Thursday, February 5, 2009

Crime without Punishment?

All of this talk about deciding what is right or wrong… but what is the penalty? For a majority of us, since childhood, deciding what is right or wrong has been based on weighing punishment. Is hitting your sibling during a fight worth the beating you’ll get later? Or is stealing candy worth having to work for the clerk to pay back the cash? These pathetic examples then increase in magnitude to is fighting or stealing worth potential jail time or a lawsuit? Such a thought process based on personal consequences can frame our actions.

So how does society respond if the act in itself is difficult to establish as right or wrong making any punishment even more challenging to define? As mentioned earlier by Yi-An, not only is the system of assigning fair use and intellectual property ambiguous, so is the punishment to not following such a system. Personally, I think this is the main reason “illegal” actions involving a computer are so abundant. For example, if you burn a cd for a friend, who in the music cooperation is even going to find out the action took place much less assign a punishment?

Are any of you all aware of individuals that have been caught and punished for illegal downloads or file sharing? Even if you do know someone, has that made you stop your own illegal actions on the computer? I’m probably just clueless of what punishments are out there for such actions, but it sure does seem as if industries are making a lot of noise about laws being broken in the technological age and at the same time are not doing much to stop it.

26 comments:

  1. I know of a friend I used to work with that was sent a letter by the RIAA for using Limewire and he has since been to court and lost all of his savings. This happened about two years ago and he had amassed thousands of songs worth of free downloads from file sharing. He had to move out of his house, pay a huge fine to the authorities, and have a permanent criminal record because of this.

    This has made me think twice about illegally downloading files from "sharing" sites like Limewire. I simply do not think that it is worth getting prosecuted and ending up like my friend who now struggles to make ends meet. Sure, I would love to use a free sharing site, but I just don't think the consequences outweigh my desire for music. I have signed up for Ruckus which is the free software that the university allows for student use in downloading music. The only problem that I have with Ruckus is that it does not support the iPod format and I have to use a converter. Sometimes, it is better to be honest and have a clean, clear conscience than to risk getting caught and struggling for a long time.

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  2. Our own university has taken a step in fighting the illegal download of files on our campus; however, the punishments are minimal if not nonexistent. I have a friend who was simply called into an office and "reprimanded" for illegal downloading files.

    Having heard this story and others like it and considering my love for music, it is extremely hard to resist the click of a mouse in order to get free music. For a while, my iTunes buying frenzy got a little out of control... but then I discovered sites like eMusic that allow you a certain number of downloads per month, and you're still paying less money than on iTunes. This has allowed me to feed my love for music and conscience at the same time. Regardless, it's still hard to resist the likes of free music...

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  3. As Emily has stated our University does indeed attempt to stop college students from illegally downloading music from such websites as Ares or LimeWire. I know of quite a few people who had their internet service suspended and called into the UL to be "reprimanded" by signing a form promising not to download any other music and stating that they have deleted the entire file sharing program from their computers. According to Carolina, if you are called in for a second offense you go to honor court and from there you are supposedly suspended from school. However, how valid really is this punishment when it only stays on your record for a year? So if you were reprimanded your freshman year, you could easily download the software again your sophomore year and there be no secondary consequences to your first illegal action freshman year. If this person is really smart they will now know that once you have downloaded a song, you can then left-click and mark unshare. By doing this action, you are able to go undetected and continue your music downloading. I have many friends who still have and continue to download software such as limewire. So I can agree with you when you say that the industries really aren't strictly enforcing laws that they are so deeply concerned about. I myself and many of my friends have so many burned CD's in our cars from years ago (dating back to middle school) so I do believe there not as caught up in todays technological advances.
    As far as ruckus goes I love it because I love music and can get all the music I want, however I do wish I could make CD's from my music on ruckus :-) What is the reason behind not being able to if our school is paying to use the software? Would it then be considered illegal use of Ruckus? Illegal downloading of songs?

