Topics Ethics

Question I understand that P2P software, such as limewire, is unethical when one downloads or shares files that are copyrighted, because it violates several ethical theories. But my question is when one downloads non-copyrighted material, then this is deemed ethical. But i need help to use an ethical theory such as Kant's deontological theory, utilitarianism, Rawls (Rights) Theory, or Virtue Theory. Can you please use one of these theories to support that downloading non-copyrighted music via P2P IS ethical?

Accepted:
November 17, 2009

Comments

I'm not sure exactly what sort of help you need to be able to answer yourquestion and, because your query reads like a course assignment, I'm alsounsure what kind of help I ought to give to you. Assuming you are a philosophystudent completing a course assignment, here is some general advice that mightbe useful to you. My advice comes in the form of questions that I might ask oneof my own students who felt stuck.

First, which of these ethical theories interests you the most? For example,which one seems the most deeply insightful to you, which one seems the mostintellectually provocative or challenging, which ones seems the most difficultto understand (but worth the effort of working hard to do so)?

Second, for the ethical theory you have selected what is the key idea orprinciple or test that determines whether or not the act of downloading youdescribe should be viewed as an ethical act? You'll need to identify thisaccurately and precisely, ideally by working with two or three "crucialquotes" from a philosopher's primary text that get to the heart of thisevaluation, as you understand it.

Third, do you have a clear understanding of how to apply the test or idea orprinciple that you have identified to the downloading case? To secure this,you'll need to really understand the ethical principle or test and also willneed to be able to explain the downloading case in a way that makes clear itsethical significance.

Finally, once you have worked out as clear an understanding of this aspossible, how satisfied or unsatisfied with the results of applying thatspecific ethical theory to that specific case? Do any observe any tensions orgaps in your analysis? If so, and if you have double-checked that those"rough spots" are not due to your misunderstanding the ethical theoryyou have selected or due to your having described the downloading case in aninexact or otherwise inapt way, those "difficult areas" may be worthreflecting upon as a means for you gaining greater insight.

None of those four tasks is easy to accomplish, and in particular each partof the the third can be challenging. I think the idea in the second step ofidentifying "crucial quotes" that you can then analyze in depth(word-by-word if necessary!) is a useful one for preparing yourself for thechallenge of gaining a clear enough understanding of the ethical theory youselect.

So, this is not a direct answer to your question, but rather a"four-step recipe" about steps you might take to answer it yourself.In my experience, this sequence of exegetical and analytical steps can beadapted to answer many of the sorts of questions that crop up in undergraduatephilosophy course assignments.