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                     Ersatz Presents an essay discussing
                           Buying vrs downloading
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**name removed**
1-19-03
Eng, Per 5

Buying Vs. Downloading

	In this proto technological age we live in, technology seems to be evolving faster than we can market it. Virtually everything on the market today has to be digital. Whether it’s your next DVD that you buy, CD that you listen to, or book that you read, there is going to be a digital representation of that same product someplace on the internet. And now with aid from “Peer to peer” programs such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, Ares, Bear share, and countless others, It is simple to download for free what the majority of the public buys for $20 and up. But is it legal?
	Absolutely not. The internet can easily be compared to a riot in the middle of the busiest city. Everybody knows they can get away with smashing the windows out of the closest shop and loot everything in it. It just takes one guy to throw the first brick and the mob behind him will fallow. So yes, downloading DVDs, music, e-books, and any other kind of game or program is illegal. But only the unlucky few that were in arms reach of the riot police will be arrested and or fined big bucks for it. If you’re the type to avoid putting yourself in that kind of situation then you should stay out of peer to peer program and get your copy of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” the legal way and wait a couple more months to enjoy it, when it hits store shelves.
	Downloading is illegal for many reasons. It hurts our economy and the industries who make the product lose allot of money. So if you choose the buy the product you are not only doing the right thing but helping people who download too. That is why buying and downloading go hand and hand. Lets say I go to the store and buy a PC game the first day it comes out. For the most part not many people have the game yet, and the people who don’t have the money to buy it need somebody to turn that CD into a digital image. This is how a CD (in this case a PC game) becomes sharable. Somebody buys the game, puts the game into their PC, “Cracks” the copy write protection with a hex editing program, Then copies all the files from the CD so they can be dumped into a self extracting file. That self extracting file now contains the entire fifty dollar game I just bought from the store. If I post that file on a website or share it in a peer 2 peer program. Anyone can download it and play it for free. So for the most part except for a few exceptions we need as many buyers as we do down loaders. What do you mean except for a few exceptions?
	Let’s talk about movies for a second. Movies have to be filmed and edited digitally on a computer. I could have written a whole paper on computer intrusion but in this case I’ll say a hacker can get inside the computer used for editing the next Star Wars movie, after the producer announces the film is complete. Then download the film that is already digitized and share it before it gets to the theatre. So when all the die hard Star Wars fans are sleeping on the side walk waiting for tickets to go on sale anyone can download the movie and watch it in the comfort of their own home. In fact you can even burn the movie onto a DVD with a DVD burner (if you have one) and watch it with a tub of popcorn on your big screen.
	But on the other hand it might be safer to buy the ticket instead. Some corporations like the RIAA were granted the authority to launch computer crippling viruses named after popular songs and movies. So when you think your getting Nemo 2, you open it up and end up with the Microsoft blue screen of death. The best way to avoid that is to buy the product or just download something that dose not end with .EXE chances are if you want a movie it’s going to end with .AVI but some people who download don’t even know much about computers and fall into the petty traps the RIAA has set. Not much of an effort has been made to stop piracy so far but you might as well get to goods while it’s still on the plate.
	I say we enjoy the mayhem while it lasts. Sooner or later the government will do a little more than just nab somebody here and there. When I look back on my childhood I want be able to say “son… in my day everything was free, didn’t have to spend my allowance money on movies, video games, or music. All I had to do was log onto the internet and boom! I had it all at my fingertips.” Even though they may tighten the internets security they will never stay more than two steps ahead of the pirates. For every new security precaution there will be a new means of getting around it.   
