<p>I just got my grade from PR’s free LiveGrader thing. I was wondering if you guys could read my essay and tell me how accurate their grade was. I got a 10 (out 0f 12) on the below…thing…if you could even call it an essay:</p>
<p>Prompt: When it comes to downloading music off the Internet, P. Diddy claims “when you make an illegal copy, you’re stealing from an artist.” U2’s Bono states that “bootlegs are fine if you’re making a few of them for your friends.” </p>
<p>Assignment: Are the notions of copyright and intellectual property relevant in today’s file-sharing environment? Is it right or wrong to download music off the web? Plan and type an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations. (Ahem, a question. Are all prompts this stupid? Why are they quoting P. Diddy rather than the CEO or President of a recording company?)</p>
<p>I agree with P. Diddy in his claim that, “When you make an illegal copy, you’re stealing from an artist,” and this is relevant to notions of copyright and intellectual property. The validity of this claim is apparent through a basic understanding of copyright laws, the equivalence of intellectual property and physical property, and the loss of profits wrongly incurred by artists.</p>
<p>First of all, notions of copyright are indeed relevant in today’s file sharing environment in that file sharing is going exactly against the ideas behind copyright: work is being traded without the consent or knowledge of the owner. This is perhaps best shown by the recent court rulings regarding users of “peer-to-peer” software programs, or programs that allow users to trade information directly via the internet. Just recently, it was ruled that the government take steps to stop the trading of music on the internet, the basis behind this ruling being that the music is the property of the creating atist. Unfortunately, however, the efforts were not pragmatic or effective and music sharing continues to be rampant.</p>
<p>Secondly, it is clear that he use of both intellectual property and physical property should remain under the jurisdiction of the creator or owner. Intellectual property, like physical property, would have had to been created by the hard work and sweat of another person, and stealing one’s intellectual acheivements is, in a way, disrespecting the efforts of that person. Thus, the theft of intellectual property and physical property are fairly equivalent, and since there is no question as to the wrongness of stealing physical property, intellectual property should be regarded as such as well.</p>
<p>Finally, artists are continually losing profits due to listeners downloading or illegally trading music. To illustrate with a hypothetical example, consider that artists only manage to sell one copy of an album before it is copied over and over again and shared around the world. Obviously, here, the author would have to quit his or her line of work, thereby removing a signficant source of culture from society and most likely disturibing his or her own lifestyle. Clearly, since all of this would have been created by file sharing, sharing music is wrong since it damages artists and society as a whole.</p>
<p>In conclusion, the reasons why notions of copyright and intellectual property apply to the issue of file sharing are clear, and this in turn proves that sharing music is also wrong, as is illustrated by the examples of the equivalence of physical and intellecutal property and the loss of profits that artists are continually facing.</p>