Illegal Downloading

[LilAznAccommodator]

Dear Readers,

Sorry to come off as having you(readers) 'do' my Research.. But I have been googling around for information relevant to 'Illegal Downloading of Music' and I am trying to write a Research Paper that argues that it SHOULD be legalized. So any links that have information related to support that(Illegal Downloading of Music should be Legal) would help, I have found a few good sites but still seeking more and thought I would let you help me out.

Information related to RIAA/ or those companies can help also. just anything that you think is valid to help in my Research that I can cite/quote for added support.

Thank you.

[DorisInsinuate]

This question seems to come up a lot. Are lecturers getting lazy and just stealing other people's questions?

[Barbarossa]

Downloading music isn't illegal.

[Santa]

Proof that illegal downloading is harmful

[zaphodiv]

Downloading music is not illegal. Downloading copyrighted music without permission from the copyright holder is a civil matter not a criminal matter(may vary between countrys). That is why a few people are being sued rarther than prosecuted.

If you want to argue in favour of downloading of copyrighted music without the copyright holders permission then you need to argue that copyright is not an overall benifit to society.

You can't allow unrestricted copying of music in digital form without allowing all digital copying. If downloading of any music is allowed then people would make audio books of copyrighted books with some background music or turn a windows longhorn iso image into a .wav file and call the resulting screeching hissing noise music.

You can argue that economics will result in free software taking over eventually so there is no point having copyright on it. You can argue that society as a whole benifits from people reading and gaining knowledge so copying books should be allowed.

You can argue that music is culture and thats important so it should not be restricted.

I sure you could find lots of essays arguing for extreme socialism (nationalise the music industry!) or communism (intellectual property is theft!) to crib.

It would be more plausable to argue for encourging the public to download music that the creator has decided to give away and encourage musicians to make free music. There is lots of free music on the internet being distributed with the permission of the musician and some music that is old enough to be out of copyright. If radio stations started airing shows that just play freely downloadable music then it would encourage the public to download free music instead of heavily promoted pop.

[Barbarossa]

Cracking post!

[DorisInsinuate]

10. ... Cracking discussions are not allowed.

I think I just stole that joke off someone

[LilAznAccommodator]

Downloading music is not illegal. Downloading copyrighted music without permission from the copyright holder is a civil matter not a criminal matter(may vary between countrys). That is why a few people are being sued rarther than prosecuted.

If you want to argue in favour of downloading of copyrighted music without the copyright holders permission then you need to argue that copyright is not a overall benifit to society.

You can't allow unrestricted copying of music in digital form without allowing all digital copying. If downloading of any music is allowed then people would make audio books of copyrighted books with some background music or turn a windows longhorn iso image into a .wav file and call the resulting screeching hissing noise music.

You can argue that economics will result in free software taking over eventually so there is no point having copyright on it. You can argue that society as a whole benifits from people reading and gaining knowledge so copying books should be allowed.

You can argue that music is culture and thats important so it should not be restricted.

I sure you could find lots of essays aruging for extreme socialism (nationalise the music industry!) or communism (intellectual property is theft!) to crib.

It would be more plausable to argue for encourging the public to download music that the creator has desided to give away and encourgae musicians to make free music. There is lots of free music on the internet being distributed
with the permission of the musician and some music that is old enough to be out of copyright. If radio stations started airing shows that just play freely downloadable music then it would encourage the public to download free music instead of heavily promoted pop.

Thanks that helps me a lot... But then my Teacher helped me narrow down my Topic a little so now he thinks my Prompt should be:

'Does the online sharing of copyrighted material constitute copyright infringement, or is it fair use?'

^For that if I take the Fair Use side.. I can bring up supporting details such as how some music artists actually want their music being shared online? Then I could also bring up some of the things you mentioned^

More information is useful and links ^_^, also, I thank you people that have put in valid posts.

[MagicNakor]

Well, if you want to take up that angle, Harvey Danger just released their latest album entirely for free from their site.

You're going to be getting into the legality of it though, and different countries have different regulations regarding "fair use."

[Barbarossa]

This is a heavy assignment! Good luck!