Dajeong Choi / 6th assignment / thur 34

Sharing and Downloading Music Online: Legal or Illegal                How do you fill in your mp3 players with music files? Did you legally buy all of those music files by paying money? I can confidently say that none of you get all those files by "legal" way. Some could be downloaded from the internet and some of the others could be shared by your friends. I'm not sure it is okay to say this, but I know both of legal and illegal ways to download music files. So it seems depends on my conscience to choose which way. For truth, I use both of them. I'm subscribing to an online music service with monthly charge for streaming service – not including downloading service. I listen to music by one of those licensed websites first, and then if there is an attractive music that I want to keep in my own computer as mp3 file, I go to a secret sharing website and search it. Then in my case, should I be charged with a crime for guilty of piracy?              About half of the Internet users in Korea copy music, movies and other digital goodies from each other for free through online networks and a statistic that suggests a culture of piracy already have solidified. The problem is that it's hard to see it as wrong when so many people are doing it. People also understand that what they're doing may break the rules of copyright law, but they don't see anything immoral about it. In fact, some even argue that copying a song online isn't "stealing" because the owner still has the original track and still can sell the CD. Then what makes music different? One familiar argument is that what are different between taking fruits in the market without paying and downloading file without permission. I guess the reason we see sharing as something different from stealing is that we don't put as high a value on it. Maybe the ephemeral nature of online music makes it difficult to conceive of downloading as stealing. We are also commonly exposed to music in everywhere and very easy to access to music that it is hard to feel guilty of crime. Besides, I think CDs is too out-of-date device of music form. Regardless of the expensive cost, new releases often contain only one or two good songs that there's no other way to satisfy their curiosity about unfamiliar bands. In addition, the main source of artist's income does not come from record sales but does from other concerts or commercials. So I'd rather support my favorite artists by going to their shows and buying their T-shirts. To sum up, downloading music over the internet has been an extremely controversial issue. It is fact that piracy is one kind of crime. But the thing is we don't feel any guilty of crime because of the different amount of value that we put on music and other possessions. But do we have to see music as a general possession is still very controversial.