Since the birth of Napster, file sharing of music has become a staple in society. It has offered consumers a way to sample before buying an album or even circumvent the entire process and allow consumers to get an entire album without spending a single dollar. Is file sharing a fatal blow that will bring about the end of the music industry? Is it a thorn in a lion's paw or a hole in the record industry's bucket of water?
While file sharing existed in the banals of society before 1999, it only became common place in the typical household following the birth of Napster. Napster and its descendants streamlined the process, making it easy for the average joe to just sign on and start downloading music. Though Napster was eventually put to death, it was not before its children had already established themselves across the internet. Today, hundreds of different programs offer downloadable music and serve millions of users. One such service, Kazaa, has an average of three million simultaneous users sharing over half a billion files.
The music industry has not taken this growing piracy sitting down, bringing many of the biggest abusers to court. On February 28, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), one of the most vocal groups in the music industry, announced 753 new law suits that were brought against people who used file sharing services. And while the "it can't happen to me" attitude that has thrived amongs drug users has found a home amongst file sharers, it may be time to pay heed to the RIAA's actions. University of Arizona student Parvin Dhaliwal was sentenced to a three month jail sentence, three years probation and a $5400 fine for his downloading of intellectual properties. While he makes himself comfortable in a jail cell, other file sharers may want to evaluate just how much they are willing to put on the line in order to get their music for free.
The threat of jail time is not the only trouble plaguing users of these services. A recent study by Ben Edelman, a noted expert on spyware, announced that of the five leading file-sharing programs, only Limewire did not come with strings attached. The other programs all are downloaded packaged with various forms of spyware and adware. Users of these services may unknowingly find themselves attacked by computer viruses, worms and trojan viruses. Not only can these problems destroy a home-computer but they can cause a person's private information to become public. In a world where people bank online and make many credit card purchases from internet stores, a trojan virus can cause detrimental consequences.
In an attempt to justify their actions, file sharers have made excuses that come from all parts of the spectrum. People have claimed that albums are overpriced, that they are not as accessible as one would like, and that the artist does not get much of the profits anyway. Yet these reasons aren't justification enough according to Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey, Jr. "If I think the price of gasoline is too high, would I be justified in stopping to fill the tank of my car and driving off without paying?" said Comey. Likewise, Mike Negra, owner of the Mike's Movies and Music store Pennsylvania, has seen that the devastating effects of file sharing do not only effect the producers but also the small businesses. His chain slowly dwindled from five stores to one as college students discovered the free music available online. His story has become a commonplace as many independent music stores have begun closing shop, victims of the Napster epidemic.
In an attempt to fend off the destructive nature of file sharing, many companies are implementing their own solutions. CD's are being encrypted to prevent the files to be extracted onto computers and some companies have begun selling music for less through downloads. The most acclaimed of these services is Apple's iTunes, which sells individual songs for 99 cents from their web site. In the same vein, Sandy Pearlman, a former Producer of the Clash and academic at McGall University believes that an expansion of iTunes policy is the only cure for the current plague in the music industry. She proposes that putting all recorded music on a robust search engine like Google for five cents a song would cause people to download exponentially more music and translate the 25 billion unauthorized downloads into 25 billion sales. However, the difficulty of the matter is selling the service to these file sharing users. So long as they can get their music for free, why should they buy the songs, even if only for five cents?
Not all groups are proclaiming that file sharing has caused the death of the music industry. Instead, a widely published study by economists at Harvard and the University of North Carolina proclaims that file sharing has had little to no effect on album sales. By comparing the fluctuations in file downloading with the same albums market sales, the group found there to be no statistically significant relationship. File sharing has become a new type of radio with people downloading songs they would not have bought and experience them further. The economists in the study believe that the negative effects of people downloading entire albums in place of purchasing them is counteracted by the increased sales to people who discover new music through the downloads and buy albums they previously would have overlooked.
As a whole, the Harvard analysts see file sharing as nothing more than an increase in the aggregate welfare of our society. The total purchase of music changes little with the downloading but people gain access to a greater quantity of music. They believe that the drop in record sales in recent years from 940 million to 800 million has been a result of poor macroeconomic conditions, growing competition from other forms of entertainment and a reduction in music variety as labels play it safe with their production and radios play only the mainstream hits.
For better or worse, file sharing has taken root in American society and appears to have no interest in leaving any time soon. Whether it is slowly killing the future of music or is bringing the sounds of music to wider audience is an undecided matter and can only be determined by the purchasing practices of America's youth. If you are going to enjoy an entire album or a good majority of it, then why not shell out the few dollars to purchase it? It is only through the support of musicians that will maintain the necessary funds to keep delivering the music that we love.
, I hope my posts sound like someone in high school wrote them too 
. I was more curious to invite debate ON filesharing but if we prefer, we can talk about how I'm still stuck in that dastardly place we call high school.