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  4. I don’t personally know anyone directly affected or caught for illegal downloads, but I do remember back in middle school when there was an explosion of resources for downloading free songs. Free downloading websites like Napster, Kazaa, Limewire, and Bearshare were known for being the best places to get the best copies of songs. When these sites first hit their peak of popularity, they were all so big and popular that no one stopped to question whether or not it was wrong or even cared to acknowledge that the downloading was illegal. News broke about certain artists expressing anger with concept of free downloads, but nothing was really done about it. It was hard to take any threats initiated seriously because very seldom were the threats actually followed up with legal action. The instance when a person was caught seemed few and far between and never on a local level.

    When your entire group of friends is downloading songs and is seen by so many as “no big deal,” it’s hard to see it as illegal. I really like the idea that was discussed in class on Monday. Some artists are posting their music for free and giving you the option to pay for it if you see fit. It adds a whole other dimension to free downloading and positions ethical choices on the forefront of our minds. When given both options at the same time, are people willing to pay?

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  5. Like others said earlier, UNC does give punishments for illegal downloading. My good friend just had his Honor Court hearing on Friday. He was caught more than once downloading games and thousands of songs. The first time, he was told that if he did it again, there would be punishment. The next time, they basically told him the same thing. He was caught again, and he no longer is able to use the internet on campus. I'm not sure what else happened at his Honor Court meeting, but I suppose if this were to happen in an a non-university setting, the punishment would have been way more extreme. Since he was dumb enough to keep doing it, I think his punishment was fair enough- especially for the large amount of music/games/movies he was downloading. He just took the "free downloading" to a higher level than most people do, and got caught. (Not to say that downloading a smaller amount is any better or deserves a lesser/no punishment...)

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  6. Since so many students have been caught using these illegal music downloading sites, why hasn't Carolina begun a program like Penn State's? Wouldn't it make more sense to have everyone pay a small fee to download music from a site like Napster? So much time is waisted trying to catch and deal with students using these illegal sites. I still pay for music and would love to pay a small fee in order to get more . I also think that most students I know who are using illegal sites to download music would prefer to pay a small fee than deal with the consequences of getting caught stealing it.

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  7. I do not know of anyone who has gotten in trouble with illegal downloading. I am well aware it is very common, especially on a college campus like ours. With such advance technology now, it seems like people are able to get a lot of material for free on the internet, illegal or not. I also do not know the actual consequences from the university with illegal downloading. From the previous comments, it seems like the person's internet privileges are suspended and/or they have a honor court hearing. Some universities have paid for Ruckus which allows students to download music for free, but they are unable to put it on their Ipod. Another drawback with Ruckus is that it does not have all the music available for students to download. But I guess students can not complain for a free music service. As this debate continues, in my opinion I believe there will always be people downloading music illegally, until strict laws and consequences are enforced. Currently, there seems to be a gray area with illegal downloading and the law. It needs to be more clear and straightforward, and the punishment needs to be enforced if people want to do something about illegal downloading. And I feel that Itunes has done a great job with providing digital music. It only costs $0.99 for a single song which is not a lot at all. Other companies like Rhapsody, Amazon, Zune, Yahoo, and Napster provide similar services. These legal online music stores remove the possibility of getting in trouble with the law and they also bring convenience to people's lives.

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  8. We are all guilty of breaking the laws of music downloading, and with the creation of high-speed internet these practices have most likely increased dramatically. But we can not just sit there and act like people don't get caught for these illegal actions. Sure, you can rip a CD or DVD onto your PC and then burn it to distribute to your friends, and while no one actually knows you've committed this crime; the fact is that it is still illegal.

