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Music piracy is the copying and distributing a piece of music for which the composer, recording artist, or copyright-holding record company did not give consent. Music piracy is a form of copyright infringement, which is a crime in many countries.
The late 20th and early 21st centuries saw much controversy about copyright piracy regarding many aspects involved in the activity of illegal downloading. More portals and websites for illegal downloading and file sharing among peers seemed to be more abundant during this time as well. These aspects included the act of redistributing media content, how much production and distribution companies in the media were losing due to piracy, and the very scope of what ought to be considered piracy. The cases involving piracy were most discussed in debate as to determine how to define the act and how to treat individual cases of illegal downloading.
The term commonly known is “piracy” but that’s too small of
a term to adequately describe the toll that music theft takes on the gigantic
cast of industry personnel working hard behind the scenes to bring the high
quality music to your ears. The
cast of music personnel includes songwriters, recording artists, audio
engineers, computer technicians, scouts, producers, publishers, and many, many
other people that help the music industry stay afloat.
It seems that simply one individual downloading one song may
not feel like a serious crime or be harmless at all. The true harm is the accumulative impact of
millions of songs downloaded illegally.
This massive accumulation means not compensating any of the people who
helped create that song and make it available to the masses and music
fans. This reality is devastating
to all the employees of the music industry. A study conducted by the Institute for Policy Innovation
estimates the annual harm at $12.5 billion in losses to the U.S. economy. In addition to the economy, 70,000 lost
jobs are a result and $2 billion in lost wages to American workers.
When all the accumulated losses are pulled together, it
makes one think again about downloading one song or potentially album illegally
to save a few dollars in the process.
Especially when a lot of pirated downloads are not even the correct quality
one would purchase normally on iTunes or through a legitimate purchasing music
venue. As a performing artist
myself, I would personally be crushed to not be paid any compensation for all
the hours I put into producing music and ensuring that it was a high quality
product to release to the masses.
I would additionally be crushed to learn that I wasn’t supported
monetarily and would find it hard to keep producing music if I received no
respect for the art I was producing.
In turn, I am against music piracy, even in the smallest of forms, every
illegally downloaded song adds up to millions of losses for all those in the
music industry.
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