Illegal music downloading at the University of Maryland Essay

To the University of Maryland, the reported contained herein should serve as an effective investigation into the patterns of illegal downloading of music on the campus. As this is a serious legal issue for which the recorded music industry has levied considerable pressure over universities, it is clear that there is a necessity to adopt a strategy which promotes legal downloading. Currently, the University’s strategy problematically mirrors that of much of the music industry itself. Such is to say that it remains convolutedly uncertain as to how best to diminish the appeal of free or illegal downloading which has been so dominant in the campus culture of the last decade. Contained herein is a strategy which is ironically novel in its approach, insofar as it projects its interest in the student which is at the core of this issue. Such is to say that for far too long, industry and universities have consulted one another and legal scholars in order to determine what actions might be taken against said student. Indeed, a perusal of the University of Maryland’s Play Fair website, which is intended to serve as an educational forum on the subject of illegal downloading and which is subject to greater consideration further along in this study, is demonstrative of the combative stance that has been so counter-constructive. Therefore, the research examination here is centered on the survey-collected input of university students, whom are at direct issue and who are most directly impacted by the issue at hand. By considering the insights of University of Maryland students on the issues of illegal downloading, pay-service downloading and the declining conditions in the music industry at large, the research will be intended to propose some direct and actionable recommendations which should lend to a long-term resolution of this situation for the University. Inherently, this discussion and the research yielded will demonstrate a core set of philosophical and economic issues requisite and illuminating to the discussion that are nonetheless fairly complex and, therefore, not easily addressed in a broader social, political and educational scheme, regardless of the recommendations approached here..