Problem-Solution Essay Draft 1

Online piracy has plagued the music industry since the creation of Napster, a peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing Internet site in 1999. As the Internet becomes more widespread and advanced, other p2p websites, such as Pirate Bay and KickAss, have been established.  The music industry has to work with the government in ensuring stricter laws and enforcement, and better public awareness to control piracy, or the industry will see their revenues fall and struggle to survive. In my essay, I will use American company, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as a representative of a music industry in my argument where applicable.

According to RIAA, online piracy of music is the infringement of music copyrights, and usually occurs when one procures music illegally without purchasing it. Other ways that infringes the copyright include sharing of such music and allowing others to download or obtain for free, whether through p2p sites or not. (RIAA, n.d.) However, the bigger issue is that such p2p sites normalize illegal copyright infringements. (Levin et al., 2007) By creating a marketplace where people have access and the ability to trade music without remuneration, p2p websites make it seem acceptable and commonplace for people to download music illegally without paying for it.

Such infringements not only hurt the record company, but also damage the income and job security of the artist, producers, composers and others who are or may be employed by the music industry. Future creative and artist development would suffer due to damages caused by online music piracy. This will make the music industry less dynamic and vibrant. (Friedlander, 2010)

Copyright laws protecting the music industry have to be enforced. However the nature of the Internet makes it difficult to completely get rid of p2p websites. Copyright laws ensure that the creators of the intellectual property, such as music, are properly compensated for their work. A feature of such laws allows the government to shut down p2p websites as part of enforcement. This could be seen when Pirate Bay was shut down by the Swedish government (Zetter, 2014) and Kickass by the United Kingdom government. (Kamen, 2015) While such takedowns have been successful and the illegal music downloads has decreased slightly (Weiblinger, 2011), such p2p sites still persist and exist. (Kamen, 2015)

The reason why governmental controls are ineffective to get rid of such p2p websites is due to the nature of the Internet. Websites put their content on domains, and any countries can host these domains. Kickass, after getting shut down by the Swedish government, moved their domain to another host in Moldova. (Andy, 2015) This fluidity and ability of changing domains between countries makes it difficult for governments to set up effective laws and controls to tackle and take down such p2p websites. Without inter-governmental laws and cooperation, p2p websites will continue to survive and thrive in the borderless Internet and continue to plague the music industry.

Another solution that has been explored is public education. By reaching out and partnering with schools, RIAA is able to create better awareness against music piracy. For example, tertiary institutes in America like colleges and universities now have anti-piracy on their campus Internet networks. Also, there have been greater education, detection and enforcement towards youths in American institutions done in partnership with RIAA. (RIAA, n.d.)

Public education is a better solution than governmental controls because it is a bottom-up solution that tackles the root issue of music piracy, which is the normalizing of an illegal act. Through public education, users of p2p websites can be influenced and encouraged to stop downloading and sharing music illegally and pay for them instead. RIAA has created an online resource, called Music Rules, which can be used by teachers and parents to educate the youths and “help you promote respect for intellectual property and responsible use of the Internet in your home”. (Music Rules, 2009) As such, youths can be taught from a young age that music piracy is illegal and hopefully dissuade them from engaging with p2p websites to satisfy their music needs.

Public education is also better than governmental controls because it requires less concerted efforts between agencies. A government alone is unable to effective get rid of p2p websites and require inter-governmental collaborative efforts, which might be administratively difficult and costly to be effective and efficient. Not every nation, for example Moldova, might participate in such efforts, as they believe that such controls are against freedom of speech. (Andy, 2015) Public education, on the other hand, can combine the resources and efforts of the government, music industry like RIAA, schools, teachers and parents to target the younger generations who are the main users of p2p websites.

In conclusion, p2p websites like Pirate Bay normalizes music piracy which negatively damages the music industry. Attention and action is required to take down such websites and educate and pull people away from using such websites. I believe that public education is a more powerful force than governmental controls to achieve this goal and more efforts and resources should be channelled for this action.

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Andy. (2015, January 15). Pirate Bay shows most significant signs of return yet. Torrent Freak. Retrieved from http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-shows-significant-signs-return-yet-150121/.

Andy. (2015, February 5). The Pirate Bay left Moldova before government piracy meeting. Torrent Freak. Retrieved from https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-left-moldova-before-government-piracy-meeting-150205/.

Friedlander, J P. (2010, March 3). Nobody stole the pie. Retrieved from Recording Industry Association of America website: http://www.riaa.com/blog.php?content_selector=riaa-news-blog&blog_selector=Nobody_Stole_Pie&news_month_filter=3&news_year_filter=2010&searchterms=nobody%20stole%20pie&terminclude=&termexact=.

Kamen, M. (2015, February 9). Torrent site Kickass seized. Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-02/09/kickass-torrents-down.

Kamen, M. (2015, February 23). Pirate Bay struggling to stay afloat since return. Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-02/25/pirate-bay-failed-resurrection.

Levin, A M, Dato-on, M C, Manolis, C. (2007). Detering illegal downloading: the effects of threat appeals, past             behaviour, subjective norms, and attributions of harm. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 6, 111-122. Doi: 10.1002/cb.211

Music Rules! (2009). Music Rules! Retrieved from Music Rules website: http://www.music-rules.com/.

Recording Industry Association of America. (2015, March 7). Who we are. Retrieved from Recording Industry Association of America website: http://riaa.com/aboutus.php?content_selector=about-who-we-are-riaa.

Weiblinger, C D. (2011, September 15). Do enforcement efforts make a difference? Retrieved from Recording Industry Association of America website: http://riaa.com/blog.php?content_selector=riaa-news-blog&blog_selector=Do-Enforcement-Efforts-&news_month_filter=9&news_year_filter=2011&searchterms=weiblinger&terminclude=&termexact=.

Zetter, K. (2014, December 10). Pirate Bay down after Swedish police raid. Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-12/10/pirate-bay.