Ethical issues surrounding filesharing revolve around the question of whether it is morally right or wrong as opposed to legal or illegal. It has been established by various court cases that some filesharing activities, particularly the downloading and sharing of copyright material such as music are illegal. However, it can be contested that illegal behaviour does not always constitute unethical behaviour; it is illegal for a starving man to steal bread, but it is not unethical for him to do so. There are varying and opposing arguments on this issue. There are those who argue that illegal filesharing is unethical and detrimental to social order. There are also those advocates who claim that it is in no way unethical to download and share files considering its widespread popularity. As yet there has been no resolution to the ongoing debate over filesharing ethics.
Advocates of the ethical nature of filesharing present three primary assertions to support their point. Firstly, the activities are not wrong as the advances made in technology allow for illegal filesharing to occur. Secondly, the widespread and seemingly unstoppable nature justifies its existence as morally wrong behaviour would not proliferate to the extent filesharing has. Finally, there is the view that preventing wealthy recording labels and artists from obtaining profits is justified by the fact that these entities are already ‘super-rich’. They see it as a Robin Hood-like activity, taking profits from the rich record labels and distributing the spoils amongst the people. These views are evident amongst many teenagers where only 15 percent of 13-17 year olds think that downloading music is morally or ethically wrong (Rushworth 2005: pg1).
Of these three assertions the most common argument behind the ethical support for filesharing is that nobody besides the already affluent recording companies and artists suffer any consequences. However this opinion could change as the Recording Industry Association of America or RIAA has commenced filing suit against individual filesharers who they contend are guilty of violating their copyright. Whilst it remains ethically wrong to steal, an argument has been made that downloading copyright material is not stealing. Stealing consists of taking something from another person to the result that that person no longer has what was stolen. Filesharing does not remove files form the original owner; they maintain possession of it.
Many of those who claim that filesharing is unethical base their argument in the idea that official society disapproval of wrongful behaviour is essential to maintaining coherent values. They further assent that any behaviour deemed illegal is consequently unethical as undertaking this illegal behaviour undermines our social structure. Their ethical viewpoint suggests that legalising unethical filesharing would open up the floodgates for the abandonment on the consensus on stealing the property of others.
There are explanations given as to why illegal file sharing is so widespread despite the disapproval of official society. One argument is that the stealing of intellectual property for personal use is not viewed in the same way as the stealing of material property. Some insist that despite this, intellectual property is nonetheless property and an individuals ethical responsibility to respect the property of others should apply.
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REFERENCES
Delgado, R. (2004) Professors Examine Ethical Controversies of Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Stanford News Service, retrieved on 15 October 2004, from
Kidder,R. (2005)Downloading Music is Good. Cheating is Bad. Why Teens Say Both. Institute for Global Ethics web site accessed 10 September 2005.
--Lara Cresser 22:09, 26 Oct 2005 (EST)
