Property Rights & The Music Industry : The
Major Debate
As stated in Mankiw & Taylor’s Economics (Second Edition), ‘property rights
grant the exclusive right of an individual, group or organization to determine
how a resource is used.’ Unfortunately, for numerous singers and songwriters in
the music industry, their property rights (and large amounts of money) have
been taken from them as a result of online music piracy. According to the
Oxford Dictionary, piracy can be de?ned as the ‘unauthorized use or
reproduction of another’s work’. As a result of major technological advances in
the past 20 years, music piracy has now developed into a major issue for the
music industry. Although many of us would think little of illegally downloading
a song here or there, the resulting impact on the music industry and those who
are employed in it is vast. According to a 2007 study by the Institute for Policy
Innovation in the U.S. the annual cost of online music piracy to the U.S.
economy is $12.5 billion along with 71,060 lost jobs and $2.7 billion in lo ??)?????????????????????????????????????????e???????)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Q??)?????????????????????????????e?????????????=??????????e??????????()I??????????5??????8?? ?????????Q????5???@???*???????????M???????????*???M????]????)
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