You are an owner of a little restaurant and you are just doing everything usual: serving your guests and cleaning your restaurant. Suddenly some guys come into your restaurant, have a big meal and just leave away without paying anything. Would you let these happened in your life? Would you just let the guys leave without doing anything?
Absolutely not. You would call the police and make the law punishing them for what they have done. However, when you are downloading music for free on the Internet, have you ever think about that this is the same way of eating but do not pay anything in a restaurant? Nowadays, more and more people download the music on the Internet instead of paying for them or buying CD in the shop. The copyright law cannot have a clear way to see who is violating the law. I would like to give my own opinion of this social problem in the essay.
One reason why people are downloading music for free without paying any money is because everyone prefers to get what they want for free. This phenomenon is really common in my country. In China, you can get everything you want for free on the Internet, including music, movies and books. No one really consider about why and how we get the resource without paying for it. It seems the resource is always there just like eating, that we should do every day without a consideration. Are we just doing the same thing as those people who eat without paying? Many people do not realize they are doing something illegal. Therefore, many Chinese are confused why they should pay for the music they download on the Internet in some Europe or America Country? Why they are warmed that what they do is violate the law? Actually, this is really a hard question to answer that who is infringing the law. Do people make a copy from their friends break the law? Do people who put a copy of their CD on the Internet to share with their friends break the law? If they do, who should we punish? The one who share music with their friends? Or, the people who download it?
Most of the music industries think people must pay for what they download on the Internet. This is absolutely what they think because they are the one who produce it. They have to make money from their products. They do not want to lose a lot of money because people download music on the Internet instead of buying their CDs. On the other hand, some musicians do not think people download their music on the Internet is a bad thing, especially for some musicians who are not very famous. They think people download music on the Internet can be a good way to promote their own music, making more people knows their ideas of music. If people cannot download music on the Internet, it will be hard for them to connect and communicate whit their fans. Also, some famous musicians think in this way, as well. They think they can earn enough money from their concerts and other business activities such as acting in advertisements and attending talk shows. As a result, they think the Internet can make them more popular and they can get more ideas from communicating with their fans. They do not really care about the economic loss that people download their music from the Internet. Their true fans will still buy their CDs as a collection in the shop even though they have already had the whole album in their MP3. This is just what I do. I love to collect the CD and DVDs of my favorite singers on my bookshelf though I already got the whole album in my iPhone. This is not just a decoration or a collection, but a way to show you’re a real fan and you want to support your favorite singers' career.
However, we still have to do something to protect the copyright. In France, if you download music on the Internet illegally for 3 times, your Internet will be cut off. Actually, I do not think this is a good idea to protect the copyright. This is a little bit too strict. Someone suggest the website can charge the people who listen to the music for a little amount of money, such as several cents. This can be a good idea to remedy some of the loss. Furthermore, raising the cost of CD and concerts can also remedy the loss, because there always will have some true fans to pay money to buy the CD and watch the concert. A little raise will not make them be disgusted with their idols. On the opposite, lower the price of the CD can be another solution. Someone may think that the price is not very high and they would like to purchase for the CD.
Copyright problem is a tricky problem because it is hard to identify who break the law.The most important is the quality of people. Will they feel ashamed when they download music on the Internet for free? Do they think they are doing the same as the example I mentioned? If most of the people can make up their minds to reject the illegal music, the law can punish those who do not obey the law. The illegal music and movies can be declined in our daily.
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