Music Piracy Is a Good Thing Essay Example for Free

Music Piracy Is a Good Thing Essay If pirating music hurts musicians income so badly it would show, and after all this time of pirating music it hasnt. Music piracy benefits artists more than it hurts, therefore it should be legal. Music piracy is mostly committed by people who are everyday people who have average income jobs and have families who end up being sued by big record companies over downloading music for free. It seems a bit to greedy when you look at the difference in pay between the artist and the people who download the songs. ( †¦) say that the people who pirate the music are more likely to go to the show and buy the albums after downloading music (Ernesto). Also, people who pirate music tracks are very likely to develop an connection to the bands orartists and that will lead to them attending the shows, buying albums and merchandise. When putting this issue in perspective, record companies are just looking for money without any consideration for the ways of getting it. Record companies start suing people who have downloaded music for ridiculous amount of money in attempt to intimidate and scare off the fellons from downloading music illegally. The main groups affected are college kids that dont have the money. Sarah Barg was a sophomore at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Sarah received an email from a label company stating that she owed $3,000 to the Recording Industry Association of America (Bratton). For that amount,, Sarah would be paying $7. 87 for each song. Majority of the songs she pirated were from the eighties and werent even relevant anymore, and yet she was battling record company’s in court over them them. Sixty students like Sarah at UNL received the same similar, as well as hundreds sent out to over sixty other universities across the country. Not knowing ow else to handle the situation, Barg contacted her parents and they had to cover her settlement. I dont know what I would have done. Im only 20 years old, says Barg. Well over five hundred students across the states have paid settlements to avoid being sued. I see it as bullying, UNL freshman Andrew Johnson says, Legally, it makes sense, because we dont have the money to fight back. Johnson illegally downloaded one song and settled $3,000 to avoid being sued for one song. The money used came from the 18 year olds college fund and he now has to work two jobs to compensate for his losses. The record companies seem to target those cant fight back. In 2007, major record companies such as Warner music groups, Warner Bros Records, Inc. , and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, tried to sue a young girl from Texas named Whitney Harper for illegally downloading music from file sharing networks on the internet (Malisow). Whitney was at the time was sixteen years old and was being sued for a minimum of $750 per song when Whitney downloaded thirtyseven songs. That is a little over $20,000 and she is only sixteen years old. Harper tried to use the Innocent Infringer Act that would reduce fees to $200 per song. In order to accomplish that, Harper had to prove she was unaware of the copyright laws by claiming that the copyright notice placed on cds were not on the file sharing networks on the Internet therefore she was unaware. The companies referred to the sixteen-year-old as a long term massive infringer of copyright laws. Harper warned that if the companies won the case that downloading music off the Internet could never be innocent infringement. The Harper case is one the few after many years still going through federal court. The companies had stated they were going to begin transitioning away from suing individuals and find better means of fixing the issue. After years of record companies using an intimidation method to fix the pirating problem, it got them nowhere because the amount of pirates only went up, and the efforts by the companies were in most cases useless. According to the Wall Street Journal, they attempted suing many single mothers, a thirteen-year-old girl, and a dead peope. The new approach is for the companies to work with Internet service providers and when music is eing pirated the user receives a warning that they will lose Internet service if they continue(WSJ. com). The companies still reserve the right to sue if someone is a heavy violator or has ignored several warnings, but even with this new system, it still seems like the companies are only out for money, but in an attempt to escape negative attention from the media, they change their approach. According to The Independent, peo ple who illegally download music also spend more money on music, concerts, merchandises than anyone else. The Secretary of State for Business, Peter Mandelson, stated that the record companies new approach to crack down on illegal down loaders by cutting off internet service could potentially harm the music industry more than help it. The people who file share are the ones who are interested in music. They use file sharing as a discovery mechanism. The artists also have mixed opinions over file sharing, some such as James Blunt and Lily Allen are anti-piracy and Shakira is pro-piracy(Shields). Sites have come out with monthly bills for unlimited music plans that seem fairer. Some artists dont feel affected by file sharing and support the fact that piracy creates a bigger fan base for them. Bands like Angels and Airwaves have produced free records so copyright wasnt an issue. They figure that the fans will still come see them play and record sales arent the only thing to being in a successful band. Some artists dont seem to realize that. Most artists make plenty off of record sales even with a piracy problem, so court cases and law suits on everyday people by record companies seems a bit greedy and selfish. Even with the new laws, they are still pushing to stop this unstoppable problem. Today music piracy is referred to as a dead issue. Most cases that are still pending are being dropped. This year a $54,000 fine on a single mother of four was dropped by the U. S. District Court Judge, Micheal Davis, who stated piracy is no longer monstrous and shocking. The need for deterrence cannot justify a two million verdict for stealing and distributing twenty-four songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music(physorg. om). Thomas Rasset was convicted in 2007 and was ordered to pay $220,000, but the judge who presided over the trial called off the verdict, saying it was wholly disproportionate and oppressive. Her case was one of the thousands that had actually made it to court. In 2011, with new laws, these cases should not be forgotten about. The people who lost cases should be compensated and apologized to because they did nothing other than have an interest in the artist.

