Plagiarism is wrong as it deprives people of
deserved income or recognition of their creative works.
People rarely stop to question the legality,
morals and ethics of plagiarising or downloading a song, book or
movie. It is clearly wrong to do so. Many people fail to recognise that
they are committing a crime as they are stealing from others; such
as singers, actors, writers and producers, etc: depriving them of entitled income.
There are many people that hold the view that
illegal downloading saves you money and justify it by saying ‘it isn’t
really a crime’, because you aren’t really hurting anyone. What they fail
to consider is how they might feel if it was their personal
content being plagiarised? There is an acquaintance that I know that spends
almost all his free time engaging in illegal downloading, anything from
movies to books. I once challenged him by asking if he ever
saw anything wrong with his actions? He didn’t! It never even occurred to him
that he may be committing a crime.
People that download illegally will often
give you a justification for having done so that seems valid or plausible to
explain their objectionable behaviour. My favourite is; …”it was
only something I was ever going to watch/read/listen to once.” To this
statement I can’t help but think; in that case why didn’t you just rent it?
There
is never a good enough reason to plagiarise or illegally download anything. People
enjoy being entertained through many different forms of media so the
least they can do is support the creators of these works of art
and media by legally paying for the pleasure of reading, listening or
watching their chosen entertainment to ensure future success of the
industries, but unfortunately some people will never be able to understand
that and they will continue to rob rightful owners of their income.
Hi Jas,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very informative post. I admire your strong stance on the issue, and after this post, tend to agree with you. I believe that illegally downloading something is stealing someones hard work, and this issue probably needs to be addressed more in the media in an attempt to eradicate the crime.
People's work needs to be respected and I think it is up to the media to highlight the major issue.
Thanks for your strong and decisive post!
Hey Jas,
ReplyDeleteI agree with India, I enjoy that you have such a strong moral stand point on this particular subject and admire the fact that you stick it to the people that do download these sorts of things.
The issue that I have with this post, even as informative and as many examples that you have given on the issue of plagarisation and piracy are strong, I think that this could have hit home a bit more to some readers if there was a link to a site that explains the full ramifications and issues with piracy. Giving us some valid points to back up your argument would solidify it within the reader's minds and possibly change other people's minds on the subject, just something to think about!