Illegal Downloading

The tension between music artists and fans has grown significantly in the age of the internet. The worldwide web is accessed by the majority of Americans living in the United States. Beginning with Napster, many programs have been created to allow files to be shared among the entire internet community. Included in those files are music files which contain copyrighted material. The simple fact that they are copyrighted should be enough to warn those in violation that they are subject to being sued by recording companies. This has not stopped the masses from downloading millions of songs from many different artists whether nationally or locally recognized.

According to Lloyd Dangle's editorial titled "Trouble town", his characters are angered that bands such as Metallica who are self proclaimed anarchists aren't true to their beliefs because real anarchists would give away music for free. His satirical approach shows how absurd the idea of downloading music is without charge.

United States

United States

United States

Bands need to be paid for their work regardless of their personal beliefs. Jim Rogan believes that the idea of downloading free music is similar to stealing any other kind of item as he states in his article titled "We Have to Treat Theft as Theft". Rogan, a former Congressman, believes sharing files would be "like walking into Tower Records and grabbing CD's and sticking them under your coat". There should be more software in place so that sharing copyrighted files would be nearly impossible to complete. Perhaps Microsoft or Apple could sell their computers with this type of software already installed into the hard drive.

Music sales have decreased in each of the past few years according to many news sites. A possible explanation would be that many potential consumers believe they would save money if they didn't always have to purchase...