Morality in Copying CD’s Essay Example for Free

Morality in Copying CDs EssayMorality is an issue that allow for forever encompass debates from thousands of sectors around the world. There are no definite set of rules of what is moral and what is not as much(prenominal), it will multitudinously be gravid to define. Judging some wholenesss morality is liberation to be difficult given this lack of definitive structure of the subject itself. This paper will be discussing piracy (which is what copying cds may lead to) in the context of morality. As difficult as the task may sound, this paper shall look for to be as objective as it screw be given the infinite boundary of the context. PiracyPiracy has been the thorn on the side of the symphony industry since the early 1990s. Piracy is not even hard to do, given that one must simply stick a CD to a estimator then transfer its inviolate heart and souls to another and from there, numerous other copies crowd out be made. The cycle does not and will not stop because well-nig h nation prefer things for free. College students who must be the most frequent computer users will not be averse to copying CDs and distri furthering it to others. They sure enjoy their euphony and they normally are under strict budget due to their educational financial needs.The music industry is not the only field that piracy has wrecked. just about anything that is being distributed on a CD or uploaded online has been endangered by piracy. Software is easily pirated, the newest Microsoft products are easily found on bootleg shops, finding its way easily in the third world black securities industry. Aside from software, there are videogames and movies that can easily be copied and sold for much less(prenominal) than the producer originally retailed it, all illegally, of course. With piracy, the artists, software developers, producers, actors, programmers suffer as they are not paid the royalties they deserve for working hard on their respective projects but the consumers win , as they get the media they want/need for free or at a considerably lower price.The Utilitarian ApproachAccording to Velasquez, et al. (1989), utilitarianism is a moral principle that holds that the morally right course of action in any situation is the one that produces the greatest balance of eudaemonias over harms for everyone affected. The utilitarian approach can certainly be used by those who copy the CDs and distribute it to a wider span of users. When a person purchases a CD and uploads its entire content online on a file sharing site, his reasoning is that, such upload can share the music to a wider variety of people. These people can get it for free thanks to that one person who uploaded it for sharing out of the goodness of his heart.When a person buys a CD, he has paid for rights to use the content of that music. No matter how he abuses the content of that CD by repeated usage is something he is entitled to do. However, copying the entire contents of the CD and freeh and the copy to another person is another story as herein, he has breached some legal boundaries of his usage. Morality may be a subject that is infinite but legality has very strict confines and stepping beyond its boundaries is guilty by a hefty sum, long hours of community service or pokey time.The utilitarian reasoning is not a defense against illegal acts and as such, one cannot escape punishment by reiterating that he committed piracy for the benefit of the world, out of the goodness of his heart. In addition, the utilitarian approach does not consider the minority who will be affected by such act. For instance, the loss of income to those people who have labored to bring the media out on the market is not something utilitarianism will consider.Deontological EthicsAccording to the Encyclopedia Britannica (n.d.), in deontological ethics an action is considered morally good because of some characteristic of the action itself, not because the product of the action is good. Give n this definition, copying CDs onto another computer, given todays anti-piracy campaign, is not going to be considered moral even though the intentions maybe good and the act may be easy to do. Music, movie, software, videogame industries have lost billions of dollars because of piracy, they are trying to foment it as best they can and as such, there are piracy warnings/threats on almost every media distributed. Doing it anyway will certainly question ones morality over it.To circumvent this, one does not usually copy CDs. He goes to websites where he can share files. However, in the UK, such file sharing can now be considered illegal (Solanki 2010). Such is the campaign against piracy that in the US, every digital media sold in the market is protected by DRM, a software that limits the number of devices the content can be played in to typically, 5 machines (Grossman 2007). Exceeding this limit can offer questions on ones morality via Deontological Ethics.ConclusionCopying the con tents of a CD is piracy. Piracy nowadays is a criminal offense that is punishable by law. One can hardly find anything moral over something that is illegal. Even though piracy may be the most tolerated crime in the world, it will be best for the person to stay on the conservative side and not commit it, for his personal welfare.ReferencesEncyclopedia Britannica. (n.d.) Deontological ethics. Retrieved 19 July 2010 fromhttp//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158162/deontological-ethicsGrossman, L. (2007). The combat Over Music Piracy. Time. Retrieved 19 July 2010 fromhttp//www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1625209,00.htmlSolanki, M. (2010). File sharing becomes illegal as Government pushes through DigitalEconomy Bill. SeekBroadband. Retrieved 19 July 2010 from http//seekbroadband.com/focus/2010/04/09/internet-technology-news/file-sharing-becomes-illegal-as-government-pushes-through-digital-economy-bill/Velasquez, M. et al. (1989). Calculating Consequences The Utilitarian App roach to Ethics.Issues in Ethics V2 N1. Retrieved 19 July 2010 from http//www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/calculating.html