Illegal Downloads: Sasha Smith

This issue effects me more than most people. My partner is in the music industry and is always talking about the need for something to be done about the issue of illegal downloads. Many people (including myself at one point,) probably think it's not a big deal downloading MP3s. Well that is so not true. Movies, games and music are all created by folks who have put their blood sweat and tears into creating these multimedia technology that keeps us entertained. We have to think about the Americans who are working on these pieces of merchandise and they also have family's to feed. The person who suffers the most are the designers and engineers. At first glance, we see these huge corporations making billions of dollars but the more we steal illegal downloads the less the money funnels down to everyone. Someone has to make up for the loss of money that the big corporations are losing from the public stealing it. 

There is another issue with having a generational culture who think it's okay to steal music, movies, or games. This is someone's livelihood. Would you be okay with looking at your pay check and realizing it's not all there cause someone took some of it and there was really no way to follow up on it? I questioned my partner about his thoughts and he thinks that the Copyright and Intellectual Property Right laws need to be changed. When these laws were written, illegal downloads didn't  exist. We need to change the policy so we can change the culture of people thinking they are not stealing. As I think about it, my nieces have probably never bought a CD or gone to a music store. All they know is downloading music from the Internet as there source of musical entertainment. People who think they are taking away from the Clive Davis' and Steven Spielberg's by downloading materials for free but they are not. They are taking away from the guy painting  on a movie set or the song writer who stayed up all night to write a song he believes in. Their the one's who we are stealing from. Having immediate access and information is one of the blessings of the Internet but being able to steal information and merchandise on the Internet is one of it's curses.

Now, in terms of the issue of employers monitoring their employees computers, I think that is overboard. I mean employers know who is the surfing the net by who's work is not getting work done. I most certainly don't think of downloading illegal materials at work and never will. Do I know folks who do? Yes. Would I ever do it? Never. It's just not worth it. I'm trying to keep my job and I'm too busy at work to even have time figure out how to break into any systems to get games, movies or music. I also respect my place of business and the designers and engineers such as my partner who are dedicated to what they do.

Email Sasha
Follow Sasha on Twitter!