Class Visit - Report

After having the privilege of listening to Don Hogarth, who discussed with us about the controversy over piracy and copyright of primarily music and movies. I gave it some deep thought on if he had changed my deception of what is right and wrong about piracy and copyright. He gave me the inside view of what the music and movie business is all about, most of which was new to me. Some of his new points, were so convincing that I had to decide whether my view of piracy before was wrong. I believed that piracy was fine to an extent. Mostly because I am only one person in a big world, where for me to steal a song isn't a big deal. I did believe however that it is wrong to take somebody else's work and sell it for a profit. I used to also believe that the big recording companies behind the artists were evil people, who were greedy for money and had no appreciation for the music. I was however completely wrong about that. As I was told by Mr. Hogarth, that the people behind the big label companies are people who love music, and in most cases, are people who didn't make it with their musical talent so they took another route through music; business. It was a strong argument, which made the labels look like good people. It made me feel a bit guilty for stealing music, because it gave me less of a reason to steal music when I thought I was rebelling against the big bad record labels. Obviously now though, I couldn't use "rebelling against the big bad record labels" as an excuse. I now didn't really have any excuses for myself to use for why piracy is okay. My last only reason for why I believe it's okay for me is that my music taste is for older music. Music like Rock 'n' Roll that isn't being produced anymore by my favourite bands because they have retired or died. So for me to steal would be a bit more okay because I don't think I need to provide them with any money because they are no longer producing music. The money should be an encouragement to make more music, but if there is nothing new what's there to encourage?

So in the end, even though Mr. Don Hogarth gave me new eyes into the entertainment world, and showed me why piracy is bad. He has not convinced me that stealing music is bad because no matter what, I will still continue doing it. Mostly because I am only one person out of millions doing it, and it's much easier way to acquire the music that I like.