Summative Blog Post: Music Piracy

Thank you for your comments and opinions on the topic of music piracy.  I have to say that looking at both sides of the issue is extremely important in order to figure out how to approach the issue because there are two sides involved, the producer and the consumer.  Being on the consumer side allows me to understand why people do not want to purchase music.  Like Stephanie said at a dollar a song on ITunes it would become extremely expensive to purchase all your favorite songs.  Like you said for most people this is not realistic, especially considering every other thing we have to pay for in life like school, apartments, groceries, and phone bills this makes music not one of the top priorities!  We are so accustomed and naturalized to downloading music that many “pirater’s” do not even see the act as illegal because we have always downloaded to obtain music.  The younger generation, especially my friends are obsessed with having their itunes filled with all the latest songs, albums and various playlists and with technology advancing having an ipod with endless storage for these songs allows you somewhere to store all of your favorite pirated music.  If people have the ability to download endless amounts of music and a device that stores and plays that music why wouldn’t they. 

As09em and Stephanie both mentioned that buying a CD from a store is a thing of the past.  When you only want two or three songs from a 20 song album what is the point of wasting your time driving to the store and fifteen dollars of your money when you can download it for free at the click of a button.  In recent years I have come to notice how many HMV’s are closing down due to the decrease in sales.  The demand for CD’s is slowly disappearing because the music is available to its listeners on the internet.

However there is also the producers side of the story which is also important.  Like Stephanie said, relating to Dale Bradley’s (2006) article, no one really understands the seriousness or the consequences of pirating music.  If recording companies do not want internet users illegally downloading music they need to enforce the fact that serious repercussions will result if music is illegally pirated.  If people feel like they are being surveillance they will likely refrain from stealing music over the internet, because the thought that they could potentially get caught will be present. 

For me personally I have always downloaded music and until right now I haven’t really thought too much about it.  I understand that it is illegal and the morals behind it are wrong, however I could never imagine myself going out and buying a CD or purchasing a song off of Itunes.  I don’t have the money to spend on music. However the only reason stopping me from continuing to download music is the fact of how many viruses are attached to these files that I do not want on my computer. There are always going to be ways to obtain music other than buying it.  If I’m not pirating it, there are other ways to listen to your favorite songs like Youtube, Songza and even 8Tracks.  Recording companies have to accept the fact that the majority of people do not want to purchase music and they must accommodate these beliefs.

Initial Blog Post: Issues Surrounding Pirating Music

As the music industry continues to grow the recording industry is now providing listeners with numerous genres, artists, songs, and albums to choose from.  With technology continuing to advance internet users are now able to access, share and download music at the click of a button.  What is interesting is that we are able to access music illegally or legally, depending on whether we purchase the song or album from itunes or from a store like HMV, or whether we download it for free from a torrent or by other means like limewire.  However when an audience is no longer purchasing songs and albums from the record company they are now not making as much money, but the audience is still winning because they have the product and did not have to purchase it (McCourt, 337).  This is where copyright was developed to protect intellectual property and began protecting music in the year 1831 (McCourt, 337).  Copyright suggests that you cannot duplicate or make a copy of any original work without permission from the owner or a licience (McCourt, 338).  In McCourt’s article he predicted that over 16 percent of music sales would be lost to online piracy approximately $985 million dollars.  This is a large portion of money that the recording industry is losing because people are basically “stealing” their music that they are producing.

In regards to online pirating of music I am on the fence about the subject.  I can look at the issue from both sides of the spectrum, claiming that it is convenient and affordable to download music via peer-to-peer sharing and I also agree that it is wrong and is technically stealing.  Personally, I know it sounds bad but I haven’t bought a CD in years and I have never downloaded music off of Itunes.  I can’t get myself to purchase a song for a dollar off of itunes when it is available through peer-to-peer sharing for free, because I know in about a month there will be fifty new songs that I want to download and I will no longer care about the previous ones I just downloaded.  Also in regards to CD’s, I haven’t purchased one in years because I know that if I buy a CD I am going to only listen to two or three songs that are on that CD and therefore I feel as though it was a waste even purchasing it.

However I understand the perspective that comes from the music industry that technically pirating music is stealing.  In Condry’s article he asks the question of the difference between downloading music files and shoplifting that CD from a store (Condry, 344).  I agree with this statement that it is the same thing, because technically it is stealing.  You are taking something that is worth value, and is owned by someone else and not purchasing it legally.  However everyone that is illegally downloading music doesn’t think that there are ever going to be consequences so they continue doing so, unlike shop lifting where there are security, cameras, and employees watching you.  I think that online pirating of music is going to be extremely hard to eliminate among internet users since it is so convenient, free and doesn’t pose many consequences.   Like Condry says in his article in order to eliminate pirating of music from internet users it has to start by educating the younger generation.  They have to understand that potentially there could be some consequences involved.  I have also noticed that to have your Itunes list populated with legally purchased music and the album titles and pictures is slowly becoming a trend among younger generations, so this is a start.   

