Out of all the cases we have studied this one hit the closest to home. I grew up with file sharing. I have purchased four compact disks in my life. Since I had access to a CD burner and the internet, all my music was either burned from a friend or downloaded on Napster, then later on Kazaa. I am so accustomed to free music that I do not consider the consequences of me downloading music. Regardless of my hypocritical actions, sharing material that is copyrighted is unethical.
I first felt the effects of file sharing on February 26th 2003; I attended a concert featuring the band Evanescence. This was their first appearance in Chicago three weeks before their release of their début album "Fallen". This concert was at the Metro so it was very intimate concert. It was an amazing concert, but there was something strange, majority of the audience was singing along with Amy Lee, the lead vocals of the band.
English: Rally in Stockholm, Sweden, in support of...
English: File Sharing on JoopeA
Timeline of file sharingSinging along during a concert is nothing extraordinary, but the band only released one single and their album was not available anywhere. This caught the attention of the leader singer, and in between songs she asked, "Wow, you guys know our songs already, and our album is not available yet, where did you guys get our songs?" The audience shouted back, "Kazaa! Kazaa! Kazaa!" Amy Lee smiled and responded, "yeah Kazaa is cool I guess, only if you buy our CD." As soon she said Kazaa was cool, the crowed erupted chanting and praising Kazaa. That night I witnessed Kazaa receive more recognition than the artist, I knew something was wrong.
File sharing is an unethical practice. Programs such as Kazaa harm many more people than just musical artists. Kazaa harms,