I believe that copying my favourite song and making copies for my friends is illegal. I think that even if it is my best song, and I wish to share the experience with my friend making copies either in CDC form or on digital devices is illegal. The law is against copying sheet music. According to Phillips and Street (2015), copyright law protects the composers and recorders of music from their works being stolen and taken advantage by other people. It also deems sending copies of sheet music without the permission of the owner as stealing as it takes ways money from the composers. I also believe distributing copies of sheet music to friend denies the owner of the song from selling it to more people since I would have given it to my friends for free. However, the copyright law, except the copying of sheet music to fair use such as teacher sharing with students for educative purpose. Yet, in my case, this a person issue and for leisure purpose. If I wanted to share my favourite music, I could easily buy more music and give my friends.
It is also illegal to download and sell the music to my friends without the owner’s permission. Downloading music from the internet allows one to have any type of music for free. When, I download my favourite music, I get it for free. However, copyright law prohibits downloading and possessing the copyrighted music without the consent of the owner or without paying for it (Negus & Street, 2017). Therefore, if my favourite song was copyrighted, I would have done an illegal act to download it. Nevertheless, it is legal for me to download my favourite song if music is not copyrighted. It is also permissible if the owner of the song has been made accessible to other people for free. When it comes to selling the song which I have downloaded either illegally or legally, it is prohibited by the law. The copyright law stipulates one should only sell others’ music with their permission or resell it if lawfully obtained. Therefore, in the situation of the downloaded song, it would be illegal to profit from another person work by selling it yet got it for free
It is also illegal for me to upload and share music on my website without the consent of the owner. Negus and Street (2017) elaborate that the copyright law only gives the owners of the music the right to produce, sell, share and distribute their lyrics and music. Therefore, I will be violating the law for uploading and sharing the music without the owner’s permission. Besides, sharing the music on the website constitutes distributing the music for free, which limits the owner from making the profit.
I would support the copyright law if I was a songwriter because it would protect my music from being stolen by others. Phillips and Street (2015) illustrate that the law protects original authorship or creation of any musician. The other reason I would support copyright law is to prevent other people from exploiting my music. It shields my work from being reproduced, distributed and sold to other people without my consent. Thus, I will be able to earn a lot from my work since for one to possess, share or use my work they have to purchase it from me. Besides, without the protection of copyright law, people would steal my work. People can take my music content or lyric and claim it as theirs. They can also sell my music for their profit.
References
Phillips, T., & Street, J. (2015). Copyright and musicians at the digital margins. Media, Culture & Society, 37(3), 342-358.
Negus, K., Street, J., & Behr, A. (2017). Copying, copyright and originality: imitation, transformation and popular musicians. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(4), 363-380.