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Illegally Downloading Music and Piracy

Can I get a show of hand really quick, before streaming services, how many of you have downloaded a song without paying to that specific artist?

If so, does anyone know the average jail time for illegally downloading anything, Music, movies, or any file?

It’s around 5 years but, in the UK, Parliament met earlier this month to discuss raising the sentence to 10.

This all came about from a 2015 study by the UK IPO, which concluded that 5 years will not discourage the average citizen from treading on copyright infringement. So in their study the IPO suggested to double the jail time in order to reduce piracy.

To put that into perspective, this is around the jail time that rapist, minor assault crimes, and rioting gets you.

Later that year a consultation was sent out to the public to see their response to the suggested action. Out of the 1000 respondents, only 2% supported the proposition.

The reason that this became relevant again is because a UK Citizen could potentially be the first person sentenced under the new law, if it passes.

UK citizen Wayne Evans pleaded guilty to illegally downloading and sharing UKs top 40 songs across the internet and his sentencing will take place in November. This yearlong investigation was conducted by the Performance Rights Society for Music and they concluded that his actions were highly offensive to the artists he pirated.

So I would like to leave you with two more questions:

What are your thoughts on the severity of punishment on intellectual properties and should Evans faces these punishments fully?




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