Technology and Political Economy

Anyone with an internet connection can share their music files. This in itself is why it is so difficult to enforce the copyright rules. No one wants to pay a lot of money for something that can be obtained for free which to most people think is ok. The only reason there has been a decreased in illegal downloading is the fear of being sued. When there was no fear, there was no moral issue. So is this really a moral issue or just an issue of people looking out for their own interest? If there was no chance of being sued, everyone would have continued and musicians would not be millionaires New internet businesses search out ISP addresses that appear to be sharing and then pursue legal actions such as jail time and or fines. P2P technology fuels the DMCA. The DMCA is the law and the P2P is the crook. That is the black and white relationship between the two. I agree with the law. You should not download songs off the internet because it is stealing. However, I would argue that charging customers 13 dollars for a CD is outrageous. The price is the simple reason that most turned to P2P programs in the first place. iTunes is a step in the right direction because now you can get the songs you want for a better price instead of being forced to buy the whole CD.The DMCA protect the artists. They are the ones who get the money in the end. The DMCA law does not care about the price of CDs. However, it can also be argued that if the artists didn’t get paid that they wouldn’t produce. So that could be in a since protecting the listener, but that does not help out with the pricing of songs.I would implement a policy that had no mercy if I were a policy-maker. It is not fair to the law abiding citizens who pay for their songs to have their neighbor get the same stuff for free. Everyone should know that it is illegal to steal songs and should face the consequence if they choose to keep stealing.