Music piracy, the way of obtaining music by illegal means while passing by the copyright law of Canada is at it's all time high. "The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) (2009) estimates that music sales declined from $13.7 billion in 1998 to $8.5 billion in 2008," and according to the OECD Canada has the highest amount of file sharers, which is people sharing illegally downloaded files, mainly music and movies. Looking at the Canadian Copyright Act, "the unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted material for profit is illegal." Even though the law clearly states that online music piracy is illegal, millions of people are able to abuse this law and obtain whatever music they want because the government is not cracking down on file sharers. Music piracy is affecting artists everywhere, the copyright law is there in order to help the artists strive and earn revenue through their work, but because people are getting around it, it is unable to do that. Music piracy on a larger, more mainstream level, is causing the artists to lose out on revenue, however, on a more indie level, music piracy and through online mediums, up and coming artists are able to earn recognition and become noticed.

            Piracy, in some ways helps striving artists gain recognition and help them financially. An example would be Justin Bieber. He used Youtube (mediums), to gain recognition and to show off his talent and later on got picked up by an agency. Before the era of Youtube, artists would audition for agencies or play shows and get picked up by agencies that way. If copyright laws were to be abolished, youtube videos of upcoming potential stars singing/dancing along to background music wouldn't be possible and we would be forced to take a step back in time and go back to auditions at agencies. The future of “fair use” is at stake if we let copyright laws keep going. Copyright laws don’t really change, but the future of social media and technology change quite rapidly that we must adapt these laws or come up with new laws to keep up with all this change.

        Music piracy as known can be defined as stealing one's music. Sites like Mediafire, Kickasstorrents, and 4Shared are all sites that are used for piracy of music. Music piracy is definately having a massive effect on the music industry and the artists. It is not only illegal, but you could also end up in jail with heavy fines. Sadly, it's a crime that many people commit on a daily basis. Most importantly, stealing music stifles careers of new artists and up coming bands. People often rationalize that stealing music illegally doesn't punish or hurt anyone. Think about it and tell that to a struggling young music artist or even a garage band who is trying to start a career of their own. But can't get signed because record sales are low, because people would rather download the music for free rather then paying which is the right thing to do. It really does impact new music artists, they need all the support they can get. The internet is for sure a great place for advertising and letting consumers listen to the music for free to check it out and see how they like it. However there is a immense difference of downloading and spreading the music across the internet. World statistics, IFPI famously claimed that 95% of all digital music had been illegally downloaded.

Music piracy is both a good thing and a bad thing for artists, one the one hand up and coming artists have the ability to be recognized for their work, while on the other hand, artists that have already "made it" are troubled by music piracy, as they are losing out on sales.