4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

4 - Essay Example Illegal file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive, out of control and oh so criminal. Many artistes, especially the new, less-established artists, are in immediate danger of being marginalized out of our business. Ripping is stealing their livelihood one digital file at a time, leaving their musical dreams haplessly snared in this World Wide Web of theft and indifference. (Greene, M) The fact that the Recording Academys leader would say something this serious on an occasion as joyous as the Grammy awards, indicates that the music industry knows that it is indeed, in dire straits. In 2001, more blank CDs were sold than CDs that already had music recorded on them. This was probably because a lot of people were downloading music files In the study of traditional ethics, the starving man depicts the classic problem. Is it ethical for a man who is starving to steal food because he has no money? This can be directly interpreted into whether a person is right to steal music it if he feels that the music is too expensive for him to buy. The topical escalation of media coverage besieging the demise of Napster has instigated widespread debate over the implications file sharing and the Internet will have for the record industry. The Napster software allowed its millions of users to share and download music mp3 files, which are of near CD quality, from each others hard drives. This infringed copyright laws and provided a very real threat to both musicians and record companies alike. In response Napster was sued by the American heavy metal band Metallica, and then taken to court by The Recording Industry Association of America; where they were subsequently ordered to cease operating. (http://theoptionblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/file-sharing.html) Even after a verdict like this, many of these companies, like imesh, limewire and Kazaa continuously offer facilities for file sharing, and some also grant