Is downloading of media (music, videos, software) infringing on the rights of media producers and causing economic hardships on media creators? should media producers prosecute students and individuals that they suspect of downloading copyrighted material

Internet access (Henderson 25

In 2005 , a statistics indicate that one out of three CDs is a pirated copy Worldwide , 20 billion songs were downloaded illegally . In 2005 there were record numbers of seizures of CD copy equipment as well as pirated discs . There was strong enforcement levels in the countries of Mexico Brazil and Spain but seizures doubled from one year to the next (Pain 22

In 2004 there was a 40 percent piracy rate in Brazil with a billion songs downloaded in an illegal manner . China also has a

tremendous problem in the pirating of illegal discs with a rate of 85 percent in 2005 . Piracy has increased rapidly since the unsought of broadband technology in China . In Greece there is a piracy rate of 50 percent with the legal sale of music dropping considerably in the last five years (Pain , 22

Organized crime is becoming more and more involved in the piracy of music and black-market activities . Italy has taken steps to increase police action but it is difficult in a nation with an estimated 2 .7 million people involved in sharing (Pain 22

Things are not any better in Mexico . In 2005 there were 110 million pirated products sold . Digital piracy is becoming a larger problem in Mexico with the downloading of 70 million worth of illegal music downloaded . In Guadalajara , Mexico , Operation Mexico Plus investigators worked to close illegal markets , and install legitimate music trading Experts reveal the effort yielded moderate success . Theft of intellectual property is also a problem in Russian where the nation has a poor record in prosecution of intellectual theft . One in four websites that are involved in copyright infringement are located in Russia . One such site , allofmp3 .com sells music globally without payment to rights holders or permission from record...