Hello Everyone,
As a part of week nine's activity's I am going to critically analyze the following scenario:
"Kevin has just purchased the latest video game, Too Fast 22. He and his friends enjoy playing games on their gaming systems. His best friend Vince also likes to play video games, but doesn't have the money to buy the latest games. Kevin decides to be a good friend and install a copy of his game on Vince's system. Does sharing games, music, or movies hurt anyone?"
In this scenario, Kevin is using technology inappropriately as he is illegally copying a game to his friends console so that his friend Vince, is able to play the game without having to buy it. By definition this would be considered "stealing" as Vince owns a game and is able to play it without legally buying the rights to it, and Kevin distributed the game without having the "approval" from the game publisher to do such a thing. It can be argued that these actions are inappropriate when comparing them to arguably similar actions such as downloading music, which is also consider illegal. "Making unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recording is against the law and may subject your civil and criminal liability"(Pigeons, 2013). Copying a game on to a console or downloading your new favourite Justin Bieber song is illegal because it is not your game or song to download and distribute freely. It can be proven that these actions hurt people involved such as the producers of the games because by Kevin giving Vince the game the company was just "ripped off" of a $70-$100 purchase if Vince were to buy the game. Therefore, when thinking about how Kevin's actions are actually hurting other people, it is evident that copying a game is just a illegal as downloading a song.
In this case, the first possible way this situation should have been handled was Kevin just lending his copy of the game to his friend Vince to play. This way Vince would be able to experience the game without engaging in the illegal activity that both boys condoned. Furthermore, the obvious solution which I feel I should point out, is that Vince should just take the time to save up for the game. It is important to keep an ethical mind when using technology and remember that even though you are not walking out of a store setting the alarm bells off, copying the game to the console, or downloading that new "fire" beat, is behaviour of the same nature and the alarm bells should be going off in your head!!!!
Taking a wider look at the situation, it is important to keep in my mind that when your on the internet "digital information can seem to be as free as air" (Pigeons, 2013). Due to this it is crucial that you do not take advantage of that and download or copy that data, as it is illegal and if caught carries the same types of penalties as walking out of a store with a stolen PS4!
Thanks for reading and I look forward to engaging in conversation on this topic!
Brandon
Works Cited
Pigeons. (2013). 10 Things You Should Know About Illegally Downloading Music. Retrieved March 14, 2016, from http://pigeonsandplanes.com/2013/04/10-things-you-should-know-about-illegally-downloading-music/s/can-you-go-to-jail-for-illegally-downloading-music/
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