Napster

            Is downloading songs off of Napster morally acceptable? This seems to be a constant questioned asked amongst ourselves. It is the ever-constant issue of morals when dealing with others. The downloading of music off of Napster is not morally acceptable. With a common sense understanding of copyright issues, trying to get something for nothing and the laws of the land a person can plainly see the moral unacceptability of this act.
             If we do not see this issue to be morally unacceptable, legal issues will help us to understand why it should be seen as such. One law that helps us to keep our fingers out of other peoples pockets is the copyright law. The protection of copyrights was established to allow a person, who qualifies, to protection their work. Works such as poetry, movies, CD-ROMs, video games, plays, paintings, sheet music, and yes, recorded music performances can be protected by a copyright.
             A good group of society is out to get something for nothing. I translate this to not wanting to work for something or earn your keep. It has been my personal experience that work helps to develop morals. I have never met a hard worker who did not have great morals to go with them. Let's take stealing as an example. Instead of working hard to earn money to buy the products that we want (recorded music performances) some chose to steal instead. I would say that stealing is a pretty well known unmoral act that happens overwhelmingly too much in our society.
             If I don't have a highly developed moral standard I can look to the laws of the land to help me make some good moral decisions. I know that the world, for the most part, wants to be good. We can look to the courts, to see some acts that people commit that are bad or unmoral. Let's look at Napsters court experiences. .
             We read in an article from Rolling Stone; New York; Jul 6-Jul 20, 2000; Rob Sheffield. "In December 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America filed suit against Napster.