Downloading lowdown

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

Record industry fights back with lawsuits served on file sharers, but the verdict could be in already. Gannett News Service File sharing isn't difficult, but when does it become illegal? Internet file-sharing networks are like groups of libraries that invite people to roll photocopiers from stack to stack. To "share" songs on a "peer-to-peer" network such as Kazaa, for example, users simply put them into a folder on their computer and open the folder to others on the network. Anyone searching for those songs can use Kazaa to find the computers where they're stored, then download copies onto his or her PC. The Recording Industry Association of America argues that it's illegal to share or download music without permission because the labels' copyrights give them exclusive rights to distribute and make copies of their songs. That view is widely supported when it comes to users who copy hundreds of files, but some legal experts contend that downloading a few files may prove to be legal under the "fair use" doctrine in copyright law. "It's far too early in the day to conclude that everything everyone does with peer-to-peer, even when it comes to copyrighted MP3 files, is conclusively infringing," said Peter Jaszi, a law professor at American University. — Los Angeles Times

The University of Hawai'i-Manoa student then went out and did something the music industry wished more 22-year-olds would do these days: He searched all over town to find the punk rockers' CD.

"If you like somebody, you should support them" by buying their music, said Hogan.

Yet Hogan, along with his classmates, have a message for the Recording Industry Association of America: Downloading happens. Deal with it.

They and other students at UH said downloading is so widespreadthat the ethical implications have been drowned out.

It may sound amoral, but these young adults were pragmatic: It didn't matter if music piracy was right or wrong, they said, because the culture of piracy has established itself and the music has already left that radio.

The RIAA has taken to playing hardball in its quest to get more users to act like Hogan. They've used the full force of American copyright law to scare the Kazaa out of music sharers, filing more than 250 lawsuits against those with "significant" stashes of music.

But some say the effort to stop downloading is as futile as the federal government's attempt to ban booze 80 years ago.

About half of the Internet users in the United States, some 60 million people, copy music, movies and other digital goodies from each other — free — through online networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

A study by NPD Group, which tracks customer trends, found that more than two out of three households in the United States with Internet access had a least one digital music file on their computer, while more than half had at least 50 songs. Eight percent said they had 1,000 or more songs, the Knight-Ridder News Service reported.

To illustrate his take on the subject, UH assistant communications professor Colin Macdonald, a former music industry executive, calls up the Canadian legend of King Canute, who proved he was not all-powerful when he could not command the tide to reverse itself.

"The tide already came in on this issue," said Macdonald, who agrees with his students: If the music industry had a lick of sense, it would harness the file-sharing energy and direct it into a marketing tool, rather than fight the tide.

"They should be saying, 'We WANT you to download,'" Macdonald said. "But they have every right to be stupid."

Radio and sheet music were also, trumpeted as the downfall of the music industry, he notes, dire predictions that did not come to pass.

Part of the problem is that most people who aren't members of the American Bar Association don't have a clear picture of intellectual property rights. The lack of a physical thing, such as an album, a CD or a tape, makes the ethical issue harder to comprehend, said Macdonald.

Back in the day, when your girlfriend gave you her album, that was one thing, he said. Today, you can make 20 electronic copies, all of the same thing, without giving up the physical manifestation of the original. It's as if you don't give up anything.

"It's a fundamental difference, a strange concept," Macdonald said. "Like physically owning a hammer. We didn't own the rights to the hammer. ... It's difficult to tussle those things out."

College students such as Kerry Clifford, 23, know what intellectual property is and believe artists have the right to make money from their art. But, Clifford is a conscientious consumer, too.

"Last night, I was watching a commercial that Napster.com is back, the grandfather of downloading music," said Clifford, a communications student at UH. "My friend looked at me and said, 'That's great. What's the use of buying the CD for $17, $18, when there's only one or two songs you want? This gives you a chance to buy the one.'"

In the current campus climate, music — like the Internet or borrowing material from a library — is expected to be free, said Hogan's classmate Josh Yafuso.

And he's a guy you wouldn't expect to hold that view.

"I don't care if people download my music," said Yafuso, a guitarist whose band, Epic Sessions, released "On the Rise" last year under the Island Fire Productions label. "But I'm pretty sure my producer does."

File sharers help get the music of up-and-coming bands out there, beyond the clutches of Big Radio, monopolies who only push their own artists and penalize those who don't play the game, said Macdonald.

The other point clouding the ethical issue is what Macdonald calls the "Les Miserables" dilemma: Is it worse to steal from a poor person than a rich one?

"It's a lot more difficult to support the position of an artist wearing diamonds, than to support the notion of poor surviving artists," said Macdonald.

College senior Clifford agrees that artists do have their rights, and piracy is like stealing, but when it comes to reaching for her wallet... "I'd rather watch them in concert," she said.

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at 525-8035 or mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com.