Why Don People Care About Stealing Music?
While Halberstadter noted that members of the public seem to have no ethical or legal concerns about downloading copyrighted material from websites, FMA’s Toomey sharply contrasted the notion of shoplifting and file sharing, stating that music is usually listened to one time and then thrown away. MPAA’s Attaway took issue with that position, saying that file sharing and shoplifting may be different, but the economic impact is the same — recording studios lose money. He also felt that public perception and efforts by such groups as the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) hold the key as to why people don’t consider illegal downloads stealing. Frackman shed a light on all this by relating how he gave a speech at his son’s high school. A student in the audience called out, “the death of Napster is the end of the world.” Frackman wondered how organizations opposed to file sharing could combat that perception, further noting that the crime of file sharing is considered by many to be a vic
