Illegal+Downloading+Editorial

Song writers and record companies are fighting a losing battle against illegal downloading. Whenever the record companies think they are coming close to reducing illegal downloads, new websites are created to weaken their cause. What songwriters and record companies need to do is to accept the fact that music will always be downloaded illegally from the internet or wherever and use it to their advantage. A way that the music industry could use it to their advantage is to make people pay for some songs but they would also get some free. For example, if someone was to buy ten songs from a fifteen song CD, they would get the other five free instead of charging for all of the songs. As of now, the illegal downloading rate is 5.6 billion digital files per year. Music companies are losing around twenty percent of music sales per year due to illegal downloading. If music companies can find another way to use this to their benefit they would be making more money. What some people are also beginning to do is download songs to their cell phones and with the increased use of cell phones in the United States the rate of illegal downloads has increased with it.

Almost three years ago, the Supreme Court announced a major victory for music and motion picture producers. In MGM v. Grokster, a unanimous court held that marketers of peer-to-peer file-sharing systems may be liable for the online theft they induce among consumers. Grokster was a peer-to-peer file-sharing website that was based in the West Indies. This decision caused Grokster to shut down their website. Despite this ruling, online thefts still kept rising. Since then, online theft of motion pictures has risen forty percent. The current state of affairs is largely the result of shortsightedness by the major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, who managed to achieve the opposite of everything they wanted, in trying to keep the music business prospering. Napster, created in the late 90’s, was one of the first websites that allowed people to download music illegally off of the internet. Major record labels reacted to Napster by raising the price of CDs. Instead of trying to work with Napster, record companies tried to sue them to extinction. Even with these record companies suing Napster more and more sites were being created. Other websites today that allow illegal downloading of music and other types of media are Kazaa, Limewire, EZ-tracks, Yourfreemusicdownloads.com, and the list keeps growing.

If record companies believe that they will be able to get rid of websites that allow illegal downloading of music and other media, they are wrong. When one website is deleted three more are created. Both should try to use the other to their advantage. Record companies should look at it as if these websites can help them gain money instead of making them lose money.