Criminal Penalties For The Downloading Music example essay topic

The Plummet of Music Sales The copyright laws that have been established to protect the entertainment industry are the cause for many lawsuits against internet downloaders. The law states, "It is against U.S. and international laws to copy an original work created without permission". Napster and other file sharing or music swapping programs provide available music files for download, which is illegal under copyright laws. As a result of this music downloading, the downloading industry becomes more popular and music sales continue to plummet. There is the problem of what punishments are necessary and what to do so people can keep downloading legally. The lawsuits that are currently being brought against the Internet downloader's could "allow for damages... up to $150,000 for each song", if one were caught downloading songs.

This means they would be paying $150,000 per song when it would only actually cost them fifteen to twenty dollars a CD to by them retail. Is this really worth it? Last June the Recording Industry Association of America, otherwise known as the RIAA, announced that it planned to file several hundred lawsuits against people suspected of illegally sharing songs on the Internet. The RIAA can get information on who is downloading music by looking at the personal information these downloaders offer when they are committing the crime. The RIAA is willing to accept a plea of guilty and an agreement that they will delete the songs people have on their computers, and in return the RIAA will not sue them. This does not apply to the people who have already been named by the RIAA.

According to KAVU. com, the crackdown implemented by the RIAA is to expand criminal penalties for the downloading music. Downloading music and file sharing is the main blame for low CD sales. Geoff Gar in, chief executive of Hart Research says, "I would not argue that downloading and copying are the only factors at work, but we have clear evidence that downloading and copying do not have a favorable effect on record sales". The RIAA issued a study that surveyed Internet music downloaders.

"Internet users who say they are downloading more music also said they were purchasing fewer albums". Obviously this is a direct correlation between the decline in music sales and the downloading of files, these downloaders actually admit themselves that they were copying the music and were purchasing less. According to CNN, "two of every five CDs sold are now pirated and the music market has never been hotter". CNN also found that global music sales fell 7.2 percent in 2002 with the total pirate music market worth an estimated 4.6 billion in 2002, which is up 7 percent from 2001.

The record company's major strategy is to go after the people who are sharing their songs, not the people who are downloading. Their theory is that people will check the box that says don't share or delete the programs completely. By doing this it will greatly reduce the amount of songs being traded on the service. The music industry is coming up with ways that people can download the music they want for a small fee, around $1 a song. This seams like a reasonable amount to pay and keep it legal. Most of the services will offer a 30 second preview of a song so you do not end up downloading the wrong song or something you do not want.

The recording industry joined with Apple to come up with the iTunes music store. They charge. 99 cents a song or $9.99 an album. This service has over 200,000 songs available for download. Right now the service is only for Mac computers with a fairly new operating system, but they plan to have a windows compatible version around the end of 2003.

Music downloading has caused quite an uproar in this country. I agree that it is wrong to infringe on copy right laws, but the penalties are going a little overboard as well. This argument could go either way and will go on for a long time.