Endlessly searching for songs and downloading them free of charge is something that we have all heard about and in most cases done ourselves. I personally know many friends who have thousands of songs just sitting in the music library that have been provided to them free of charge. To most people this seems ok, as it did to me before being educated on the issue. You don’t think about the tiresome hours spent writing the lyrics, or the late nights finding the right melody for that one song. All you seem to think about is the resources available to you and their free of charge campaign. I will admit that I was one of those naïve Americans, but I now see how important copyright laws are for intellectual property such as music. The works of musicians, as well as authors, inventors, and others, should not be distributed freely without the consent of the inventor, or at a cost that is agreed upon.
I believe that stronger actions need to be taken to secure the rights of musicians and their intellectual property on the internet. Spinello defines intellectual property as consisting of “intellectual objects,” such as original musical compositions, poems, novels, inventions, product formulas, and so forth. Music seems to be one of the largest objects that fall under this category that is illegally distributed. Servers such as Kazaa, are now being punished for their actions of allowing illegal downloading, but shouldn’t we as a nation be proactive to situations such as these instead of reactive? Although Kazaa has been sued for their wrongs, and paid millions of dollars to artists in return, they can never really repay the artists for all of the illegal music in which they let leak out in to the general public.
One positive feature that is protecting intellectual property such as music is present right on our very own campus. Vanderbilt offers a server called “Ruckus” in which you are able to download music for free, but in a legal and safe way. It is actions such as these that promote good copyright practices amongst Americans in our younger generation. Vanderbilt also does not allow illegal downloading while on campus, and if caught, imposes serious consequences upon the user. Although it would be easy for the student to just download the music somewhere off campus, or at home, at least this is a step in the right direction for copyright laws being implemented on things such as intellectual property. So the next time you go to download that song free of cost, think of the musician, and how you would feel if that were your song and your hard work being stolen.
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Although downloading music without charge is a harm to those that create the music we all enjoy listening too, the important idea is the fear that Lessig discusses on copyright laws which is, copyright laws are being imposed in a radical manner. Ellen states that we “don’t think about the tiresome hours spent writing the lyrics, or the late nights finding the right melody for that one song.” True, downloading music for-free harms everyone in the music industry because to create the productions involves studios, audio engineers, publishing companies, the musician, etc. But those that impose copyright law to protect intellectual property are using that power unchecked. The Internet and code law is so new and vast that there is a confused boundary on what is just and what is unjust. Therefore, copyright law can be imposed on anyone at almost anytime without anybody there to interject.
An example of how extreme copyright law has been imposed is the South Park episode where Kyle and Stan decide to bet Cartman on who can get a Platinum Album first. Beginning their music career, Kyle and Stan decide to download some music like “Metallica” to find out what music they should play. The next day, CIA storms their house and arrest these two young children who honestly did not know that downloading free music from a peer-to-peer file sharing program was illegal. When the boys say that they didn’t know they were hurting anyone, the deranged CIA agent shows the boys that “Brittany Spears couldn’t fly in a new jet, but had to settle for the older version”, “Lars Ulrich of Metallica couldn’t install a new pool”, and “Master P could not give his son that island in the Bahama’s that he wanted.”
What this is showing is that downloading free music does not hurt mainstream artist. However, free music downloading helps amateur artists by spreading their sound without having to pay a single dime.
I agree with this post which said that nowadays people can easily download verity types of music just with sitting a few minutes in front of the computer. Here, we can see that technology had control us. It is true sometimes we forget about others hard works and easily 'steal' it from them. We never thought about the sickness on how to compose and produce the one single song. Download the music free in the internet indirectly harm the music industry. I totally do not agree if someone easily 'steal' my hard works which took a lot of effort and time to produce it. I am pretty sure that everyone also agrees with me. Here, we can see the important of copyright laws which protect the right of the intellectual properties like music from being copied by others. I strongly agree that the actions should be taken to punish the illegal downloading of the music on the internet in order to protect the right towards the intellectual property.
On a recent car trip, the song "Hell's Bells" by AC/DC began to pour out of the vehicle's speakers. As our teeth rattled and bones shook in concert with the pounding base line, our heads began to bob in unison – the music had clearly enraptured all of us. As the song faded into silence, a friend stated that he absolutely loved the band and the song in particular. He immediately resolved to download the entire album upon returning to his dorm. My initial reaction to this was alarm, and I sought to make Vanderbilt's anti-piracy stance clear. He looked at me with a great deal of amusement and indicated his refusal to utilize file sharing programs – he downloads all of his music from legitimate sources, such as iTunes. A few days later, the conversation returned to AC/DC, and he expressed his utter dismay upon discovering that iTunes did not sell the song from the original artist. Noting the lack of availability, he decided to ask a friend for the song file.
This anecdote yields a noteworthy development. It is a testament to the utter decadence of our society that the illegal action is that which is first considered. I, and most people of our generation, readily assume that downloading music entails doing so illegally, which led to my relative shock upon finding out that he had no intention of stealing the music. This regrettable shift in perception has so conditioned us to breaking the music industry's intellectual property rights that such violations are now beneath serious consideration for the vast majority of us. This must be remedied – greater protection and education is necessary.
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