75 word response to student in regards of what they wrote to keep conversation going: Online File-Sharing

ORIGINAL QUESTION:

Topic: Online File-Sharing

Identify the various stakeholders in the online file-sharing controversy created by file sharing websites. How ethical are these services from a free market perspective? A utilitarian or deontological one? Is there a difference, ethically, between the copyright infringing activity of a music file-sharing service and those who use it? What has the movie/music industry done to stop online file-sharing? What have they done to embrace it?

STUDENT RESPONSE:

Hello professor and Classmates,

The stakeholder in the online file-sharing controversy are identified by what we are actually looking at and listening to.  Intellectual property effects all of human kind.  In the digital world, the stakeholder is anyone.  Everyone.  Artists, customers, buyers and sellers.  File-sharing website owners, in my opinion, have the greatest interest in this industry.  They can either use ethics and conform to the regulated industry or they can disregard the standards and continue to pirate movies and music. 

The free market perspective would have us believe that just because it is out there on the web, that we have the right to pursue it even if it is not legal or moral.  Ethically speaking, a free market perspective would be considered unethical.  The free market is about making money for the company regardless of ethical values.  In this instance, I would say that the utilitarian view would be the most beneficial for the parties involved.  We are talking about using the file sharing system for the greater good of all of the stakeholders.  This differs from a deontological view because in this ethic, the file-sharing websites would be sharing the music so that everyone could get it, regardless of the consequences

If the customer knows that a product being purchased is from an illegal forum, then there is no unethical difference between the customer and the website operator.  Common sense will tell us that if there something illegal about any type of transaction, then if we turn the other cheek, we are just as guilty as the one selling the product.  The Modern Copyright Law(1976); “(1994) Congress creates penalties for bootlegging audio recordings of live performances and music videos; (1997) No Electronic Theft (NET) Act expands criminal sanctions for © violations; (1998) Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) bans technologies that circumvent antipiracy measures or otherwise facilitate infringement; (1998) Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) extends the period protecting all copyrights to author’s life plus 70 years and to 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation for “works for hire” where copyright is held by a corporation.”(Halbert & Ingulli., 2014. p. 338). are some of the ways that lawmakers have attempted to curb the piracy topic.  They have constantly levied record fines and convictions for copyright infringement and piracy.

Olanoff, D., 2012, has put the numbers in “excess of $500 million.” while the same case, as reported by Teinowitz, I., 2015, “Andrus Nomm, 36, of Estonia, a former computer programmer, agreed to plead guilty to felony copyright infringement.”  These stem from the single biggest criminal acts of Megaupload.com where “providing pirated access to TV shows and movies.” was occurring up to 50 million times a day according to Teinowitz, I., 2015.

References

Halbert, T., Ingulli, E. 2014. Law and Ethics in the Business Environment, 8th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from http://kaplan.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781305483125/

Olanoff, I., 2012. DOJ calls Megaupload case “among the largest criminal copyright cases ever”  Retrieved from: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/01/19/doj-calls-megaupload-case-among-the-largest-criminal-copyright-cases-ever/

Teinowitz,I., 2015.
Biggest Piracy Case in U.S. History Gets Its First Conviction.  Retrieved from:
http://www.thewrap.com/biggest-piracy-case-in-u-s-history-gets-its-first-conviction/

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