Janaina – Why download is not piracy – paper 3

Free downloading for personal use should not be considered illegal because people don’t use it to make money, many times is the only way to get some rare songs or movies, and also because is a publicity tool.

First, as long as the download is not made to reach profit, it shouldn’t be considered piracy.  Is not fair to earn money with another person’s work, and that´s why the download, followed by copying and selling, is clearly a kind of piracy. Nonetheless, if someone downloads a file just for entertaining, he is not stealing or getting advantage of someone else’s work – it´s just a copy for simple reproduction. A research run by Google shown that 68% of the downloads made during 2007 at mininova.com – the most famous sharing website – where used only for personal use, and 83% of these users condemn the commercialization of the files. The results confirm that download for personal use is made innocently and seen as a reproduction, shouldn’t be considered a crime.

The second reason is that the download is an easy way to get files that are not available at some countries. Globalization allows people to know about what’s new in the entertaining industry and even make available blockbuster movies and superstar albums, but is still hard to find for sale at a reasonable price some international productions that people know the existence but can´t get in contact with. For example, when I was in college I had to do a paper about the history of French movies, and it was really hard to find old French movies in DVD here in São Paulo, so I decided to download the most significant ones to analyze and could develop a solid paper. There are different reasons to download files and most of them, as illustrated in the example, aren’t disrespecting to the creators or the piece.

At last, downloads also benefit the artists who want their work to be recognized. Most of the money earned with the albums and music selling goes to the producers and distributors, and the artist gets money with concerts and another projects. Considering it, Internet and downloads are a powerful tool to divulge the artists work, especially from small bands and indie movies that have no money to spend with publicity, so they can conquest new fans that don’t pay for the files but are still profitable when go to concerts. The most recent case of success in Brazil involving the internet is Mallu Magalhães, a 16 years old singer who recorded 2 songs and inserted them on the Internet. After a few months all the indie community knew about her, and today she can be considered the revelation singer of 2008 without having a record company to invest on her work. Money is important, of course, but there are alternative ways to earn it and uploading songs or movies for download on the Internet can be considered an investment that will bring results in the future.