1. Anastasia Semenchenko
Aleksandar Dozic
Jonathan Sowards
Kimberly Komorowski
Is Downloading Music for Free the Moral Equivalent to Theft?
Step I.
Non-scholarly information can be found on Marshall University’s library website that can
be accessed through the University’s webpage. From there you can access many reliable,
informational websites such as Statista for statistics and numerical data for many topics, Credo
for definitions and facts as well as checking quotes, World News Digest for local or international
happenings, CQ Researcher for arguments on controversial topics, etc. If you are having trouble
finding the information you want, you can use Ask A Librarian, access telephone numbers of the
librarians on the library webpage, or seek help from the librarians with a helpful specialization in
person at Drinko Library. Moreover, you can look for books and journals at Drinko Library and
if they do not have the book you need you can use EZ-borrow or IDS on the library’s website to
order the book or article you need for free. To check whether the source is credible or not you
can search for information about the publisher, or if you want to know whether the author is
knowledgeable about the topic, you can search for their educational level in that specific field.
Also, reliable information tends to be more specific. Scholarly sources are peer reviewed by an
editorial board who have experience and knowledge in the appropriate field and the articles are
often over five pages long. Non-scholarly sources often do not include bibliographies or cite
references while scholarly ones do. Scholarly information also excludes advertisements and use
a greater amount of technical language.
2. Step II.
There is a relatively new controversy over whether downloading music for free is legal or
not. The main two views in this argument are the music producers, artists, and copyright
companies against common consumers. Downloading music through unauthorized websites is
considered music piracy because of copyright laws. From what our group saw on the databases
on MU Libraries, many internet users believe that search engines such as Google and Bing
should give priority to legal downloading websites such as Spotify or Beats Music. Most pirate
users do not know where to locate legal music services and opt to use the more readily available
pirate websites. Due to the accessibility of pirate websites the sales of actual music albums has
decreased from 500.5 in 2007 to 257 in 2014. The revenue from streaming music has increased
the most at a 13.4% increase. Digital music downloading has increased the least at 1.5%.
However, physical recorded music has actually decreased by 8%. This is probably due to the
vastly increased use of online music downloading websites and peer to peer sharing. Also
pirating music online is also considerably cheaper than buying the music or paying for legal
downloading websites. However, the amount of people who download music for free decreases
by age group. 66% of people ages 18 through 29 download music for free while 44% of people
ages 30 through 49 download music for free, and the number decreases further the higher the age
groups get. So after this research we have found that, yes, downloading music for free is equal
to theft.
Step III
In Michael David`s book, Peer to Peer and the Music Industry: The Criminalization of Sharing,
he discusses the problems associated with downloading music for free. He provides an unbiased
look at the pros and cons with people who illegally download music. He uses different
3. approaches to this important issue by including economic, historical, sociological, and
psychological ideas to help explain why this issue is not black and white and why the file-
sharing community has good reasons to continue to download music illegally and why there
also are a bad reasons for what they are doing. David provides perspectives from the music
industry and how technology like social media has made downloading music for free even
easier for people. He also criticizes the music industry and companies like Apple iTunes for
creating monopolies and charging more than usual. David creates a fair and balanced look at the
moral side of this issue and includes the arguments for and against illegally downloading music.
There is an interesting argument in the book between federal and international governments
which defend the property rights of the music artist and their label against the illegal
downloading music for money reasons. David uses humor to place blame on the music industry
for exploiting music artists and consumers for decades. Ironically, this industry now faces many
new challenges from new technology and a young generation of people who now to use internet
to get music for free. David provides a strong and detailed argument about the criminalization
of illegally downloading music and the intent behind people actually downloading the music.
He makes the reader feel more knowledgeable about this complicated issue and different sides
of the argument. He writes the book in a very funny and entertaining way and still is able to get
his arguments across.
Step IV.
Summary of College students' moral evaluations of illegal music downloading.
Nowadays, downloading music for free is illegal but the majority of college students prefer to
download it online without paying a penny. This journal shows how students evaluate illegal
downloading from the perspective of morality. Around 188 ethical diverse college students
4. participated in this experiment. Students were asked to look on illegal downloading as complex
moral issue and judge according to moral classification tasks. Student's judgment varied when
they had concerns about the price of music ant its quality. The study showed that not all students
realize what is the real price for work musicians and music companies do. They were asked to
give a price for certain songs and albums, and it was much lower than the real price for it. Most
college students used to download free music, and they disagreed to pay its real price.
Jambon, M. M. and Smetana, J. G. are authors of this academic journal. Both authors
work in the department of Clinical and Social Science in Psychology in the University of
Rochester. The fact that they are part of academic institution shows that this journal is scholar.
They work specifically with children, adolescents, and college students. Authors are experienced
in research and information from this journal is credible. Moreover, we can find technical
language and specific jargon, bibliographies and editorial board in this journal. These facts show
us that this is the scholarly journal.
Step V.
MU Libraries helps save money because all of the resources are free and readily available
online to all students. The reason these databases, which are normally accessible to those who
are individually wealthy or are affiliated with a law firm or hospital, are available to Marshall
students is because a small portions of state taxes and student tuition payments goes toward
access to them. We can check out books from the library instead of buying them. Students at
Marshall University also have access to EZ-borrow, an online library catalog that you can use to
order books from other libraries, and IDS, an online catalog that you can use to order entire
books or chapters of the book, articles, and academic journals, which are more resources
available on the library website. Since all resources are available at the library, we can access
5. the material that we require quickly and easily. All databases are online and offered to students
and can be opened on any laptop or computer. Most sources on the databases are credible. If
difficulties arise during research you can ask a librarian through the MU Libraries website or in
person at Drinko Library for free. This project has broken research down to an understandable
process of how to go about it and the requirements that go along with it. It has also shown us
that we can use the MU Libraries databases instead of using Google as our main search engine.
This project has also made it possible to do research more efficiently by finding scholarly
information more quickly. This new, more effective approach to research can assist with
increasing our grades by expanding the quality of our work. It also looks better when you cite
scholarly sources instead of other ones and which will also help your grades. These free
resources available to students at Marshall University almost exclusively can help reduce the
need for a tutor. With the abundance of materials available to us it would be very difficult not to
find the information that is necessary for your research. During this group research project we
looked at both sides of the issue of downloading music online for free. We see from the
perspective of the artists and producers of the music being downloaded that it is unfair because
they need compensation for the music they are making. However, from the point of view of the
consumers we realize that not everyone has enough money to pay for all of the music they want
to listen to. From our research we found that downloading music for free is by law piracy of
music and is, therefore, illegal and grounds for a lawsuit. To avoid increasing the amount of
pirate Internet users, search engines should give priority to legal, non-pirate websites instead of
illegal ones. Also, users should take more care in finding legal websites. Some of these legal
websites include Spotify, Pandora, and Beats Music. Soon there will be a new music resource
available called Apple Music.
6. References
David, M. (2010). Peer to peer and the music industry: The criminalization of sharing. London:
SAGE.
Gerlich, R. N., Lewer, J. J., & Lucas, D. (2010). Illegal Media File Sharing: The Impact of
Cultural and Demographic Factors. Journal of Internet Commerce, 9(2), 104-126.
doi:10.1080/15332861.2010.503849
Jambon, M. M., & Smetana, J. G. (2012). College students' moral evaluations of illegal music
downloading. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 33(1), 31-39.
doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2011.09.001
