Lee Dong hyun/argumentative essay/Tuesday 56

Downloading and sharing music off the internet              Farmers sell crops for profit. Fishermen sell fish for their living. However for singers, it is not that simple. It is not necessarily true that singers sell music for profit, but rather the popularity that arises within their music. So downloading and sharing songs in the internet should not be illegal.              To begin with, downloading from the internet cannot be considered as an act of theft. Theft is when one no longer owns his or her property because it has been taken by others. However in the case of the music market, sharing music is not a crime. This is because when people download music from the internet, the owner, or the creator still owns his music and still have full access. The only difference is that other people have access too. Internet is an area where exchange of information is most active. Not only it is almost impossible to stop the sharing of information but also it is undesirable to forcefully stop it. So downloading music from the internet should not be considered illegal.              Furthermore, the claim that downloading music from the internet results in a huge loss of profit is a false statement. It is true that if music can shared for free, it leads to loss of money to certain extent. However as stated in the introduction, musicians' primary source of profit is no longer by selling music online and off-line. Rather, these days, it is through concerts, appearing in television shows that musicians generate profit. For example, average cost of concert ticket ranges from 80,000 won to 150,000 won with the number of seats over 200. Even though the costs cover other expenses such as renting the concert hall or paying the band, it is still a huge profit for musicians. Considering that appearing in other shows is much more profitable way of earning money, losing money within the internet is relatively a minor loss.              Finally, free downloading of music off the internet should actually be promoted. In order for a musician to succeed, the necessary factor is fame or popularity. He should be popular in order for the public to listen to his music and popularity derives from easy access to musical work. Suppose that there are two new artists. Song of one artist is offered with payment and the other's is for free. In such situation, people will listen to the work of the artist whose song is offered for free rather than the one with payment. Nowadays, many young artists initially release their songs through You tube so that people can listen to them beforehand. So sharing of music in the internet should be encouraged rather than designating as illegal.              In conclusion, downloading and sharing of music off the internet should not be illegal. Downloading it online is not an act of theft and it is not true to argue that free downloading results in a huge loss. Finally, such act should be encouraged as it boosts the popularity of musicians. It is not to say that this can be applied to other intellectual properties such as movies. Rather on such specific areas, different actions should be taken.