Music Piracy Sucks.

This is my final paper for my ethics class. It’s a little long but I think this stuff is really important for people to know and think about. Enjoy.

The Internet has brought the music industry many new opportunities for marketing, promotion, and retail, but it has also facilitated the industry’s greatest detriment in the past decade: music piracy. Piracy costs the music industry billions of dollars each year and affects the careers of thousands of musicians and industry professionals. Although music piracy may seem like a good idea because it is free and easy, it is ethically and legally wrong, and should be prevented at all costs because of the severe effect it has on the music industry.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), online music piracy is defined as “the unauthorized uploading of a copyrighted sound recording and making it available to the public, or downloading a sound recording from an Internet site, even if the recording isn’t resold. Online piracy can now also include certain uses of “streaming” technologies from the Internet.” (RIAA) Music piracy is illegal because it is copyright infringement, and making unauthorized copies of a creative work is essentially stealing. Illegally downloading music has often been compared by industry professionals to shoplifting a CD from a store. It has the same effect: artists, labels, distributors, retailers, and everyone else involved in the production and distribution of the record loses money. Shoplifting a CD from a store usually leads to arrest and a fine, but people who pirate music online often think that they don’t deserve a similar punishment. In fact, if caught, people who illegally download music can be charged with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. (RIAA) The RIAA formerly filed lawsuits against end users for illegal downloading, but has now stopped its litigation program due to the success of a series of online anti-piracy initiatives taken by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as well as a changing digital marketplace for music.

Unfortunately, pirating music online is quite easy to do. There are many different ways to engage in music piracy, including using P2P networks, BitTorrents, or downloading music from blogs and other file-sharing websites. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks like Napster, Limewire, and Kazaa connect users’ computers using software and allow them to share files with each other by downloading the files through the program. BitTorrent is a kind of peer-to-peer network that is used to share large files like entire albums. BitTorrent breaks down large files into smaller pieces, which are sent to the downloading user from multiple “seeders.” As soon as a piece is downloaded, BitTorrent begins uploading it to other users who are interested in the file. Many “music bloggers” also upload music files onto their blogs or websites and make them available for easy download without authorization.

Many different kinds of people pirate music, but the most popular demographic to do so are college students (RIAA). This is unsurprising for many reasons. College students generally do not have a sizeable disposable income to spend on entertainment, which may lead them to illegally downloading their favorite music for free. College students today also generally have Internet access and use it on a daily basis for social networking, schoolwork, e-mail, and a variety of other reasons, making it easy for them to download music as well. College students of recent generations have also grown up using the Internet and are generally fairly tech-savvy. They have gone through adolescence seeing how easy it is to download media from the Internet for free, and may have a sense of entitlement to free music.

In today’s fast-paced world, it could be argued that the main reason people pirate music is because it is free, easy, and relatively speedy. When it comes to pricing, let’s face it: nothing beats free. Even with legal alternatives like iTunes offering songs for only 99 cents, why pay at all when you can get the same thing for free? Especially in today’s rough economy, people are constantly trying to find ways to save money. Free entertainment through unauthorized download doesn’t seem like such a bad idea to some people. There are also dozens of ways to pirate music, making it extremely easy for anyone with an Internet connection to do so. And with today’s technology, downloading music is fast; an entire record can be downloaded in a matter of minutes. Why trek all the way to the store when you can stay at home in front of your computer for five minutes and get the same product at no cost? Another reason people might illegally download music is that they think they won’t get caught. Even when the RIAA was claiming lawsuits against piracy offenders, they figured that chances that they personally would get caught were slim to none. And now that the RIAA has stopped their end user litigation program, it seems even more probable that illegal downloaders can get away with their crime.

So with all these seemingly advantageous aspects of music piracy, why shouldn’t people illegally download music?

What many people don’t realize is that many files that they download illegally are of inferior quality than products available for purchase. Files available on P2P networks or torrent sites are often compressed to save hard drive space and allow for a faster download. This can lead to a “tinny” sound or other audible flaw when playing the file. Legal download services like iTunes generally offer higher quality versions than the compressed files often found on P2P Networks.

Viruses, worms, and Trojan horses are also easily transmittable through P2P exchanges. Anyone with malicious intent could include a virus in a torrent or other file that could be downloaded directly to hundreds or thousands of computers without the users’ knowledge.