Eulogy for Grandmother :: Eulogies Eulogy

Eulogy for Grandmother I believe that every person in, in their own unique way, creates a legacy in their lifetime by which others can live long after that person has left us. For those of us who remain, Mildred Johnson has truly created a legacy to uphold and fulfill in our daily lives. I firmly believe that this carrying out is a true honor and responsibility by means of the various facets that Mildred has made her own. Love : Above all, Mildred Johnson is a figure of unconditional love. Love was the major fabric by which she created her tapestry of life. In the raising of her own children, the teachings of her grandchildren, and in how she welcomed in new family and friends, her unconditional strong love is what has made our family what it is today and what will keep us together from this day forward. Spirit : My Grandma, Mildred Johnson, is a true woman of faith. For as far back as I can remember, my Grandma has been a conveyor of the word of God in developing her family and living her daily life. Never would she miss a Sunday to share the word and love of God. As time moves forward not all of God’s children remain strong enough as before to lead his flock. Nor can all of God’s choir continue to sing quite as loudly as they always have. This is the time when the Lord takes them into his hands to rest their souls as he has now done with Mildred. Make no mistake, however, as the legacy of spirit that she has created in all of us will continue to live on. Family : My Grandmother Mildred truly defined the word family as I have come to learn and live it. Holidays and family gatherings were the celebrations they were because they were surrounded by Grandma’s love. I watched family such as my late uncle Reginald become the amazing family man he was because of traditions instilled by his mother. I have also seen her daughter - my aunt Milinda – raise three beautiful children by the love and traditions passed down from Grandma. I, of course, owe most of who I am from Grandma’s love passed down through my own mother Rayetta and her husband George, whom Grandma so highly regarded.

Proforma: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Judgmental Approach Essay

