When a user download something for free which is not uploaded for free download by the owner, then the user is involved in the act of illegal downloading. Lets assume that a rap artist who was producing records before the whole World Wide Web boom was making way more money by selling millions of records as compared to the present times when millions of consumers are downloading the records of the same artist illegally from torrents, Mp3skul, or simply just ripping them off the you tube. So I think illegal downloading which is also known as file sharing is not a Victimless crime, and the biggest victims are the music artists, as they have lost billions of dollars in total. But the number of people downloading free music is way more than the number of customers that were buying records before the this file sharing trend, so lets say if we some how become able to put a stop on the illegal downloading , still I do not think so that all these users will go and buy the same amount of music they are downloading right now and the artist still will be making almost the same amount of cash, as right now they are making more on live music shows, music videos, or other T.V. shows. So the question is that where is all that money going which consumers specially the young ones are saving from the music and movies? the reports have shown that sales of game consoles and game discs have increased in billions as compared to the past, the same thing with the DVD sales but DVD rentals have decreased a lot. (THEGUARDIAN.COM’S BLOG ABOUT DOWNLOAD PIRACY).
The difference between illegal downloading and stealing is debatable, some people say that they both are same thing , but some say that illegal downloading is not stealing. Lets see some of the views regarding the case where people have thoughts of illegal downloading not a theft, according to Stuart P. Green a Rutgers Law School professor and expert on theft law copyright, infringement isn’t really “stealing” at all. Mr. Green says that in order to actually “steal” something, you must deprive the owner of whatever that thing is. If you take a person’s bicycle, then you have it, and person does not. So if you download a song off The Pirate Bay, you’ve simply made a copy now there are two bicycles. (Or thousands or millions.) But on the other hand people argue that a song is some one’s intellectual property so you cannot make a copy of it without the owner’s permission. According to the copy rights law it is illegal to upload some one’s property without his/her permission, so is to download it. (DIGITAL TREND’S BLOG ABOUT ILLEGAL FILE SHARING).
SOURCES
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2009/jun/09/games-dvd-music-downloads-piracy
http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/illegal-file-sharing-isnt-stealing-heres-why/
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