File+Sharing+and+its+Impacts

File Sharing
toc File Sharing allows files to made available online for users to download over the internet. Similar to the peer-to-peer model, files are stored on users personal computers and shared to others while being simultaneously downloaded.

Impact on Owners of Music Copyrights
Owners of copyrighted material claims that the illegal downloading of music and movies has drastically damaged the innovation of the entertainment industry. President and CEO of [|Motion Picture Association of America]; Dan Glickman said in a statement that “Protecting intellectual property rights and aggressively combating copyright theft will keep an engine of economic growth and job creation thriving; promote innovation; strengthen legitimate businesses that unite technology and content in innovative and legal ways and ensure a future of quality and choice for consumers.” (Glickman)

Impact on Consumers of Digital Music
P2P supporters argue that file sharing not only increases album sales but without it, individuals would not have purchased the music in the first place. As well some argue that sampling would actually work the reverse causing consumers to not buy the albums. P2P networks create the vast availability of music, movies, data, software and documents that would otherwise be difficult to retrieve. Apart from the service being free it gives an individual the convenience of participating in illegal copyrighting. There are many obvious reasons why file sharing maybe beneficial for the consumer but ultimately the consumer is the loser. With rampant copying there is diminishing motive to invest in music production or risk supporting new talent. Artists are reluctant on making new music as they feel their hard work will go unappreciated. Many have argued that file sharing contributes to the slow and stead weakening of the music industry.

Impact on Providers of Music such as iTunes
Why would someone pay for something when they can get the same thing elsewhere for free. This is the predicament facing music services such as iTunes. Online music services like iTunes or Puretracks charge customers a small fee for each song downloaded. Despite the growing numbers of users for licensed music services, millions of individuals continue to illegally download over P2P networks. Many experts differ on whether the thousands of copyright lawsuits brought against individual computer users and P2P networks have had an impact on the expanding file sharing industry. Many would think that these P2P networks would result in a major decline of these legal music providers but actually these services such as Napster, Rhapsody and iTunes are in just as many homes as P2P networks, as revealed in a 2006 NPD Group study. However, many consumers who previously bought cds have now turned to file sharing and cd burning as a new way to attain their entertainment. In short, there is major concern that if file sharing continues to be socially acceptable, consumers will not be willing to pay for downloaded tracks.

Impact on Artists
Internet file sharing threatens artists' ability to sell their music through digital downloading because the digital files available from artists are virtually indistinguishable from those available on P2P services. Advocates of file sharing have argued passionately that the practice of file sharing has not harmed album sales. On the other side many popular artists argue that P2P sharing has drastically impacted them financially. According to economic theory file sharing will most certainly decrease album sales, as well there have been similar studies supporting this prediction. File sharing forces artists to reduce the price of their albums in the stores which results in losses to them. Some unpopular artists may argue that file sharing is a good thing as without it they would not have received the exposure they would have normally had. Like radio, file sharing has become another form of promotion for many artists. Artists such as Black Eyed Peas and Moby both agree that file sharing is a good thing for up-and-coming groups that don’t have record deals and are trying to get exposure and that file sharing serves as a positive for those that don’t have means of distributions. Even very popular artists advocate file sharing such as 1980’s glam-metal rockers Heart who released their new record in a computer file format enabling online users to share their music. Other artists such as Sarah McLachlan and Anita Baker do not share their optimism and argue that illegal downloading causes everyone to loose, from the engineers down to the interns. A 2004 survey of 2755 musicians and songwriters revealed that almost 50% of musicians felt that free downloading had not really made a difference and another 35% believed that it had actually helped their career.

Impact on Consumer Mentality
Due to this sharing via peer to peer and other applications that facilitate the transferring of files the consumer mentality has changed as a whole. With excellent applications such as LimeWire and Torrent Applications (bitcomet) we have increasinly become use to receiving everything for free. Furthermore, we dont feell an obligation to pay for movies/music/software which we percieve as justifiable whether it is overpriced or simply the perception "to get back at the corporations." Keeping in mind that many things that were once purchased are now free business has to change. For example, album sales have decreased drastically, dowloads of music continues to increase, prosecution of file sharing networks don't yeild results, so what is there to do? Convince consumers to purchase out of convenience or necassity. The result - personalized ring tones on cellphones (20 second clips of music). The consumer cannot get this for free - it is not downloadable for free from a P2P application, you cannot transfer music from your computer to the cell phone (even if you can some cell phones only play audio files in a specific format or bit rate). Ultimately this free mentality has caused a re-engineering on business to capitlize on consumers by creating that need to purchase - and thus we have personalized ring tones.