QotW3: Sharing Vs Stealing

“The purpose of copyright is to encourage the creation and mass dissemination of a wide variety of works” (“Sharing and Stealing,” 2003, pg 1). I guess it is human nature that we like to communicate with each other and share things. Through sharing, we are actually promoting learning and gaining knowledge. “The public benefits because the authors and inventors continue creating original works that these creators may not have otherwise developed and because these creations are freely usable by the public once the limited time has passed” (“Why copyright,” 2005). Copyright gives credit to the authors and also forces them to be more creative.

To me, I feel that copyright is most important in the music industry. Hence, I will focus mainly on it. Through P2P (peer-to-peer) networks, people are able to share files, and this makes copyright a serious problem. I have learnt from my previous semester that scarcity is one of the weapons of influence. When something is new, it is scarce and few people will have access to it. Hence people would want it more. Let us take downloading of new songs from the net for example. In my social circle, many of my friends actually share files through the net. They download new songs from certain websites and transfer to each other via MSN messenger. Many people know this act is illegal but it is still going on. The main reason is because they could get it for free!

Due to this, research have shown that “between 2000 and 2003, the number of CD’s shipped in the U.S. fell by 20% to 750million units (RIAA, 2004); claiming that file sharing is the culprit” (“Effect of file sharing on record sales,” June 2005). This caused the music industry to suffer great loss. Creators are most upset by this because their effort had very much gone to waste. They work hard in producing good music (where much resource is invested into it); however, what they get in return is nothing. Piracy is certainly a very significant problem in today’s music industry. I read the articles and had to agree with this statement: “Collecting information on the internet is “learning”. Posting information on the net is “sharing.” Try exactly the same thing with recorded music and it’s “stealing.” The law treats the two acts differently because facts are in the public domain, while music is someone’s property” (“Sharing and Stealing,” 2003, pg 23).

To counter “stealing” through the net, there are solutions which can be adopted to curb or improve the current situation. Firstly, as many scholars have suggested, the net should have systems that “permit P2P file sharing, charge money to the people who enjoy it and use funds to compensate creators and copyright owners” (“Sharing and Stealing,” 2003, pg 31). Many others like Netanel, Professor Raymond Ku and Professor Glynn Lunny proposed that a levy imposed on devices and blank storage media is the best available solution. Professor Terry Fisher on the other hand has a slightly different solution. He would encourage copyright owners of music recordings and films to register their works with the Copyright Office, where they will be responsible for administering tax. Professor Daniel and Larry suggest modifying existing collective licensing to extend to P2P file trading. Lastly, the Electronic Frontier Foundation proposed that the best solution would be for the music industry simply to agree to offer music fans a license to engage in file sharing for a monthly fee. (“Sharing and Stealing,” 2003, pg 31-33).

Personally, I feel that the suggestion by the Electronic Frontier Foundation is the best. I dislike buying certain albums as they only contain few songs that I like. I prefer to choose the songs that I like and “buy” (meaning downloading) it through the net. In this way, I can create my own song album and enjoy listening to it without the fear of being caught for “stealing”. Being a technology idiot, I don’t know if there is already a system that allows people to “buy” their own music online but even if it has, the cost will be quite high I guess. Lastly, other than these technical structures, I feel that education is equally as important to let the public know the issue of copyright and effects of piracy.

References:

Litman, J. (2003, November 23). "Sharing and Stealing". University of Michigan. Social Science Research Network. Retrieved on January 18, 2007, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141

Ovalle, C. (2005). “Why copyright?”. University of Texas at Austin, Course INF 312. Information in Cyberspace. Retrieved on January 18, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.php

Felix, O.G., Strumpf, K. (2005, June). “Effects of file sharing on record sales”. Retrieved on Jan 18, 2007, from
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf