COM125 Assignment 3: Copy-right or Copy-wrong?

In this day and age, there are many ways to acquire “free” music. Usually through a peer-to-peer program which enables sharing of files, people download files with just a couple of clicks on the mouse. Whenever a file is downloaded, the content creator loses out on profit, while the public gains. This method is illegal and is becoming an epidemic which needs to be vaccinated. Going into this problem of regulation, I will try to pose a solution or plan which will make both parties content. However, with a new proposal, there is always some type of drawback, which I will try to limit to the least.

Making a law too callous will have severe drawbacks. For example, in Italy, a law has been passed that can lead to imprisonment for piracy.

“The more than three million people in Italy who illegally download music, films, games or software from the Internet might be advised to take note that they now risk as much as three years behind bars if they get caught.
The new Italian legislation, passed on May 21, is Europe's toughest law against illegal file-sharing over the Internet. This tool now at the disposal of the Italian police has been cheered by software producers as well as the music and movie industries but also criticized as too harsh by groups that fight to protect civil liberties.” (Sylvers)

We can clearly see the conflict between the creators and the public. Also, deep parts of the public who download illegally are children. If a child is imprisoned for downloading a movie and a song, their future will go down the drain. That is absolutely absurd. Passing a new law, does not seem like the right solution to this problem.

The majority of illegal downloading is music; therefore, my plan will be for music only. I am proposing a satellite-based Radio-on-Demand. This device will work with XM and Sirius radio in order to solve this problem. This device will include a mini-keyboard built into the device. With all the functions of satellite radio included, for a small fee every month (~15$/month) you can listen to any song you want on demand. For example, if you wanted to listen to “The Eagles – Hotel California”, you would go under the “Classic Rock” category, and type in any keyword like “eagles” or “California” and it will stream the song through the satellite radio system.

There will also be a “history” section to playback any song you have already streamed. Through this device, copyright laws will not be broken, because it will function as any normal radio station playing songs. The user will be able to listen to whatever they want for a small fee, while a small amount of money will go to the record labels. In order to be fair, for every instance their song is requested through on demand, the record label will be paid a certain amount. For example, if the Goo-goo Dolls are requested more than Savage Garden, they will be paid more.

If all 50 million illegal users subscribed to Radio-on-Demand, 750 million dollars will be generated every month, allowing a profit for the record labels.

“The RIAA has claimed that internet file sharing of copyrighted music material has resulted in a $4.2 billion dollar per year loss for record companies, recording artists and other music industry-related entities.” (Goldstein)

With a revenue of 750 million a month, that will definitely make up for the losses.

This seems like the best solution I can concoct.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/05/31/piracy_ed3_.php

http://ezinearticles.com/?Illegal-Music,-Is-That-Download-Worth-It?&id=614308

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright