Over the course of the past few years, there has been a great change in the way people in America and throughout the world listen to music. The single tool which has alone shaped this "revolution" has been the computer file format known as MP3. MP3's have begun to alter not only the way people listen to and obtain copies of music, but the way people think about the exchange of music altogether. Along with MP3's have come WMA and AAC music file formats. WMA is owned by Microsoft and Windows Media Player. AAC is solely owned by Apple and iTunes. While technology in music has exponentially exploded, in the meantime, MP3's have made some profound enemies among record industries and some artists, who claim that most of the files infringe on copyrights and are susceptible to piracy and theft of material. Recording artists, the general public, and lawmakers are pretty well split over the issue of the legality of MP3's and their usage.
There are many programs out there, namely LimeWire, to download music free from other people "sharing." There are also many programs on the market such as Rhapsody, Napster, and iTunes where you pay a certain amount to download music. Music artists make roughly five to eight cents per CD purchased from a store. The convenience of purchasing digital music is growing. What is also growing is the use of programs to obtain music for free, which hurts the artists profits. But most of them are extremely loaded anyways. Although some of them are just trying to make it.
Where do you stand on music piracy? Is it a matter of ethics or of morals or of integrity or of legality?
For more on this controversy and for the music industry's perspective, check out:
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