Case against Illegal Music Downloading - Essay Example

 According to the utilitarian rule of ethics, benefits of a decision should be experienced by the entire society and decisions that benefit a few while negatively impacting the overall society should be avoided as they are illegal. In the case of illegal downloading of music, those benefiting include those who download music for free and those who supply this form of illegal music, on the other hand, those who have invested heavily including the music recording companies and those who have purchased copyrights and the musicians themselves are being negatively impacted.

There are even those who believe that musicians make a lot of money through concerts and brand endorsements and if the music is provided for free, it would not impact them. Although musicians make a lot of money, there is no reason why they should not benefit from the sale of their own benefit. Another reason due to which illegal music downloading should be completely banned is that it is destroying the entire music industry. It is negatively impacting those who make music as well as those who sell it.

The music industry comprises of music recording companies who are privately owned organization and are operating with the primary aim of increasing their profits and the profits of their shareholders. If music continues to be distributed and downloaded in an illegal manner, the music producing companies will be ripped off their profits and there will be no motive of producing music and thus this will lead to complete destruction of music. According to statistics provided by RIAA, during the period of 2004 to 2009, around 30 billion music tracks were downloaded in an illegal manner (RIAA, 1999).

Assuming that the selling price of 1 song is $1, this means that music companies lost $30 billion due to music being downloaded in an illegal manner. The main reason due to which illegal music downloading should be illegalized and should be controlled is that it will ultimately discourage musicians from making music and this would include those who have been making music for quite some time and even those who are yet to enter the market.