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Pirating Music

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Pirating Music
Rich Baker
November 12, 2012

Music Industry V.S. Pirating Music Right now pirating music is one of the most controversial issues on the web because pirating music is illegal doesn’t mean it is causing total harm to the industry. Pirating music is not displayed properly to the public. Illegal downloading is an illegal action that can result in fines and jail time if caught but it also helps promote small bands that can’t get a deal with a record company. However it does harm profits made by the record company and the band that made the song or album. They are not the only ones though; people who worked for the country and band to help make the music happen are losing their jobs due to pirating music. There are both positives and negatives to pirating music and neither one is known enough to the general public.
Pirating music is common occurrence in today’s society. Everybody has heard about it, knows someone who does it or even does it themselves. What people do not completely acknowledge are the consequences that come with it. This is what the RIAA tried to do back in 2005
“In 2005, the RIAA attempted to reduce the number of downloaders by threatening to sue. To prove that they were serious, the RIAA sued 14,000 file swappers and increased the negative consequences of file sharing by imposing excessive fines in the amount of $750 per copyright infringement (Reuters 2005).
Why should you care what the RIAA thinks? The RIAA is the company who over sees many record labels in the music industry. So they monitor sales of songs and albums and also help give out awards to artists who earn them. What this means for people who get caught by the RIAA is they will pay a lot of money for just a few accounts which is demonstrated by this example “This could mean a penalty in the range of approximately $3 million for someone caught with 4,000 files on a hard drive” (Duenner 6-7). W= A case that has recently occurred involves a young man named Joel Tenenbaum. Joel has

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