and bring it to fans is equally devastating."  First of all, it is not our fault that someone made these illegal downloading programs available to anyone who wants it, and it is hard to resist the temptation when frankly it is basically like people standing outside of these music stores and handing it to us, free of charge. I do not see it on the same terms as walking into a music store and physically stealing the CD, however I am aware that it is wrong, but not enough people are aware of this so they do it anyway. 

Whether or not the artist is popular or struggling, I feel that downloading their music and sharing it with others is making the artist or band bigger. However after reading the article on RIAA I did not realize that more than just the artist's are affected by this. Sound engineers and technicians to warehouse workers and record store clerks are all affected as well. Piracy deprives the music industry of the resources that help develop new talent. 

I recently began to DJ at our schools radio station and I have been playing local bands from my home town, along with local bands around this area to promote their music and make them more popular. I tend to mention their my-space URL so that people can check them out and see what they sound like, in hopes of then buying their CD at a store or on Itunes. 

For people who wish to buy CD's and would like to try it out, their are many websites that allow sampling of music, without illegal download. Take for example my-space, which actually lets you listen to entire songs that have been accessible legally by the artist themselves, or someone who works for the artist. Some are even downloadable. I think that when people say they are going to test out a song, it will lead to "testing" out more and more songs, unable to resist the temptations into downloading all free music. But is it the individuals who are downloading this free music to blame? I feel that although it is wrong, it's not like these people were the ones who created these programs, and for that matter they would never be tempted to get this music for free because it would not be accessible. 

I am not going to lie and say I will never download music illegally again, but after reading these articles, I now am aware of how many people this is hurting. I am interested working in the music industry myself, so I feel that I am just harming my own future by downloading free music. I hope that someday, all illegal downloading of music will be shut down so I will no longer be tempted to download.