Another reason to stay away from music piracy is that you can get caught. ISPs are now working with the RIAA to stop music piracy online. ISPs are using IP addresses to identify users who are engaged in illegal transfers of copyrighted music on P2P networks, and sending those infringing users notices that can include warnings, fines, or other penalties. If a warning by an ISP is ignored, the infringing user may be sued by copyright holders for damages (RIAA).

The most important reason to avoid illegal downloading is the effect piracy has on the music industry. “Across the board, this theft has hurt the music community, with thousands of layoffs, songwriters out of work, and new artists having a harder time getting signed and breaking into the business.” (RIAA) The Institute for Policy Innovation conducted a study that concludes that “global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers’ earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes.” (IPI)

Music piracy hurts your favorite musicians. Without enough money to go around, record labels do not have the resources to keep signing up-and-coming artists, and must put most of their focus on their already-established moneymakers instead. This puts a strain on new artists, niche artists, and indie artists, and could ultimately lead to extreme monotony in the music industry.

And artists aren’t the only ones hurting. All the people that are responsible for bringing music fans their favorite records are feeling the effect of music piracy as well. Record labels, management, producers, songwriters, distributors, retailers, and other music businesses are all losing money because of lost profits due to music piracy. Without these people, many of your favorite artists and records would be unknown today. These people are responsible for the successful careers of countless artists, and should be fairly compensated for all the hard work they do behind the scenes. Music piracy not only takes away the artists’ share of music sales, but a significant portion of the industry professionals’ shares as well.

The evidence that music piracy has affected music sales is inarguable. RIAA statistics show that physical music sales have been on the decline since 1999, when they peaked at about $14,584,700,000. Sales have been decreasing exponentially in the last decade, which is evident by last year’s numbers of only $5,474,300,000. It is worth noting that the file-sharing program Napster was created in 1999, and similar programs like Limewire and Kazaa followed shortly after. It is difficult to ignore the correlation between the emergence of peer-to-peer networks and the decline of music sales. One small ray of hope is that digital sales have been on the rise since the RIAA started including them in their reports in 2004, but digital profits do not even come close to compensating for the loss the industry has experienced in the last decade. Below is a graph depicting the dramatic decline in music sales in the last decade.

The ethical dilemma about music piracy is obvious. Do you, as a music fan, pay for your music and therefore compensate your favorite artists and their labels, songwriters, producers, distributers, retailers, etc. for their hard work? Or do you, as someone with a small disposable income in these hard economic times, illegally download your music for free? Ethically and legally, the right answer is to pay for your music, but the ease and no cost of piracy is too tempting for some to pass up.

Those considering illegally downloading music online should take a moment to think about the possible consequences of their actions. Not only are they hurting their favorite artists’ careers, they are hurting the entire music industry as a whole. They are also putting themselves at risk for being fined and/or jailed, as ISPs are now taking action against music piracy. Real music lovers should pay for their music because legal purchases are usually of a higher quality, and the profits from their purchase will help their favorite artists continue to make the music they love.

There are many legal alternatives for music piracy. Music fans can purchase albums at brick-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy or independent record stores, or they can purchase single tracks or full albums through online retailers like iTunes or Amazon.com. For those who are concerned about the price of music, single tracks are usually available online for only 99 cents, and albums hover around $9.99. This is a major difference from years ago when CDs cost between $12 and $18. Music executives have heard the plea for cheaper music, and are obliging fans as a way to deter them from stealing music online. Music subscription services are also a rising trend. These sites offer streaming music online for a monthly or yearly subscription fee, and have licensing deals with record labels so that the streaming is legal. Artists still get a percentage of these services’ profits, although it is generally a much smaller amount than they get when their record is purchased from a retailer.

Music piracy has the short-term benefit of being free and easy for the consumer, but its long-term implications are devastating to the entire music industry. Although music piracy may be tempting, ethically and legally the right thing to do is pay for your music and therefore support your favorite artists and their production and distribution teams. Nurture and sustain music and the people who make it. It is such an important part of our culture and our economy.

Sources:

RIAA. www.riaa.org Recording Industry Association of America.

IPI. www.ipi.org. Institute for Policy Innovation.