Arrr...

Recently, the community of so-called "Internet pirates" has come back into the limelight with the recent trials in Sweden of the founders of a well known and popular torrent tracker website, "The Pirate Bay". It has drawn a significant amount of press, especially after the conviction and jailing of the parties involved, even attracting a few high-profile celebrities, such as Paul McCartney and the vocalist of the band Snow Patrol. Many online supporters have engaged in protests both on and off the web. Protests were held outside the courthouse and during the raid on the Pirate Bay HQ, and a loosely connected internet collective named "Anonymous" lead a Distributed Denial of Service Attack, effectively IFPI website for a few hours.

This raises the question: should media be free to all or should we still pay for our music and movies?

Personally, being exposed to the culture of the Internet nearly constantly, I am inclined to say media should be free. More and more, we're able to get programs, services, and information for free. However, I can understand the argument of the production companies and their gripes. In all honesty, though, some of their claims seem to be blown out of the water. Though there are people who never buy anything, most of the time, people will download or listen to something for free, and then purchase the full thing, or purchase other related items. Not to mention the fact that live ticket sales are still extremely profitable, and one concert can make as much if not more than typical CD sales.

My opinon aside, there's no doubt that media is changing. There's no denying that people are more inclined to download and will want more things for free. Record labels and other production companies are going to need to get creative or they will risk dips if they can't keep up with trends and technology. Of course, they'll always have a responsible and reliable market, as a majority of people still do purchase music, but if you ignore the rising demographic of Internet-users, a few years down the road, that base may not exist.