1. : harmful to the artist, the recording company, or neither?
Downloading music
: harmful to the artist, the recording company, or neither?

2. Public Opinion? Downloading music is not stealing.
Downloading music is definitely stealing.
Downloading music is wrong, but not stealing.
Downloading music is neither wrong nor stealing.

3. Legalities - Opinion "Raise your hand”
If you think stealing a CD out of a bin at HMV Records is morally wrong?"
How many believed that taping a song off the radio was morally wrong.
"How many think downloading a song off the Internet is morally wrong?"

4. Downloading four CD tracks from a CD I like from the Internet?
Ethical Questions
Downloading four CD tracks from a CD I like from the Internet?
Is the record company better or worse off?
How about the artist?
So putting aside legal considerations, the ethical question at hand is, "Have I harmed anyone?"

5. Statistics
2004 there were an estimated 70 million people participating in online file sharing
7 Million people are illegally sharing files
nearly 70% of 18 to 29 year olds think that file sharing is okay in some circumstances
the 18 to 29 years olds are the age group that does the majority of the downloading

6. Sharing
Some artists
may choose to support freeware, shareware, open source, or anti-copyright,
advocate the use of file sharing as a free promotional tool.
Nearly all shareware, freeware, and open source software may be shared as much as the end user wishes

7. Legal Position
1984 Supreme Court case Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios Inc., downloading music was not theft.
The court established that taping television programs for the home was fair use of copyright, which would do minimal harm to the television industry

8. HOWEVER!
"The legal issue is distribution, not downloading of music"

9. Legal Rulings Copying is not illegal.
Magazines are protected by copyright. Photocopying a magazine article to give to a friend or a student has long been accepted as "fair use," personal, educational, non-commercial.
Printing a million copies of the same article -- whether you charge for it or just give it away because it has your company's picture is in it -- is obviously wrong and violates the author's and publisher's copyrights.

10. Legally
Posting a music file on Limewire for your friends to download seems to be a similar "fair use."
An invisible line gets crossed, though, when 30,000 of your "friends" download the file.
Then, it is argued by the music industry, you're stealing copies that would otherwise have been purchased from the record company.

11. Question
If you never buy a CD again and get all of your music free online…STEALING?
Studies show that most MP3 users buy more CDs than non-downloaders -- maybe because they hear bands and genres they never would have heard otherwise, or because they chat about it more

12. PENALTY
Most recently, in Duluth, Minnesota, the recording industry sued Jammie Thomas, a 30 year old single mother. On October 5, 2007, Thomas was ordered to pay the six record companies (Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc.)$9,250 for each of the 24 songs they had focused on in this case. She was accused of sharing a total of 1,702 songs through her Kazaa account. Along with attorney fees, Thomas may responsible for owing as much as a half a million dollars. Thomas testified that she does not have a Kazaa account, but her testimony was complicated by the fact that she had replaced her computer's hard drive after the alleged downloading took place, and later than she originally said in a deposition before the trial

13. File Sharing (P2P)
File sharing is the practice of making files available for other users to download over the Internet and smaller networks.
This can be done in any number of ways; in corporate networks it is done using file servers, but on the wider Internet it more usually follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users. Most people who engage in file sharing on the Internet both provide (upload) files and receive files (download).

14. File Sharing (P2P)
P2P file sharing is distinct from file trading in that downloading files from a P2P network does not require uploading, although some networks either provide incentives for uploading such as credits or forcing the sharing of files being currently downloaded.

15. Sharing Software Limewire Torrentspy Bearshare
Kazza (no longer technically in Business)
Napster (pay system $9.99 Month)
Itunes – (0.99 song)

16. Malware – Downloaders Beware!
Malware installed by Kazaa includes the following[6]:
Cydoor (spyware): Collects information on the PC's surfing habits and passes it on to the company which created Cydoor.
B3D (adware): An add-on which causes advertising popups if the PC accesses a website which triggers the B3D code.
Altnet (adware): A distribution network for paid "gold" files.
The Best Offers (adware): Tracks your browsing habits and internet usage to display advertisements similar to your interests.
InstaFinder (hijacker): Redirects your URL typing errors to InstaFinder's web page instead of the standard search page.
TopSearch (adware): Displays paid songs and media related to your search in Kazaa.
RX Toolbar (spyware): The toolbar monitors all the sites you visit with Microsoft Internet Explorer and provides links to competitors' websites.
New.net (hijacker): A browser plugin that lets you access several of its own unofficial Top Level Domain names, e.g., .chat and .shop. The main purpose of which is to sell domain names such as which is actually
As a result of these additional components, CNET's Download.com site stopped the distribution of KaZaA in April 2004.
Kazaa is also known not to uninstall completely, leaving behind several executables, files, and the Kazaa installer. It also leaves behind all the malware initially installed. In an effort to remove the files left behind, Merijn Bellekom (the creator of HijackThis) has created KazaaBeGone, available here:[3]. This program executes script to remove any remnants left behind by Kazaa's uninstaller program.

17. Assignment : Ethics of File Sharing
“Downloading music: harmful to the artist, the recording company, or neither?”
State your position Downloading music is not stealing.
Downloading music is definitely stealing.
Downloading music is wrong, but not stealing.
Downloading music is neither wrong nor stealing.
400 word position paper – Due Sept. 17th
List Resources, Bibliography