Hwang Yoo Jung, an argumentative essay on page 103

Is Free Downloading a Blessing or a Curse?

 

Hwang Yoo Jung  200904349

Intermediate English Writing I (Tue 78)

An argumentative essay on page 103 (first draft)

 

 

In May of 2000, a revolutionary Internet service, called "Soribada" was launched in Korea. This site, while offering free music files, had 20 million subscribers just after 3 years. After 11 years, however, Soribada, although it seemed to become a big business, keeps alive as a small one. What caused Soribada to fail was a free downloading problem which becomes more and more controversial. As for me, illegal downloading should be banned in that it can make musicians and producers lose big money; it can discourage their creative activities; as a result, all those things can damage the cultural life of public.

First of all, illegal downloading and sharing can cause musicians and producers to lose a lot of money. Just to write one song or release one record, considerable time and money should be spent. For instance, under the direction of producers, songwriters write a song and singers practice it many times. After that, producers actively promote and sell records to make profits. Just one click trying to illegally download, however, can undo all these efforts. According to a research conducted in 2009 by Copyright Protection Center in Korea, the number of illegal downloading was over 360,000, and the total sum of damage amounted to 180 million.

Secondly, illegal downloading can weaken the passion for creativity of musicians and producers and contract music industry as a result. Almost all creators want to get compensation for their hard work and keep working only when they get what they deserve. However, if they easily have their works stolen and if there are hardly any laws to punish such piracy, who on earth want to continue music activities? Like this, if musicians and producers are not protected as a copyright owner and furthermore they cannot earn enough money to keep up with their finances at home or the company, they could not keep going on their activities.

Meanwhile, those who download illegally often say that "sharing culture" on the Internet contributes greatly to develop music. For instance, when hardly accessible music such as records not reproduced any longer or censored songs, was shared on Soribada, users expected the musical world to be boosted by free resources. However, such resources do not have to be necessarily exchanged in free sites; we can share them as much as we like in pay sites. In fact, it's just a weak excuse to steal others' intellectual property. What is worse, the offending contents are more apt to spread by free distribution. After all, it is the public who loses opportunities to enjoy high-quality music due to this illegal system.

Nowadays Apple considerably controls music market around the world; in fact, it was never related with music industry in the past. This shows well how closely the musical world is connected with digital or Internet. Thus, it is natural that illegal downloading has appeared as a new enemy to harm the music industry. This free downloading should be banned in that it can damage music industry both creatively and financially and all those things can have negative influences on cultural life of the public. If Soribada actively had resolved the copyright problem, it now could be a successful company.