Music piracy is a significant issue world wide, causing an already hemorrhaging global economy to bleed-out even further. Contrary to a presumption held by many who participate in it, music piracy associated with illegal P2P file sharing is not a victimless crime and it is not only the mega-rich in the industry who feel the sting of its effects.
According to the Institute for Policy Innovation, the U.S. economy takes a $12.5 billion hit annually as a result of all forms of world wide music piracy. The music industry employs approximately 50,000 workers. Yet, with the US currently experiencing one of the highest unemployment rates in history, we can still look to the illegal piracy of sound recordings as being responsible for the loss of 71,060 U.S. jobs, $2.7 billion in lost wages, and $422 million in lost tax revenues.
According to IFPI, the value of copyright-based industries in the U.S is $430 billion dollars and Europe $360 billion Euros. With the world turning more and more towards electronic commerce, instant information and digital data, copyrighted material is destined to become one of the most valuable on-line commodities to be bought, sold, traded and bartered for.
A copyright, very simply put, is the legal means in which the holder to the rights of an artist’s work is given control over whether the work can be distributed, how it can be distributed, when it can be distributed, and who can do the distributing. Copyright has been recognized in international law for over 200-years and is born of the idea that those who “create, produce or invest in creative work should be the ones that decide how that work should be reproduced and made available to the public.”
Aside from the economic issues associated with music piracy, what about questions of ethical and moral boundaries; is it okay to steal, simply because you don’t see the victim?
Sure, downloading digital music isn’t like going out and mugging someone. It’s not that kind of theft. However, using Utorrent to download Beyonce’s hot new single, burn it to 10 CD’s and give them out to all of your friends is still stealing. You’re just not beating the woman in the head with a blackjack in order to steal her purse.
Downloading music from P2P networks such as Kaza and LimeWire threatens the livelihood of regular working class people just like you; people from songwriters, recording engineers and artists, to indie record stores and their staff, to the guy that shrink wraps the cellophane around the CD cases before they’re shipped off for sale.
The interface used by services such as Utorrent and Torrentz gives the user a feel good feeling, leaving a presumption that they’re not doing anything illegal. With an appearance of little more than a search engine, results for the music queried are returned in the users Web Browser and it’s a simple point and click to download the file. It is easy to understand how many people ascribe to a popular misconception and rationalize that if it’s found on the Internet then it is fair game and falls under the guidelines of Fair Use. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In a culture that is becoming ever more “green” conscious, looking for a “clean” way to share your favorite music and avoid the legal pitfalls, such a jail time and being assessed fines that would take a normal person well past their date of death to ever pay off, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), provides a list of legal options for downloading your favorite songs that will keep you – and your college/parents/grandparents/etc – from getting sued.
However, if you’re one of those individuals who believes that if God didn’t want you to download free music he wouldn’t have had Al Gore create the Internet, then by all means have at it. Just keep in mind, if one day you open your door to find some little man in a brown polyester suit standing on your stoop with legal papers announcing an impending court action against you, “I found it on the Interwebs” probably isn’t going to work as a viable excuse.
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