Downloading
is often theft
We understand SUU students are poor, but we don’t
think it excuses illegal behavior. One illegal behavior
we believe has gone rampant on college campuses all over
the nation is so-called “file-sharing.”
File sharing is downloading copyrighted material off of
the Internet for free. It isn’t a new perk the Internet
gave to starving college students. It has been done for
ages and it’s called stealing.
Why is stealing an artist’s ideas and expression
off the Internet or someone else’s CD more legal
and moral than walking into a music store and slipping
a CD in your backpack? We don’t believe it is. It
doesn’t matter if a CD is downloaded, burned, or
purchased from a store — the time it takes an artist
to create it and develop the talent to do so is the same.
Students may fear they won’t be able to find high-paying
jobs by the time they graduate, but at the same time,
they are helping to take jobs away. Stealing music isn’t
just taking money from the celebrities seen on MTV’s
Cribs, living in palaces and driving Cadillacs. It is
taking money away from small business owners and even
students.
In the past two years, both Graywhale CD and Tom Tom CD’s
Tapes & CD Exchange went out of business. Considering
the fact jobs in Cedar City are often hard to come by
for students, these businesses closing did nothing but
harm students.
While we don’t deny that other music stores moving
into the area may have taken away some of the business
these stores once had, we believe pirated music has damaged
business in Cedar City and the rest of the country.
Stan Bernstein, who owned and operated a record store
in Isla Vista, Calif., just a few blocks from the University
of California at Santa Barbara for more than 30 years,
shared his story about competing with Internet burners
with the Washington Post. Because of its location, most
of Morninglory Music’s customers were college students.
According to the Post story, Bernstein didn’t have
any trouble competing against other music stores in town,
but when burning music off the Internet became simple
and free, he just couldn’t keep customers in his
store because free is a hard price to beat.
We see no reason why this store’s problem is much
different
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from the problems in Cedar City. We believe SUU computers
are often being used for these illegal actions. Last year,
the Journal ran an article about a computer that was found
to be sharing illegal files over the Internet.
Not only is it illegal to steal files over the Internet,
but it is banned by the university. SUU’s policy titled
Computing, Internet Use, and Network Security states that
anyone who uses campus computers must “comply with
all federal, Utah, and other applicable law.”
Downloading copyrighted music from the Internet is not only
illegal and against SUU policy but against the best interest
of SUU students. If students want to be assured that good
jobs will exist upon graduation or have jobs available in
Cedar City now, they ought to do everything in their power
to ensure business thrives. Stealing music because it is
available and easy only steals jobs from SUU students in
both the present and future.
The opinion expressed above is the collective perspective
of the University Journal’s editorial board. The editorial
board meets every Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Room 172 of the
Sharwan Smith Center. Visitors are welcome.
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