Downloading music. One of the most common issues of the current generation. If you’re bored one day, take a stroll in the halls of Mary Ward during a busy time and check to see how many students have visible earphones somewhere – and for those who don’t, stop and ask if they have some form of personal listening device on them at the moment. My guess is that about 80% of them will. Portable music has become a huge thing lately, especially among teenagers; the question is, how are people filling up their 4 GB of empty space?
The answer to that, more often than not, will be "illegal downloading." After all, you have an iPod with far more space than you can ever use and a ton of singers and bands you want to listen to, so what else can you do but steal their music by the truckload and transfer it over to your little mp3 player to listen to on the go? It’s the only logical conclusion. Piracy, with its easy accessibility and little to no risks, has captured the hearts of many an honest citizen of Canada. However, I’m not here to rant about the current issue of piracy; I’m here to give my thoughts on the matter.
I, personally, admit to stealing music, and I plan on continuing to do so. Why, you ask? Well, ethically speaking, there’s no defense for my actions. If I were a famous singer, I would certainly want my fans to, you know, pay for my music. Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d probably give a virus to every computer that’s storing my songs if they were illegally obtained. However, there’s more to this issue than just ethics. For me, there are two reasons why I doubt I will ever stop pirating music – price, and more importantly, availability.
Call me a liar if you want, but if every song I wanted was available online for a dollar, I would pay even if a free version is just a few clicks away. I really would. However, as we all know, this isn’t the case. Online stores like iTunes generally deal with the most popular songs only; what if you want something different? What if you’re looking for a hit song in a foreign language, or the main theme of that new video game? As an avid…er, "fan" of Japanese anime and music, I’m going to want my KOTOKO and Hirano Aya an awful lot more than whatever the popular kids are listening to these days. And of course, if you’re planning on finding a site that lets you legitimately download the latest J-Pop for a decent price – not to mention a readable site for those poorly versed in moonspeak like myself – I wish you luck.
For me, piracy all comes down to practicality. Software, games, music, it’s all the same: can I easily obtain it legally, or is it easier on me to just download the thing? If Adobe Photoshop CS3 is sold in Future Shop for several hundred dollars and I’m not a professional graphic designer, do you really think I’m going to purchase it, or will I just download it for a couple homework assignments and the odd homemade wallpaper? Likewise, if the only way I can get that latest Asian Kung-Fu Generation album is to order it online for $20 and probably toss on another $20 for shipping, isn’t it an awful lot more practical to type a couple words into Limewire and get what I’m looking for? In all honesty, if a click of the mouse could get me a song with a dollar or two gone to the creators, versus scouring the internet for an illegal torrent with a 50/50 chance of getting a virus, I wouldn’t support piracy. But that isn’t the case.
Long story short, the business is killing itself. Say what you will about the fans being disloyal to their favourite bands by pirating their music, but when you compare price, accessibility, and practicality, piracy wins in every way. Ethics alone aren’t enough to sway people. Economic analysis isn’t exactly my strong point, but even I can see that something is wrong here. The entertainment industry has a new enemy, and it has nothing to do with free trade or taxes – it’s called the internet.
