As a kid, I remember using Napster to download music, and I used to love it. I was quite disappointed when it was shut down. Probably, at that time I didn’t even know if it was legal/ illegal/ unethical, I was young and just loved the fact that I could download songs that I love. Post downloading, I used to either burn CDs or put it on my iPod. It was so convenient, and I didn’t even have to ask my parents for extra allowance money. Napster also gave me a chance to experiment with music, I download music from unheard artists, and at that time unheard genres, and it changed my taste in music. It was so easy, if I didn’t like the track, I just had to hit delete. I don’t know if it was unethical or illegal, but the Napster story is truly inspiring.
The first question brings up a lot more questions in my head –
If it’s not illegal, how can you be so sure if it’s unethical? In the Napster story, I’m still not sure if downloading music was unethical. I downloaded music, heard the tracks, appreciated the artists, shared my choices with others., i.e. technically word of mouth marketing, right? The record company probably made a little less money, but the artists became heroes.
Okay, some people might think downloading is wrong, but what if the person only streams it? Is it still wrong?
I was traveling and missed a few episodes of a few of my favorite TV shows. There was nowhere I could watch them, they were not available on NetFlix yet. It was the current season, and I was too curious to know what’s happening on the show. So after a lot of ‘Google-ing,’ I found an application called ShowBox. It was an Android app, and I just had to download the .apk file on my phone. Once I started the app, I was amazed. It had all the shows, all the seasons, a few of the recent movies, just about everything I needed. I streamed a few episodes and caught up with my TV shows. Was this unethical or illegal? I didn’t download any content, I just viewed it online. Downloading torrents is considered illegal, and I don’t do that (anymore). But would streaming content also be wrong?
I pay for cable, and if I missed a couple of episodes, I wouldn’t want to pay again online to catch up on it, I would just stop watching the show if I’ve missed too much. So doesn’t this help the ratings of the TV show? I think this matter is very subjective, it’s a gray area, and there is no definite answer to this.
Reference – https://www.dailydot.com/debug/showbox-movies-android/