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Use Illegal Music Downloading To Give Kids A Lesson On Ethics

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2008

Parents, here's a scary sign of the times: Nearly a third of youths ages 9 to 14 may be accomplices in an ongoing multibillion-dollar Internet music heist.

That's my interpretation of a survey released in late January by the NPD market research firm. According to the report, 26 percent of tweens are downloading music illegally.

They are tapping into a free file-sharing program called LimeWire, which operates as a so-called peer-to-peer network. This "P2P" technology, which allows users to download or upload music, videos and other media, has been at the center of often-confusing copyright battles in recent years. It has resulted in high-profile lawsuits by the recording industry aimed at everyone from sixth-graders to college students.

Despite the legal and educational push to combat pirating, LimeWire ranked as the second-most popular source for music file-sharing among the nearly 3,400 youngsters surveyed by NPD.

The most popular site? Not surprisingly, Apple's iTunes, which charges 99 cents per song. It was used by nearly 50 percent of the kids polled.

What's The Big Deal?

Why is it OK to download a Foo Fighters song on iTunes but wrong on LimeWire? It boils down to money: Apple, Amazon and other companies pay fees to music artists for the rights to sell their music. But no such royalty arrangement occurs when your child downloads a song for free on LimeWire or other similar site, then burns it onto a CD for friends. The youngster is "pirating" the music without paying for it.

I found the survey troubling for a range of reasons, starting with basic ethical issues of children engaging in illegal activity. What the study also showed is many young children growing up in this digital age are unsupervised online. In fact, two-thirds of the tweens surveyed by NPD said they use the Internet without parental supervision. An additional 59 percent said they downloaded music without parental assistance.

So much for parental vigilance.

"The music industry hoped that litigation and education might encourage parents to keep better tabs on their kids' digital music activities," NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said in a statement. "But the truth is, many kids continue to share music" through sites such as LimeWire.

But why penalize children? Companies such as LimeWire are essentially encouraging illegal behavior.

True, LimeWire's Web site rightfully includes extensive warnings and disclaimers about safely using "P2P" software. It also notes that it does not "encourage or condone the illegal copying of copyrighted materials." The company says it has taken steps to improve downloading safety, and users can be locked out of the free site.

Still, the high school and college students I talked to about this issue said it is easy to skate around LimeWire's file-sharing checks and balances. Why do it? That's a no-brainer: The music is free, and the chances of getting caught by the copyright police are slim.

The Internet has democratized and popularized music, like so many other things. It's a wonderful feeling when you can find almost any song. For that reason, though, it's important for parents to make sure their children are supervised online, starting with keeping the computer in the family room or another area where usage can be observed.

Guide For Parents

Meanwhile, a nonprofit organization called Wired Safety (wiredsafety.org) offers online guides to parents and children on copyrighting issues and how to download music safely. Whether you have experienced young audiophiles in your house or have children just beginning to embrace the Internet music age, here is some ground to consider covering with them.

Make the pirating issue real to kids. Rather than focusing on the money motives of rock stars who want to be paid for their songs, talk about the ethics of plagiarizing a book report or copying a video.

Steer clear of free downloading sites. "If it's free, nobody has paid the artist" for the rights to the music, according to Wired Safety. The Recording Industry Association of America has a list of pay-to-download music sites at riaa.com.

Talk about the lack of product quality on "P2P" services. According to Wired Safety, many songs are contaminated with viruses, and others are low-quality copies of the actual recording. That claim was confirmed by the students I interviewed.

Finally, there's a money lesson to this music monitoring. If your youngster is looking to add songs to his playlist, some comparison shopping is in order. With any number of music downloading sites to choose from, shoppers may find some variation in price and quality - and it's all perfectly legal behavior.

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