Effects of Piracy

Music industries are losing roughly 12.5 billion dollars annually due to online piracy, which in the long run equates to 71,060 job losses (www.ipi.org).  To put into perspective how many songs are pirated, at ten cents per song, this equates to 125 billion songs being illegally downloaded annually.  This number is ten times greater than the world's population.

Downloading music illegally isn't the only form of piracy.  Another form could consist of borrowing a friend's CD so you don't have to buy the music yourself.  Many people wonder why this is still considered piracy even though their friend had paid for the CD.  The answer to that question is simple: if you don't personally buy the music, you are pirating it.

The action of piracy doesn't only effect the music industry and song artists, but it can affect you personally.  When you download things illegally, you risk the chance of unwanted viruses, or even worse, having to deal with the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

 The RIAA can sue up to $150,000 per illegally downloaded song.  I often times hear people saying things such as, "Oh, it won't ever happen to me."  I would almost guarantee that the 2,000 people who had been sued by the RIAA (as of March 2004) had said or thought that same thing on multiple occasions (fightpiracy.org).

Many people don't know the effect that downloading music has, but I'm hoping that once people read this, they will stop to think about the consequences of their actions.  If this information has touched you in any way, or if it has made you stop and really think about pirating music, pass the information along to your friends.  Help me start a chain reaction to teach people the harms of piracy.