File Sharing

file sharing is something extremely commonplace to the average teenager. Most of adolescents today have had whatever song, movie or game accessible by the click of a mouse. Its hard for anyone to imagine that something so easy and wildly accepted could be illegal. However, there has been a very clear effort made by the government in the past 5 years that these programs ARE illegal and those who use them will be prosecuted. However, i don't believe things are as clear cut as the government make them out to be.
Music cannot be bought and sold. A CD, a guitar, a DVD, tape, or record can be bought and sold but something as beautiful and spiritual as music should be spread to all the ears willing to hear it, and musicians should promote and spread their songs and talents as far as ears can hear. however, big companies and record labels have made music just another commodity to be bought and sold. They control so much of the music media and jack up prices on cds. If CD's were only $10, alot more people would buy them. Therefore i do believe that most types of file sharing should be legal. I believe that someone downloading a song, "stealing it", is far more beneficial than someone picking up that musicians Cd in a store and then putting it right back down and buying something else. Musicians should expose themselves as much as possible.
I think the following are acceptable and shouldn't be illegal:
- Downloading a song you don't own from a major label artist.
- Downloading a song you don't own from a struggling independent artist.
- Downloading another copy of a song you already own.
- Downloading a song to "try it out" - if you like it enough, you'll buy the CD.
- Copying a CD from a friend.
I think that all these actions are beneficial to an artists notoriety and success because artists only receive an extremely small portion of the sales of their cd's.
i obviously don't think that stealing a cd from a store is okay, so i think that a happy medium between file sharing and common recording label/cd store model.
Artists could maybe make some of their most popular or older songs available for free download on their websites. Artists can use file downloading to their advantage and harness it to benefit their popularity. musicians and labels should accept the changing times and not fight change, because they definitely wont win.