5 years ago, the music industry was experiencing exponential growth. Millions of listeners were paying up to 20 dollars to get a cd with maybe 12 songs. Today, the music industry is headed towards its doom, cd sales are as low as they have been in years. Why? How many songs do you have in your library. The response of many people would be staggering, every second there are millions of people trading music, videos and software (digital content) all over the world. Any song ever recorded, any movie ever filmed, and any software ever written exists on this enormous network. In an age where content flows as free as air, Digital freedom raises questions about morality and digital ethics. But hasn't this been going on for a long time in other forms? . Have you ever copied a cassette you bought in the store? .
If you have, then you have committed an act of piracy. However cassettes are analog media, digital media eventually turned out to be more harmful. So, When did the flow of free digital content begin? Piracy is ages old, beginning in print then music, then video and so on. The advent of the internet brought with it digital media, power for economy and also helped to create a healthy stock market. However, The advent of the internet also damaged some parts of the economy. Before the internet, sharing files had to be accomplished through manually carrying the disk from computer to computer. When the internet took shape, files could be transferred anywhere in the world with a click of the mouse. This opened the door to modern digital piracy. On the internet, Software is regarded as practically nothing. Not as the end product of 1000's of hours of collaborative effort. But rather seen as intangible, non-existent, a commodity to be used by all. Everyone has the right to have whatever software, music or multimedia they want. Such is the mentality, millions on millions of users each night, with a simple click, and in that one click lacking all regard for intellectual property.