Free Music or Piracy?

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Tuesday Mornings with Joe!!!! Our main topic today will be on music and the illegal downloading (piracy) that has been going on over the last few years. Our visitors include the RIAA and Mark Fischer, a Washington Post staff writer. First off RIAA, what are your views on music piracy and why is there the need to go against it?
RIAA- Joe, music piracy is hurting the economy as we speak. Over 12 million dollars, 70,000 American jobs, almost 3 billion dollars which is getting cut out of employee’s paychecks, over 420 million dollars in tax revenues, and an estimated 130 million dollars from corporate taxes have all been relinquished. The biggest problem sites have been college campuses. These students just don’t know the consequences of clicking that download button.
Joe- Very interesting what are your views on this issue Mark?
Mark Fischer- Well on the issue of college students being the main source illegal downloading; they’re college students. What else is there to do on a consistent basis when you aren’t in class or out? And many students enjoy studying to music. The RIAA wanting colleges to discipline college students for downloading music “illegally” is just ridiculous. The legal way of downloading music is to buy the music offline. FYI: college students do not have the money to have 1000 songs at their disposal because they have to pay for college itself, which most students take out loans for anyways.
Joe- Very true, very true RIAA, have you had any success in enforcing the “no illegal downloading on campuses?”
RIAA- We are currently working on that. We have not been able to enforce laws yet because not all colleges have agreed against illegal downloading. But, we have had success in sharing how serious this matter is. We believe that once parents find out about this downloading possibly getting their child suspended or expelled from college, the students will stop.
Joe- Mark, we can probably guess your opinion on the RIAA’s law enforcing, but have you come up with any alternate solutions?
Mark Fischer- Joe, personally, I don’t think it’s about finding alternate solutions. Kids and college students are going to find ways around these laws. “Illegal downloading” started because kids couldn’t afford to buy their music. If you put laws that will enforce the illegality of downloading music, some computer genius is just going to come along with another way to obtain music for free, which will then become the modern way to go about music.

Protect your neck

I myself have mixed feelings about being able to have a concealed weapon on campus. I understand that it automatically offers a great sense of protection for the gun holder, but for everyone else without a firearm, it can be very scary. There is no way everyone on campus will safely carry a gun on campus. This is because there just aren’t that many sane people on a college campus. I think the only reason some kids do not carry guns on campus, is because of the consequences they will have to face once caught. I myself would be in favor of carrying concealed weapons on the George Mason campus, if and only if, every gun man or woman was put through an extensive, and extremely thorough preliminary course, that certified them as mentally stable, physically able, and saw that they had the right mindset. They would need to answer close to 200 questions for me to know they were taking this seriously and it through the whole thing.
The strongest argument that I saw brought up about being in favor of having a concealed weapon on campus, is the story of Nick and the University of Utah. He sounded very concerned about the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University shootings this past year. That would be the type of student I think that would go through a proper gun course like the one mentioned before. The Weakest argument I think I saw for being in favor of having concealed weapons on a college campus was BYU student Casey Matheny who just said “I don’t mind if they have concealed weapons, I just don’t want to know about it.” This to me sounds like an attitude that is to relaxed for this situation. The strongest argument to the prohibiting of concealed weapons on a college campus was the small story of Ted Bundy doing some of his serial killing on the Utah University campus. That to me is a perfect reason for a student to be able to have some sort of concealed weapon.
I think that teachers could be allowed to carry a concealed weapon on campus especially over a student. A teacher has the responsibility to look after the students while they are in the classroom. I also think that the teacher will have the most level head on any one pair of shoulders in the classroom. I would choose a professor or teacher to make my decision and whether to act on something if that is what needed to be done.