"Music Execs Discuss Capital Ideas"

by Matthew Benz and Brian Garrity

November 24, 2001, Billboard Magazine

        This article deals with the apparent fledgling of the one multi-billion dollar industry.  It is losing its revenue quite rapidly. Their total revenue has dropped 10% in the last year alone, which is up from the figures from the previous year.  The industry leaders are attributing this to the mass amounts of people trading music ("illegally") on the internet.  I have a slight issue with this.

        I was a student in Journalism Law just a few years ago.  It was quite a while before this whole ordeal came about with the inception of Napster, the original music sharing program. It was the brainchild of a young 18 year old computer wiz.  During this highly informative class taught by Col. Howie, I learned quite a few things about copyright law.  I might be a bit off on this, but what I learned is this: When you buy a piece of copyrighted material such as a movie or cd, you have the copyright.  You buy it.  You have the right to copy it as much as you like, and do basically what you want with it, so long as you do not a) display or play it in a public place or b) gain from it monetarily.  From what I know of it, the type of sharing that people are doing (myself included) technically does NOT violate these laws.  

        Being that I am a big proponent of this supposed "illegal" file sharing, I am completely opposed to the idea of taking our rights away.  The music industry will survive. That is apparent. They just need to be more creative!