    I feel like the internet has allowed us to roam around on high horses with the feeling on invincibility. This is okay to a certain extent, because there is A LOT you can get away with on the internet, but in no way does that make any action morally good. Just because you don't have immediate repercussions of downloading a torrent with a whole CD and then sharing it, doesn't mean that you never will get caught. The thing we (as down loaders) need to realize is that we don't know what kind of databases these sites are tabulating. There could be a track of every single illegal file sharing action we've committed; I certainly hope I'm wrong in thinking that, but we all need to realize that we're not 100% safe from the authority. Sure, you could drive 100mph down the highway all the time, but eventually you will get caught. Though it's hard to apply the analogy to music downloading because the internet is so vastly open and accessible to billions, but we really do not know who is watching our file downloading and need to understand that illegal acts are illegal no matter what the repercussion.

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  9. I do know that our university has tried to stop the amounts of illegal downloading that is occurring on campus. You are warned of this at CTOPS when you receive your computer since you're using their network they are able to somewhat monitor your actions. As a incoming freshman that really frightened me into not illegally downloading music or a music sharing application. Other places are also enforcing this. I lived at warehouse, an apartment complex, for two years and their wireless network provider said that if they notice anyone downloading large amounts of files (music) they will turn your internet off and they actually turned me and my roommates off once. It ended up being because we both had viruses but they kept close tabs on you.

    I don't know anyone who has been punished for illegally downloading files, ever, so I guess that's why I think that it *could* happen but it probably won't. I know that it is illegal no matter what but I still from time to time will burn a cd on a friends computer and add it to my itunes and I think everyone has done the same and it would be a lie if they say they haven't.

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  10. I think you’re right and that people do not think they will get punished for downloading or copying music. It’s hard for music or film industry companies to find people that are copying and selling bootleg copies as a business, much less, every day people that are doing it. I know people that rent movies through Netflix or Blockbuster and then make copies for their own use. Is there even a way for someone to find out about this unless they see the copies in your home? I know the programs that remove the copyright are slowly being removed from the Internet, but after you get the program then what’s to stop you? File sharing is something I find to be a little more risky for people. I’ve heard of a lot of people getting emails for the University after using things like LimeWire and stuff to download music. One guy I know had to settle and pay $3000 for downloading around 4 or 5 songs to avoid having it go on his record.

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  11. I don't know of anyone who got in trouble for downloading music illegally. Most of the music that I listen to come from friends, who have good taste in music and mix me some good CD's. Now, as to whether they illegally download music, I don't know and don't ask.

    I can't remember the last time I payed for a song on itunes, but I remember feeling almost dumb when I did put in my credit card info, knowing that money was going to be taken out of my account for something I could get for free elsewhere. I'm probably one of the few people, who are scared that there might possibly be actual consequences to downloading music illegally.

    But I guess my feeling like I'm being put at a disadvantage when I do pay for any music demonstrates how our generation expects music to be always free. Most people are accustomed to downloading music for free, and there's a strong general sense out there that "everybody does it and gets away with it." Considering these things, I think it's going a bit too far to say that people who download music illegally lack strong ethics.

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  12. I'm not too sure what kinds of punishments there are out there for people who are caught downloading files off the internet illegally, but I do know that usually, it starts off with a warning and later, heavy fines.

    While this may not seem like a terribly indimidating punishment (to some), I would think that what most people are afraid of is not paying the fines, but being up against the megacorporations of the industry. It would just take a single lawsuit for one of the companies to squash you like a fly.

    My sister's friend once got a warning letter from the RIAA (it was them, if I remember correctly) and they knew -exactly- where her friend kept the illegal file in his computer. They named the exact filename and the exact directory it was in. If that's not scary enough to make you delete the file and be good (if only for a while), I don't know what is.

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  13. If you've taken economics, you may have discussed this decision theory. When deciding if an action is "worth it", you would consider simply and obviously the cost of performing the action. But when the action doesn't cost you every time, you would weigh the action's worth by multiplying the chance of incurring cost with the cost of the action if incurred. So, if the cost of getting caught downloading is $10,000 but only 1 out of 10,000 downloaders are caught, then the theoretical, individual cost of downloading would be $1. This makes sense if you imagine that if everyone is caught once every 10,000 songs downloaded, paying $10,000.

