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Features The best places to download and buy music
By Carla Hart Staff writer Some say downloading music is a freedom of technology. If your identity is at stake, will it matter if the song was free? According to published reports in The Wall Street Journal Online, a Seattle man pleaded guilty for identity theft after obtaining personal information from the computers of over 50 people who shared music through Limewire, a file sharing service. United States copyright laws protect the artist’s creativity from piracy. But are you protected from the pirate who hacks into your computer system and gains access to your identity? Mr. Dennis Lebec, a communication instructor at Mercyhurst, said that individuals can be highly vulnerable to online crime. "This generation has to be aware that it could happen to them," said Lebec. "Identity theft is a huge problem with estimates of one in six people affected." Junior Stephanie Oliver is careful as an online consumer. "I don’t download music from sites that are illegal, mostly because my mom won’t allow it," Oliver said. Oliver and her roommates share music through iTunes and pay $.99 for a song. "They do have a free song of the week that usually features a new artist and everyone can have that," Oliver said. However Oliver also said, "I do think $.50 for a song is more reasonable, but I do understand that when musicians aren’t charging for CD cases, they don’t make as much money." "Let’s face it," Lebec said, "in terms of mark-up, CD’s are obscenely overpriced." Sophomore Garrett Evans will buy a CD if he really likes the artist. Evans experienced technical difficulties when using Windows so he switched to Mac. "Kazaa got pretty bad with Ad Ware and Spy Ware," Evans explained. "There are so many viruses that block programs. The benefit of Mac is that less people write viruses, so it’s slightly more secure." Senior Wes Craig finds the freedom to download from Limewire convenient. "The quality is the same and downloading is quick, maybe 30 seconds," he said. "It does slow down the computer, but all you have to do is put the music on a CD." Senior Andy Kavulich said another benefit of paying for music is that "you can’t go to jail." He disagrees with Craig concerning the quality of music from sites such as Bearshare, Aresgalaxy and Limewire. "It’s easier to find whole albums on pay sites, and the quality of a bootleg is not as good," Kavulich said. If the quality of the music is jeopardized, is free music worth losing your privacy?
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