My take on file sharing on the web

File Sharing

Is It Stealing?

Is downloading music stealing? Yea, probably, but the phenomena of “file sharing,” where music gets packed into mid-fi easily storable digital files and shared easily without regard to the copyright holders, seems to be here to stay. It exists in that gray area with getting undercharged for your meal at a restaurant, or the story about you or your friend who moved into a house and the cable was already on: you’re getting away with something, and it’s not the rightist of things, but it’s sort of fun, and it seems a victimless crime. The truth is there are a lot of gray areas involved.

The popularity of downloading is partially due to a hypocrisy in the corporations that own the very same record companies who are crying fowl. For example, 5 years ago Sony began advertising their “multimedia friendly PC” the VAIO, right around the advent and rise to popularity of the bootleg MP3. Then along came little things to play MP3s on, and advertising campaigns that encouraged people to download music from the Internet. There were at that time almost no, what is now called, “legitimate digital music” sources, that being the industry nice way of saying “for pay” services. But the idea of it sold newer and faster computers, and the blank CDs (that were for a long time $3 each), and CD burners. Did Sony really think everyone was backing up gigabytes of Microsoft Word documents, and emails? No, but the bottom line was there, now their Music division supports the RIAA lawsuits, and clams their financial troubles are in large part due to the downloaders and home burners. Now DVD doing the same thing, they still want to sell you the burners and the blank discs, and then tell you not to use them.

The record industry had come to grips with piracy after the advent of the cassette and allowed it to exist, thusly making us as a society believe it wasn’t that bad. Who didn’t have a copy of a cassette in the 70’s and 80’s? Once again, the electronic manufacturers made machines specifically designed to copy cassettes, even ones that would do it quickly. There was an unspoken law that as long as the user was not selling the product then it was kind of, ok. And copyright laws also have clauses for instances when it was ok to copy a tape or record. Copying music it became a part of everyday American life.

Many artists being music fans as well, have owned bootlegs and tolerated bootlegging as a fact of life. Members of the band Uncle Tupolo once said to fans, not to buy their early CDs, copy them, because their record company had never paid them a penny in royalties. Which brings us to another major justification in the minds of swappers. Many artists see very little of the 16 or so dollars that the average CD costs, so it is plausible to believe that by downloading music you are ripping off those who ripped off some of your favorite artists. Everyday working people around the world can not be bothered with the wealthy getting upset that their money isn’t rolling in fast enough, because that is after all most of who holds these copyrights.

It could be said that the sharing of digital music files goes against the very capitalist structure of America. The big question how you do steal something that doesn’t exist.
With the advent of digital music the “artifact” has been removed, and the information can now exist and travel without a significant physical manifestation. The pre 21st century economy and its concept of supply and demand may in this case become irrelevant. For instance, if I have two apples and I give you one, I have on apple. If I have two MP3s and give you one I still have two MP3s. This takes the scarcity out of the exchange, and along with it, the capitalist transaction. It makes the transaction into a simple statement of generosity rather then a capitalist transaction. Here, have some music. This makes corporations very nervous. Music is in the air and it’s free, we listen on the radio for “free” we listen in bars and restaurants for free, and TV, anywhere someone has a speaker plugged in it appears to be free. There is also a lot of legal downloading on the Internet, taking all this into account it’s no wonder the line is blurred.


If You Must Download, Be Safe.

So, to sum up, is “file sharing” against the law? The answer is still in most cases yes. But like millions of people all around the world you may not let this stop you. So if you must download here are some tips.

Got Kazza? Get rid of it. Kazza is riddled with spyware and adware, and is responsible for computers crashing all over the world. Spyware and adware are the new computer scare jeopardizing your security, and generally annoying the hell out of you with pop up
ads, solicitations, and eventually some sort of computer malfunction. Has your computer gotten viruses lately? Acting funny? Chances are it’s because of something that rode in on Kazza. So for Kazza users, relocate your downloaded files folder in a convenient place that’s not under the Kazza folder. And “uninstall” the software. Then you have to remove any nastiness that may have snuck in. You need to run a spyware remover (try Spybot Search and Destroy a free download at www.download.com) and a registry cleaner to make sure there’s no damage to your operating system. Then and only then, if you must reinstall Kazza, search the Internet for Kazza Lite. It should be a free download. That is a version of Kazza without the spyware and adware, and a bit of a firewall built in. Limewire and Win MX are less popular sharing program, but are much less invasive then Kazza.

Want to download for free, always look for the song in a legitimate free download site. MTV.com and other music network sites have them, music magazines suck as Rolling Stone and Q also offer free files. Even “for pay” sites like iTunes now offer some songs for free. Also check your favorite artist’s web sites, many will have songs there (sometimes rare non album tracks) for download. By supporting legitimate free downloads you also send a message to the music corporations about your music listening habits.

Ever ask yourself, “Why don’t people want to share music files with me?” Have you tried downloading music files to find that people have not been swept up in the concept that it is better to give then receive? There are two big reasons for that. First outgoing files take up Internet bandwidth and processor time, and some people don’t want to make that sacrifice. This dates back to the freewheeling days of the original Napster, and this is part of a larger social concern, those who don’t play well with others. The other reason, which has popped up more recently, is the distribution of the copyrighted material is the actual offence that people are being sued for. If you don’t offer songs to share, your chances of being caught or sued are diminished.

Will you get sued for sharing? Maybe. The RIAA has been suing music fans regularly lately. Some are egregious copyright violators and people who occasionally download have been for the most part unaffected. But that’s no guarantee and the future is uncertain. Although the dust has not settled, there are many industry forces that want a zero tolerance policy for sharing.

What is the Future?

One thing is for sure, the Internet is here to stay, and all the Sabots and Ludites can’t stop it. And music flows easily over the Internet, a little too well for some people’s tastes. File sharing is here forever. If there were an industry built up around the letter with a bad joke, then they would probably object to everyone emailing bad jokes to everyone they know with one click, but their isn’t, the battle is over music. Those who market and sell music just can’t let go of the good old days when they charged you good money for a plastic disk that you couldn’t live without. Those days are gone.

On a personal note, I wish it didn’t happen. I wish we all still listed to 12-inch records and they cost $6.98. We all had one of a kind copies of a master, not an identical master copy, and despite the fact that by today’s technology stands it was primitive, it worked so well it etched a place in our hearts, and make fortunes for those in the business. My only prediction is those days are gone. Don’t worry for the music, music will survive this struggle, I guarantee it. So, download for free, pay for a download, rip those MP3s, buy an over priced CD, burn your friend a copy (I won’t tell on you). The important that is missing from this debate is: whatever you do, keep music in your life.