Is Internet downloading theft?

by Tenisha Dixon

With technology comes changes that everyone must learn to adapt to. The Internet is a wonderful fun filled piece of technology that provides people with anything that is needed without ever leaving home. Everyday people ride the net waves in search of their favorite music downloads, and how they get them has become a major problem. Downloading from the Internet is easy, fast , and theft? I think not. Does any one remember the 1980S when everyone had tape recorders? Was it a big deal to record your favorite tune from free air broadcasts? How many of you borrowed a cassette tape of a friend and recorded from it? Was that considered theft? To masses of people no. Downloading from the Internet is no different than recording from a friend's tape. Lets face the issue at hand, there are several ways to get your music from the net. File sharing, buying into a downloading club, or just connecting to a store to buy your songs. The one that most concerning is file sharing. File sharing allows you to choose from an unlimited amount of options to get your tunes. There are no fees because the there are no copyrights. People simply upload what they have brought to their file sharing program rename the files and allow whom ever wants to download, download. I do not see the problem. If there was no file sharing people still would be able to get the song from the radio, or borrow the compact disc. Suggesting that downloading from the Internet is theft is like saying a person can not borrow a compact disc. That would even go as far as saying recording it from the radio is wrong. Let us face it some one brought the song some one got the song legally and decided to share it with others, isn't that what the radio does? Theft would be buying then making copies and selling it for personal profit. Now there is a name for that and its called piracy. The Internet is not a hustle man's trunk in a dark alley, it has information put up front for everyone to see. That does not sound like theft to me. How many thieves do you know would give anything away for free? How many thieves do you know leave personal information or a way to track them down? Piracy has become big business in our day and age, but to apply to all who download from the net is wrong. I think consideration is needed before we put a name to what is going on. Thus I end with this, if downloading music from the internet is theft, then how many people are priates? RRR!