The Effects of Internet Music Piracy

There is this artist your friend tells you about “Man you need to check out this band N’Sync, they are so rad!!” So you figure hey I will give it a shot…my friend thinks they’re cool. So you use the last $15.00 of your Best Buy gift card on their latest CD. You open the package in your car in excitement, and by the time you open up the covers your thinking to yourself. “Hmm four guys, that don’t play any instruments…hmm, is this going to be any good?” You ask yourself. So you, slip the CD in your car stereo. Utter disappointment when you listen to the first song, you skip to the next…and the next. Come to find yourself wasting your money on a crappy CD. A disc that may have been good to a 14-year-old girl, or your best friend Tony, but your musical taste is slightly different. Music swapping is in the music industry and the consumer’s best interest, it helps artists grow, and consumer’s interests broaden in the end ultimately increases sales and profit for record companies. In this essay I will explain exactly how and why my theory is true.

If you live in a dungeon, or in a Amish farmland, you may not know atrocity that the RIAA is committing right now. “Sue em’ all”, is the infamous theme for the RIAA as quoted by file sharing supporters. The RIAA has sued a 12-year-old, put her into tears and has offered no sympathy (Fox-news, 2003).   RIAA has also managed to file suits against a few dead people, 83 year old Gertrude Walton for one for “sharing over 700 pop, rock and rap songs under the alias “smittendedkitten”.   She had passed away 3 months prior to this lawsuit and refused to even use computers according to her family (Mook, 2005). Although they are not completely evil, they did drop charges against the deceased Mr. Scantlebury. After giving 60 days for his family to grieve then pay up, they decided to drop this particular case because of “abundance of sensitivity” (Doctorow, 2006). What RIAA fails to look at in all these cases, they sue whoever’s name is on... [continues]

Read full essay