Since the invention of CD (Compact Disc), I can count the number of CD’s I have bought on one hand even though I have thousands of songs stored on my computer. Does this mean I am guilty of Music Piracy?? YES, like many of my fellow peers. Until a few years ago, I did not know this act was illegal. Which also means many people who take part in it do not know.
Music Piracy is said to be any form of unauthorized duplication and/or distribution of music including downloading, file sharing, and CD-burning. And yes CD burning is included, that also surprised me. In the old days, as a kid I had numerous of those little black things called cassette tapes and I would record all my prferred songs once the came on on the radio, thereby making my own playlist. Thereafter, with the advancement of technology, CDs came into the picture, and as an artist came out with a new album, I would burn my favorite tracks off of my friends’ album. Today, I download the latests songs off the Internet or from file sharing mediums such as Limewire. And this is how I made the over 2500 songs on stored on my ITunes.
Most people today do not believe music piracy is illegal as there are various means to take part in the act. As technology advances, IT experts come up with new ways of Music Piracy, which in turn beat the current measures provided by the Legislature to minimize this act. As the government goes through vast amounts of efforts to stop one form of piracy, those savvy experts are cooking up another form to beat the former Legal system.
Most of us would never even consider stealing something like a picture or a piece of clothing from a friend’s house. Our sense of right and wrong keeps most of us from what we believe “stealing” is. Yet when it comes to stealing digital recordings of copyrighted music, we somehow believe the same rules do not apply even though criminal penalties can be as high as five years in prison or $250,000 in fines. Contrary to popular belief, illegally downloading or copying copyrighted music is the same as stealing; there is no difference. When we download music off the internet we do not see it as a crime maybe because we have not been fully educated of all the harms of downloading music such as limiting the profits to record producing companies and their various artists or limiting the sales at record stores. Also, we may not see the act of piracy as a crime because we have not seen many of those who have been guilty or sanctioned for the wrongful act.
With that said, even with a great deal of government efforts, I do believe Music Piracy is here to stay as the Legislature system is lagging behind that of IT experts and unfortunately millions of people will still take part in the act even though it is deemed illegal.
Do you believe Music Piracy is stealing? And do you believe the sanctions may be too much?
i believe that as long as the music artist keep on making music, piracy would also be in play, but the fact to me is that the music artist this days have really gone with the fact that as technology keeps on growing that there would be also be the issue of file sharing, and for fact i believe file sharing has help them in a good sense when it comes to their fame, because you would want to get music in which you don't want to listen, so is thereby enhances their road tours and consent. Most of the artist this days make their money through the road tours, event, consent and so on. But also the legislation have put in place this laws to stop piracy but i don't thin it would still stop people from going to youtube or other site to share this music.
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