Illegally downloaded music is a highly debated topic. Some people view it as harmless because the people they steal from are already "rich" and will not miss a mere $10.00 from their pockets. Other people say that it is flat-out wrong to steal, which makes illegally downloading music wrong as well. While both sides have their own arguments, the best way to look at this situation is through ethics.
People who say that stealing music is okay need to put themselves into those "rich" music artist's shoes. For those artists, selling music is their livelihood. Sure, they can make money selling concert tickets and through other endorsements, but why should they be gypped out of their well-earned and well-deserved song and record sales? If a writer had their book illegally plastered onto the Internet for everyone to read for free, they would be furious. Musicians have every right to feel the same way.
The categorical imperative can also be used to analyze the effects of illegally downloading music. If everyone decided to download their music illegally, what would be the result? Some musicians might stop making music altogether. After all, if they cannot make a living off of their profession, what is the point? Sure, there will still be other musicians who produce music just for fun, but what kind of quality would that music have? Maybe some people would rather have all music be free. But they must also remember that a lot of lives would be negatively effected due to the collapse of the music industry.
For the people who say that stealing is stealing no matter what, they need look to at Sissela Bok's three-stop model for analyzing an ethical situation. Before they go off and start condemning people for their illegal downloading, they should consider if what those people are doing is really wrong. By consulting their conscience, seeking alternatives, and holding an imaginary ethical conversation with everyone involved in the situation, they may find that illegally downloading music is actually ethical.
An example of this would be if someone downloads an unreleased song by their favorite musician from a web site. Since the song is unreleased, there is no legitimate way to purchase it. So what should the person do? If their conscience says it is okay to download the song, they need to seek alternatives. Perhaps they could donate money to the musician or ask the musician themselves what they can do to help. They should also pretend that they are talking with the musician and try to look at the situation through their eyes. Would the musician be okay with the song being downloaded as long as they do not plan on releasing it in the future? If people are interested in downloading the song, should the musician release it as a single so that fans could purchase it legitimately? While the answers will vary, these steps should still be carried out before downloading any music illegally.
