Piracy is Bad

As technology has evolved, it has created many new and exciting developments in society today. Fifty years ago, who could’ve imagined using Skype to talk face-to-face to someone a continent away? However, these exciting developments have also created unforeseen developments, many of which have cause for concern. These include such issues as identity theft, computer hacking, and music piracy.
Music piracy, also known as copyright infringement, is defined as the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), there are two main types of piracy: physical piracy, which includes making illegal (“bootlegged”) copies of copyrighted material, and online piracy, which includes downloading illegal copies of copyrighted files, and is the more prevalent of the two. I will be discussing online piracy; what it is, who it affects, and why it needs to be stopped.
THE PROBLEM
Music piracy has become a huge hassle for the recording industry. The issue was first really brought to attention in the late 1990s with the rise of the peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing network, Napster (Borland). After its founding in June 1999 by 19-year-old Shawn Fanning, Napster blew up on the music scene as an easy way for people to (illegally) share and download music. Although music piracy had long existed before the coming of Napster, there had never really been an easy way for people to find music over the web. Napster was unique in its enabling of millions of people to open up their hard drives to others and allowing music to be downloaded with a simple search and click. Although Napster was shut down in 2001 by a Supreme Court ruling, other P2P applications have sprung up, including programs like Kazaa, Grokster, BitTorrent, FrostWire, and LimeWire.
PIRACY SUCKS
According to “The True Cost of Sound Recording Piracy to the U.S. Economy,” a study performed by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), global piracy of copyrighted music has set the United States economy back to the tune of $12.5 billion dollars, and has cost the country 71,060 jobs annually (Siwek). According to the 2007 study, American workers lose over $2.7 billion in earnings, and more than 26,000 jobs would have been created each year in the music industry had it not been for the advent of P2P network sharing and other forms of music piracy. In addition, the report estimated that the U.S. government loses at least $422 million each year in tax dollars that would have stemmed from legal digital music downloads and purchases of hard copies.
More of these staggering statistics can also be found on the RIAA’s website. According to the RIAA, increases in illegal downloads of music have caused a 31% decline in the overall global market decline from 2004 to 2010. In the decade since Fanning’s Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the United States have dropped 47 %, from 14.6 billion to 7.7 billion. From 2004 to 2009, it has been estimated that over 30 billion songs were downloaded illegally, through either peer-to-peer sharing networks or usage of file-sharing websites such as thepiratebay.com. According to the National Purchase Diary (NPD) marketing group, only 37% of music acquired in 2009 was actually paid for by consumers. The other 63% was obtained without any revenue for either the music industry or the United States government. The association also cites songwriters, recording artists, audio engineers, computer technicians, talent scouts and marketing specialists, producers, and publishers as those being affected by people illegally downloading music (“RIAA”). These statistics show a clear correlation between increases in illegal downloads of music and declines in revenue in the music industry.
AND IT HURTS PEOPLE, TOO
When music is downloaded illegally, the recording industry loses out on revenue, which leads to less revenue for the artists who created the music, as well as less revenue for the government in the form of tax money. Music piracy also takes a big toll on many individuals within the recording industry, some of which aren’t commonly thought about. These include the enormous cast of industry players working behind the scenes, like songwriters, recording artists, audio engineers, computer technicians, talent scouts and marketing specialists, producers, publishers and many others. One study by the Institute for Policy Innovation estimates the annual cost at $12.5 billion dollars in losses to the U.S. economy as well as more than 70,000 lost jobs and $2 billion in lost wages to industry workers. Copyright infringement has, without a doubt, been facilitated by the development of sophisticated peer-to-peer network file-sharing.
LAST THOUGHTS
And finally, a video by Jack Black: