File Sharing And Its Impact To The Society
File Sharing And Its Impact To The Society
Introduction
With the introduction of computer networks, file sharing has become possible among internet users. Before this, people would share files via CDs and floppy disks. File sharing is currently considered to be a common activity among internet users. This is due to the easy and possible way of sharing files among many people around the world (Oberholzer, 2004). File sharing is generally, a process of downloading and uploading digital data that can be purchased. These are media files such as movies, music, computer software, and video games among others. People involved in file sharing do also download files from other users who have uploaded their files. The digital contents are readily available online for any person to download. This is because the files do not require copyright permission. However, the free permission has resulted to a significant negative influence.
Background
File sharing is one of the examples of new technologies that have resulted to lowering of costs through unauthorized copying of information among individuals. Other earlier technologies were introduced in 1959 Xerox, such as, photocopying and audio taping. These technologies made people to have copies of video tape that have been recorded on cassettes. Later, the networks and computer discs were created that allowed the copying of computer software. The invention of copying technologies does pose an alarming crisis to companies. The copyright industries are also affected. However, evidence on the harm caused by these copying technologies has not been well documented. In a study carried out by Liebowitz (1985), he found out that photocopying had had a considerable benefit to publishing companies. The permission to allow home video taping by the Supreme Court in the Betamax decision, led to the development of a new market dealing with prerecorded movies. This new category of movies has largely provided to the movie industry and makes bumper profits that the revenues from the box office (Blackburn, 2004). An alternative technology was introduced to bring about fairness in the industry. This is with the introduction of the read-only laserdiscs that controlled any potential pirating.
The software industry since history has brought forth the same concerns on unauthorized copying. The industry has experimented on various anti- piracy devices, like mechanical discs and dongles. The industry later realized that the piracy devices were not working as expected and came up with new applications targeting the business users. Currently, the industry believes that its significant challenge is to deal with organized piracy, which is amenable to solutions and it is destructive compared to personal copying(Boorstin, 2004). Similarly, the sound recording industry was against home audio taping. Alan Greespan, the Federal Reserve chairman, said that,“ … severe economic damage is done to owners’ property of rights of their musical composition as and sound recording copyrights (Hong, 2004)”.
File sharing growth, unlike those earlier technologies, is generally accompanied by a drop of company’s sales. The response of software industries is to bring law suits against services of file-sharing targeting thousands of individuals involved in file-sharing activities. The congress has also proposed the need to restrict sharing of file. The law suits passed have become of considerable discussion and notoriety, but it is unknown if these industries will actually be successful in stopping the act of file sharing. The file –sharing is a kind of copying that is done by individuals and not in organized piracy forms. This means that the criminal entity of this act leads to the production of millions and thousands of counterfeit copies that get into the market.
Organized piracy, according to a study by Hui and Png (2003) has a negative impact to the music industry. Supporters of the new technologies of file sharing have suggested that the music industry does also benefit just like the users. The Napster is a software program that was developed by a Boston Northeastern University student called Shawn Fanning. This program connected its users and enabled them to share music among one another. These files are in the form of mp3. The Napster is a freeware, where anyone interested in it could simply download it. This paper analyses the debate surrounding file sharing and argues that the music industry and other software industries are a crying wolf. Adequate evidence will be provided to show an increase in sales as a result of file sharing.
Theoretical application.
For this paper, I will use the act utilitarianism theory. That focuses on the foundational principal of morality, which is the utility principal. The principal shows that an act is preferable when its consequences are happiness and pleasure. From the utilitarian point of view, the act of downloading and uploading digital media such as music without any copyright material contributes to a legal offence. This is because; the violation of the law contributes to an immoral act.
Many consider file sharing as an ethically unclear area. The act of sharing files is not theft per say, because theft involves forceful deprivation of a person’s property. The main argument given on sharing of files is that there is the need for more serious emphasis on its legal and ethical status. This is especially, in relation to the amount of sales lost by companies that contributes to profits loss. Thus, file sharing without copyright permission is ethically wrong.
An action that has an impact to the society should be analyzed based on ethical judgment. Ethical approach to making judgments will help us know the actions that are right and those which are wrong. Theft is wrong because it is condoned by the society, for if we support this act, ownership will lose its meaning. Lack of ownership will make people to lack motivation in making developments and creating infrastructure. These two aspects do give human beings a high quality in life that they can enjoy. Through this same approach, file sharing can be analyzed. In that, we have to question whether or not file sharing should be allowed and how will it impact the society. Such questions will help us in evaluating the moral aspect involved in file sharing that will guide us in either approving or condoning the act.
Based on the moral standards, it is obvious that the protection of someone’s sales is not an obligation based on ethics. According to the utilitarianism theory, allowing a person’s actions to reduce someone’s profits is approved for this act, forms the foundation in a capitalist society. Many companies that own rare goods and products the need to be a monopoly, so that n they can sale their products at high prices. The monopoly statute makes the companies be profitable and is assured of future sustainability. While many companies come to the market to offer the same goods and products, then the sales will reduce and the profits will be less. At the end, the society will benefit for they will have to buy products at a much cheaper cost.
In consideration of file sharing, determining whether or not it is good for the individual and society will the need an evaluation of the losses and profits incurred by companies. The aspect that is not clear is if the companies have accepted file sharing, because some people will still prefer buying band merchandise and CDs. Some individuals such as Netfix have set up businesses to rent CDs. These businesses provide individuals with the convenience to own physical DC a certain fraction of cost. The worst case is when companies go under, which brings forth the question on whether or not file sharing is morally justified.
People being certain that they will lose their jobs are not a desirable thing. Though some would not find it a challenge to find another job, due to low unemployment rate and the higher education background among workers in record labels company, problems will still arise. The main challenge that the society will suffer from is the reduction in the production of new music. The record labels act as an integral part in music production, through funding. The artistic endeavors just like the music itself have a considerable value to society. The collapse of record companies will mean low production of music. Also, there will be few musicians in the society.
Without BACH or Mozart, this world would be generally poor to be in. The music from Bach and Mozart with no support of the record company, just like the sculptors and painters, were only being supported by wealthy patrons. In the current day society, there is the possibility that such systems do not work. However, the sculptors and painters of the modern day are doing fine even though most do supplement their income from other jobs. Despite the challenge, these artists do manage to produce significant art. Therefore, on the same light, when record companies collapse music will go back to its old age. This means that there will be few musicians compared to the thousands available today. However, the large number of musicians does not mean that they all produce quality music. This can even lead to a state having only one pop band. In these new systems, it will mean that the musicians will have to work harder in order to get patrons to sponsor them. The stiff competition for the patrons will mean that the society will benefit from high quality music. Therefore, file sharing is not ethically wrong. The collapse of the music industry will in fact mean a much better thing in turning art of music to actual art instead of it being just like any commodity as it is currently. Though file sharing is against the law, in some parts of the world, it is not appropriate to engage in this behavior due to legal reasons. The people do have the ethical obligation to abide by the law (Oberholzer-Gee, & Strumpf, 2010).
From the point of view of utilitarianism, it is essential to act in a way that produces the overall good to all people around the world. From the Utilitarian point of view, the Napster users saw that the use of this software will make the world be a better place, where people can share each other filed. This is beneficial to the theories intrinsic values such as happiness, pleasure, and sharing of ideas. This, however, depends on the concept of preference as claimed by Kenneth Arrow. He saw that the software presents a tool to choose for one’s own intrinsic utilitarianism value. Therefore, users have the ability to make opinions concerning the aspects that contribute to their own intrinsic value. To many people, the best world is that which people are able to share what they pose. File sharing gives people an opportunity to share their knowledge, ideas and other possessions. The calculus of utilitarianism indicates that intrinsic value effect can be calculated by comparing the negative and positive effect. According to Napters users, they obviously see that sharing of files has a positive effect. The intellectual property and industries, say that in the long run, all people in the community will be affected because people will lack a source of income. This view does not consider the good for all but examines the benefits that an individual will have (Cosgrove-Mather, 2011).
Relation to file sharing and the computing technology.
File sharing has impacted in the way people communicate. Before the internet innovation, information sharing was mainly through radio, television, and written correspondence. Current information is now digitalized through electronic files, emails, and web pages. Pepole can distribute this information to many other people using the internet. The information format has also drastically changed due to the wide range of short, well organized, lengthy text and well researched documents. This information has provided people with the opportunity to filter through a wide range of data, so as to find the information they are searching. This has further, created a considerable challenge as people now do have a wide access to other systems of the computers, thus, resulting to a much larger mass of information available in these systems.
The second aspect that file sharing relates to computing is the way it has change people’s collaboration. People no longer have to be in the same room so as to conduct workshops, projects and learn. Discussions and ideas can be electronically be computed and distributed among the group members. Living in separate locations for input and reviewing. For file sharing to be effective, it is essential to educate people on technical tools so that they can effectively collaborate and communicate.
Further filling sharing can be done electronically through computing. This enables people to learn. Current education has offered students the option to learn online, which is a different kind of setting from the traditional classroom environment. The content in media web is effective for learning, and it involves the specific ways in which can learn. The learners now have full responsibility of their learning. In that the learner has taken up the role previously designed to be for the instructor. Large data movement the needs a bulky transfer of files between two or more network domains. This can be within an operating entity or separate entities. The movement of files calls for network connection, but, this creates vulnerabilities and allows access to people who are not authorized. There is the need to consider security requirements in the transfer of files. There is the one way link that allows the movement of files from a network sources to another different locations without the need to create an access point into the network source. The receiving source may be open or closed to any an authorized access, thus the use of a one way inbound transfer link acts in avoiding any potential vulnerabilities. Various tolls are available that assist in the transfer of files.
Interview results to support your analysis.
File sharing is not a criminal act. With the availability of the internet technology, people in countries with no any portable data tools such as CDs of the original work can only obtain the files through downloading. Further, the availability of high speed data cables and iTunes has made people buy original materials instead of pirating them. There is also lack of protocols that limit the distribution of updates and games. This enables people to share files and software industries will lack ways of creating laws suit against a large number of people sharing files (Poort, & Rutten, 2010).
Conclusion
File sharing is a technology that his highly publicized for being an authorized copying. This paper has observed that file sharing does not present harm to industries. They have to embrace file sharing for it’s for the benefit of the whole society. This paper has contributed to the large debate surrounding file sharing. The benefit will be the introduction of quality music among other related data that will be a benefit to all.
Reference
Blackburn, D (2004) Does File Sharing Affect Record Sales. Harvard University (dissertation).
Boorstin, E (2004) Music Sales in the Age of File Sharing. Thesis, Princeton University.
Hong, S (2004) the Effect of Napster on Recorded Music Sales: Evidence from the
Consumer Expenditure Survey. SIEPR Policy
Hui L & Png L (2003) Piracy and the Legitimate Demand for Recorded Music. Retrieved from
http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/contributions/vol2/iss1/art11
On October 4, 2012
Oberholzer-Gee, F & Strumpf, K (2010) file sharing and copyright. University of Chicago Press.
Oberholzer, F (2004) the effect of file sharing on record sales. An Empirical Analysis.
Cosgrove-Mather, B (2011) Young say file sharing ok. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/18/opinion/polls/main573990.shtml
On October 4, 2012
Poort, J & Rutten, P (2010) Legal, economic and cultural aspects of file sharing.
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