Sitting
in my room watching Geordie shore on my laptop, it's easy to forget
that I am breaking the law. It helps because I know that people all
over the world are watching it with me before it comes onto TV where
we can legally watch it. Because so many people do it, I start to
feel far less guilty. It's kind of like how when you're little
swearing is the worst thing in the world until you hit an age where
everyone is swearing and it doesn't feel wrong at all anymore. Safety
in numbers.
Even
though I have this attitude I do feel intimidation would work as a
tactic to change my mind. “Most individuals
are frightened when they are taken to court by a large company”
(Martin, B Moore, C and Salter, C 2010).
I am no exception to this and if I received a letter in the mail
threatening legal action I would be far less inclined to continue my
downloading habits.
However
while I do think that this would be effective in stopping individuals
but would be less effective on a larger scale in stopping the general
population. I don't think that companies have the time or resources
to effect the masses with these threats so intimidation is only a
short term solution. In the same way that people don't feel guilty
about downloading when everyone is downloading they will not feel the
threat of being punished unless everyone is being punished.
I
don't personally know anyone who has been punished for downloading
and therefore it's never occurred to me that I will be punished.
No
matter if it's music, TV or pictures people will continue to download
and share things until there is a long term solution on a larger
level.
References:
Martin, B, Moore, C and Salter, C. 2010, ‘Sharing music files: tactics of a challenge to the industry’, First Monday, vol. 15, no. 12
Hi Beatrice
ReplyDeleteYou had me really engaged from the beginning with your introduction. I genuinely can’t believe you don’t have any music at all? I don’t know how I could live without it haha. On the other hand I do enjoy trashy shows like Geordie Shore so there’s something we have in common! As far as your post I like that your writing style is easy to read, I do feel at times you could have benefitted from more scholarly material to support your ideas. You had a lot of good opinions to offer but I would have liked to see more references to support them. Other than that a very solid post.