References

McCourt, T., P. Burkart. (2003). When Creators, Corporations and Consumers Collide: Napster and the Development of On-line Music Distribution. Media, Culture & Society. 25 (3), pg. 333-350 

Condry, Ian. (2004). Cultures of Music Piracy: An Ethnographic Comparison of the US and Japan. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 7 (3), pg. 343-363  

Wikipedia Op-Ed: Vegetarianism

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian” –Paul McCartney
 

Many people around the world choose to live their lives with the motto that animals are our friends not food.  However this is an extremely controversial topic that is up for debate between “meat lovers” and “animal lovers”.  However if you are a person who chooses to eliminate meat or any type of by products from slaughter houses it is important to be informed and educated on the vegetarian lifestyle.  There are many credible sources that are available through the internet that provide insight, opinions, studies as well as academic journals about vegetarianism.  If you are a new member of the vegetarian community or thinking of switching I do not recommend retrieving information from the first search engine that you may type in your search bar, being Wikipedia.  Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information and this can be proven by looking at the "talk" page that is provided on its website regarding the topic of vegetarianism.

Wikipedia seems to be one of the most popular websites available on the internet in order to retrieve information on various topics.  Jensen mentions in his article that in terms of Wikipedia’s daily usage that the site ranks in the top ten web pages in the world.  However I am here to convince you that Wikipedia should be taken with a grain of salt, because some of the information that is provided on their web pages can be biased as well as have a lack of credible sources to back up the information that they provide.

Ever since Wikipedia has even been an option to gain information students have been advised that it is not a credible source and to not use it as a reliable source of information.  This is due to the fact that anyone can edit the content that is on a Wikipedia page (Royal 139).  We live in such a collaborative creative economy that it is often dangerous the amount of information that is available to us being it is such a mass amount of information (Van Dijck, 860).   In terms of finding credible and reliable information about vegetarianism it is important to find accurate information because potentially you could be looking up information that deals with your health and well being.  There will be so many different opinions, perspective, and even health myths presented on a Wikipedia page regarding the topic of vegetarianism that a aspiring or current vegetarian has to be careful of the information that they are ingesting.

Under the vegetarian page section it is quite evident that what is provided on the Wikipedia page about the topic of vegetarianism is not accurate information and cannot be taken literally.  Facts are stated on the page without any referencing information for where the information came from.  Jensen says that to come across a “good article” on Wikipedia is rare because often times they do not have verified and accurate information with a neutral point of view (Jensen 1170).  While I was reading through the talk page I noticed quite a few people pointing out the fact that information was not sourced, therefore people who are trying to gain knowledge about vegetarianism have no idea whether the information is true or not.  For example it stated the fact that “vegetarianism cause’s depression” however there was no link to source this information or where the fact even came from.  The editor who pointed out this flaw also posted academic sources that proved that vegetarianism does not cause depression within humans. This is a reason why Wikipedia’s information should not be taken literally.  Vegetarians out there do not let Wikipedia wrongly inform you and change your opinions about being a vegetarian!

Another reason why you vegetarians out there should not use Wikipedia for information about not eating meat is because the Wikipedia talk page provides information that is irrelevant and off topic.  After reading some of the posts listed on the talk page I noticed that there were quite a few people who felt that a lot of the information that was posted on the vegetarian page was irrelevant.  For example on the vegetarian page “animal-to-human-disease-transmission” is mentioned.  However this information is not related to being a vegetarian or wanting to become a vegetarian.  It almost seems as if the person who included this into Wikipedia page wants to convince and persuade people that this is the reason why they should stay away from meat, and not information about the practice itself.

The last reason as to why Wikipedia should not be used as a reliable source of information is because it provides information that is incorrect.  Being a vegetarian can often be hard at times in order to properly receive the right nutrition’s and vitamins for your body.  When looking for information about where your body can receive these nutrients you don’t want to be lead on by false accusations.  In the vegetarian page it is mentioned that peanut butter provides a person with “complete protein” which means that you receive all eight types of amino acids.  However the editor mentions that peanut butter cannot be a source of complete protein.  This intrigued me because that is information that I would over look being a vegetarian because it sounds believable.  So Wikipedia can lead vegetarians to believe the peanut butter is a protein supplement however it is not.  So in order to verify this information I continued reading and looked at a link provided by the editor that proved otherwise to peanut butter being a “complete protein”.   The editor provided the information that peanut butter was not considered a “complete” protein because it did not provide the amino acid  L-methionine. 

By reading over Wikipedias talk page it can be proven that it is not a valuable source for gaining reliable and accurate information about being a vegetarian.  To gain the basic facts about being a vegetarian I believe that Wikipedia is a great place to start your research.  However for scientific facts about the nutrients and vitamins that your body must receive and how different ways to supplement protein I think that it is important to research academic sources provided by doctors and health care professionals!

Work Cited

Jensen, R. (2012). Military History on the Electronic Frontier: Wikipedia Fights the War of 1812. Journal of Military History. 76, 1. pp 1165-1182

 Royal, C. & Kapila, D. (2009). What's on Wikipedia, and What's Not . . . ?: Assessing Completeness of Information. Social Science Computer Review. 27, 1. pp 138-148.

Van Dijk, J. & Nieborg, D. (2009). Wikinomics and its discontents: a critical analysis of Web 2.0 business manifestos. New Media & Society. 11, 5. pp 855-874.

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