Piracy is the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted content, which is then sold for a much lower price on the “grey” market. Each year, the US economy loses $12.5 billion because of music piracy. Sound recording piracy results in a loss of 71,060 jobs to the US economy. $422 million in tax revenues is lost yearly due to piracy, where $291 million represents lost personal income taxes while the remaining $131 million is lost corporate income and production taxes.
Making unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings is illegal and may subject you to civil and criminal liability. Possible charges for music piracy can leave you with a felony record, as well as up to five years if jail time and potential fines up to $250,000. Because of the impact music piracy has on the economy, it makes sense that it is illegal. Not only is the US economy losing money in taxes, but music creators and everyone else in the music industry is also losing profit for the hard work that they put in. This makes me wonder what ended up happening with Napster, and whether downloading music was legal at the time.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/piracy
https://www.riaa.com/reports/the-true-cost-of-sound-recording-piracy-to-the-u-s-economy/
https://www.riaa.com/resources-learning/about-piracy/
From your article, it is pretty clear that the music industry is HUGE. I didn't realize just how much music stimulated the economy. On the topic of Napster, it was mainly controversially because it essentially was music piracy and the downloading of music at the time was illegal, however there were many music sites in addition to Napster that were used for the same purpose. That being said, it makes me wonder what solutions have been proposed to counteract applications such as Napster because although it was clearly illegal, it was able to grow and disperse.
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