Ethical Issues with Illegaly Downloading Music

For years now people have found ways to take music off the Internet and put it onto their own computer, iPod, or blank CD. It all started in 1999 with the creation of Napster. Napster introduced a revolutionary new idea that was to forever change the way people thought about music: peer to peer file sharing. Peer to peer file sharing, often abbreviated as simply p2p, allows different users swap songs, with no regards for copyright infringement. Now the most popular way to take music off the Internet is to use one of many YouTube to mp3 converter sites These sits allow you to copy a URL from a YouTube video and paste it into a text box on the YouTube to mp3 site which will then convert the video into a music file that is downloaded onto your computer. Many people have different feeling about using these new YouTube to mp3 sites and using older sites similar to Napster. Either way, using sites like that is simply taking music off the web at no cost to oneself. I will go on to defend the idea that illegally downloading music is stealing. Illegally downloading music is no different then going into a store and taking a CD right off the shelf and walking out without paying. I will base my defense on the concept that the artists and the people involved in the music industry have rights. Whenever a song is downloaded off the Internet illegally it is a violation of the artists and the people involved in the music industry’s rights. My first premise is that artists and people in the music industry have the right to be compensated for their hard work. Most artists dream to make it big one day and be paid for the songs that they write and sing. When a person puts in the hard work that it takes to make it to the top they should be compensated for their efforts. However, the artists do not make the music and hit records all on their own. There are many people behind the scenes that contribute to the making of albums. For example there are the people who