RIAA - Internet Music Downloads

RIAA - Internet Music Downloads In today's modern world, everything is almost easily accessible. With the advent of Internet, communication, business and information research are now easily done. Indeed, getting and 'owning' various information offered in the Internet is just an ordinary thing nowadays. Music or songs is one of the best examples that can be easily downloaded in the Internet.

A lot of people - young and old, males and females - benefit from this because they are prevented from using their money just to buy CDs, DVDs or tapes of the songs or albums they would want to hear. How Music is Downloaded from the Internet With the continuing improvements being done with the computer software and programs, playing music to and from the computer has really been made easy.

The best example for this is the MP3s, which is a shortened term for MPEG 1 or Moving Picture Experts Group 1. This is used in compressing bulky files of digitized music which in turn make downloading and storing music and sounds easier (Spaulding, 2006). It must be noted that using and listening to MP3s would require a computer and software, but the needed software is always available in the Internet and can be downloaded also for free.

And there is a recent introduction of MP3 and iPod players - electronic devices that can be used to play sounds and music anywhere and anytime even without the presence of a computer while listening (Spaulding, 2006). With MP3, anybody could quickly download music and sound recordings and to store this with consuming a minimal disk space and in a quality which is exactly like the CD recorded music or sounds.

The MP3 files can also be easily attached and sent to any e-mail, even to a number of receivers or even be uploaded to other web sites (Spaulding, 2006). The Threats of Music Downloading Downloading music from the internet presents a very big threat to the singers or artists, the producers and to the music and recording industry itself. The Producers and the Artists Producers are the one financing the artists and the production of the music albums.

Their expectation, of course, is to earn good sum of money after the album was released. Artists on the other hand use their talents and popularity as a means to earn. They are being paid initially for singing and creating the music album, but they will be paid more if the album started selling in the market. This advent of music downloading has extremely affected the income of both the producers and the artists.

The number of people who will buy the original albums continuously decline resulting to a record of earning which is also going down. Thus the ultimate threat to the producers and the artists would be the considerable decline on demand for original music albums (tapes, CDs or DVDs).

Why would anyone opt to buy these original materials - which cost a good amount of money - when they can have it for free? The Music Industry The big threat to the recording and music industry is brought by the fact that downloading the music from the Internet and producing successive copies produce outputs that are extremely identical to the original versions.

Unlike in those olden days where the only way to reproduce a sound or music is just by recording from the tape, hence the third, fourth and succeeding copies will sound 'scratched' and will not be pleasing to the ears anymore (Spaulding, 2006). Needless to say, with today's MP3 and other related technologies, copying or reproducing sounds and music is way easier and will sound just like the original CDs or DVDs. In fact, Jupiter Communication has predicted that the music industry will be able to earn $1.6 billion by 2002.

However, nearly 500,000 MP3s would also be available in the Internet (Spaulding, 2006). Hence, if the artists and producers will not be motivated to create more and new music albums due to the low income returns, what will happen then to the music industry? No new music will be introduced. The Consumers At first, it may seem that ease of downloading music from the Internet will produce nothing but positive impact to the consumers. They will be able to get and enjoy music for free.

They will be able to share music to their friends without limits or boundaries. However, the fact remains that copying or downloading music from the internet is piracy. It is copying without proper consent from the real owners. It is copying and reproducing without notifying the people who have shed great efforts in producing such music. Thus, honor, credibility and integrity of the consumer is being wage. Music Downloading: Why is it Illegal? There has been various ways that different countries do to prevent music piracy.

In Canada, for example, the government of this country has allowed for the downloading of copyright music from peer-to-peer networks, but uploading the same file to any other software is not. Even recording music and sounds to blank CDs is illegal in this country, and anyone who would be caught will be fined a good amount of money.

What is good for this fine is the fact that whatever the amount is will be used to fund musicians and songwriters for to make up for the income they just lost due to piracy (Vangie, 2004). In some other countries like the U.S., copying or downloading music is extremely illegal. The policy makers of this country even made a code protecting the copyright owners from any unauthorized reproduction, adaptation or distribution of sound and music recordings, and even digital performances to the public. Simply put, U.S.

government is allowing the purchase of a music CD and then record it to MP3 files for personal use only, hence uploading these files via peer-to-peer networks is already considered a breach of the law (Vangie, 2004). More so, the Recording Industry Association of America is implementing strict penalties if the country's copyright law is breached. First time online violation of copyrighted music is punishable of either three years imprisonment and/or $250,000 in fines. Repetition of such violation may cause the offender a 6-year imprisonment (Vangie, 2004).

In other neighboring countries, they also have their own version of copyright laws. But the problem of this all is in the implementation and the seemingly strong-willed or unafraid people who would continuously and unabashedly download music from the Internet, share it to friends, upload it to their own websites and so on and so forth. Conclusion Is downloading music from the Internet illegal? The copyright laws say so. Downloading the music from.