    Anyhow, if this were the case, you might as well download your songs from iTunes where songs are $1 anyway and you wouldn't have to go to court. I don't know what the real numbers are, but the fact that illegal downloading is quite ubiquitous suggests that mostly people at least perceive that (chance of getting caught) x (cost of getting caught) is significantly less than $1... you know... we think...

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  14. Being confused about the actual punishments and consequences of illegal downloading is something I can definitely relate to. I'm not sure if everyone remembers when napster first got shut down, but for a while after that it seemed like we heard of a few people in the news getting busted every week by the RIAA and having to pay ridiculous fines. The reports of people getting caught by the RIAA started dwindling, then we got to college and we started to hear about our friends, or people we knew getting caught downloading. I know that most of the cases I heard ended in an apology by the student and getting their internet privileges back; that's it though. Because of this, I have no understanding whatsoever of the specific consequences involved with illegally downloading music.

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  15. As a continuation of what Carrie said, I like the idea that Radiohead has brought to the table to combat all of this "illegal" and "unethical" sharing of music and files. I think that the best way to combat the illegal downloading and sharing of files is to make the user committing the "crime" make an ethical decision. Basically, Radiohead was able to make this decision salient in the lives of its wide fan base because they are already insanely rich, but they were definitely progressive in trying to re-establish the music world in a modern day technology world by making the consumer decide on how "pure" of a music listener they are. I think it would be awesome if other types of illegal sharing were monitored in this way, a sort of honor system that made people really choose right or wrong for themselves instead of just rebelling against the governing body that shapes the legality of internet use.

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  16. I know for me personally, I have been caught downloading music here at UNC, and had to sign these papers saying I would uninstall the program and never download illegally again. They said if I got caught again, I could be expelled. I don't know about y'all but I worked too hard to get in to Carolina just to be expelled for downloading music. So I uninstalled the program and haven't downloaded illegally since. That doesn't mean that I don't get friends of mine to download music I want or burn a CD from songs they have. It's all about what you can and can't get caught for. Like what was said earlier, if your friend gives you a copy of a CD they bought, technically that is illegal but who would know about it? Also, if you are careful and don't share illegal music you downloaded online, you probably won't get caught. Downloading music illegally can be seen as moral or immoral, it all depends of your perspective and outlook. So in the end it's a matter of opinion.

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  17. I think most people are aware of the punishments that exist. At the same time, they know that the chances of being prosecuted are extremely low. I do not know anybody who has had serious repercussions from music downloading. I don't know of anybody that has not downloaded music illegally at some time or another. Unless you are at the center of a file-sharing distribution scheme (i.e. you are sharing thousands of songs and they are always available), I don't really think there is any need to worry about repercussions from illegal downloading. Worrying about punishments for downloading music would be like worrying about getting a ticket for exceeding the speed limit by five miles an hour.

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  18. While there have been many good points made in the discussion so far, I think that the diverse range of opinions and the many lingering questions about this issue highlight the fact that there is still a lot of confusion over what is acceptable and what the potential consequences are. Unfortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to see how this issue plays out in real life for UNC students through my involvement with the UNC Student Attorney General’s Staff, a group which provides the counsels who represent both sides in an Honor Court hearing. I’ve served mostly as a defense counsel, but I’ve seen the issue from several different points of view, and while I have a better understanding of the competing positions at play I’m not sure I have a more definite opinion of the issue myself.

