Illegal downloading is a naturalistic occurrence that has been going on for quite some time. Prices of music, movies, and television have steadily risen and as expected, consumers have sought new outlets to obtain the media they want with minimal expenses. I think there is little that the government and media can do about this dilemma and little they should do.
I think it is completely unethical for the government to regulate the internet even more than they do now. However, I do understand the unfairness to musicians and artists that devote their time and money to their work so here are a few ideas:
One idea is to create an emotional campaign designed to deter online users to stop illegally downloading items such as music. Many people think that artists have many other ways of making money, but thats not always the case. Illegally downloading music is only going to make your favorite artist more expensive to see live and not enough people understand that. In addition I think it would be helpful to hear from musicians themselves that this illegal activity hurts them in more ways than we understand.
One way the government could interfere is by taking down the websites that allow you to illegally download material. It is fairly easy to find a website that can steal the music from youtube videos. If these websites were taken down it would be harder for a consumer to download material and eager for simplicity they might just buy the media from itunes or amazon.
A final method for decreasing illegal downloading activity is just to make harsher punishments. I think large money fines would be extremely influential. If I knew there was a better possibility of getting a fine I would be more hesitant to downloading music.
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your ideas. I think that there needs to be an ethical standard in the issue. We need to make people understand that downloading illegal content has a big impact on artist and any other media in general. I think that an ethical campaign can be very beneficial as people who do not know the implication might become familiar with the issue. Also, one of my comments was the fact that we need to listen to what musicians have to say about it. I feel that a lot of the times we pay much attention to what the government says and what users do and we exclude the artist from the issue. I think that artist could play a part in the campaign and by them speaking out illegal downloading might decrease a bit. I also like your idea of money fines. I think that if the government actually wants to do something bout it they must go hard and charge people for what they are doing. We as users believe that the government cannot do much about it, but like you say, if we know someone who receives a money fine we would think twice about keep downloading.