I always hear a lot of controversy surrounding the validity of “file sharing” especially when it pertains to music. Often it is argued that by sharing music with another person, you are in fact engaging in unethical behavior. Its an interesting topic and one I’d like to discuss.
Here is the question. Is sharing music files on p2p/torrent sites immoral? I would argue that no, it is not, but its on a variety of different reasons.
First, it is analogous to sharing a book that you’ve read with a friend. If you have ever read a book you truly love, I’m sure you aren’t the only one who reads the copy you bought. You may have given it to a brother or sister to read, maybe to your wife or husband. Are you violating the intellectual writes of the author by doing this? Of course not! You are merely sharing something you love with someone else who might enjoy it as well. You want to express to someone how great a book is. Granted, the author doesn’t get an extra book sale, but you don’t hear them complaining about it.
So, why doesn’t this same scenario apply to music? Really, if you love a band, you want to expose others to the music. And quite frankly, youtube and Myspace aren’t the best ways to demonstrate new music to other friends of yours. So, what do you do, you share the music. You give the cd to a friend. Yet somehow, the intellectual rights of the of the musician are being violated, I don’t get it. If you read a book and remember the plot and themes, isn’t that the same as storing the music files on your computer? I think so.
Also, I have another scenario for you. Say you buy a copy of the Beatles famous album Yesterday and Today with the Butcher cover still on it. You own the music files on vinyl record. However, after years, due to the rareness of the album, the price increases significantly. Now that the album price is much higher, you sell it. You make a profit off the album. Now, do you need to pay the royalties on the album because its price went up? No, no you do not. The same thing should apply to all music. Here the musician isn’t getting profit off of their album, but nothing happens to the seller.
So, all in all, it seems ridiculous to claim that one is violating the rights of the musician. You are merely sharing music with someone else, like you would a favorite book to a friend. You aren’t insulting the artist; you are rather praising them by expressing to others how great their music is.
Discuss ;)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I don't think anyone would say you're "insulting the artist." Obviously not. But I respectfully think you're analogy isn't really that great... unless you change it to someone photocopying the book (for free, somehow) and then re-binding it and giving it to your friends to read while retaining the original copy for yourself. The main difference is in duplicating what's protected by copyright law.
ReplyDeleteWould I love to not have to pay for good music that I know others have access to? Absolutely, I'm cheap! But easy access doesn't make it right. I just think it's interesting that most people would say that copying a DVD of a good movie and distributing that to their friends is wrong, but doing so for music isn't.
Respectfully, I think you're wrong here. But I still think you're great. :)
On a similar subject, buying a paper written by someone else is illegal. It's called intellectual theft. Would selling a paper that you wrote to someone else be considered intellectual prostitution? I'm just sayin'... ;-)
ReplyDelete