    When it comes to UNC students being charged with an Honor Code violation due to illegal downloading, the actual charge doesn’t stem from having copyrighted material per se. Rather, it comes about because someone has been caught by the University ITS twice and they are then charged with violating the terms of use agreement which everyone signs during CTOPS. It gets interesting here though, because while the student is charged with a violation of University policies the University is not actively pursuing violators nor scanning for copyrighted material; these cases only arise when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) finds material and reports an IP address which is in violation of copyright laws to UNC ITS. Then, with the suspected IP address, ITS identifies which student the computer with copyrighted material belongs to (RIAA can’t or won’t do this themselves) and suspends their internet access on the UNC network until a meeting is held and an agreement to delete all copyrighted material in question is signed. Only if this happens again will ITS submit a report of a suspected honor code violation. While I can’t go into specifics due to privacy/confidentiality rules within the Honor System, I will say that suspension or expulsion is by no means the usual sanction handed out to students found guilty of violating ITS’ terms of use agreement. Despite the fact that being kicked out of school for such a violation is incredibly unlikely, I’d still say that it is not worth the headache of going through the Honor System just because it was convenient to have some TV episodes on your computer. To some this might seem like the University unfairly punishing its own students, but this current method is actually a lesser evil for anyone caught in such a situation. In such cases it is the University which stands to get sued by RIAA because UNC provided the access and allowed such material to be maintained. Rather than giving up the student’s identity behind an IP address and leaving them to fend for themselves against RIAA and their legions of lawyers, ITS is taking up the burden of dealing with this in-house and assuring RIAA that it won’t happen again. The alternative would translate into thousands of dollars in losses for students and I think all would agree this is against the interests of most involved; whereas $15,000 in fines can be crippling for a university student I doubt this even covers the legal fees necessary to find the violator and initiate court proceedings, let alone the amount a victimized artist claims to need. I think that file sharing is certainly hurting the recording industry’s bottom line and anyone in such a position would want to take action, but it has become so widespread it is a nearly impossible uphill battle. In such an ongoing battle; however, I think ITS is right to try and prevent such downloading because the consequences of inaction could be crippling for the entire University. No matter one’s opinion on the ethics of programs such as limewire, given the potential consequences of file sharing and the legal alternatives such as ruckus, the best option in the current environment is to avoid all potentially illegal material.

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  19. As the person above noted, UNC really isn't 'cracking down' on illegal downloading. At least, not in the sense that ITS or University employees themselves are actively looking for offenders. When people get called out, it's because the RIAA or MPAA noticed illegal activity and contacted UNC. If UNC doesn't respond, that would be bad because they wouldn't be seen as cooperating, so the student gets a notice. This happened to my roommate; she downloaded a Chris Brown song, got a notice from UNC that the RIAA had contacted them regarding illegal DLing from her IP address, and she had to meet and discuss her actions with someone from ITS and agree to uninstall the program she'd used. Also as mentioned in the post above, UNC offered Ruckus as a free alternative, until just recently actually. Now, once your current licenses expire, you're out of luck.
    As others have mentioned, at this point the battle is a very difficult one to fight. There are definitely filesharing methods that are deemed "safer" than others (aka not the older P2P apps like Limewire) and there are mp3s/movies/applications that aren't as monitored for illegal activity as others, though good luck if you're downloading in hopes that what you want isn't something an agency cares about. Even with legal alternatives like Ruckus, all it takes is a search using a few well-chosen keywords and you get plenty of information about how to circumvent the DRM and put your music onto a portable mp3 player. More and more, filesharers are turning to other methods of music and movie sharing by using blogs, LJ comms, and free file servers to host media and reduce the risks that come with clients like BitTorrent, ehich reveal users' IP addresses to other users participating in a file swarm, thereby making the RIAA and MPAA's job of pinpointing illegal activity fairly simple.
    Not to sound like the harbringer of doom or anything, but at this point, there's such a large community dedicated to providing free access to various intellectual property mediums that I don't see any of the big companies being able to successfully crackdown on illegal filesharing in the near future. There are just too many people participating and too many people working actively to promote it. I'm very curious as to how this issue will be handled in the future, and must admit some paranoia at how these decisions could drastically change our internet experience as we know it, but without some major changes or a miracle of sorts, I can't see things changing very soon.

