Proposal Against Illegal Downloading

At the dawn of the internet, many things such as books and text became obsolete, due to insufficient monitoring of internet activity and sites. Individuals were able to gain free access to books and publications that normally needed to be bought, or required a fee. This is something that has caused problems for booksellers and publishers. Now, as technology advances, it also begins the decline of music, software, and television industries--but something can be done before it's too late. Illegal downloading is a problem that affects us all, either directly or indirectly. Many people do not take it too seriously. They have not realized that it is an epidemic; like a disease that keeps growing as people become more knowledgeable about computers and learn more about how software runs. People openly burn music CDs and download music and movies for friends who in turn give it to their friends; it's a never-ending cycle on illegal practices. The problem started when Napster came out and should have ended when it was shutdown. Unfortunately, not enough has been done to stop the illegal transfer of files. It's time someone takes full action and ends this detrimental offense.

Napster is a company that developed the so-called peer-to-peer technology that lets people search and retrieve music files directly from one another's personal computers. When Napster first came out, millions of internet users worldwide were illegally downloading and distributing copyrighted music, videos, images, and software for free. After being vilified by the entertainment industry, which claims that Napster and any similar programs could make piracy of almost any digital work unstoppable, and many court battles, Napster was ordered by court to be shutdown in 2000. The technology has been praised as a revolutionary development for the Internet--unaware of the problems that would arise from such practices. However, the termination of Napster was not enough, months later, dozens of new, like programs were being developed and used. And since Napster, not much has been done to stop these latest downloading programs.

Although there was a period where the Recording Industry Association of America (the RIAA), an organization that investigates the illegal production and distribution of sound recordings, went after a few users, including a twelve year old girl, with fines of up to $250,000--users still continue to download. With an average of 2.54 million users per day http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/10763), people still share files because they know that there is not a big enough chance they will be caught by the RIAA. People need to be aware that what they are doing is wrong and is just like walking into a store and stealing it off a store shelf.

It's not only the music industry that's being affected, this "epidemic" also spreads into the movie industry, which spends millions to entertain us, computer software companies, the ones that make the programs that we use at home and work and make our lives easier. Even publishers of books and magazines are being affected. People take magazines and books and scan every page of it on to their computer as a picture image and distribute it freely. Since people now have the option to download music, movies, or software for free online, they will not buy the retail products anymore, therefore driving the profits and income down for companies selling these products. If all of this keeps up, America and the rest of the world will soon lose many of the companies that provide them with essential programs, entertainment, music, books, and magazines.

If the music industry is not successful in stopping the illegal transfer of music, then they will start compensating for their loses by raising the price of the music for commercial users. This includes music that is in movies, video games, radio, or used on TV. If their prices are raised to use song in a movie or TV show, theaters and cable providers will most likely compensate for the increased cost by raising their prices. Movie tickets could soon become 15 dollars, video games could cost 5 dollars more, and cable or satellite TV could cost more.

Everyone needs to take a part in solving the problem. The government needs to take more action. Right now, they aren't doing anything to solve this epidemic. All they do is talk and keep postponing bills that are controversial, because it infringes on the freedom of the internet. They can't make up their minds. One solution is that that the government can completely control the web by controlling the internet service providers. These include AOL, MSN, and SBC. These companies need more responsibility by monitoring what programs are illegally transferring files through their customer's