Editor's note: Ian Hodge is a regular columnist for Business Reform Magazine, the leading Christian business magazine with over 100,000 readers. Each issue of Business Reform features practical advice on operating successfully in business while glorifying God.
The music industry has created headlines for itself yet again. This time, instead of closing another Napster, it has taken legal action against 261 individuals who, it is alleged, have made available for download on the net music files that are the copyright of the music publishers. Naturally, many people are up in arms.
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From some quarters, it is suggested that no other industry sues its customers. But it can hardly be claimed that the people being sued are customers. They have taken ? for free ? music files that are the legal property of the music corporations. Without permission of the owners, they have then used and/or distributed the files to others. Customers are those who purchase goods and services through legitimate means, not gain access while denying the seller some kind of return.
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It was claimed in one radio interview that there are 60 million Americans who swap music files. Suing 261 of these is hardly likely to make much of a dent in music piracy, but the music industry is trying to preserve its monopoly over the sale of its property.
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It’s strange how people feel they are entitled to someone else’s property for free when the property owner wants to get paid. This is a condition far broader than the music industry. The invention of the photocopier gave millions of people around the world access to printed pages ? the only difference that it is harder to copy a book than it is to copy an MP3 music file.
And this problem is not confined to America ? it is a worldwide problem. Asia, for example, while extolled for the virtue of its economic growth, also exhibits some of the worst software piracy in the world.
At the heart of the music debate is the issue of ownership of property, in this case intellectual property. Most people seem to have trouble with property rights at this point, and while they would never think of stealing another person’s car or other physical property, they do not hesitate in copying music files or books that have been authored by someone else.
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What these people fail to see is that at heart they disagree with the capitalist system. Capitalism has been given many definitions, but there is only one of lasting value. Capitalism is in essence a system of property rights and the ability to exchange property without coercion on the terms determined between property owners and prospective buyers.
On this basis it is evident we don’t have a truly capitalistic system anywhere in the world. There is enough government regulation even in the so-called free countries of the world to indicate that capitalism, as defined above, is not available. Yet people still cry for “freedom” while at the same time calling for the government to take more control of their lives.
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The alternative to capitalism is not a good choice, and there is only one alternative. Property will be owned and controlled by individuals, families, corporations, etc., or else it will be owned and controlled by the state. This system of state ownership and control ? socialism ? is the only alternative to capitalism, and it is not a good option. The collapse of the Berlin wall put to an end the practical experiment with socialism ? except in the Western world where our politicians and academics still think it has a chance of success.
Those who now want the courts to abandon individual property rights in music and allow the continued piracy of music to continue are the enemies of capitalism and the right of individuals to own and control property ? including intellectual property.
And if there really are 60 million music pirates in America, it is easy to see why freedom hangs, today, on such tender hooks.
Ian Hodge and Business Reform are able to offer a range of services that will educate business owners in all aspects of management, services that include our very own do-it-at-home (or at the office) study material. The first series of lessons on finance is now available. For further information, send an email to [email protected]. Learn to develop and maintain management practices that will give your business every chance of success.
