Comics

The comic strip I chose is one from the FoxTrot series, authored by Bill Amend. This comic portrays a young boy trying to teach his pet iguana how to download music using BitTorrent, which is a download provider. His older brother warns him of the danger of downloading music illegally but the young boy believes he has an idea that will work. Since the iguana isn't a real person, he will teach it to download the music for him. He believes he cant be sued because, "who would sue and iguana?" The next slide shows a recording association executive delaying his appointment with a doctor because he sees someone is downloading music illegally.



The message here seems quite obvious. It is showing that the recording industry doesn't support illegal music downloads and will punish people for trying to do so. The young boy foolishly believes that as long as he isn't downloading the music himself, he can't get in trouble for it. The truth of the matter is, the recording industry doesn't care who downloads the music, if they find out it came from your computer, they may choose to sue you regardless of who you are. The comic shows this by having the recording executive concerned over noticing that someone is downloading Metallica. To further prove that this concerns the industry, the executive has his psychiatrist put on hold just to track this download.



Downloading music illegally is risky and should be avoided at all costs. I personally know people who have been caught and have been lucky enough not to get sued, but let off with a warning. Remember if you get caught, they aren't just going to sew you, they are going to sue your whole family partially because they are your parents and you are under their care. Also, unfortunaly, you wont be able blame it on your dog either. In the words of P.B. "Don't be a rascal"