Pirates

File Sharing on the Internet

Becky Romatoski

  When we think of pirates, we see scruffy men with unshaven chins, a bandana, a gold earing, a black patch on one eye, and a wooden leg, men with guns in hand, riding the seas in their wooden ship proudly flying the terrifying skull and crossbones. Well, pirates these days look much different. In fact, you may be sitting by one right now. They are ordinary people who have come to enjoy the technologies the Internet provides. These pirates are boys and girls, women and men, who habitually root themselves in their desk chairs with eyes fixed on the computer screen. But today's pirates have something in common with the pirates of days lost in history. Both steal what doesn't belong to them. Today's pirates sail the Internet on the prowl for a treasure chest of downloadable files.

  In the age of technology and information, the Internet has become widely used for a variety of reasons. I, like many other college and high school students, love to download things off the Internet. Everything is right there in front of me. With a few clicks of the mouse and some intelligent searching strategies, a world of information awaits my curious mind. There's much to be found: movies, computer games, books, reference guides, almost anything you want is there to download. My favorite thing to download is music, and it's easily accessible on the Internet. I admit I am one of those who indulges in the popular practice of downloading music from servers. At first, the hot thing was to use Napster. If I heard a good song on the radio, I would remember what it was called and who sang it so that I could download the song and have it available to hear whenever I wanted. After a while, record companies realized that this was causing them to lose business, and so there was a big court mess about the legality of Napster. Ultimately it ceased being a free source of music. Now there are a few other popular servers, like Gnutella, Morpheus, and Kazaa. The legality of these sites and all sites like it is hotly debated.

  In order to limit exchanging music, record companies want to make hardware and software to prevent music from being copied. But this would prevent people from copying their own music. That means no making CD mixes or putting music from your CDs on the computer, which is all perfectly legal. A handful of CDs already have certain features that prohibit the CD from being played on the computer and thereby prohibit the CD from being copied. There are many legitimate reasons for someone to copy their CDs, however. First, instead of taking a whole bunch of CDs when I go somewhere, I'd rather just take copies in case I would lose any. Second, how many times have you scratched a CD? Too many to count, no doubt, and by being able to copy your CDs, you don't have to worry about not being able to listen to the CD just because you accidentally scratched it. CDs are valuable items and thieves will gladly take them if they can, but if all your CDs are copied they're only stealing a worthless copy and not the original. And if they happen to get their hands on your originals, you know that your CD won't be lost forever because you made a copy of it. Many times you don't like all the songs on a CD. You can then copy the songs you like, get rid of the ones you don't like, and add different ones that you do like. For example, I like taking all my Metallica CDs and making my own "Best of Metallica Mix."

  Why is pirating music ok? Well, there are several reasons why allowing people to share music can be beneficial to artists, record companies, and listeners. First of all, it allows listeners access to the music of less famous bands. I love searching the Internet to find new bands. Just the other day I ran across a Christian hard rock band. I loved the song I got and decided to get some more of their music. As soon as I get a paycheck I will go buy the CD. Also, I hate buying CDs that have only one good song on them. Using the Internet, I can preview a few songs to see if my purchase will be worthwhile. Frequently bands have only one big hit. By allowing people to download songs from a CD to preview them before buying encourages artists to work hard to produce CDs that have many good songs, that results in more sales, and makes more money for themselves and record companies. Finally, the Internet allows music lovers to find anything they want. Many live performances are not on a CD, and there are many bands whose CDs or songs are impossible to find. The Internet servers like Kazaa allow music lovers to exchange rare music that can't be found in any store.

  Though there are benefits of acquiring music online, many people still buy CDs. Downloading can get very annoying. The user who has the file you want has to be online at the same time you are, and though you usually find someone else who has the file you want, that person's computer connection or your own connection may not be very fast. Therefore, downloading full CDs can be a painfully long task. It is much easier to just go buy the CD. Many people, including myself, prefer to own the real CD as opposed to a copy because they get a case, an insert, and the image on the actual CD. Though all these are reproducible, they don't look the same, and it's preferable to have the real thing. Therefore, record companies shouldn't worry too much about losing business to the Internet pirates. Instead they should be glad that people use the Internet to preview songs that entice them to buy the CD.

  This whole fuss over music pirating is similar to other pirating in the past. Remember cassette tapes? Yeah, there was a big fuss over people using them to copy things. And remember video cassettes? Same thing there. Sure, some people still copy things illegally using audio and video cassettes, but the majority of the people don't. They buy the products legally. Therefore, though copying music is a big craze and is done a lot, eventually, it will die down just like it did with audio and video cassettes.

  In a recent Newsweek article, journalist Levy describes an account of a band profiting from allowing its fans to download their music for free. For example, Reprise records did not sell the band Wilco's CD because it believed that it would not make a good profit. Meanwhile, Wilco fans could download their songs for free. Finally, a different company decided to sell their CD, and despite the fact that their music was free online, this was the best-selling CD on Amazon. Clearly, most people are not purposely taking advantage of the free music and cheating record companies out of money, but instead are still buying CDs, maybe even more of them.

  I can understand why record companies and artists aren't very happy. They think they are losing money, but they should also be thanking these servers for exposing their music to everyone who, as I suggested, haven't quit buying the music just because they can get it for free. Those bands who are adamantly against servers providing users the ability to share their favorite songs are losing support from fans. Take Metallica for example. I have heard many people who used to listen to Metallica say they have decided to boycott the band because they helped shut down Napster. Yes, Metallica still has lots of fans. I am one of them, but many of their fans now are just the hard-core ones. I haven't downloaded any of their songs from CDs I don't have, and as soon as I have the means I plan to finish collecting their CDs. I am like the many Wilco fans and other music fans who aren't trying to cheat record companies and artists by getting the CDs online for free.

  In light of everything, today's pirates, like those of the past, are in control and can't be stopped. Only by taking drastic measures and infringing on people's rights to copy CDs legally for legitimate purposes will the pirating be stopped. However, pirating music is not all that bad, and in many ways is actually good for artists, record companies, listeners, and especially people who love music.

Sources cited: Levy, Steven. "Turning Off the Music Tap." Newsweek 13 May 2002: 40. On-line. Proquest. 10 Oct 2002. Available at http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?Did=0000001189692564&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=l&Idx=4&Sid=13&RQT=309.