Music Industry in India: Economic and Legal Issues and Challenges
18 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2012
Date Written: September 15, 2012
Abstract
The current disagreements between the recording industry and media distribution companies like Napster also raise questions about how much current copyright law has strayed from its original constitutional intent. On the one hand, Napster is illegal. It violates artists’ and copyright holders’ rights to be paid for their works, and does not give artists a choice over how their music is reproduced and distributed. On the other hand, it is also important to remember the reasons for which the incentive system exists. The Constitution established copyright law for the benefit of the public, to “promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts.” The purpose of copyright is to encourage creativity and development by establishing exclusive rights for those who did the creating, but only to the extent that the works would be disseminated to the public.
Online digital distribution of music has the potential to offer various benefits to artists, the recording industry, and consumers. For artists, the Internet provides a method with which a broad audience may be reached at very little cost. For record companies, container less music offers vast savings from the elimination of both manufacturing costs associated with CDs and losses from overproduction. For consumers, online digital music distribution allows them to choose the music they want to hear, when they want to hear it, without the hassles of going to the record store or ordering an album online. Purchasing could become much more efficient, and consumers would have access to an unprecedented catalogue of music only a few clicks away.
If music continues to be distributed illegally at no cost over the Internet, musicians may be deprived of compensation for their work, ultimately destroying the incentive system carefully crafted by copyright law. At its heart, copyright law attempts to provide creators with enough economic incentives to encourage the creation and dissemination of creative works, to the benefit of the public.
Keywords: Music, Piracy, Law, Intellectual Property
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