Buy, Borrow or Steal…?

I’ll buy the hard copy if it’s any good… I’ll support locally produced products… I can’t afford to buy it from the shops...

“Increasingly, internet communities set their own norms and standards and define their own specific rules and duties.” (Hamelink 2006, 119) How you justify it to yourself is up to you, but either way downloading content off the internet is illegal.

We’ve all seen the ads saying you wouldn’t steal a handbag or you wouldn’t steal a TV and had a laugh at how ridiculous the comparison is. When it comes to these types of physical objects, for the most part, our moral compasses points true and we would never imagine stealing them. It seems to be a different story when it comes to downloading files online. As Hamelink (2006, 117) states, “The anonymity makes lying very easy and difficult to detect…It raises the problem of “moral distance” with extra urgency. The greater the distance to potential victims, the more readily will people inflict harm that they would refrain from in face-to-face situations.” It’s as if because you don’t have to physically take the content from a person, it is somehow acceptable.

From a young age I, like most people, was taught about morals and what it meant to be a good person within society. I was told to always be honest and that stealing was wrong. Like Elisha, I too have illegally downloaded content, so I am in no position to judge anyone who has done the same. Regardless I can’t help but ask the question why, when we all know that stealing is wrong, do we continue to illegally download content?

Hamelink, C. (2006). The Ethics of the Internet: Can we cope with Lies and Deceit on the Net? In Ideologies of the Internet, K. Sarikakis & Daya Thussu, pp. 115-130. New Jersey: Hampton Press

Al-Shagra, A. 2010. The Arabic Online Music Industry Is Learning…Slowly. The Next Web. July 1.