Welcome to end of the world.
And wouldn’t you know it? Australians would cause it all.
Three Sydney residents will be the world’s first to be criminally prosecuted for online music piracy according to an article from Yahoo! news.
For the most part, the recording industry has relied on civil court cases to bring music dowloaders and file sharers to justice.
Now, after an investigation by Music Industry Piracy Investigations a watchdog group financed by many of the record industry giants, the three latest pirates could face up to five years in jail and close to $40,000 in fines.
I consider that a slap on the wrist for stealing an estimated $60 million in tunes from the largest music recording industries in the world.
For me, this comes as welcome news. I think music piracy and file sharing must stop.
You may not feel too bad for the recording industry or its artists, but the fact is their livlihood is being compromised by blatant thieves.
Let’s say you decide to record a song.
You get a demo tape. You get an agent. You whore yourself to local clubs and radio stations to get them to play your song just once. You finally start to get some recognition and then you explode on to the scene and become the hottest thing since cleavage.
But, your song leaked on to the Internet. You are still poor. The recording industry has no money to give you because they don’t sell any CDs. You have debt up to your eyeballs because you have spent tons of many getting to your current position.
In fact, in many cases, the pirates who run the file sharing Web sites are getting more profit than the actual recording company or artist.
How is that fair?
Just because you took the liberty of buying a computer and pressing a button to download some file sharing software does not afford you the right to steal other people’s property.
Think about it. Not every advancement is a good one.
Someone invented the glass cutter. Just because I go buy one does not give me the right to go financially rape Cartier or Tiffany’s because I can now.
Look, Australia is actually on the right track. They have managed to recognize that file sharing of any kind is stealing and therefore criminal.
The anonymity of the Internet will no longer be a refuge for criminals. You will eventually be caught and prosecuted. Just like music file sharing software can get more sophisticated, so can the software that tracks downloaders and prosecutes them.
If you download music, you ARE a criminal and pirate is the right word to describe you.
This verdict will undoubtedly set a precedent for copyright cases involving the Internet. This means cases will be easier to decide and more frequent.
If you plan on dowloading music or movies, I suggest you take the time to think about who you are affecting.
Go buy a CD. You probably forgot what they look like. Here let me help – round, shiny and – oh yeah – it’s your property.