Is Pirating Music Right or Wrong?

Listening to music 15 years ago was a much simpler endeavor. You tuned the radio to your favorite station and waited for your favorite songs to come on so you could blast them. If you really liked a particular song or artist, you could go buy their CD at the local record or big box store. If you only liked one song you could buy the CD single for a few bucks and listen to your favorite song on repeat for days. When your favorite artist would go on tour you could pick up a ticket to their concert for a relatively low price and then you could splurge on t-shirts and other merchandise at the show.

Needless to say, but in those times if you were to steal music it meant that you actually walked out of the store with a CD or tape without paying for, which was clearly an offense that could land you in jail. It was clearly wrong to steal music in those times.

But times have changed and music is now a complicated business. Most people do not give any thought to downloading a song and enjoying it without paying for it. Many people who were buying music 15 years ago though still see it as stealing, though it doesn’t necessarily prevent them from doing it. Music is leaked on the internet all of the time and file sharing services have made it very easy to download songs for free.

It seems pretty clear to those of us who were enjoying music 15 years ago that pirating music is a form of stealing, but for those who just started listening to music in the last decade, how are they to know what is right and what is wrong when it comes to digital piracy? Many of those people have never known another way to listen to music, so can we hold them accountable for knowing what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to downloading music?

Regardless of the law, what really is the right thing to do? The government and some musicians feel we should be sued or punished for downloading music or movies without paying for them, but some see it as a great way to get their music out to the masses. Nowadays you can even stream music for free, legitimately (in the eyes of the law), so it blurs the line even more between what’s right and what’s wrong.

The music industry is facing lots of changes, but it doesn’t change the fact that by downloading music for free, artists are getting more exposure than ever, which leads to greater ticket sales at concerts and more money spent on merchandise. So, until the law changes to make downloading music for free legal, it’s hard to feel guilty about doing so. How do you feel about downloading music without paying for it?