If you are familiar with Weird Al Yankovic, you know his favorite thing to do is make fun of anything and everything. Music Piracy is no exception. One of his most famous songs is called "Don't Download this Song.
Although it starts off as a message about the dangers of pirating music, it ends with making fun of the money you are taking away from artists who already have billions of dollars that they don't know what to do with.
Although this video is funny, I've recently changed my mind about downloading music illegally. I'm not really worried about income of record labels or rich and famous pop stars however if you ever look at the punishment for getting caught, its not worth it.
But on the other hand, the gov't and the International Registration of Artists and Artworks have intentionally made the fines of those they catch extremely high to scare people from doing it. Although, in reality, they are much to busy with more serious crimes to look into people suspected of downloading music.
For a while illegal music downloading was such a problem that the price of buying music online went up from an average of $.99 a song to $1.30. If pirating music continues it is only going to get worse but will the musicians ever really "suffer"? I don't think so. Anyway you look at it they get paid big bucks to do what they do right along with their labels. But will the consumer really suffer? no, because they will just keep downloading for free and not pay the price. So really who is suffering? Only the honest consumer.
I think the ball is in our court now. Do you risk getting caught and charged thousands of dollars per song for free music? Or do we go the honest route and keep suffering the price of music because of all of the others out there that will continue to download music illegally no matter what? It's a personal choice but I personally don't take the risk anymore.
The way I look at it. If you absolutely love the song, album or artist than you shouldn't have a problem spending the money to support a good artist. If you don't love the song, album or artist enough to pay the retail price for the music, than it certainly isn't worth risking jail and thousands of dollars.
Simply stated. You are absolutely right. It is NOT worth the risk of getting caught. I think people always look at the situation and think, "Oh, I won't get caught. That'd never happen to me," and then it does.
ReplyDeleteIt is such an awful cycle where the prices go up, so more people steal music. Then the prices go up even more, so you have more people trying to work around the system. There will always be people trying to cheat their way into getting music for free. As I stated in my blog, there are super smart people out there that will find another way. These people know computers and technology and can develop new ways to download music without having to pay for it. In my opinion, asking for honesty out of the population is asking TOO much. I think we can both agree on that. Humanity is not honest. Also, if there aren't enough people enforcing these laws and taking action, then I just don't believe the situation will ever be resolved.