Introduction
Some actions such as divorce, same sex marriage and other practices were considered morally wrong in the past (Giletti, 2012). However, in the modern times, they have been legally accepted and most people are now thinking that these practices are not morally wrong. This is now the trend in the ethical issues of downloading digital music and videos. People think that downloading digital music and videos from the internet is morally wrong because it is still illegal. However, there are also people thinking that the illegality of this practice is not enough to settle its morality or ethical judgment.
The development of digital music and video is accompanied by several ethical and moral issues. As technology progresses, this issue could be more problematic since more and more people could acquire devices which could be used to download digital music and videos (Liang &Phau, 2012). In the legal sense, people who are downloading digital music and videos from the internet without the consent of the artists or the stakeholders are violating the intellectual property rights. Their actions or practices are also considered theft or piracy. However, there are only several legal regulations or policies regarding this issue.
The objective of this research paper is to discuss the ethical issues associated with downloading digital music and videos. It also opts to analyze some of the concepts related to the issues such as historical perspective, current issues associated with downloading digital music and videos, appropriate legislations, global impact of the issue and my own personal thoughts regarding the ethical issue.
Background on the Issue
In recent decades, there have been ethical issues which were brought up by the progress or development of mobile technologies and the internet. The growing convenience and ease of downloading digital files became the main reason for the public discussion about the ethical issues of piracy and theft. In general, there are two opposing views regarding the public discussion of the ethical issues behind downloading digital music and videos (Giletti, 2012). On one side, some people believe that ideas should be freely accessible to anyone. These people believe that crimes and sanctions for people downloading digital music and video are unjustified. On the other hand, there are people who are concerned about protecting the ideas or so called intellectual properties of individuals. These people believe that illegal downloading of digital music and video is equivalent to piracy or theft (Giletti, 2012). According to them, they believe there should be criminal sanctions for people illegally downloading some of the artistic creation without the consent of the artist. The claim of the fundamental protectors of intellectual property is also associated with the economic impact of digital media. Some artists and other stakeholders are experiencing loss of profit due to the illegal downloading of digital music and video from the internet.
Historical Perspective
During past decades, music productions and recordings became the main source of music collection as well as the main source of income for music artists. The infrastructure of the music industry for the past 60 years is considered as an oligopoly and only controlled by several record companies. This industry created a vast collection of music resources. In the past, this collection is not imagined to be organized properly or distributed to all interested people due to the huge volume of music data and economical restrictions. The development of technology associated to the digitalization of sound and videos created new opportunities in music community.
With the growth of the internet community, the Digital Music Libraries are developed. These internet media tools could be used to share music files and to retrieve music data or information (Giletti, 2012). Some of the Digital Music Libraries are protected or regulated by policies and it acquires the consent of the artists or the other stakeholders. However, some of the Digital Music Libraries are illegally distributing digital music and videos to the internet making it more accessible to users. In modern times, digital music and distribution over the internet is common (Liang &Phau, 2012). These practices and actions also involve many ethical issues including copyright issues and piracy or theft.
Current Issues Associated with the Downloading of Digital Music and Video
One of the main current issues associated with the illegal downloading of digital music and video is the authorship or ownership of the digital media file. The downloaded digital media file could be shared by anyone through the internet or using device connection tools such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Sharing the digital media files such as music and videos require the consent of the artist themselves or the other stakeholders (Wayne, 2014). Illegal downloading and sharing of digital music and videos are considered as stealing or piracy. The practice of illegal downloading digital music and video from the internet is a violation of the intellectual property rights and considered illegal since it does not have the consent of the creator of the music or the file itself.
Furthermore, there are other issues associated with the practice of illegal downloading of digital music and videos. One of these issues is the diminishing quality or value of artistic works such as music and videos (Giletti, 2012). Since most people can readily access these music files, the value of these files decrease as they are easily accessible to anyone with internet connection.
Another issue related to the illegal downloading of digital music and video is the intellectual property infringement. Some people could gain profit from illegal distribution and sharing of artistic works such as digital music and video (Hardy et al., 2013). It could be greatly problematic for the record companies and other stakeholders, such as the artist who owns the music, as these practices could result to their loss of profit or revenue. Consider a scenario where an artist signs a contract with i-tunes to reproduce and sell digital copies of his or her music. In such contracts, the artists usually obtain their profits from their music according to the number of copies sold by i-tunes. In other words, the more copies i-tunes sell, the higher the artist’s profit will be. Unfortunately, piracy allow the reproduction of the music’s digital copy and then selling them at lower prices or even free downloading without signing any contract with the artist. This results to the decrease in the number of customers buying from i-tunes; hence, decreasing both the profit of the artist and i-tunes.
