Posts Tagged: digital theft

Big institutions that control music and movies make a big deal about the immorality of downloading. Jack Valenti, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America calls it stealing. But I question the idea of equating filesharing with stealing for the following reasons:

1.) Almost every other tangible product that we buy is assumed to be fully ours once we purchase it. Imagine how hilarious it would be for a farmer to kick your door in with a SWAT TEAM and hall you off to jail because you gave away the seeds to the pumpkin you bought to your neighbor. In effect, you have shared the essence of the pumpkin, and now allow your neighbor to have a copy they did not purchase. But no reasonable person would allow that sharing to be called ‘theft.’ Why, then, doesn’t this same freedom of sharing extend to digital products that have been purchased by a user?

2.) Sharing music electronically precedes the internet. As a child, it was unremarkable for me to record music form the radio onto a cassette tape, copy that tape and then share it with a friend. That concept is no different than online filesharing. So why are record labels and movie studios up in arms NOW? And why are they being allowed to label digital file sharing as ‘theft’, when electronic file sharing never received that widespread label.

3.) Hollywood initially came after digital downloading just like the music industry. The claim was that downloading would bankrupt Hollywood. However, over time studios have figured out how to make money (yearly box office receipts are generally the same or better than ever.) So why can’t the music industry and other institutions that own art figure out how to make money in this environment, too?