Illegal Downloading by College Students

Downloading Music Many college students have strong opinions about whether they should be able to download music for free from the Internet. The issue was brought to a head when musicians sued Napster for providing the means to violate their copyright by distributing their music for free, which meant that the musicians would get no royalty for the music. Napster designed an application that made it easy for people to share MP3 files.

Napster claimed that they only provided the medium and that those sharing the music were the ones violating copyright law (Business Wire, 2000). Universities, most of whom provide Internet connections for their students, have two concerns over the practice of downloading music. First, they recognize that the students are breaking the law by acquiring, without payment, copyrighted material they should have paid for. But possibly more important to the universities, the high rates of downloads clogged the university's computer network system and interfered with computer use in the university (2).

They are of course also concerned about getting involved in the illegal activities involved in sharing music files without payment. In one survey done in 2000, 40% of the universities had forbidden the use of Napster and others set up their networks so the students could not access it (2). Some students claim that it's OK for them to download one song, and that if they want the whole album, they would then buy it. Students have described elaborate ways in which they think it's OK.

One student limits himself to three downloads a night, to judge the CD before buying it, and says it opens him up to new kinds of music, so it should be allowed (The Record, 2003). However, media spokesmen and performers all believe that downloading costs them money. Critics of the practice of downloading copyrighted music point out that very often a CD may only have two or three really outstanding songs. If people have the right to download a few songs, the need to buy the CD drops significantly (The Record, 2003).

It seems likely that most students have no idea what kinds of work goes into the creation of a music CD. Someone has to write the song; someone has to arrange the song; someone has to record the song. Someone has to act as the agent for both the composer and the recording artist or group. Someone has to engineer the sound for the song, and all the musicians who play or sing back up expect to be paid.

The people who design the cover expect to be paid also, as does the advertising company that promotes the CD. The manufacturer needs to make a profit so it can pay all the people who work to print the cover and run the machinery that manufactures the CD. That company also has to pay the people who supply the plastic CD cases. Human beings have probably made up songs as long as they have produced speech, and perhaps before. People will continue to write songs.

However, if songwriters don't get paid because their songs are downloaded illegally from the Internet, they will stop writing songs for the public. They'll find jobs as truck drivers or nurses, and entertain themselves and their friends with their songs. Downloading songs for.