Copyright Ethics

Stealing is taking something that isn’t yours without paying for it and without permission from the rightful owner. These days, with modern technology such as the internet, it is steadily becoming easier and easier to steal. No, I am not being melodramatic when I say ‘steal’. When you download copyrighted material such as music, you are taking the property of the developer, artist, or company. Copying or downloading copyrighted material is wrong. It takes many hours, days, months to perfect a program, or song. Taking the product of that effort without paying for it is like snatching donuts from a bakery, a car from the dealership. In other words, copying or downloading copyrighted material is stealing. Not only is it wrong and unethical, it is illegal too. The problem with society these days is that so many people are doing it, making it seem less severe than it actually is and is almost completely accepted by the general public.

Now, most people will argue that technically, they did not take anything from the creator; they simply copied an existing, paid for, program. It’s not really stealing, they reason. The artist or manufacturer didn’t lose a copy of his merchandise. But the bottom line is: Unless you are copying whatever it is for your own, personal use, do not copy copyrighted software. If it is copyrighted, music or otherwise, you cannot distribute it. It doesn't matter who it's for; your aunt, mother or your best friend.

Copyrighted material is, however, different from ShareWare and FreeWare. ShareWare is a program of sorts that the author has written and then distributed to the public. These programs can be copied and handed around to your heart’s content. The difference between Shareware and FreeWare is that a Shareware author might require you to register as a user of the program (usually costing around $20) if you use the program regularly. Freeware on the other hand is, as the name implies, totally and completely free. Freeware is usually a small program file dedicated to helping your computer become more user-friendly.