Intellectual Property

The first that comes to my mind when I think of intellectual property is the still ongoing discussion about the right to download music and movies for free. File sharing networks as Napster, Limewire and BitTorrent are names that are familiar with these types of free sharing of artistical works. I must admit that I have tried this out myself for several years ago. I did it to check out new music that could be interesting to buy on a CD. It’s very convenient when you have heard a song, but you aren’t sure what the rest of the album is like. Instead of travelling down to the local CD shop, you can check it out for free in your living room. Artists can get more listeners when it’s for free, and that’s an advantage for the artist. Maybe they can get a bigger audience on their concerts, and make money that way instead? Is this a fact? For most of the artists it’s not 



Well, the argument that the artists could make more money on concerts could fit those who download music on sites I’ve mentioned above. For those of you who have problems with walking down to the nearest CD shop, there’s an alternative. You can for example buy the Mp3 version on Itunes or Platekompaniet. Then you will not commit a crime. Yes, it’s a crime. In fact it’s comparable to walking into a shop and put a CD in your wallet, and go out of the store without paying for it. Many have problems with seeing this aspect, because no one is watching them. They think they are anonymous, and if nobody can see them it’s ok. Another issue is that they don’t feel they are taking something physical from someone. They’re just downloading a file from the free Internet. Yes, the idea is that Internet is for free, but it doesn’t mean that everything on the Internet is for free. For those of you who download the music because you think you have the right to do it because Internet is free to use for everyone, there is something called intellectual property. The artists don’t get money for their work when you download music for free. Is this right? I don’t think so. In fact we have a law against this in Norway: åndsverkloven

According to this law, the artist have the legal right to be the only one to reproduce, publish or to sell his or her product for a certain period of time. So with the law in hand, it's pretty clear that you can't share the artist's product without having a permission to do so. But in the end I think it should be your conscience that stops you from taking money out of the hard working artists' pockets. They deserve the money to keep on making the music you love to listen to. If they don't get a wage for their work it might stop them producing music.

I don't think you would have liked that someone rented out your cabin without your permission, when you weren't using it, and took money for it. Have you ever thought about that...?