No sooner had single light turned on green than rainbow poped up, and the unknown sound waved around it. That rings familar: it is downloading a music file that becomes our life. We know not only it is very useful and entertains us but sometimes can be illegal if done without paying for copyright. Honestly speaking, although informed of the two sides of a coin, we are inclined to the bright side of benefit; so are students at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. They also know downloading illegally is against the uni rule and the state law, but play on it due to an easy online access and the fact that many of them already enjoy a media file for taking, thus think it of not being immoral. Although it rings true as what brings happiness to the greatest number of people is moral, in the long consequence and the individual terms is the conduct certainly immoral.
Downloading music without paying is against morality. According to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, people must never act in a fashion which contradicts a maxim without any means, the moral code in plain word...
Utilitarianism concerns itself with promoting the best outcomes for the greatest numbers in order to be ethically acceptable, utilitarianism is a consequentialist approach which aims at results of actions regardless of how they are carried out. Utilitarian monsters, a term coined by R. Nozick, are those who “get enormously greater gains in utility from any sacrifice of others than these others lose. For, unacceptably, the theory seems to require that we all be sacrificed in the monster’s maw, in order to increase total utility”.(The Utility Monster, 2011)
Recently, there has been a series of copyright infringement litigations against Internet businesses that are involved with unauthorized distribution of music files. The US recording industry claims to lose three million dollars per year because of piracy. A report predicted an estimated 16 percent of all US music sales, or 985 million dollars would be lost due to online piracy by 2002 (Foege, 2000; cited from McCourt & Burkart, 2003) Even though this claim has to be taken with caution, as it is based on false assumption that if copyright laws were strictly enforced, audio pirates would become buyers, it is apparent that audio piracy grew to a worrisome level for the record industry. (Gayer & Shy, 2003)
In all, people should be prosecuted for downloading music illegally. Stealing is stealing and there is no other way to put it. Whether it's in a file or in your physical possession there is no difference between the two. People are losing their jobs and money due to the ignorance of people downloading illegal music files. The people know they are stealing and it should be stopped for smaller fees or shorter jail time. People need to be prosecuted for their
The most important question of all is what should one do since the ultimate purpose of answering questions is either to satisfy curiosity or to decide which action to take. Complicated analysis is often required to answer that question. Beyond ordinary analysis, one must also have a system of values, and the correct system of values is utilitarianism.
The music industry is a very cutthroat business. Within the past few months a great deal of controversy has arisen. This controversy is based around whether copying music and sending them to friends is illegal or not. There are many different views on this but recently record companies have taken legal action against file sharers and these people who have been convicted have been given penalties for their actions regarding music copyrighting laws. Considering how these issues have been found on sections D, E, and C this topic is relatively not so important. I believe that this issue should be more important than some of the other issues because it relates closest to the people. Most of the people in America have used file sharing or at least knows someone who has tried it. The action that should be taken should be from the opinion of the people who create the music industry, the people.
An “analyst” was quoted in the case (in 2002) as saying that “people will pay for music on the Internet, eventually.” This person was skeptical of the willingness of consumers to pay for
There are many essays, papers and books written on the concept of right and wrong. Philosophers have theorized about moral actions for eons, one such philosopher is John Stuart Mill. In his book Utilitarianism he tries to improve on the theories of utilitarianism from previous philosophers, as he is a strong believer himself in the theory. In Mill's book he presents the ideology that there is another branch on the utilitarian tree. This branch being called rule-utilitarianism. Mill makes a distinction between two different types of utilitarianism; act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism. Rule-utilitarianism seems like a major advance over the simple theory of act-utilitarianism. But for all its added complexity, it may not actually be a significant improvement. This is proven when looking at the flaws in act-utilitarianism and relating them to the ways in which rule-utilitarianism tries to overcome them. As well one must look at the obstacles that rule-utilitarianism has on it's own as a theory. The problems of both act and rule utilitarianism consist of being too permissive and being able to justify any crime, not being able to predict the outcomes of one's actions, non-universality and the lose of freewill.
There are a lot of people who download music and movies without paying. The main reason that this is such a big issue is because piracy substitutes for a legitimate transaction; for example, someone who would have originally bought a DVD of the movie Young Guns but instead downloads it for free on The Pirate Bay. In this case, the person pirating the movie or song would never have bought it. This happens frequently if the “pirate” lives in a relatively poor country, like China, and is simply unable to afford to pay for the films and music he or she downloa...