Appropriate Legislations
The Federal Law of the United States provides sanctions and public protection against unauthorized copying of digital music and videos. The policies and regulations regarding the illegal downloading and copying of digital media files such as music and videos are included in the Copyright law. The Copy Write law is usually indicated at the beginning of the music or video when it is played – this is done in order to inform and remind the viewers to stop illegally copying and distributing the work of art.
In most of the states in the US, illegal downloading, copying, and distributing digital data are prohibited. The illegal downloading of digital music and videos is included in the local and federal government laws (Wang &McCLung, 2012). There are also people who are including their name or organization in the digital music or video files in order to make the viewers believe that these files are legitimate or they have the consent of the creators or the artists. However, people who put their names on the work of others are also committing a violation or a fraud. There are also other legislative actions that are appropriate in the issue of illegal downloading of digital music and video.
Examples of Legal Actions
The illegal downloading, copying and distributing digital media files could be subjected to criminal and civil liability (Svensson& Larsson, 2012). The intellectual properties of artists and creators are commonly protected by the copyright laws. According to the Federal Law regarding copyright infringement, violators or people who are illegally making copies of copyrighted digital music and videos could be fined up to $250,000 and could be accompanied by up to five years of time in jail (Wayne, 2014). The court rulings also agreed that downloading and uploading digital music and videos without the consent of the necessary stakeholders is considered a crime since it constitutes infringement.
The international distribution of digital media files is also regulated by several international agreements, regulations and policies (Wang &McCLung, 2012). One example of this legal action is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement which is supported by the United States as well as other developed countries such as Japan, United Arab Emirates and England. In this trade agreement, countries are protected from international piracy and digital media files and other creative works are commonly checked when crossing borders to another country(Recording Industry Association of America, 2016). However, this trade agreement could not easily avoid distribution of media files through the internet since there are no borders in the internet community.
Global Impact of the Issue
The world of entertainment is considered to be one of the largest industries operating on the global scale. Over millions of employees are working in entertainment industries and their products are commonly distributed using digital media file sharing (Recording Industry Association of America, 2016). The entertainment industry is also contributing billions of dollars to the United States economy. However, this amount could be reduced due to the illegal downloading, copying and distributing of digital media files such as music and videos. The artists or the creators are not the only people that could experience loss of profit due to the illegal practice of piracy. On the global scale, countries could also experience loss of revenue due to piracy (Wayne, 2014). Aside from the entertainment industry, the practice of illegal downloading of media files could also affect related industries (Svensson & Larsson, 2012). For instance, the use and demand of DVDs and CDs could decrease since more and more people would prefer digital media file sharing due to ease and convenience.
In conclusion, legal actions regarding the illegal downloading of digital music and videoshave not been proven enough to avoid this practice (Hardy et al., 2013). The impact of this illegal practice has been global in scale (Wayne, 2014 and hence, preventing people from sharing illegally downloaded media files to the internet will be very difficult.
Personal Thoughts
I am a witness of the fast technological development. In the past, I witnessed the difficulty in acquiring collection of music and videos from my favorite artists since I would have to buy their CDs. When I was a kid, I usually buy or rent DVDs from retailers in order to watch movies that I liked. In the modern times, these collections of music, videos and movies could be acquired more easily using digital media sharing. I usually download media files from sites which are authorized by several owners of the copyrighted music of videos. However, not all of the music and videos are available in the authorized media sites.
I believe that stopping people from illegally downloading music and videos from the internet would be impossible as long as these media files are available in the internet. Not all people are also aware about the fines’ or sanctions of illegal downloading of media files. The Federal law only focused on stopping people from making profit from the illegal distribution of digital music and videos. They are only targeting people or groups of people who are creating revenues from copying media files without the consent of the owners or other important stakeholders.
Summary and Conclusion
The progress of the internet technology has paved way to the illegal and unethical practices of internet users. The internet became a tool for users to distribute and download digital media files such as music and videos. This kind of practice is considered by most people as an immoral act since it is a type of piracy or theft. Illegal downloading of digital media files such as music and videos without the consent of owners and other important stakeholders could be subjected to criminal offenses. The copyright law of the Federal Government protects the public from piracy and other illegal practices regarding the digital media files such as music and videos. However, these legal actions are not enough to stop millions of people from illegally downloading digital music and videos.
Reference
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