I do understand the perspective of the music industry. I would not want my property being distributed to thousands of people for free. Though I don't think the situation is much of an issue anymore. The large number of people sued for illegal downloads back in 2003 seemed to reduce the amount of people using file sharing. I know Napster and some other sites offer downloads for about $1, but I haven't come across any websites that offer free downloads. Maybe I just don't spend enough time on the internet.
This topic does bring up one question for me. Why is the music industry so upset about a file sharing website giving out audio copies of songs while nothing is being done about youtube where you can watch or download a video for free whenever you want. If they believe that the videos will motivate someone to buy their cd then it would seem like listening to a freely downloaded track would do the same thing.
Overall I believe that piracy can be both good and bad. Freely sharing music downloads will help an artist become more well known, but if they're not making any money by selling cd's I'm not sure how much the publicity will help them. The RIAA has helped to reduce the amount of illegal downloads which is good for the artists. I know that I don't mind paying iTunes a dollar to download songs. I like the song just as much as I would if I downloaded it for free and I don't have to worry about picking up a virus.
I think that one of the reasons illegal downloading has become a bigger issue in recent years is because technology as increased. Not many people and go buy CDs anymore. I think that iTunes does a nice job of making songs cheap for users to buy. Many people own iPods so it makes it easier for them to download the music if they are willing to pay the dollar for each song, or you can just buy the album off of iTunes. I think that sharing music downloads has become a bigger issue mainly because the use of technology has increased, so there is no need to buy CDs in the stores.
ReplyDeleteCD's are going the way of the dinosaurs! I still think if artists put out more quality music things would be different. How about making 10 of the 15 songs per album good, instead of just one! Maybe people will be more inclined to pay for your music!
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