Topic Eleven: The Ethics of Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

Lecture

In this weeks lecture we we informed of the ethics of peer-to-peer filesharing, and the different points of view on the subject. Adam's point of view was that free peer-to-peer filesharing was immoral and lead to victims, in the guise of music execs and the artists themselves. Vast amounts of money has been spent by big business that makes its money from the control and distribution of artistic works, whether it be music, movies or copyrighted images and other material. The other side of the debate says that information, in any form, should be free to everyone.

Tutorial

In today's tutorial we further discussed the ethics attached to the debate over peer-to-peer filesharing, mostly focusing on the music and film industry. The problem is they base their distribution on old technologies and techniques. They have not evolved with the times, therefore they have fallen behind and new technologies have allowed for easier and quicker distribution of these entities. Now the music and movie industries have caught on, they wish to either destroy these means, or somehow make their cut from it. They are failing miserably, because consumers realise they no longer have to be dictated by what big business says. In most cases this behaviour is considered illegal, however the digital revolution is taking place, and big businesses will lose in the end. The masses have spoken, and they no longer wish to be controlled in regards to gaining and distributing their chosen media.

Readings

Week eleven’s readings consisted of an article named ‘When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide’. It serves as commentary on the fairly recent debate over illegal downloading of music. It comments about the state of affairs in the music industry of yester year, and how the music environment has changed because of the increase of illegal downloading. The article looks at both sides of the debate. One side, from the pro free music point of view is that the music is out there for free, thus we are entitled to it and we are not doing anything wrong by downloading it. The other side is a bit more complicated, in that it takes the view of the majority of the music industry and music artists and aficionados. This side believes that by illegally downloading music, the artist and the producers are missing out on their hard earned proceeds from their work. The author takes middle ground I guess, as he states that the music industry should have taken the idea of digitising their catalogues long ago, when the technology first presented itself. Consumers have shown their preference for digital media, as most young consumers have an ipod these days. The music industry needs to further adapt to the digital age, or it will become practically extinct because independent companies will swoop in to take advantage of the trend towards digital music, and away from traditional physical sale of music.