The consequences of illegal downloading

The consequences of Illegal Downloading Movies and music.

KUIYU ZHOU 

In the first of all , we need to know why downloading without paying is illegal?

when a movie or music was produced and began to be sold in a market, people who take part in of this process should get profit form it sales or somewhere else(webster.edu). Their products are protected by copyright laws, and you can`t copy it  without permission. If you don`t pay for the movie or something protected by copyright law, it is illegal to download it. In other words, it is a crime.

Different consequences of illegal downloading in different counties

FOR INDIVIDUALS

why it is different consequences? Some countries have strict policies to limit the illegal downloading but some countries can`t use the same policies.In America, under the DMCA(Digital Millennium Copyright Act), those people who found guilty of copyright infringement may face:

1. up to 5 year in jail
2. up to $150,000 fine each file
3. depend on situation, you may have a legal proceeding to face.

"In Minnesota, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother, was fined $80,000 for each of 24 songs, resulting in a total of $1,920,000, almost 2 million dollars." it is a fined example in America, i`m so glad i don`t listen to music and i`m in Canada now.

In several other counties, like the France, New Zealand,UK and Taiwan, under the GR policies, you may face several punishments: fines, data limits, speed-throttling. “Graduated response policies are weakly enforced and participants in illegal consumption activity view the probability of detection as low…”(Jordi McKenzie, 2017). It just like McKenzie said, people think is lower risk under the GR polices, so they won`t stop illegal downloading movies and music.

Also, illegal downing also have some risks except the law. Most of illegal download software used P2P software, you don`t know where you get your files, it is very easy to get a virus in your computer.

FOR BENEFICIARIES

In McKenzie`s research, "No consist evidences can prove those policies can increase film revenue" is the conclusion. In other words,the action of illegal downloading at least have no effect in the movie products. However, in music area, there are negative and positive effects. 

Here is a story about Napster : In close of 20th century, a service site presenting a new incredibly influential way to share and appreciate music named Napster. The producer of Napster created a database which collected all music files and made music more easily available. Napster help some small artist gaining more exposure they would not received from otherwise. One such art was a band called Dispatch which is not widely known. Dispatch largely through exposure on Napster and the band became famous in the world. 

While Napster was great for bands like Dispatch, others suffered. The first to complain was Metallica, when they discovered, to their horror, that an unfinished version of song they had recorded for the Mission Impossible II soundtrack,” I Disappear”, had been made available on the Napster site.
Finally, Napster was shut down by Recording Industry Association of America (or the RIAA).

It helped some artist became more famous,which brings more profit to them. It also  impaired the profit of some producer.

Why lots of people like illegal downloading?

At the physical level, there are two main benefits of illegal downloading: "FREE"and "CONVENIENT".In moral and emotional aspects, lots of young people think it is acceptable. In a study of 309 college students, Cohen and Cornwell (1989) found that digital piracy was viewed as acceptable and normative behavior.

How to prevent illegal downloading?

Know your software in your own computer, turn off any files sharing options. Most of P2P software have auto file sharing features, you even don`t know what kind of copyright materials you are downloading or sharing. If someone connects to your wireless router and downloads files illegally, you will be held responsible. Make sure to setup your password security.
For those copyright owner, lower the price is the most effective way to reduce the number of illegal downloading actions.Hearing first 30 seconds freely(free samples) is a very successful option for those music.

My own opinions

With the digitizing of media, digital piracy can not be avoid completely. However, the law to limit illegal downloading will be more and more complete, we should stop downloading illegally.
I don`t know why most of young think illegal downloading is acceptable and normal. Is this moral loss or legal failure? It is worth to reflect it.










Illegal downloading software and website examples

• Qvod Player
• (DnvodTV)https://www.dnvod.tv/
• Emule
• MEGA
• (Eyny)http://www02.eyny.ufc.com.tw/
• Baidu Skydrive

legal downloading software and website examples

• Amazon
• Netflix
• Vongo
• iTunes
• Bilibili
• Youku

I didn`t list Youtube here because we can find a lot of movies and music without permit on Youtube.

Reference

McKenzie, J. (2017). Graduated response policies to digital piracy: Do they increase box office revenues of movies? Information Economics and Policy, 38, 1-11.

Cohen, E., & Cornwell, L. 1989. College students believe piracy is acceptable. CIS Educators Forum, 2–5.

The Positive and Negative Effects of Illegal Downloading,"The Story of Napster" from https://blog.neongoldfish.com/pro-con-illegal-download

Charles W. L. Hill(2007), Digital piracy: Causes, consequences, and strategic responses, Asia Pacific Journal of Management,March 2007, Volume 24, Issue 1, pp 9–25

Illegal downing & files sharing, from http://www.webster.edu/technology/service-desk/illegal-downloading.html