AS A COLLEGE student and a music lover, the words I am about to write do not come easily. But kids, all the free music trading has got to go.
Before you start moaning and groaning, hear me out. It's true: all of the servers that enable us to swap music online make our lives a lot happier. Who wouldn't be happy? We are getting a product that we demand (and in many cases, would pay for, should it be required) without having to supply the compensation music labels and artists rightfully demand in exchange for the supply of their commodity (i.e., the music). The laws of supply and demand have gone off kilter, with us -- mere college students -- on the winning end! Who knew? It's great!
Or is it? Well, no, in fact, it's not so great. Why? Because that's just not the way our system works, and were our system to try to work this way, it would spin into a miserable downward spiral. It is not the way a legitimate capitalist system functions, nor is it reflective of the ideals our country is supposed to ascribe. Nothing produced by the labor of human beings should ever be free, unless those who themselves made the product opt to voluntarily give it away, free of cost. Such is clearly not the case in the online music trading debate.
As we all learned from Professor Taylor in Econ 202, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Or in this case, a free music file. Since the introduction of free online music trading programs like Napster, the music industry has sustained significant profit loss, prompting a notable backlash from numerous record labels.
"What does this mean to us," you ask? Plenty. First of all, for those of us with a moral conscience, this is a horrible crime against these companies and artists, which, when fairly considered, amounts to nothing more than straight-out theft. The individuals and companies that produce this music have the right to compensation for their work. If we as a country allow them to be denied that, we are not only disrespecting them, their work and their business, but we are violating the most obvious and crucial of laws: the right to private property.
What does life look like in a nation that doesn't respect private property? Anyone who has read a newspaper in the last three months knows that one of the most crucial points being stressed in the rebuilding of Iraq is the need to secure an environment that is safe for private investment. Legitimate capitalism means economic growth. Economic growth means progress. Without respect for private property, there can be no functioning capitalism. Without capitalism, growth can be slow at best. Slow growth means slow progress. You get the picture.
Should online music trading sites continue to be allowed operation, investment in the music industry will become increasingly less of a safe investment. When the rights of producers are not protected, they have little or no incentive to continue their production, not to mention a decreased resource pool with which to do so, should they so (illogically) desire. Should online music trading continue to go unregulated, we will all be facing a shrinking music market. As artists' and companies' profits and incentives towards production decline, their ability and desire to furnish the public with a wide variety of music will decline correspondingly. Furthermore, a shrinking of the music market could easily result in a net loss of jobs. The list of negative economic repercussions proceeds from there. This is surely not a result that anyone wants, nor is it an appropriate precedent to be set in still developing Internet regulation guidelines.
The American government seems to realize that new steps need to be taken to protect property rights in an ever-advancing world. We, as citizens, students, and -- yes, Audiogalaxy beneficiaries -- need to recognize the larger issues that are at stake in this situation. We need, not only to avoid fighting these regulations, we need to support them, and recognize that laws just like the ones that will hopefully suppress free music trading are not, in fact, limiting us: they are giving us our freedom.
(Laura Parcells is a Cavalier Daily columnist. She can be reached at lparcells@cavalierdaily.com.)
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