The internet is a vast platform with access to endless information. For the current teenagers of Generation Z, this open service offers the convenience of free media, specifically surrounding movie pirating and unauthorized music streaming, which have damaged these respective industries greatly.

   It is important to note that internet piracy (using the internet to illegally copy software and pass it on to other people) is theft, and downloading a pirated movie would make you a criminal. If you are indicted, you can be fined upwards of $250,000 and incarcerated for up to three years. Not only is it morally and ethically wrong, but by clicking the download button, you are risking copyright industries and the jobs of the people employed there, not to mention that you are robbing movie and music industry workers who should be compensated for their work through the legal purchase of media. Depreciating the worth of a product that was intended for the function of capital gain is wrong, no matter how you put it. Piracy is not “sharing,” unless your definition of sharing means that the person giving isn’t actually losing anything. Piracy also decreases creativity—who would really create quality content if they knew that they were going to lose money? It’s not as if the people who pirate are broke: they simply feel entitled to view media on the internet for free.

   According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), common examples of online copyright infringement of music include downloading “an app on your smartphone that allows you to ‘strip’ the audio from any YouTube music video . . .” and joining a ‘file-sharing network and [downloading] unauthorized copies of all the copyrighted music you want for free from the computers of other network members.” In a study conducted by the Institute for Policy Innovation, it was found that sound recording piracy results in the loss of over 71,000 jobs and $12.5 billion in the U.S. economy every year, while both the sound recording industry and downstream retail industries lose $2.7 billion annually. You are not entitled to illegally accessed music any more than you are entitled to the CDs at a store without paying for them. Just because you don’t see the people you’re stealing from doesn’t mean you aren’t affecting them.

   There are many arguments defending and justifying music and movie pirating alike, ranging from “movies and/or music are too expensive these days” to the timeless “I’m just one person, how could me pirating a few movies/songs hurt anyone?” The fact of the matter is, however, that no matter your excuse, stealing is stealing, and by illegally downloading the current box office hits or chart-topping singles, you are stealing not only from artists and producers who worked tirelessly to create the art you are wrongfully consuming but also from the workers who helped get that media to your local store or theater.

   Streaming music offers an entirely different problem to the music industry of today. Even though many music streaming services are technically legal, it still damages the music industry. Huffington Post writer Reed Alexander asserts, “streaming powerhouses like Spotify and Pandora don’t compensate artists fairly for the right to play their music, in such a way that allows consumers to circumvent having to purchase songs and albums through traditional means, whether those are record stores or iTunes or anywhere else.” Streaming services are changing the music industry for the worse, for although it may be easier to hit shuffle on Spotify than to pay for a song or album, it makes it all the more difficult for artists to monetize their work.

   In the end, it comes down to respect. Respect the artists and the work they put in for the media to even exist. Respect the industries that fuel and maintain the entertainment we consume daily. Respect the people who are there every step of the way to produce and deliver the media to us, people whose jobs jeopardized by hitting the download button. Even in a seemingly victimless crime, there are those who pay the price you went out of your way to avoid — nothing is truly free.