The first reason why downloading and uploading copyrighted materials from the Internet should be legal is that downloading copyrighted materials positively affects the economy. The European Commission Joint Research Center reported that the profits of music companies would be 2% lower if uploading and downloading copyrighted materials were banned. However, music companies are able to acquire more profits despite illegal downloading because many people tend to purchase CDs or DVDs after watching or listening to copyrighted materials for free. Moreover, the research showed that people who download music illegally spent more money to buy music than people who did not download illegally. In addition, research conducted by the Swiss government informed that one-third of Swiss people downloaded copyrighted materials from the Internet because personal use of copyrighted materials is legal in Switzerland. Even though there is a fact that many people can download copyrighted materials from the Internet legally in Switzerland, the amount of money that people spend to buy copyrighted materials is not f...
Listening to music for free is the best thing in the world, honestly, without paying for something is better than anything. Music to some-people is a way of life, why should they pay for music when they can download it for free. If you download a song off the internet, you’ll have your favorite song in the palm of your hand, charge free! You can save that money that you won’t spend on a few songs or albums and use it for something more important. “Free music downloads could be a solution to our attempts to scrimp and conserve in these rough financial situations” says Frank Castle from Article Alley.
Everyday we are tested as individuals to make the right choice. How we view ourselves as individuals and how others view us are directly correlated to our moral decision-making. But morals are somewhat misleading. What might be a wrong decision for one person might be a solution to another. So how do we define morals? Do we follow Gods’ moral rules because to do so would increase out likelihood of obtaining salvation in the afterlife? Or is it simpler than that. Is God going to deny our entrance into heaven because we have run a stop sign here and there? No. I believe our moral values are much simpler than that. I believe that our moral decision-making comes from our upbringing of what is right or wrong. Our parents and the people we surround ourselves with, are, I believe, direct causes of how we make decisions. Having more positive family influences as we grow up to adults will better help us come to make the right decisions in tough situations. In this paper, I will take you through a situation where my morals were tested. It takes place in the northern woods of Vermont in a little town called St. Albans where a young boy transforms into a young man by controlling his emotions and making the right decision.
Moreover, hackers came up with new ways to remove the digital copyrights so the same as before one downloads music and distributes them around. The industry gets its revenue from selling this content, whether it’s online or in stores, this funds new projects and allows for better products in the future. The public should be aware of this, downloading the content for free, and not buying it will decrease revenue for the companies, stopping them from undertaking future projects. “Production companies should lower the price on their products, I can’t buy music for at least 20$ per album and DVDs for 30$, I only make 200$ per month,” said George Issa, a music fan who spends most of his nights downloading music from the internet, “when there is an album or movie that I really like, I try to buy it legally, I don’t think I am doing anything wrong, they are wrong making money off our backs,” he added.
Not only is downloading this media illegal, it is also morally wrong. It is our responsibility to know the difference between right and wrong - downloading this media is something that shouldn’t be done. The artists that create the CDs pay a lot of money to make the CDs for our pleasure, and in return they expect everyone to pay for their CDs (its how they make their money). In this respect, downloading illegal music through peer to peer networks is the equivalent to stealing a CD from an actual store.
Besides the obvious ethical and legal issues there are other problems that many people have to deal with because of piracy. Along with any illegally downloaded material you also run the risk of exposing your computers to dangerous viruses, malware, spyware, or other unwanted software, all of these can cause your computer to run more slowly and possibly crash this can lead to costly computer repairs, loss of irreplaceable files, and in the worst cases identity theft.
As explained above, illegal downloading is a great problem affecting the entertainment industry and could soon be an even bigger problem for consumers. Downloading copyrighted material illegally is just as unlawful as stealing from a store or someone’s personal item. To prevent shutting down businesses and industries, internet pirates must be stopped and actively sought after. So if one is downloading material illegally take in to mind what harm it can do to and who is being hurt in the process. Free does not mean that it’s moral or fine; one must analyze and see the consequences of such actions before they continue—otherwise, it could be the end of something great because people were stealing and driving companies out of business, with no force stopping them.