In addition to forecasting cash flows, managers and investors are also interested in forecasts of the firm’s financial statements. These projected financial statements are called pro forma financial statements. They give both the management and investors an insight into what the financial statements will look like in the future and a signal as to any need to raise long-term funds. The starting point in the creation of the pro forma financial statements is the construction of the pro forma income statement (do you remember why? ). Like the cash budget, it also relies heavily on the sales forecast. Significant errors in the sales forecast will result in errors in the income statement which, in turn, will cause errors on the pro forma balance sheet. Pro Forma Income Statement There are two approaches to creating the pro forma income statement: the percentage of sales method and what I will call the judgmental approach. The percentage of sales approach is simplistic and prone to error (estimating financial statements is tricky enough without compounding the error using an inferior technique). The percentage of sales method assumes that all items on the income statement except interest expense and tax expense vary in direct proportion to the change in sales. This is simply usually not true. Some items will change with sales, but others will not. See the criticism of the percentage of sales approach at the top of page 116 in your text. My illustration will focus on the judgmental approach which allows the analyst to apply judgment to forecast the level of those items that are not expected to vary with sales. My vehicle for illustrating the creation of a pro forma income statement appears below: Assume that sales for the BMX Corporation are expected to be $12 million in 2008 and that sales in 2007 were $10 million. Further assume that cost of goods sold can be divided into two parts: a part that varies with sales and a part that does not (i. e. , cost of goods sold has both fixed and variable components). Further assume that operating expenses can also be divided a fixed portion and a variable portion. Further assume the firm plans to increase its borrowing in 2008 which will increase interest expense on the income statement. The first step in the analysis is to determine the percentage increase in sales: (2008 sales – 2007 sales)/2007 sales = percentage change in sales ($12 million – $10 million)/$10million – 1 = . 2 or 20% The second step in the analysis is to construct the 2008 proforma income statement assuming those items that vary with sales will increase by the percentage change in sales (20%) and that those items that don’t remain fixed. An example of this process is given on the Excel worksheet below. Double click on the worksheet to access it, then scroll up or down as needed. Notice the variable expenses are found by taking the 2007 expense and multiplying by 1 + the percentage change in sales (1. 2). This increases those expenses by 120%. A common error students make is to simply multiply the variable expenses by the percentage change in sales. If we did that here, we would be multiplying the variable expenses by 20%. In other words, we would not be increasing variable expenses by 20%, we would be reducing them by 80%. Notice the pro forma net income for 2008 is $600,000. You may wish to analyze the effect using a strict percentage of sales approach would have had on pro forma net income. Would net income be higher or lower as a result? You would be correct to sense the potential for an exam question here. Finally $200,000 in dividends are deducted from the $600,000 net income giving us a $400,000 addition to retained earnings. The third step is to use the $400,000 pro forma additions to retained earnings in addition to a number of other assumptions to compute the Pro Forma Balance Sheet. I will also use the judgmental approach in this step. The 2007 historical balance sheet and the pro forma balance sheet for BMX Corporation appear in the Excel worksheet below. To access the worksheet, double click on it, then scroll up or down as needed to see view the worksheets. I will make the following assumptions regarding the pro forma balance sheet: 1. The firm wants to continue to maintain a minimum cash balance of $100,000 2. Marketable securities will increase to $75,000 in 2008. 3. Accounts receivable have historically been 36. 5 days of sales. Since sales for 2008 are expected to be $12,000,000, accounts receivable will be $12,000,000 x (36. 5/365) = $1,200,000 (you could also do the following which is algebraically identical: ($12,000,000/365) X 36. 5). 4. Inventories have historically been 20% of cost of goods sold. Since cost of goods sold for 2008 are expected to be $9,000,000, inventories will be $9,000,000 x . 20 = $1,800,000. 5. Vectra will increase fixed assets by $750,000. Depreciation expense for 2008 is estimated to be $200,000. Net fixed assets for 2008 will be: Net fixed assets (2007) + additions to fixed assets – depreciation expense 2008 $5,000,000 + $750,000 – $200,000 = $5,550,000 6. Annual purchases (all on account) have historically averaged 60% of cost of goods sold. The accounts payable balance, in turn, is typically 20% of purchases. Accounts payable will therefore be $9,000,000 X . 60 X . 20 = $1,080,000 7. Taxes payable will be approximately one quarter of the tax expense shown on the 2008 pro forma income statement. Taxes payable will equal $400,000/4 = $100,000. 8. Notes payable will increase to $1,000,000. 9. There will be no change in other current liabilities, long-term debt, or common stock. 10. Retained earnings on the 2008 pro forma balance sheet will change by the additions to retained earnings ($400,000) shown on the pro forma income statement. Since the 2007 retained earnings was $1,000,000, the retained earnings for 2008 are expected to be $1,000,000 + $400,000 = $1,400,000. Notice the 2008 pro forma balance sheet did not initially balance: e. i. , total assets ($8,725,000) did not equal the sum of total liabilities and equity ($8,332,500). In other words, the firm’s need to fund assets of $8,725,000 in 2008 will not be met at anticipated levels of debt and equity. This is the firm’s signal that it will have to raise funds by issuing additional debt or equity in the amount of $392,500.

The Social Issue Of Addiction - 869 Words

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