Illegaly downloading music
For decades U.S. copyright law has protected the rights of composers and performers to the fruits of their musical creativity and skill. Under most circumstances it is illegal to electronically copy a recorded version of a musical performance. The right to distribute or sell such performances lies with the copyright holder. Of course, private tape recording of copyrighted music has been practiced for quite some time, to the dismay of musical recording companies. However, a method for copying on a wider scale has become available through the Internet.
The biggest case brought to court over the recent years has been Napster. Napster was the largest free music site to download music until Metallica and Dr. Dre filed lawsuits against Napster for illegally sharing their music. In 2001, Napster settled with Metallica and Dr. Dre and subsequently shut down. Although Napster was shut down, many peer-to-peer (p2p) sites have popped up. Having learned from Napster, they based their companies outside the U.S. Unable to prosecute the companies themselves, the government began prosecuting the people who were doing the illegal downloading.
Recording companies claim to lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually from this. They claim new artists get hurt due to this type of distribution because no one buys the CDs. In contrast to normal music release, Radiohead, an english rock band, released their album In Rainbows on their own website for download. They gave the option to the downloader as to how much they wanted to pay for the album (Including free!). Within the first week, they reported made ten million dollars. As this may only be an isolated case, this method of distribution may not always work.
- How seriously wrong do you believe it is to employ MP3 technology for copying?
- How much attention do you think the government should give to the problem?
