Censorship Essay-Piracy In The Music Industry

Andre Valles Feliciano

Piracy in the Music Industry

I. Introduction

Having lived in the 21st century, the term “piracy” is one that is familiar to us. Regardless of whether or not we know what exactly what this is, this at least has been made familiar to us by the increasing dependence of our lives on technology. With this familiarity comes the controversy this brings. To some, it is one of the best features the advancement in computer technology brought to us while to some, it proves to be one of the biggest problems as they continue to find a remedy as it gains more and more popularity. In the words of the CEO of Geopolicity Inc., Peter Middlebrook, “Pirates are the very essence of profit maximizing entrepreneurs described in neoclassical

, Why are governments taking the extra step in preventing such acts? While the access to pirated music may be a convenience to the user, this is not how the music industry, or any industry victim to piracy sees the issue. According to Jenna Wortham and Amy Chozick (Feb. 2012) as mentioned in the New York Times, piracy, as seen by industries is no different form shoplifting in a supermarket as this is a violation of their intellectual property rights. While the exact figures on the opportunity cost of piracy, and specifically piracy in the music industry cannot be agreed upon, according to K.C Jones (2007), in an article in InformationWeek, the United States alone, global music piracy costs the nation around 12.5 billion dollars in terms of economic output annually. In addition to this, an annual loss of seventy one thousand jobs is another effect brought by piracy in the music industry. Music piracy is also said to have been responsible for a loss of 2.7 billion dollars in U.S workers’ earning. Under the music industry, two sub-industries are affected the most by piracy. The first being the recording industry, with loses of about 5.33 billion dollars while the retailing industry loses about 1.04 billion dollars causing the loss of more than forty six thousand production level jobs while causing a loss of nearly twenty five thousand jobs

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