“Turn Up The Music…No One Cares”

Music spans generations…and technology. Thus, music is easily shared and “stolen” through many internet mediums. Some people, such as computer nerds and the college students see this as a liberating way to get free music, while the music industry and government see this as a lingering problem. Recently however, music piracy has become a low priority, at least for the government and its agencies.

It seems that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI care very little about online music piracy these days. As suggested in an article about this very topic, the number of cases involving online music piracy is very few. The reason for this is that according to the DOJ, online music piracy and the protection of intellectual property, regarding music, is a low priority in relation to other things. Whether this is true or not, is yet to be seen however, a bill introduced in the Senate last year called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act never got out of Senate debate. The bill would have given the government sweeping power to shut down U.S.-based pirate sites as well as the authority to order Internet service providers to cut off access to similar sites overseas. Opponents called the legislation censorship, and thus, the defeat of the bill.

The real issue is that artists believe that they are missing out on the potential profits they could be making. When music is shared, artists do not receive royalties on the shared music, as they only get money for purchased songs. Mediums such as iTunes and Amazon provide easy access to music at a price, but there are still people who receive their music for free and therefore artist do not receive that money.

This may be a basic example of economic utility. In order to provide the music to the public for free, a few people have to buy the music first. Therefore, the artists get their money and make enough to be happy. In return, the people who bought the music can now distribute the music to the public making everyone else happy that they can now receive free music. In terms of utility, it is maximized because everyone is satisfied with what they got. In this utopia, there is no concern that the artists aren’t making “all” their money, just that they are making some money. 

In the end, if we all try to obtain maximum utility we would create the exact system that we have now. Maybe the government understands this and hence why they see it as a low priority. With artists and music labels still making money, just not as much, and the public getting free music, everyone gets what they want. Maybe then this isn’t as big of a problem as everyone has made it out to be and it is now time for music to span technology even more. So turn up your music, because no one really cares anymore.

Article Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20027788-261.html