Should Companies like Limewire and Napster Who Offer Copyrighted Material for Free Be Shut Down?

For years, music and television have been the greatest sources of entertainment for everyone in every nation of the world. Music was one of the most earliest forms of entertainment, and continues to grow across every nation today. Music comes in many different forms, and can be obtained in many different ways. It used to be that music and other media recordings could only be obtained through going to your local media store and purchasing these videos or audio files. Now, the majority of these files can be found easily online. The problem with the fact that these files can be found online, is the fact that they can be found online for free. This violates the copyright laws of the United States, because these files are copyrighted and protected under our government; people aren't supposed to go and download them for free because it's stealing! Copyright violation is a large problem in the United States, and needs to be stopped through the people doing it, not the companies providing these files under an agreement.

Companies such as Limewire and Napster have for a few years been providing people with free music and video files. The majority of these files are copyrighted, and are therefore illegal for people to download on the Internet for free. Of course there are alternative ways to download the music online legally, but this includes having to pay money for each song, which people aren't going to do if they can just download the music for free.

The real problem with these companies, is that they're legal. People who download these programs in hope of downloading free copyrighted media content sign an agreement that holds them accountable for all of their actions while using these programs (copyright information). In other words, technically, Limewire and Napster-similar programs aren't breaking the law because they don't provide the content which can be downloaded using their programs, other users of the program share them at their own risk (copyright information).

Since these downloads are illegal for the users of the program only and not the owners of the programs, there is nothing the government can do about these programs (copyright information). They cannot be shut down.

Yet, illegal downloads still must be stopped. Record companies are losing money because they can't sell albums, artists are losing money for the same reason, and everyone but the listeners of the music are being hosed over. The problem lies within the consumers, not the producers of the programs or the media.

To stop this massive problem in the nation, a party will be required to monitor the programs which allow person to person downloads for illegal activity. Technically, these programs can function without any illegal activity, however it very rarely happens (Creech). Once people start getting caught, fewer and fewer people will continue to download music illegally. If we can eliminate the downloading of copyrighted files for free through this way, only a small percentage of the people downloading the files illegally will be punished, while the rest learn their lesson through the example set by the other downloaders (Napster: Illegal, but).

To take part in this, you'll need to keep from downloading illegal copyrighted files yourself, and do your best to keep everyone else from doing it. If someone can manage to monitor these programs much more closely, the Internet will be a safer place for the media belonging to artists, producers and record companies. Copyright violation is a large problem in the United States, and needs to be stopped through the people doing it, not the companies providing these files under an agreement. So get out there and do your best to keep people from breaking the law on such a regular basis!

Sources: Parenthetical Citation Given

"Copyright Information" Limewire
http://www.limewire.com/about/copyright.php

"Is Limewire Legal" Associated Content Producer, Good Contributer
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/118770/is_limewire_legal.html

"Napster: Illegal , but where do we Draw the line?" Epinions
http://www.epinions.com/content_968466564