Will Music Pirates Wave a White Flag

A white shirt comes towards me on the downtown sidewalk of Alexandria Bay, NY, with a traditional skull and crossbones pirate flag on it. When the middle-aged man gets closer to me, I read the two words “Music Pirate” under the flag on his shirt. Not only does he presumably steal music, but also he feels the need to let everyone know he does.

The Internet unleashed a great new avenue for bands to get noticed without having their songs on the radio or having to tour relentlessly. Creating a free web page to promote your band is easier than ever with sites like MySpace that offer free web hosting and allow you to upload your own music tracks. From that page you can dabble with HTML to customize your page, upload videos of your band playing live, allow fans to leave you comments on your new tracks, promote and sell albums and merchandise. Ten years ago you could never stumble upon a band from the United Kingdom and then after listening to their tracks buy their self-released album all from the comfort of your computer chair. This accessibility is really empowering for the music industry and the fans.

With great power comes great responsibility, but some people seem to forget about being responsible with music. The Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) statistics show college students illegally downloaded two-thirds of their music. 2006 had 1.3 billion illegal downloads just from college students alone, according to RIAA. Congress is pressuring universities to address piracy issues on campus and college administrators are listening. Universities are installing new software programs to stop these pirates in their digital tracks.

The DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) requires that universities record all copyright infringements, so that if any legal proceedings occur the information can be offered. Colleges are also starting to enforce a strict policy towards illegal downloads. SUNY New Paltz has a “three strikes” method to their enforcement with the final strike including permanent loss of Internet and disciplinary proceedings. Obtaining free music could end up costing students more in the end. Dave Bachman, Kent State University Student, settled with RIAA for $3,000, so paying for music originally would have not only saved his permanent record but maybe his wallet too.

It is not uncommon to hear from a college friend that they stole almost all their music collection, but why is this? Do people think the artists already have enough money? Are people angry against corporations and want to cut their profit? Is it really the aspect of having to pay for it, or the fact that illegal downloading is a lot easier to do then stealing other tangible things?

Kid Rock, rock/pop artist, might have answered this theory with a recent PSA that he released on his YouTube channel. Rock’s “Steal Everything” PSA encourages everyone, in a sarcastic manner, to just steal everything in order to “level the playing field”. Rock cites how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs won’t miss an MP3 player or laptop being stolen from their respective company, because “they are billionaires”. Then, Rock said to steal from Toyota by hot-wiring a car and driving it off the lot and then continuing to fill up your car on stolen gas. Rock’s video will hopefully put into perspective how stealing from an artist isn’t any different from stealing from anyone else. Also, it might make people think that in the end there are large corporations all around us, so we can’t just go stealing from all of them. Within those corporations there are people who are not millionaires, too.

Thankfully, software programs for legally downloading music at an inexpensive or free price are sprouting up that are geared towards college students. Ruckus has given students what they want; free music downloads that are legal. All someone needs is a valid “.edu” e-mail address and they are on their way to some free tunes. With over 3 million songs already, people should be able to find some artists that interest them. Since the service is free for students, advertisements are overly present and take away from software interface. Who can really complain since it is free? One thing people can complain about, though, is that currently the Ruckus player will only work on Windows operating systems. Anyone using Linux or Mac OS X on a non-Intel based Apple computer will be out of luck. That is the odd part, because if they were aiming the program at college students shouldn’t they have considered Mac users? You can’t walk through a campus library at any time without seeing at least one MacBook laptop with a glowing Apple logo staring at you. Ruckus Network is working to make the Ruckus player available to other platforms in the future, but there is no expected release date.

Digital music sales have been growing along with the rise of the Internet. According to the RIAA, 2005 had 16.1 percent of revenue coming from digital music sales, while 2007 had 23 percent of total revenue from digital sales. Although revenue has been decreasing in the music industry. 2007 sales decreased by 11.8 percent when compared to 2006, stated RIAA. This decrease shows the seriousness of the issue of music piracy.

The front-runner of P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing was Napster, but many have surpassed what Napster once was. Now LimeWire has emerged as the biggest free P2P software program and is a well known among college students. The NPD Group, which is an entertainment research firm, stated that LimeWire grabbed a huge 62 percent of P2P downloads in 2006.

With this abyss of P2P programs across the Internet, what can really been done to stop music piracy? The main issue may not be what penalties can be instituted to consumers, but stopping P2P from the start. The only thing is that P2P can be perfectly legitimate, but most times they aren’t. With little oversight of the information blazing through the server, most P2P programs will get someone that shares something they aren’t legally allowed to.

Back when my family first got a computer, somewhere around 1998, Kazaa was well known among my friends. You could pretty much find anything you wanted and download it. I never did illegally download music, but I remember obtaining an obscene amount of viruses from Kazaa. Anytime you download anything from a P2P server you are running a risk. They are better managed than before, but there is still a risk. If the record companies did want to go down the dark side they could probably expose this element. Who knows, maybe they already have, but I doubt they would ever admit it.

Ultimately it comes down to a person’s morals. There is not much that you can do to change someone’s beliefs and values. If someone morally sees nothing wrong with stealing music, then they are most likely going to continue stealing music. If someone sees nothing wrong from speeding, they are most likely going to speed while driving. If someone sees nothing wrong with drinking while driving, they are most likely going to drink and drive. Penalties seem to have the most effect after someone has been caught. What they really need to do is just start catching people illegally downloading music and fine them accordingly to their illegal downloaded music collection. People seem to learn the best when they have to learn the hard way.

Anyway, what makes someone think they have the right to steal music? If you truly liked and respected the artist you steal music from, then you would pay for the music. Sure, these people may or may not be famous, but that is not the point. If someone creates something they have the right to profit from it. It is not like $1 a song is a lot to ask for and most times digital albums are cheaper than physical albums. You already would have been saving some money.

I fail to understand why people don’t see stealing music as a big deal. Maybe it is the musician in me, but I wouldn’t want people to steal music I created. What gives a person the right to take something from someone else? Maybe music pirates should really ask themselves that question, but my guess is they really don’t care. If fines are going to settle this, then load up the cannons and let’s sink some pirates.