Criminalizing Free Music Downloading: An Injustice Within the Justice System

For many years, the topic of downloading music has been among high debate within the music industry as well as inside the court room. Arguments have launched and lawsuits have been carried out in efforts to reduce the amount of people who are downloading free music from the internet. More recently, a federal judge ordered the popular peer-to-peer music downloading website Limewire to be shut down indefinitely, after a four-year long battle against the company regarding the illegal file sharing and downloading of music files. It seems that everyone has an opinion as to whether downloading free music is right or wrong, but perhaps too few who take into consideration the positive impacts that peer-to-peer music sharing can actually have within the music industry.

The leading representative for many of today's largest producing record companies, the Recording Industry Association of America, has been at the forefront of the ongoing debate over file sharing, claiming that websites such as Limewire and others that offer similar services are infringing upon copyrights by offering free music to internet users. While it may be true that record companies are potentially losing money on sales due to the rapidly increasing amounts of free music to be found on the internet, hundreds of millions as the RIAA claims, the fact remains that many people only use such programs because they are free. But because they are free, does this mean that downloading music is wrong? That the ability to do so inflicts harm upon the recording industry? Absolutely not.

Only within recent years has downloading music become a point of such high controversy, but the existence of music sharing has been alive for much longer than that. Consider this for a moment: before the internet became available and so widely used, there were still thousands of people who were obtaining it without having to purchase the latest cassette tape or album that was released. How exactly were people doing this? With recordable cassette tapes. Before the technology was available to burn our own music cd's, there are many thousands of people who could tell you stories of days spent in front of their home radio just waiting on that great new song to come on the radio so that they could press "record" and have that hot new hit added to their collection of greatest hits on cassette tape. In such cases, the very same songs that many are now being condemned for downloading illegally were still being illegally obtained, yet the amount of controversy over the subject did not begin to rise until websites such as Napster and Limewire made their appearance onto the world wide web.

In retrospect, the ability and opportunities made available on the internet to download music only slightly differ from that music which is cast across airwaves on radio stations, television, movies and everywhere else around us on a daily basis. That difference is merely that with downloading music, a person is given the ability to listen to songs of their choice, at their request and as often as they please, whereas we have no absolute control over the music that is delivered to us via radio airwaves, cable television or the big screen. It is little different than the popular video sharing website YouTube that allows users to upload and download videos of music from popular artists, of which no proceeds for page views and time spent listening to such videos are being given directly to the artist nor the recording agencies. And still it remains that the "issue" of free music only arises when that music is being downloaded from websites such as Limewire or other imitation sites.

When a person is caught downloading music illegally, the consequences of such are exceptionally harsh and can even range to fines in upwards amounts of $250,000 or as many as five years in prison. Such consequences can have devastating impacts on entire lives, but are these consequences fair? In my personal opinion, they are absolutely unfair. As the recording industry perceives it, downloading music free online is an act of stealing, deceit and should therefore be punished, but to ask many of the people who are actually downloading the music, few of them believe themselves to be carrying out a criminal act. This is because the people who are downloading music are likely not criminals at all, but merely normal people who simply enjoy listening to music. These are people who would not consider stealing money, personal items or even a mere sheet of paper from another person, yet federal law says that these very people should be subjected to punishment. When it comes right down to it, music is a huge part of life. We listen to our favorite songs when we feel a certain way, whether it be happiness or grief, anger or excitement. We turn to the music of our favorite artists to comfort us and, whether it is by radio, television, free internet downloads or YouTube, music forever has and forever will continue to be a part of every persons life until the day that it no longer exists. To criminalize people for listening to that music because it is free is very little different than criminalizing those who eat free samples because their local grocery store offers it to them.

Another point that has been made by recording agencies is that websites who offer users the opportunity to download free music are detracting from the potential success of up and coming new artists as well as those who are already established. From a personal standpoint, my belief is if an artist has the talent and potential that is necessary to reach the heights that they are aiming for, no amount of free downloads is going to detract from the talent that fans are observing. Concerts will still be sold out, tours will still be booked and there will still be fans to purchase every new available product released by that particular artist.

Obtaining music free of charge is definitely a bonus when it comes to today's features of the internet, but when you step back and look at the big picture, the ability to do so is only illegal because the record industry is not gaining a direct profit from such websites, but that ability does not detract from the stardom, the success or the amount of support that a music artist receives for his or her work from fans. There are many millions of things in this world that can be obtained for free, without a person on the other end who is receiving a direct benefit but when music itself, something that has been a part of life for many hundreds of years becomes illegal to obtain unless you are paying for it, it makes me wonder what natural desires and freedoms will be taken away from us next.