Copyright Protection and File Sharing in the Music Industry: A Legal Perspective

The music industry experiences huge financial losses every year because of digital music downloads and sharing. Many musicians are facing difficulties to sell their albums and have resorted to other means to deal with their work. Because of this, it is important to embark on a research that explores how copyrights can be protected in the music industry in relation to file sharing. The problems identified are difficulties by governments to control indiscriminate file sharing, difficulties to monitor the content that is shared and the inadequacy of law to protect authors rights in file sharing related violations in the music industry. The methodology adopted is qualitive with the use of the doctrinal method. The research is timely because of the constant rise and threats posed by new online platforms and social media that has caused music sharing on such platforms to go out of control. The research highlights the weaknesses of the law to ensure the protection of copyrights and file sharing in the music industry. The findings of this research are beneficial to the legislator, consumers of digital music, the music industry and information technology staff. It is also beneficial to students of law, computer science and scholars who intend to carry out further research in the area. The findings reveal that there is constant drop in the revenue of the music industry because of indiscriminate file sharing practices. The findings also reveal that governments encounter difficulties to regulate illegal copying of music files because of economic, legal and political interests. The findings further reveal that it is difficult to use only the law to regulate copyrights violation in the music industry as a result of file sharing. That is why it is recommended that a non-commercial use levy should be imposed on all file sharing hard and software that aids copying, reproduction and distribution. That national laws should also be revised to align with international treaties on the same subject. That countries should envisage provisions of music file sharing in their national legislations. It is further recommended that a rigid tax system should be fixed for recording devices by using an economic approach. This approach can jointly be used with a non-commercial use levy to ensure that authors earn what they are due.