Cyperethics-copyrights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cyperethics-copyrights - Essay Example It is also immoral. Or is it? There is not a doubt that there are substantial harms that might come through the illegal downloading of music - for one, illegal downloading takes money out of the pocket of recording artists, and it might stifle innovation and growth in the industry. But, on the other hand, it is more morally complex and ambiguous than might be on the surface. It can be compared to white collar crime, in that there are diffuse victims, diffuse perpetrators, and it is difficult to know exactly who is being harmed by it. Also, illegally downloading music is not necessarily in violation of social norms, as so many people do it, therefore one basis for morality, social norms, is not necessarily a basis for the censure on illegal downloading. Finally, the record companies do not have clean hands, as they are known to take advantage of artists because of unequal bargaining power, such that some successful recording artists end up in bankruptcy court because the contract term s were so onerous that these artists got little out of it. Illegally downloading music might hurt the recording industry, but they hurt artists, so, in essence, illegally downloading music is giving them a taste of their own medicine. ... And, illegally downloading music has a lot in common with white collar crime, which might include extortion, false statements, fraud, tax evasion and the like. According to Green (2004), white collar crime does not necessarily have the same degree of moral unambiguity as do other crimes, such as robbery, rape and murder. The white collar crime might not be morally wrong, according to Green (2004), because the behavior that is conducted is considered to be more or less acceptable in the realm that it is performed, which means that these crimes have a certain level of moral ambiguity about them. In fact, there are ten factors which he states he associates with moral ambiguity, in the context of white collar crime. One is that there are cases which distinguish between criminality and merely aggressive behavior. For instance, some kind of alleged extortion might be considered to be hardball negotiating, and nothing more. Another is that there is morally ambiguity in inchoate offenses, wh ich means that there is liability for offenses that haven't quite been completed. There is also an issue of overcriminalization, according to Green (2004), and this, perhaps, is most pertinent to the issue of the illegal downloading of music. Overcriminalization refers to offenses that a great percentage of society does not necessarily see as wrong. Green (2004) argues that how a society views a certain offense matters – that society might think that certain things are unambiguous and worthy of censure, no matter the context – this would encompass things like stealing or rape or other kinds of crimes where people are hurt. But society, according to Green (2004) does not