Topic Proposal: Illegal Sharing of Copyrighted Music

Within the last decade the amount of illegal sharing of copyrighted music has become a growing problem.  Artists and record labels complain that sharing music files strips the rightful distributors of compensation for their work.  Some consider file sharing "stealing" while others think nothing of it.

With current technology it is quite easy to make illegal copies of music.  There are many workarounds for protected content such as cracks, format loopholes, and false authorization.

Some have accepted file sharing as part of the times offering unprotected copies of music, such as iTunes.  Others have gone the other route, such as the Foo Fighters copy protection disaster.  Removing copy protection may increase appeal for a product in the short run, but also may hurt the overall number of sales and profit in the long run.