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  20. I knew I had something to say that was more on topic with the title of this post, but I totally forgot in my ramble above. So, here's post #2 to better tackle the while "crime without punishment" issue. I definitely see this as being a key factor in file sharing being so widespread and generally regarded as 'alright' among our generation and those younger. A large percentage of people engaging in illegal sharing are not punished, or at least there are no immediate negative consequences. It's rather amazing how easy it can be to convince yourself your actions are justified when you aren't being punished for them. I am certainly not free of this mindset to some extent. Somehow my ideas of what is right and wrong online have developed very differently than the values I hold in regards to real life, in person interactions. This likely also stems from the fact that is infinitely easier to steal when you don't have to see the people from whom you're stealing.

    Thinking back on it, I'm sure a combination of factors contributed to the creation of my current mindset. In late elementary/early middle school (I can't quite remember anymore), I was downloading episodes of Sailor Moon in the crystal clear quality RM video provided at neckbreaking speeds of ~36MB in 5 hours via our family's 31.1K modem */end sarcasm* All the information I was reading assured me that it was perfectly legal because I was downloading episodes of the Japanese version that were fansubbed (aka, subtitled in English by Japanese speaking fans) and the episodes weren't licensed in the States. The fansubbers distributed them freely online because their goal was not commercial profit, they merely wanted to share with other fans who wouldn't be able to understand the show without their help. And besides, they had no right to profit from something they didn't own, so they certainly weren't going to sell it. I think this early exposure to the idea making media available online because of wanting to share with others has definitely influenced me in the long run. Let's face it, you hear an amazing song and your first reaction is likely to want to share it with other people, particularly friends or family with similar music tastes. The internet just makes it so much easier than it used to be to do the sharing itself.

    I don't feel sharing online is necessarily a bad thing but I do understand that in some cases legality is more of an issue than in others. So how do we change popular views and get people to partake in illegal file sharing less? I think it definitely needs to emphasized in childhood and early schooling. Thinking back on it, I had a pretty open upbringing in many respects... I remember distinctly having conversations with my Dad about how quickly an album or a music video had downloaded with WinMX on our super high speed 56K modem in later middle school. He used to do some programming and he's very much into open source software, so I think his ideas about file sharing were probably shaped by an open source 'sharing is a good thing' mentality. But I don't remember him ever saying "this is acceptable" or "this is NOT legal" in regards to file sharing. So yeah, there wasn't really punishment/reprimand from my parents and there didn't seem to be any immediate threat of punishment from legal authorities, so I'd definitely say that influenced my attitudes about and acceptance level for such behavior. Most of what I downloaded online throughout high school was Japanese and Korean media. This made the prospects for punishment slimmer still; the material wasn't copyrighted in the U.S. so none of the big companies were monitoring what I wanted to consume. And I do think that if I'd been into more popular media I may have run into problems, been punished, and then convinced of the wrongness of my ways.
    I really do wonder if parents today are talking to their kids about these issues. In many cases, the younger generation is far more connected than their parents, so I fear these dialogues may not be taking place. While I feel our generation may be generally okay with file sharing to some extent, I feel our moral grounding is generally otherwise solid. I worry about the generations growing up with no memory of a time when there wasn't internet, when it took more than a few minutes to download a song. I think this problem will only get worse with time and I can't help but wonder if future generations' ideas of what is right and wrong will end up even more stretched and distorted than ours. I can't say that thought makes me happy but I'm not sure how it can be avoided without very fast change in how it's all handled, better methods for going after and catching the correct people (and not, you know, grandmothers who don't own computers at all), and more effective punishment.

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  21. Many people have been talking about the minimal punishment that the university offers for illegally downloading/listening to music. I believe that, in this case, the small punishment of getting a warning or simply reprimanded will result in a worse outcome than no punishment at all. It reminds me of a chapter in Freakonomics where this small penalty will erase the guilt that an individual feels for doing something wrong, so he/she may continue to do it. If the individual does not have the small punishment, then his/her guilt is more likely to deter them from continuing to do this action. I think, in these cases, the penalty is doing the exact opposite of what it is intended to do.

