A. Downloading music from the internet has become a simple, fast and easy thing to do. The correct or legal way of going about it seems to be ignored by those who find it too costly. Illegal music downloads have reached an all-time high, and a recent survey of high school students revealed an estimated 3.6 billion songs being downloaded per month. There are now endless possibilities available to the public where music can be downloaded for free and people are choosing to take this route even though it is illegal. iTunes is one of the most well-known sites where music can be bought legally for just over $1 per track. So when it is this cheap why are people still going to alternative unauthorized sites? Or is the legal route still considered a costly way to go about it?

B. If you think that copying music results in simply a slap on the wrist, think twice. Under government law, record companies are entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement but the law allows the jury to increase that to as much as $150,000 per song if it finds the infringements were deliberate. The music industry has threatened about 35,000 people with charges of copyright infringement over the past decade. In recent months there have been more cases of music piracy heading to the courts. The industry estimates that more than a hundred of these cases remain unsettled in court, with fewer than 10 offenders actively arguing the case against them. The penalties for breaching the copyright act differ slightly depending upon whether the infringing is for commercial or private financial gain, with the latter punishment being far milder.

C. Nonetheless, the potential gain from illegal downloading versus the punitive measures that can be taken is, in cases, poles apart. Recently, an American woman shared 27 illegally downloaded songs with her friends and was ordered to pay $1.92 million to the record company for deliberate infringement of the companies’ copyrights. More recently in America, a 12-year-old girl was sued for downloading music illegally and could face a penalty of $150,000 per song. The order of payment from the courts to the American woman who shared the 27 tracks with her friends has spurred controversy as the public disagrees with the ordered infringement. The woman shared 27 songs at $1.99 per song, so should she be liable to pay such a large and impossible amount?

D. It has also been noted that of all measures that can be taken, fining is actually the least likely method of preventing further abuse. With driving, for example, statistics have shown that those that repeatedly drive over the speed limit are not discouraged by the loss of a sum of money, but this attitude quickly changed when the penalty was possibly losing their driving license or even spending time in prison.

E. Being a difficult thing to police, the music industry has decided that it would be much easier to go after the internet service provider than to try and track down each individual case. The music industry feels internet piracy has decreased their artists’ sales dramatically and is a danger to their business, although, on the other hand, online music sales promote individual tracks to be sold rather than albums, therefore increasing the amount spent by the purchaser.

F. If there are so many issues around the downloading of music, you might wonder why sales of MP3 players and CD burners are increasing rapidly. The answer is simple – these devices do have a legitimate purpose defined as ‘fair use’. You can choose to make your personal back-up copy to use in an MP3 player, or you may visit one of many web sites, like iTunes, which offers music that you pay for as you download. While some may wonder why you would pay for something that can be had for free, those who do prefer to obey the copyright protection laws have purchased over 150 million songs from the iTunes site alone.

G. Online music sales are a business just like any other and music companies are fighting to salvage their industry. Cary Sherman, the President of RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), stated that when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action. At the same time, the RIAA has offered amnesty to the illegal downloaders who decide to come forward and agree to stop illegally downloading music over the Internet. People who have already been sued are obviously not eligible for amnesty.

H. When high school students were asked how they felt about the business of downloading illegally from the net they appeared to be divided on the issue. Some seemed to think there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Others felt that it should be thought of as a serious crime like any other form of theft.