The Rise of Music Piracy - Essay Example

?Music piracy The rise of music piracy emanated from the early 2000 with the revolution of the internet and a number of other factors. These includedthe release of poorly made music from world-renowned artistes and overhyped music bands resulting in little meaning attached to music. With this, the rise of piracy came into play and since then the industry has been struggling. Currently, piracy is done through the internet where anyone with an internet connection can illegally download music from content providers. It is also on the internet that music is directly transmitted from one person to another through peer-to-peer file-sharing technology in the form of digital media files (Jost 769). Music piracy is harming the economy in a substantial manner following the robbing of artistes of their creativity and compensation. This also works in the domino effect where loss of revenue in one industry results in an overall loss in other industries; this is because of decreased sales. Illegal music downloads over the internet affects a large number of people ranging from artists, songwriters, audio engineers, computer technicians, talent scouts and producers. All these people are reliant on the music industry for their income and as a source of livelihood, which is based on intellectual property. Denying musicians and their affiliates of revenue puts at risk the jobs of millions of people, as there will be no funds to sustain them at work. In addition, it denies the government of taxes paid by the said population thus affecting the overall development of a nation. Some musicians and producers with recording studios have even been forced to close business to loss of revenue and increasing operating costs leading to losses. On a personal scale, piracy punishes successful artistes by putting them on a level where their rights are not equal to those of other citizens of the world. This is because it is similar to theft or robbery, only that this time it robs an individual of his or her intellectual property. In a normal world, the law punishes robbers and thieves, but in piracy, little is done leading to demoralized artistes and music industry affiliates (Greenblatt 992). This way all those that work closely with the music industry are left at a loss as for clothing lines and no merchandise is rolled out to popularize the music produced. This, in turn, trickles all the way down to the textile industry, finally the farmer, and the global economy. As a result, the music industry is undergoing a slow death owing to increased piracy, and little effort applied to its prevention. In addition, piracy of music affects the internet network used for pirated downloads in terms of bandwidth. This is particularly so as it strips the network to the bare essential leading to loss of productivity, while participating in illegal activities, as is prone in institutions of higher learning (Wade 4). Therefore, in order to prevent music piracy from taking place, a myriad of measures can be taken that are directed to those that engage in the practice. Since most of the pirates in the music industry are students, advertising can play a crucial role. Most companies have taken part in massive campaigns directed at students in an attempt to convince student to stop downloading music illegally. However, this has little effects as students are working even harder to bring down the music industry. Studies show that one of the ways to cut down on music piracy especially in this age of the internet is to understand the mind and the drive behind a pirate’s behavior prior to the action. This is concerning the motivation of the pirate and his or her goals. In this case, a pirate would like access to music but there are inhibitions to getting t to the goal, in the form of monetary requirement. As a result, pirates seek to bypass this barrier by downloading music from illegal sites. Therefore, campaigns targeting definite pirates can be a significant boost against piracy. This is through creating campaign depicting the dangers that one is exposed to because of illegal music downloads. These are in the form of ruining one’s computer once it catches viruses and the risk illegal downloads have on chances of getting a job. Such campaigns can achieve a lot if presented to pirates on a basis of their understanding and putting them in a manner they can easily relate. This is because one cannot intentionally participate in activities that harm their wellbeing; this is the same case with downloading music illegally and destroying the safe running of one’s computer or the existence of records of music pirates (Sheehan et al 316). The records could then be used to determine if one gets a job or not thus, jeopardizing one’s life. In such cases, research shows that advertising campaigns against piracy contribute to reducing piracy. In addition, legislators and those in authority could take measure to regulate internet usage by regulating digital media in the internet. This can be done through legislations such as the already existing Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which governs copyright infringement (Clemmit 327). With such law and the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), online piracy and violation of copyrights will be reduced leading to more legal music downloads. This is because such laws have put in place measure that lead to the removal of copyrighted or pirated material from any website at a moment’s notice. This is in spite of its destructive effects in advertising and marketing of the same products. With this in mind, piracy is reduced due to reduced infiltration of information on the required content music, thus, lower tendencies to download it. However, with reduced access, logic dictates that rare commodities become wanted products thus even higher likelihood of piracy. This is because people who acquire music legally end up reselling their rights to the music for a profit, which is another form of piracy. In addition to legislation, regulation governing the use of search engines could be applied. This is concerning ensuring that search engines do not connect to pirated music and content sites thus denying general access to the content. This plays a crucial role in preventing music piracy. This could also apply to internet service providers in that they would be required to deliver content from certain piracy websites at a slower speed. This is in an attempt to deter pirates from accessing the sites, and instead using legal downloads to access their desires content. Piracy can also be prevented through throttling of peer-to-peer traffic, which is similar to slowing down response from certain websites. In this case, internet service providers would be required to slow down sharing speeds or even blocking the sites altogether as the technology is relatively cheap (Clemmit 327). In conclusion, piracy has severe effects on the economy of a country and even globally affecting individuals and individuals. As a result, severe measures should be taken to curb the spread and practice of the activity affecting everyone both directly and indirectly. Works Cited Jost, Kenneth. "Copyright and the Internet." CQ Researcher. 2000. Volume 10, Issue 33 769-92. Greenblatt, Alan 2003. “Future of the Music Industry”. CQ Researcher. Volume 13, Issue 41 989-1012. Clemmit, Marcia 2012. “Internet Regulation: are stiffer rules needed to protect web content?” CQ Researcher. Volume 22, No 14 325-348. Wade, Jared. "The Music Industry's War on Piracy." Risk Management 51.2 (2004): 10-5. Sheehan, Brian et al 2012. “Stop the Music! How Advertising can Help Stop College Students from Downloading Music Illegally”. Journal of Advertising Research 52-3-309-321. Read More