Gayeon Lee/Is Downloading and Sharing Music off the Internet Illegal?

Is Downloading and Sharing Music off the Internet Illegal?

 

             I used to download music off the internet for free when I was younger. However, I don't do it anymore because my computer teacher told me not to and if I do, the police will come and arrest me. It was pretty scary at that time, but reconsidering it now, should sharing music off the Internet really be illegal? I don't think so because of these three reasons: Sharing does not exactly mean that copyright holders are losing their ownerships, most sharers do not make a profit of their doing, and sharing itself does not cause copyright holder's monetary loss.

             First of all, as Professor mentioned, taking other's intellectual property without permission and robbing actual goods are entirely different matters. When you rob someone's tangible property, that person no longer can touch or use it, which means he or she is actually losing it. However, when it comes to intellectual property, which is intangible, the owner still has the idea on his or her mind and can listen to it whenever and wherever the owner wants─if it's music is the issue. This special quality that intellectual property has, unlike other ones, makes downloading and sharing music off the Internet hard to be considered illegal.

             There are some people who take unjustified profits from sharing music off the Internet. In this case, it is beyond dispute that they are wrong and have to be punished under strict law. However, most Internet sharers, who that I know of, do not require money from the people who download the music, or make a profit from doing so. People upload the latest music files on the Internet and users just click the download button and the process is done in a minute. Nevertheless, it is true that there are some people who

             It is important to acknowledge the songwriters' copyright for their creativity and endeavor. However, I believe that citizens of the Internet age also have the right to access intellectual properties. In this era, almost everything is connected with each other via Internet, which makes access to the Internet and to its data more important than ever. Thus, protecting copyrighter's right only causes violation of the citizen's right to share ideas.

             To argue that downloading music online for free as illegal is not convincing and considering it illegal does more harm than good. Sharing music files does not mean that the copyrighters can no longer listen to their music, which is quite different matter with robbing the actual goods. Also, many Internet sharers do not make a profit from sharing the files. Finally, citizens in this Internet era have right to access intellectual properties freely.