Today, with the advancement of Internet, many laws have been created to protect private property. However, these laws seem not to fully consider the interest of users. Because they do not mention the high price of copyrighted material and the Internet community trait. From a college student point of view, it should be legal to download or share those things from the Internet.
Firstly, copyrighted things often charge at an unreasonable price for college students to afford. For instance, we know the fact that not all the artists produce good songs. So it is a waste of money to buy a whole CD just for one song you like most. Another example is from the reference book market. The higher grade people arem the more books they have to read. And with the tight pocket money, it is hard to obtain all the needed copyrighted books. The solution is ebook available from Internet. In fact, the copyrighted CD or books price is often 2-3 times higher than the unknown sources. That is to say, we should be allowed to download material from Internet.
Secondly, one of the prominent trait of the Internet community is sharing and being shared. That is why people call it “world-wide-web”. In other words, if you share with the world one useful document, friends worldwide will give you more in return. Therefore, legal sharing and downloading materials permited will help people exchange not only knowledge but culture as well. And the most important thing is you can learn from 2 sources of information: yourself and your friends.
Government often thinks copyrighted materials as a crime because it is illegal and costs the owners lots of money. However, given it a fair look, the matter is not as serious as listed. In fact, many people start buying copyrighted DVDs after watching the movies that are downloaded from Internet. Some countries like Korea even advertise their lifestyle and traditions through dramas from legally downloaded websites.
In conclusion, it makes no sense to put in jail some guys who are said to be found guilty of privacy. Because there are tons of them out there. All things considered lead to a fact that copyrighted materials should be spread lawfully.