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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
Christian teens are just as eager to file-swap copyrighted music as any other youngsters. But if the word of God gets spread, would Jesus give a damn?
May 25, 2004 | Jonathan McPherson, 23, believes that file-trading copyrighted music is a sin.
Last year, the computer science graduate student at the University of California at Davis wearied of explaining to his friends -- many of whom, like him, are Christian -- why he couldn't accept CDs of ripped tunes. So he published a spirited critique of the practice on his Web site, titled "On File-Sharing Networks and Civil Disobedience: A Christian Perspective."
McPherson, whose musical taste runs from electronic ambient to Celtic music and piano ballads, argues that even if Christians don't agree with current copyright laws, they still have an obligation to follow them, because they're the law of the land. With a nod to Romans 13, he writes, "Our government has been established by God, and we ought to obey its rules unless they conflict with God's rules ... Is the pleasure of entertainment worth the moral price of lawbreaking? I don't think so."
The record companies would undoubtably love it if today's music-pirating teens switched gears and came around to McPherson's viewpoint. But their problem is that McPherson's tough line on the morality of zapping around fave Enya tunes puts him firmly in the minority, even among devout believers. Because it doesn't make any difference if you prefer gospel or death metal; you're still just as likely to file-swap.
A recent study commissioned by the Gospel Music Association found that born-again teens file-trade just as much as their not-saved peers.
"I think that we perhaps naively hoped that the Christian teens would have been taking the moral high road," says John W. Styll, president of the Gospel Music Association. "Among teens, they just don't see it as a moral issue. Ninety percent of them don't see illegal downloading as wrong. It may be illegal, but everyone is doing it." A survey of 1,448 teenagers, including both Christians and their peers "of other faith commitments," found that 80 percent had engaged in one type of music piracy or another in the last six months. Among Christian teens that number was nearly the same -- 77 to 81 percent.
And in perhaps the most chastening blow, in April the most widely available pirated film on the Internet was "The Passion of the Christ." The digital piracy tracking firm BayTSP found 36,693 copies of the film free for the taking, putting it well ahead of April's runner-up for the ignominious honor, "21 Grams."
The Gospel Music Association, along with its affiliated group the Christian Music Trade Association, has responded to its flock's cavalier attitude about file trading with a new public-service campaign, hoping to appeal to a churchgoer's sense of right and wrong. The slogan: "Music Piracy: Millions of Wrongs Don't Make It Right."
The campaign will complement the most recent wave of lawsuits, targeting 477 alleged illegal file sharers, unleashed by the Recording Industry Association of America. But Styll thinks that his group can spread a message about file sharing that even the harsh stick of lawsuits cannot: "It's more than just illegal. It's immoral. It's breaking the laws of the land, and it's stealing from people, and you shouldn't do it," he says.
But is swapping really such a terrible sin if it spreads the word of God? And can Satan really be involved in the sharing of an Amy Grant hit single?