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  22. I think the problem today is even though people are aware of their illegal behaviors, they still keep doing things that way because laws cannot accurately or ethically punish those who are illegal. I mean, it might be easy for people to recognize that they are doing something "illegal", but it is hard for people to recognize that they are doing something "wrong" or"unethical". While people do not regard they are doing things wrong, it is hard to set up a standard to define crime. Further, it is even impossible to build up a reasonable and convincing system for punishments.

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  23. I have never personally met someone who has had serious repercussions, but I know a couple people who have gotten in trouble from their universities for illegal downloading. In fact, when I was studying abroad in Hong Kong I downloaded some music and movies from a website and got an email from the university saying that I had to delete everything immediately and that if they found any other activity they would shut down my internet access at the university. Even though this is a different country, I feel that for the most part people just get a slap on the wrist, whether it's in Hong Kong or here.

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  24. The only reason I think people choose not to download a song or burn excessive copies of CD's or DVD's is out of the fear of being caught, not because they see anything wrong in this act. At a University as large as UNC I think that it is very easy for people to get around these so-called rules punishments for committing such crimes. As silly as this sounds, I didn't even know such punishments really existed at our school and people actually appear in front of the Honor Court until I read this blog. Maybe that is me just being naive and out-of-the-loop because I'm not technologically savvy enough to know about all the crazy, illegal things you can do on the web! All I know is that I sit around this campus every day surrounded by "criminals", illegally downloading music and whatnot, even in classrooms where they run the high risk of a teacher catching them!

    As unfortunate as this sounds (since we, as moral individuals should do things based on whether they are right or wrong), if more people were aware of the consequences/punishments they could face, I think less illegal activity would occur. I think that part of the reason that many people don't understand these consequences is because it is a fairly new issues--one that we weren't taught was right or wrong by our parents starting at a very young age. It would be nice to think that people can determine this on their own, but sometimes it simply isn't that easy and they need to have it engrained in their mind early on.

    It is true that many people will still believe that they are invincible on the internet and can get away with anything, but if there were more of a consequence-based mentality, hopefully more people would begin to understand that these actions are inherently wrong and immoral and would stop.

    However, on the contrary, I am one of those people that believe downloading/sharing songs, movies, videos etc. can be beneficial to the artist, producer etc. because their creation is being passed along and accessed by many more people than ever intended. There are so many artists that I would have never known about unless my friends tuned me into them on the web and, subsequently, attended their concerts, passed along their names to others. etc, which ultimately will benefit the artist. I understand, however, that this is a very delicate matter and finding a way to resolve such illegal activity in a clear and efficient way has not proven to be an easy task. Will/Can it ever be?

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  25. I lived across the hall from someone who was caught by the university for downloading music illegally and I must say the punishment they received was, in my eyes, a bit over the top. He ended up paying thousands of dollars for the music he had acquired on his computer on top of whatever court costs ensued. Personally, this never stopped me from downloading, however, I have always kept my folders private thus avoiding sharing my downloaded music with others. I'm not really sure if doing this may have protected me from prosecution, however, I do believe the university was aiming for those who not only were downloading music but specifically for those continuously sharing music. At the same time, the music industry would have to have essentially an act of congress in order to fully prosecute the millions of people who are still actively downloading music illegally.

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  26. It is generally accepted that illegally downloading music is an unethical thing to do. However, that fact generally fails to deter music lovers from committing such a crime; I'm guilty myself.

    It is obvious that newly-emerged technologies have eternally altered the arts industry. It appears that illegal downloading of music will exist throughout the immediate future, but services like Napster seem to be satisfying the needs of music lovers while protecting the copyright privileges of artists. Such services offer the use of a an immense music library for a small fee. Therefore, users can access whatever music they desire at a simple flat rate. This seems to be a desirable path.

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