Well, this is interesting. Despite the various biased, one-sided, “education programs” designed by the entertainment industry for schools, it seems that plenty of students are smart enough to make ethical decisions in a more nuanced and understanding fashion. Michael Geist points us to the rather surprising news that the winner of a high school ethics essay contest wrote his essay explaining why file sharing may be illegal, but it’s not ethically wrong.
She argues that there are a variety of reasons why kids still engage in unauthorized file trading, but one of them is that they just don’t think copyright laws are morally justified. Instead, they see the benefit and the opportunities presented in easier sharing and distribution of works, allowing more people to hear and discover new artists, while opening up lots of new potential business models. All good stuff.
But what’s most surprising is that this essay actually won the contest. While there are plenty of us who understand the views expressed in the paper, you would think that most folks who haven’t thought too much about these issues will quickly resort to the “but.. but… infringement is bad!” arguments, and refuse to even consider an essay arguing that copyright infringement can be morally justified. So, kudos to the judges for at least having an open mind on this one.
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