After the demise of Napster, many file-swapping services have taken its place. Among them: Kazaa, Morpheus, AudioGalaxy, and Bear Share. However, the debate remains the same despite the new names: Is this legal? In this essay, I will discuss reasons for it being completely legal. However, we have to split up the type of files downloaded into 3 areas: software that is an application, software that is games, and music (mp3). Movies can also be grouped with the music category. I will attempt to justify and explain for each of these three categories why filesharing is legal.
When I use the term application software, I pretty much mean anything that is not a game. This would include anti-virus programs, Adobe Photoshop, or even whole operating systems. This type of "piracy" has been talked about ever since programs were made. (The first actual recorded mention of this was way back in 1982 on Usenet.)
When computer companies complain about how many of their products are being downloaded for free, they like to say that they've lost millions and even billions of dollars of damage. After all, if 2 million people download the $600 Adobe Photoshop, it does seem as if they have lost $1.2 billion. However, the real question is this: How many people who were going to buy the product but actually just downloaded it off of the Internet? So, would all of those 2 million people actually buy the software? No! Most people who download this stuff probably would never buy it. I know I could not afford the shelf price of any of the software products that I have downloaded. I could never pay for the $1000's I have supposedly "pirated."
But what about the few people who would have paid for it? Aren't computer programmers being ripped from all this lost money? First of all, they could work as freelance programmers for companies who need to programmers to keep track of their inventory, pay roll, etc. Also, software companies make a lot of their money publishing the 1000+ pages of manuals they have for their software. In my world, the programmers would be rewarded from the money the manuals bring in. You could also sell your software with the manuals as a bundle pack for perhaps at most $30-$40. This means that people could still download it off the Internet, but why would you if you are getting a tell-all manual for such a low price? Also, if this sounds a little too low, let me tell you this: it doesn't take $600 per CD for Adobe to produce their Photoshop product. The CD and burning the actual program onto the CD barely costs a few pennies while other production costs are not extraordinary.
Also, the companies that say this piracy should look back on their own history. There, they will find that they themselves are only here today because they pirated back 10, 15, 20 years ago. Let's look at Microsoft. Without getting too detailed, it paid $50,000 to make DOS, the operating system that made Bill Gates and his crew billionaires. (History Note: The guy who originally made it for $50,000 was legally tricked into it and later committed suicide after he lost his hope of suing Microsoft.) So, the operating system that 95% of people use today (yes Windows, 95, 98, and even XP are still derivatives of DOS) is based on a manipulative business deal that is theft, even if it's legal. Also, the software that made the computer applicable for businesses was the spreadsheet. With the spreadsheet, companies no longer needed accountants to work out everything on paper; they could do it easily and efficiently on the computer. The first person to make the spreadsheet was somewhat of a misguided man. He believed that if he did not charge anything for his program, the whole computer industry would be based on free work and there would no need for large corporations. However he was wrong. His peers started stealing his spreadsheet idea. They meagerly improved upon it and started selling their "new" product. Thus, if a large portion of the computer industry is based on this theft, they cannot complain if we steal their products now just as they have done so many years ago.
Software games can also be downloaded via Kazaa or any other filesharing program. This time, we can indirectly prove that we are right in downloading. The gaming industry claims that piracy is driving their costs up through the roof. They say that if all people bought their games at their normal prices, there would be better games and more importantly the prices of all games would drop over a period of time. However, we can prove that this is not the case with game consoles. The games for these consoles, such as Playstation and the old Super Nintendo, have constantly stayed at around $50 per game for the last ten years. And for the consoles, there is no practical way of "pirating" them. You cannot have it both ways: say that prices would be lower if everyone bought computer games and yet charge people $50 a pop for the console games. Lies and hypocrisy is what makes it okay for you to download games off of the Internet.
Music, in form of mostly mp3's, is the most commonly downloaded item from filesharing programs. They are quick to download and easy to listen to. One of the most common "excuses" to download is that the CD's cost too much money. And of course they do! Who wants to pay $15 for a CD that you only buy so you could listen to one or two hit songs?
Executives charge that if you do not like their CD arrangement and the fact that only a few hits are on a CD, then maybe you just should not buy their CD's. On the other hand, they have no right to bundle CD's so that they make you pay for songs you do not want to listen to (this is not a matter of capitalism, but being a sleazebag). As a consumer, you can choose not to buy their overpriced CD's and simply download individual songs that you like. The bands have nothing to complain about either. They get paid millions for hits their underpaid writers make. Just because we live in capitalism does not mean that corporations can make money any way they want to. I don't see why bands have to make so much money off of CD's. They could make a majority of their money from concert tickets and band related memorabilia. This way CD's could easily cost under $5. However, the reason bands could not live with is because they need millions to keep up their drug addictions and their lavish lifestyles. Think of it this way: if you admit 50,000 people at $50 each, you would make $2.5 million each concert! And think of how many concerts make up a tour! Even if each band member only got 5% of each of this $2.5 million, each band member would get $125,000 per concert! How many people do you know who get that much money for a nights worth of "work"?
And if these arguments didn't send shockwaves through the music and software industries to change their practices, here's a bit of advice. These downloading programs will always be available because you cannot outlaw them. Also, no one will ever pay a fine or go to jail over this. Kazaa said that it has had almost 90,000,000 downloads of its filesharing program. There is no capacity in the world to jail 90,000,000 people and bring charges against them. So, happy filesharing to all and forever!