The U. S. government works to protect property rights, enforce contracts, and otherwise ensure Insure
the rules of the game are followed. In protecting property rights, a major issue is how to handle
piracy and "bootlegging“ in the software, music, and movie industries. “Stealing someone else's
work is no more legal on a computer than it is with your bare hands," said Peter Chernin, CEO of
Fox Group, during the 2002 Fall Comdex consumer electronics trade show. His message was
supported by George Lucas, producer-director of “Star Wars," who also spoke at the show. Lucas
stressed that if piracy, unauthorized copying, and counterfeiting of big, blþckbuster firms is not
curtailed, it might no longer make economic sense to produce them. A student in the audience
argued that if the companies would lower their prices, people's desire to bootleg would decrease.
His opinion was that either the prices come down or people will not stop copying from their
friend's music, film, and software collections, or downloading from the internet.
Using a minimum of one paragraph, explain the basic ethical argument with the college
student's argument. There is no right or wrong answer. Please support your argument(s)
with evidence. If you reference an outside source please use citations.