Bör filerna släppas fria? En studie om etiska problem kring fildelning

Sammanfattning: File sharing is causing an enormous debate over the issue of copyright law and freedom of information on the internet. Just recently, the Swedish file sharing network The Pirate Bay was sentenced to pay 30 million kronor to the media entertainment industry, who prosecuted the owners for illegal piracy of copyrighted material. This essay examines weather or not free file sharing, unbound by legal constrains, is ethical. The ethical dimensions of the phenomenon that are highlighted are deontological, consequential and virtue ethics, among several others. The study centers around an idea analytical approach where opinions expressed by actors of all types are presented and compared to the theoretical ethics framework. In my conclusions, I interpret the most common arguments for and against file sharing and attempt to judge if this world-wide activity corresponds to the moral norms and functions of a democratic society and therefore may be called ethical.