Good Essay On Download Of Copyright Music: A Crime Or Not?

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Download of Copyright Music

Introduction
People are in the habit of downloading music from the internet. The use of music from the internet does not usually involve the purchase of that music. Instead, the people acquire the music by breaking the copyright of the music in order to get it download. The norm of breaking the copyright for listening to the music is elevating with the passing days, and the people do not bother to ponder over it as being a crime or not. The major problem in this issue lies within the concepts of people. People are not aware of the fact that the download of music through copyright breaking is a crime. People carry on to download the music without buying it because they are unaware of the consent that breaking copyright for the download of music is illegal.
Breaking the copyright for music download can be included in the category of stealing as the music is stolen in order to make a personal copy without paying for it. This can be illustrated in the manner that music is the product of various persons who include singer, producer, composer, performer, etc. When music is developed t be launched, it is distributed in the form of CDs and DVDs. The persons associated with the song are paid through the income received from the sold out CDs and DVDs. Hence, the download of music reduces the number of purchases in the form of CDs and DVDs. Therefore, the constructors of the music suffer loss due to this download of copyright music.

Counter Argument

On the other hand, many countries and people argue that it is not a criminal act to download the music from the internet. The claim includes the fact that if the downloaded music is not consumed for the commercial purposes and conducted for the personal use then this issue is raised under the civil terms and involves the copyright’s owner and the individual only. The copyright rules are different among the countries as in some of the countries the copyright is made legal up to a certain limit. This limit ensures the permission to an individual to download the music for personal use and does not involve any kind of non-commercial consumption. The countries which provide this permit include EU states as Poland, Spain, Netherlands, and Canada. These countries have formulated the copyright directives law which allows the people to download the music without any authorization if it is being used personally. Consequently, the file sharing was legal along with the shifting of copyrighted music from a CD, provided that the CD is legal is permitted. This shifting can be conducted to other media and devices through compensating the copyright holders.
Furthermore, in the New York City, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) claimed in court that the download of music is an act of public performance and the copyright owners should be compensated. This argument was turning down by the court because nearly the music played online is licensed already. Moreover, the copyright act involves the work to be performed by a transfer or download. On the contrary, the music is directly delivered form an electronic device to the listener and is not recited, played or rendered during this transfer. Hence, the judges rejected the appeal made by the ASCAP (Vicini, 2011).

My Argument

Downloading a file such as music, game, software, or a film from a website which is a file sharing site or another site which belongs to a social network website can be indulged into the copyright infringement. The music which is available on these sites and an individual does not pay for the material during its download is illegal if it does not contain the license from the holder of the copyright. The music can be paid off and bought from the copyright holders as a digital download. On the contrary, the buying of certain music item does not indicate that an individual owns the music. After the payment for the music, the service grants the license to listen to the music. Conversely, the license does not give access to share, lend, or transfer the contents even after the payment has been made (Copyright Issues, 2015). This is due to the rights given to the copyright holders. On the other hand, the music can be played on variable personal devices but cannot be shared because the terms and conditions are mentioned before the file is getting download and the individual has provided his approval by clicking on the ‘I Agree’ option. However, the permission to play the music on variable devices may depend on the service provider as this facility might not be granted by some service provider. Consequently, it also becomes illegal to listen to the song by copying it from one device to another.
The mostly imposed penalty for the download of music illegally is the monetary fine. The fine is pretty much amount because, under the federal copyright law, the illegal music download can make an individual pay about $750 to $30,000 for work. Subsequently, the download of more than one song can cost handsome amount of the penalty if the individual is caught of illegal download (Wang, 2013). The copyright holders consult the Internet Service Providers (ISP) in order to collect the records of any copyright infringement. Ultimately, the copyright holders demands a compensation when an individual is caught off an ill legal download. The ISP can send the notifications to the subscribers who are indulged in the music download before taking any legal actions against them (Martin et al., 2004).

Conclusion

It is a noticeable fact that the people do not have awareness regarding the copyright rules and terms. They even do not have knowledge that they involved in an illegal activity and conducting a prohibited work. Therefore, the awareness should be raised among the people in this regard in order to prevent them from unintentional consequences. Since, the download of the music is not permitted without payment or without seeking the allowance from the copyright holder, therefore, it is significant to make people aware of this act and strictly follow it. Consequently, the right holders are fully justified.

Works Cited

Martin, C. R., Oshinsky, D. B., & Weakley, S. L. (2004). Internet Law and Practice in California (Vol. 1). Continuing Education of the Bar-California. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9780762608119 on 26th March 2015.
Vicini. J (2011). Lower court’s ruling stands: Downloading music is not a crime. Rawstory. Retrieved from http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/supreme-court-rejects-internet-music-download-case/ on 26th March 2015.
Wang. B (2013). Illegal Downloads: What Are the Penalties? FindLaw, a Thomson Reuters Business. Retrieved from http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2013/07/illegal-downloads-what-are-the-penalties.html on 26th March 2015.