Illegally downloading music has been a controversial issue for many years. From Youtube to ITunes, there are many ways everyday people can get their hands on the newest tune without paying a dime. The average person who illegally downloads music feels as though it is there right to listen to whatever they want. One believes a ten dollar contribution to the music industry by purchasing a CD will not make a difference, since the singer is already “wealthy”. On the other hand, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is extremely concerned with illegally downloading music and blames it on the lack of music sales for the last few years.
There are many different ways ethics plays a role in the music industry and illegal downloading. People have morals and ethics. Morals are a religious or philosophical code of behavior that may or may not be rational. Ethics is the rational way of deciding what is good for individuals. Depending on what one believe, morals and ethical beliefs may play a bigger or small role in one’s life. This is why some people illegally download music without an ounce of guilt while others would rather pay the ten dollars to buy the CD and not feel any type of ethical or moral wrongness.
Categorical Imperative asks people to consider what would be the result of everyone acting the same way they themselves wish to act. This is a fascinating idea when thinking of the issue of illegally downloading music. People who download music may feel that since only a small population downloads music, it doesn’t make an overall difference to the people who deserve the credit and money. One would imagine Immanual Kant, who is the creator of categorical imperative would feel very strongly about this issue. Kant would probably ask our generation a simple question. If everyone in the world downloaded music would there be a successful music industry? The answer is obviously no, but without understanding categorical imperative one would never think that deeply about such issue.
It is interesting to think if roles were switched. For instance, if the people doing the illegal downloading would be the ones in the music industry and they had to deal with the issue of people downloading music illegally. One would hope that then these people would see how much harm they are causing to a once successful industry.
Sissela Bok created a three-step model for analyzing an ethical situation that works well with this topic. Number one: consult your conscience. In other words, one needs to think about what is going on during a particular situation and figure out what is truly going on inside one’s head. Number two: seek alternatives. This simply means one must think about or realize all different alternatives one has when in a situation. Number three: hold an imaginary ethical dialogue with everyone involved. This last step seems to be the most important. To follow this step one must hold an imaginary ethical conversation with everyone involved. This is helpful because when one is in a situation many things can go wrong. If one already has an imaginary dialogue in there head it can help the person better understand what is going on at that moment. It helps the person see what could potentially happen if they do a certain thing and what the ethical consequences could be.
Overall, when dealing with the issue of illegally downloading music, is it important to look at ethics and the pros and cons in each situation. Immanuel Kant and Sisseal Box created useful ethical guidelines and questions that one can ask themselves throughout life. Downloading music illegally is wrong when seeing it in a moral or ethical viewpoint. After learning about Kant and Bok’s teachings one can view the music downloading controversy in a different light. If one knows about ethics and what these scholars have brought to the table, one should never download music illegally ever again. The music industry are the losers in this situation and the people who download music for free and don't get into trouble are the winners, which is truly unfortunate and ethically wrong.
Jillian - this post is a nice treatment of the issue. If you were to put someone through the three Bok steps, how might that play out? With whom should the downloader have those "imaginary conversations? A suggestion: when struggling with third person, it's not necessary to use the word "one" all the time. Try using specific words for subjects -- music lovers, downloaders, consumers, and so on. This makes for less awkward reading and clearer writing -- a win-win!
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