by Leigh Goessl

Created on: July 18, 2009

Copyrighted music and videos are intellectual property that is protected by law. Control over the material should be determined by the owner of the copyright and downloading music and videos without permission of the owner is wrong.

Many people regularly use the Internet engage in the download of copyrighted music and videos. There are two kinds of downloads, illegal and legal. Illegal downloads means the music or videos are being downloaded without the permission of the copyright holder; the latter means that the owner has freely given permission to make their intellectual property available for use.

Despite copyright laws, illegal downloads, otherwise known as piracy, runs amok on the Internet. Each day countless numbers of people across the globe engage in this practice of downloading music and videos without paying for them.

These kinds of downloads are unequivocally wrong. When a person downloads copyrighted material without permission from the artist and/or owner of the item, this is stealing. Yet, despite this fact many people don't see this, or refuse to acknowledge copyright laws.

Downloading digital without the owner's permission is stealing. It is generally accepted that walking out of the local music store with a CD or DVD and not paying for it is stealing, so why wouldn't the same thought process apply to Internet downloads? Both are against the law, the only difference is the technique used to steal the item.

The dispute of whether or not downloading copyrighted music and videos is a volatile one and a debate most people feel rather passionately about. Advocates of illegal downloads justify the practice by rationalizing reasons it should be acceptable. These justifications typically include that big business and/or individual artists are too rich already and they should spread the wealth.

This argument is weak at best. It doesn't matter how much money the person or entity has, essentially it comes down to the law and property ownership. People work hard for the property they own and those who develop copyrighted property put the effort in their intellectual property and are entitled to be compensated for their work.

Another justification pro-piracy advocates use try and argue that downloads are equivalent to the Fair Use provisions of copyright law and it's no different than burning a copy for a friend. While there may be a level of validity to this statement, it is really apples and oranges because by sharing music and videos online, this

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