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Nearly everyone in the country is familiar with internet piracy; this can come in the form of downloading music, movies, software without paying. This illegal activity has spread throughout internet and many people take part in this illegal activity. In the first article that I read through looked at the effect of software piracy on music sales. This article starts off by talking about intellectual property rights of digital goods, and then explains the authors experiment. “The results suggest that, for the group of users of peer-to-peer systems, piracy reduces the probability of buying music by 35% to 65% (Zentner 1).” According to his research calculations Zentner suggests that music piracy has caused a drop in music sales of 7.8% to 14.5%. After this quick intro He goes into the formal process of how he did his research, his results, and all the different statistics that show how piracy has affected nearly every group of people in America. He talks about how the use of Napster affected the amount of files shared, and after the ban of Napster in certain areas for example universities, and surrounding areas, sales grew 6.6%. This article provides me with a lot of hard evidence about the effects of music piracy and will help support one side of the argument.
My next article talks about how the recent technology boom has been linked to the increase in illegal music piracy. “A study in 2000 reported 14% of internet users had downloaded music for free (Bhattacharjee 107).” They also report a $3.1 billion of sales losses in the music industry in 2005. This article also goes through the different demographics that are connected to the piracy of music and software. This article also includes some very key diagrams showing the process people go through when looking for music. They also connect the quality of their internet to the amount of piracy that goes on. This shows that even when someone pays more money for their internet they download more illegally. They also connect the amount of people who pay for better internet who pay subscription fee’s per month to listen to as much music as they want.

Works Cited
Bhattacharjee, Sudip, Ram D. Gopal, and G. Lawrence Sanders. "Digital Music and Online Sharing: Software Piracy 2.0." Communications of the ACM 46.7 (2003): 107-111. p107-bhattacharjee.pdf. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.
Zentner, Alejandro. "Musicindustryoct12.pdf." Economics.uchicago.edu. University of Chicago, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

What is racism and privilege, and how is race constructed, in America today? How does this definition apply to yourself and your life? How might this tie into the work you’ve been doing for paper 3?”

When asking a group of people for their own meaning of racism one can receive various responses. The same can be said of privilege, this is so because of people’s differences. In the way that someone is raised and their background will affect how they treat and react to others. After reading an interview with Tim Wise (by the color of their skin: Tim Wise in the Myth of a Postracial America) one can apply their definition to their way of life. When defining racism a judgment against a race biased on a pre conceived idea. This is dangerous because people will treat differences the only way they have learned how, giving some privilege over others. Racism and privilege go hand and hand, for example: “We also know that job applicants with “white-sounding” names are 50 percent more likely to get called back than those with “black-sounding” names, even if both have the same qualifications.” (Page 6) Tim Wise’s words show that just because a person has a name that sounds different they will not be considered in a serious role. That is a fault of most people, coming up with a result before trying to solve the question. Over time the definition of racism and privilege has changed and can be seen in American culture and life today.
Racism is a word that evokes powerful feelings. This is true especially in America, where racism has a long and rather dismal history. According to Tim Wise, racism and privilege are directly related. In American society today, this correlation is apparent even amongst the nation’s most prestigious leaders. As Wise states, “Privilege also takes the form of less pressure to perform” (page 5). He further explains this statement by asking if Obama, our nation’s first black president, happened to make the same grammar mistakes in his speeches as previous president Bush did, would he be considered less qualified for the job? This is a question many Americans should ask themselves. Wise also proclaims that “we can make peace with the past by recognizing that good people can still do great evil…once we come to realize that, we become a lot less smug about our own goodness and more aware of the evil we participate in every day” (page 9). I find this applies to my own life, as even I find myself guilty of falling for racial stereotypes.

Tim wise often talks about “white privilege”, which are different institutions and programs that give additional resources to whites that may not be accessible to other races. Wise also states, “Privilege also takes the form of less pressure to perform (Page 5).” This privilege may be present in more diverse communities, for example larger cities. But in the smaller less diverse towns there may be more of a chance for equal opportunity. White privilege is a form of inequality that is hard to regulate. It takes the whole communities cooperation to change for fully equal opportunities. Just like it will take our whole communities to change what kind of food we get to eat, if we want all organic or non-GMO, it’ll take the whole community to unite and change.

Over all it will require complete cooperation from all races in order to eliminate racism, and "white privilage". Racism may have different effects on different people, but still needs to get bad.

Works Cited
Cook, David. "By the Color of Their Skin: Tim Wise on the Myth of a Postracial America." The Sun July &
Aug. 2009: 4-12. Print.