Is music downloading the new prohibition? What students reveal through an ethical dilemma

Abstract

Although downloading music through unapproved channels is illegal, statistics indicate that it is widespread. The following study examines the attitudes and perceptions of college students that are potentially engaged in music downloading. The methodology includes a content analysis of the recommendations written to answer an ethical vignette. The vignette presented the case of a subject who faces the dilemma of whether or not to download music illegally. Analyses of the final reports indicate that there is a vast and inconsistent array of actions and underlying feelings toward digital music downloading. The findings reveal inconsistencies between participants' recommendations (what the subject should do) and their attitudes and opinions on the matter (what they would do in a similar situation). These inconsistencies support the notion that as technology evolves, it creates discrepancies between the way things are and the way the law expects them to be, leaving society in a muddle, trying to reconcile the two. What remains to be seen is whether the discrepancy in the case of music downloading becomes extreme enough that the law changes to accommodate an increasingly prevalent behavior, or whether new business models will emerge to bridge the gap between legality and reality.

Intellectual property law compliance in Europe: Illegal file sharing and the role of social norms

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Copy Me Happy: The Metaphoric Expansion of Copyright in a Digital Society

“…Whatever conclusions are drawn about this particular case of copies in copyright, the figures in the example above reveal that copying of audio and video media (legal or otherwise) is in many ways socially acceptable behaviour in contemporary society [as concluded in a number of studies, 1,18,40,41,55,56]. The question then arises as to the democratic value of disseminating such media.…”

“…1 In the U.S., Congress may designate a maximum $150,000 fine for ''willfully'' pirating a single copy of a single song under the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999. 2 This number is, according to Reid, ''grotesquely divorced from the actual damages and harm caused by a single instance of piracy'' [53] and regarded as ''frequently arbitrary, inconsistent, unprincipled, and sometimes grossly excessive'' by some critics [54, p. 441].…”

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