Prompt: Modern technology has made it easier for individuals to download copyrighted music and books from the internet for no charge. Ċ To what extent is this a positive or negative development?

With the development of the internet, people’s lives have been changed drastically. Now with a single click a person can download patent music or books without paying any fees. I believe, although this advancement could be considered as a positive evolution, there are some drawbacks as well. Ċ On the one hand, the internet provided a platform for people to expand their knowledge. There are many free textbooks as pdf or audio as well as music that anyone can download and enjoy. Due to no cost involved and easy access, the number of readers has increased. This accessibility leads to more people being knowledgeable. Additionally, this expansion has given the chance to everyone to showcase their talent to the world which lets them be well-known easily. For example, an Indian singer, Kaka, posted his songs initially on YouTube which has led him to high popularity overnight. Ċ On the flip side, the availability of textbooks and music freely has caused several problems. One of them is that there are a lot of websites that publish writer’s manuals and musician’s works, contributing to the sale rate of them coming down. Despite efforts of those artists to earn money by selling their work, those are shared among people freely which is not fair and makes artists discouraged to continue for new works. Moreover, this trend has caused the shutting down of small stores that cannot afford the overhead expenses due to a decrease in sales. For instance, a famous newspaper seller shop closed down their shop in Sharjah after 40 years of operations because their sales were affected due to the e-commerce readers. Ċ To sum up, the growth of the internet and easy access to everyone has opened the ways to get knowledge easily, freely and instantly but it has created problems for authors to earn their income. I believe the positive side outweighs the negative side.