Free Online Music- Is It Ethical - Admission/Application Essay Example

Free online music – is it ethical? Everybody loves internet for its genie type character. Gone are the days when we used to purchase music. Music files can be duplicated infinitely without any compromise on the quality. Online services such as those provided by Napster allow the users to listen the music free of charge, or download it. Although the rapid online sharing of music adds to the popularity of both the music and its producers, yet the practice mainly comes as a blow to the profits of the music producers. The free and rapid online sharing of music is not ethical, given the resulting decline in the profits and credibility of the musicians which they certainly do not deserve. The producers must be rewarded for their hard work. In order to achieve this, there are several ways that can be followed, each having its own pros and cons. One such process is the implementation of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies. They are explained as follows: Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies: The best way to safeguard the interests of the music producers is to make use of the DRM technologies. The name Digital Rights Management is derived from its quality of protecting the producers’ right of ownership and profitability. “Broadly defined, DRM encompasses multiple technologies that control the use of software, music, movies or any other piece of digital content.” (news.cnet.com, 2006). The DRM technologies are specifically of great significance to the music producers because of the fact that music industry is one such industry, in which revenues are earned on each original version sold. Free of charge availability of music lessens the producers’ profits. With the help of DRM technologies, music producers can restrict the public access to online music without any adverse impact on the online advertisement. DRM technologies are fundamentally some limited-access technologies, in which the limits are decided personally by the content providers and hence, these technologies serve to block the content, access to which is prohibited by the music producers. The techniques are already in use in quite a lot of online music stores including Apple’s iTunes Store. (www.noteburner.com, 2008). How DRM technologies work? The process of digital rights management is fundamentally based on the following levels of operation: 1. The music is copyrighted. 2. The copyrighted music’s distribution over the internet is controlled. 3. The user’s ability to deal with the copyrighted music is monitored and restricted whenever some copyrighted music is distributed. In order to establish such a control over the distribution of the music and the user’s access to it, the digital rights management process requires the definition of and the relationship among three key entities, namely the user, the content and the usage rights. (Layton, 2006). The following example illustrates how DRM process identifies the user, content and the usage rights and control the access to online music: Example: Let us take the case of an MP3 – music download site on which digital rights management scheme has been adopted to protect undesired access to the users. Whenever a user X tries to access a certain song Y, the site will require the user to subscribe as a customer. The user will have to gain the subscription prior to accessing any song online. The reason users are required to gain subscription is that it suggests the maximum number of songs a user can download in a month. It is the legal way of listening to the music. “The safest way to download music is through subscription based websites”. (www.ez-tracks.com, 2010). In this particular example, the DRM will identify X as the user and Y as the content. It is quite evident from this illustration that it is not difficult for the DRM to recognize who is the user and what is the content. The DRM identifies the user and the content by the user ID allotted to the user by the website upon subscription and the file number of the song required respectively. However, to recognize the usage rights Z of X, certain questions need to be answered that originate from the level of subscription owned by the user upon payment of the related subscription fee. Before X can be granted access to Y, the DRM checks if X has reached the downloading limited associated with X’s subscription package. Besides some contents have special usage rights associated with them. A certain song may require the user to pay a premium in addition to the normal price in order to be accessed. Moreover, the website may have a policy of issuing a deduction in price upon further downloads if the user downloaded a certain high-priced file. The usage rights include, but are not limited to the factors mentioned above and are governed by the interrelationship of X, Y and Z. An analysis of the influence of DRM techniques on the profitability: Although implementing DRM techniques is a rational approach towards protecting the rights of music producers, yet the practice may incur the producers some additional costs. The development of a DRM – protected online music system consumes money which basically goes into licensing the DRM scheme, allocating numbers and IDs to the individual music files and the customers respectively. Besides, the customer services offered to the users for addressing issues related to their subscription and membership are also ultimately borne by the music producers as they are the ultimate beneficiaries and owners of the revenues generated by the website. The websites basically serve to advertise the music and are a means of sales. These websites offer their services for a premium paid by the music producers. All of these costs become the liability of the music producers, and are deducted from the added profits earned on the supply of DRM – protected music to the customers. However, imposing DRM restrictions on music may limit the ultimate profits, given the reduced users’ access to it. The increased marketing of music through the unrestricted access to music may be more profitable in the long run. (Sandusky, 2010). The decision rests with the producers. The Case of Avco Environmental: What should Chantale do? Given the ordinary post of Chantale and the limited power associated with it, it is very hard for her to stand up and oppose her managers’ decision on dumping the waste. Although it is ethically a right decision to go to the extreme limits to make her point, yet she has to respect her managers’ stance on the issue in order to serve the company as a sincere employee. So calling her friend to ask him to publish the matter in the newspaper will be nothing but a disloyalty of Chantale towards her company. Besides, she can not openly go out and say this is wrong since she is not sure whether it can really impose threat to the public health. One way is to compel the managers to change their practice on the cost of her job. But this is obviously, not the right solution since she is unaware of the environmental effects of the practice. Also, her manager told Chantale that the prevailing rules are over-cautious, which means that the practice can be not at all dangerous for the environment. Chantale has already gone an extra mile inquiring more than one superiors about the matter. She should not do more than that. By carrying her point to the concerned people, she has done her bit. What are the reasonable limits on loyalty to ones employer? The reasonable limit of one’s loyalty towards one’s employer is the time, up to which the practices of the employer are safe for the environment. If one is sure that one’s employers activities are hazardous for the environment in general and the human life in particular, one should go to any length to condemn such activities, because the cause is bigger than safeguarding personal interests. Would it make a difference if Chantale had a position of greater authority? Yes, it would certainly make a huge difference. The more authority Chantale is given, the more influence her message will have on the employers. Employees on lower positions do not have a right to participate in the development of the company’s policies. Important decisions are taken by people with greater authority. Likewise, it is the people in power that can ultimately bring a change. Would it make a difference if Chantale had scientific expertise? Certainly, had Chantale been aware of the scientific knowledge, she would not be dodged by her manager, Angela. Angela might be lying to Chantale about the environmental impacts of the waste dumping practice, just to justify the company’s policy. Also, if she knew that the practice was actually hazardous to the environment and the people, she should have risked her job to convince the employers to alter their practice. She should have tried her best to change the managers’ decision. However, if they did not listen, she should have informed her friend to publish the matter in the newspaper to expose her employers to external pressure so that they are forced to change their practice. References: news.cnet.com, 2006. “DRM: Media companies next flop?”. Available at: http://news.cnet.com/DRM-Media-companies-next-flop/2030-1069_3-6032936.html. [Accessed: 3 July 2010]. NoteBurner MP3 Converter. Copyright@2006-2008. “Converting DRM Protected WMA to MP3”. Available at: http://www.noteburner.com/protected-wma-mp3/convert-protected-wma-file-to-mp3.html. [Accessed: 3 July 2010]. Layton, J. 03 Jan. 2006. “How Digital Rights Management Works.” HowStuffWorks.com. Available at: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/drm.htm. [Accessed: 3 July 2010]. Sandusky, B., 2010. “Is DRM More Costly Than Piracy? Thoughts on leveraging marketing strategy and DRM-free content”. Available at: http://blogs.oreilly.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=drm&blog_id=. [Accessed: 3 July 2010]. www.ez-tracks.com, 2010. “Basics on Music Downloads”. Available at: http://www.ez-tracks.com/music_downloads.html. [Accessed: 3 July 2010]. Read More