There is one platform that supports the downloaders, however. Studies have indicated that downloading music for free actually helps sell music in the long run. The music industry cites fallen revenues for the last four years as evidence that illegal downloading is cutting into their profits. However, a study by two academic researchers finds that some people who download music illegally eventually purchase the music they have downloaded. A reporter writes, "In fact, illegal downloading may help the industry slightly with another major segment, which Oberholzer and Strumpf call 'samplers' -- an older crowd who downloads a song or two and then, if they like what they hear, go out and buy the music" (Silverthorne, 2004). However, the researchers also discovered that the majority of downloaders are teens and college students who have plenty of time to download, but do not always have the resources to eventually buy the music they download. In this category of illegal downloader, the record companies do indeed lose revenue. In 2004, record sales were up, and music downloads were up, as well, indicting that the theories of the two researchers may indeed be correct (Silverthorne, 2007). In addition, their research indicates that a majority of illegal file downloading takes place in other countries, which do not have the same intellectual property laws that the U.S. does, and do not track their users as diligently, either. That means that much of the illegal downloading is happening where record companies have no control, so they exercise their greatest control where they have the most authority - in the U.S. While downloading music files may eventually sell more music and make the listener aware of more music that does not make it right, morally or legally.
Illegal music downloads comprise an ethical dilemma that stems from right and wrong and economics. Ethically, most people who download music files illegally know they are doing something wrong, but they justify it by thinking, "everyone does it," or "the recording companies make enough money already," or some similar justification. Morally...
A person who might never think of stealing anything off the shelves of a store thinks nothing of downloading a song, because they do not see it as wrong. However, stealing is stealing, no matter how many people engage in it, and downloading songs is no more ethically correct than stealing or burglary.
In conclusion, illegally downloading music is stealing, period. It harms record companies and recording artists, and it violates the intellectual property rights of the individuals who created the song. Copyrights are in place to protect the people who create the music, because they have worked very hard to make sure they hold on to their rights. Ultimately, these lawsuits and allegations are about far more than money. They ensure that the people who create music are recognized, and that someone cannot come along and copy their song and call it their own. If you had worked extremely hard to create something unique, and then someone copied it and sold it, you would be angry, even incensed. So are the songwriters and musicians who created these works. To see them stolen and shared with friends and strangers is wrong, and it is really stealing from the artists who worked so hard to make them. Ethically, it punishes the people who download the music, as the laws should, but ethically, stealing music is like stealing someone's special creation, it is simply wrong, ethically, morally, and legally.
References
Editors. (2007). Minn. woman to pay for illegal music downloads. Retrieved from the NPR.org Web site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1503722320 Oct. 2007.
Editors. (2007.) Terms & conditions. Retrieved from the Napster.com Web site: http://home.napster.com/info/terms.html20 Oct. 2007.
Silverthorne, S. (June 21, 2004). Music downloads: Pirates -- or customers? Retrieved from the Harvard Business School Web site: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4206.html20 Oct. 2007.
