Illegal File Sharing

The long-term effects of illegal file sharing can negatively affect our culture, society, and possibly the entire entertainment industry. Since the beginning of Napster, it gave people, especially our techno-savvy generation, a gateway to free music. Why would one go out to the store or shop online and wait for a CD in the mail when they can download it almost instantly, for free. It is almost like Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree, thinking that no one sees them. And the case is that usually, no one does see them.

I personally know internet pirates that get everything off the internet. When a movie comes out in theatre, one can watch a cheap bootleg version the day the movie debuts. The entire entertainment industry will have to adjust to the rising technology to stop themselves from being robbed of what is rightfully theirs. The problem grows way beyond the music industry. For example, with the development of hard drives in video game consoles, video gamers can now connect their console to their pc and download games off of sites much like the old Napster, and save $50 on the new video game release. Technology is growing exponentially, and there will always be hackers out there who will find loop-holes in this technology to be used against the companies who authorized that technology. This problem will only grow as countries share their technologies, meaning that the US will no longer have the most internet users in the world. As the number if internet users increase, so will the number of internet pirates.

However, I do not believe this is a breakdown of our moral/ethical standards. It is human nature to take what is seemingly free. It almost relates to the classic debate of "if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" It is very similar to the mood of an internet pirate. If there were many copies of the #1 billboard album just laying around on the ground, would pedestrians pick them up? I am sure they would. Unfortunately, because of human nature, the internet may quite possibly be the downfall to the entertainment industry. The industry needs be more proactive and take more preventative measures to stop internet piracy. A better root-cause analysis has to be taken to stop the illegal downloading from the actual computers that do the work, not with punitive consequences that, in reality, do nothing.

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