Copyright

Let's face it, most of us have downloaded songs for free off illegal music programs right? Doesn't this alone give us a clear example of the general disregard for the laws of copyright in today's society? If the tables were turned however, and we were the ones spending hours upon hours creating and producing masterpieces for little or no credit, only to have people replicate them and perhaps add a techno beat over top and then call it their own...I wonder how much we would neglect copyright! 

The music industry is suffering from this disregard that people seem to have for the copyright laws and it is of popular belief that the cause is the downloading of music for free which is taking away from record sales.

Perhaps the whole problem with the looming downfall of the music industry in regards to copyright lies in the music, like Michael "Blue" Williams, manager of the band OutKast, says. He speaks in an interview about the music industry and its decreasing number of records being sold, "everyone's blaming it on downloading. In my opinion it's not downloading that's killing us, it's [that] we stopped putting out quality music. We stopped giving the public something to believe in." In some ways I guess this is true. I still occasionally buy CDs if I know that every song on them will be a great song. To me an album like that is worth the $30 you pay at the CD store for the quality and the actual physicality of the CD itself (to be able to flick through the lyrics booklet and look at pictures of the band etc). I might even buy it at the itunes store just for the convenience! 

iTunes has been trying to counteract this problem by putting out each song as a single in its iTunes store. SO instead of having to buy a whole album when you just want a few of the songs, you can pick and choose what you want to get! I think its a pretty good solution to the problem of quality of music, however price still remains a problem. I think that the whole limewire craze has gone too far to now convince people to pay for music after all this time. I'll readily admit that I often hop onto limewire and download a few songs, I feel a little bit bad that I am contributing to the downfall of the music industry, just not enough to spend my money! 

All in all, if everyone thinks like this, copyright is bound to lose out, which is a shame for creative artists but is looking inevitable at this point. If we could compromise and find a way to acknowledge artists and make sure they are compensated for their work while having cheap, easy access to their creative materials then maybe there is a way to save these industries who rely on the consumption of artists' products.

See you in class!