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Christopher Michals

10-30-13

Article Brief # 5MKT 479

Section 2

Downloading Deviance: Symbolic interactionism and unauthorized file-sharing

The article, found threw the Murphy Library resource, from the The Journal of Marketing

Theory, was authored by Robert Cluley from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. The

journal article was written about the topic of consumers illegally downloading music content and

how many attempts to stop this behavior from consumers has been ineffective. Overall, the

journal article used concepts from the social sciences, specifically, sociology, to make an

explanation of why this behavior occurs.

The article went in to detail about the moral and ethical intricacies of illegal file sharing

among consumers and that this behavior is likely to continue occurring. The article reflects on

how the process of legal and illegal downloading shares many of the same procedures, especially

the former being without using credit card information or lack of an account. The article

discussed that numerous attempts to stop this behavior in the past have failed and that consumers

appear to justify themselves because they do not feel there is anything really, truly morally

wrong in perform the act of file sharing. The journal article repetitively went into detail on how

the behavior was illegal and went into depth of how this corresponded to the labelling theory of

deviance, which addresses the case that even though people accept the act is illegal; they

continue to do it anyways. The author goes into even more detail on how moral relativism playsa role into consumer misbehavior and continues to try to intellectualize how or why this occurs

using sociological theory. Simply put, the article gets repetitive in trying to explain why people

continue to share files and argues that it is more of a deviant activity than truly illegal. One thing

that struck me as interesting is that the illegal downloader groups arguments, that they are

becoming the perfect consumers who get the most music while paying as little as possible.

The article, from the authors point of view, was to try to examine the intricacies of why

people knowingly engage in a commonly known illegal behavior but do not seem to care. The

author makes a series of assumptions about the moral behavior of consumers and tries to discuss

why people consider is acceptable because of their various arguments to justify their behavior.Overall, the author tries to explain why this behavior occurs using many terms from sociology.

I personally think this author is simply being a bit pretentious about using sociological

theories to explain why people illegally download music. In other words, I think the author is

simply intellectualizing, for the sake of intellectualizing, therefore making a question with a

simple answer needlessly complicated. People illegally download music because they can; they

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probably cognitively disconnected from the idea that they are committing a crime because it is

through as computer or electronically and only takes a couple clicks on a computer mouse to

commit the act. In other words, it is hilariously simple to download an mp3 file for a person that

has grown accustomed to downloading music. I personally think this author is making many

assumptions, to try to come off as intelligent and informative but fails miserably, but that is just

my opinion.

The article while, in my opinion is mostly an annoying collaboration of moral theories

and ideas of deviancy, it nonetheless is relevant to Marketing Management. Primarily, how the

interaction of an industry can create a base of consumers who are in demand of the product,

which is usually a good thing, can backfire if the content or technological environment allows

the consumers to get a hold of the product without giving anything in return i.e. paying for the

product. One solution to this is to change the form or medium of the product, however in the case

of illegal file sharing; it is unlikely to stop in the near future. There can be other solutions, such

as focusing more on a live entertainment orientation, such as having a market orientation towards

live concerts versus music files. In other words, I think it is safe to say if a consumer finds a way

to get a product in demand free of charge and is acceptable with their attitudes and beliefs about

morality, they will. Rather emphasizes how brand loyalty and product demand can go terribly

wrong for the producers of the product. This issue with file sharing should be taken as an

example to learn from and to be aware of how technological change could have negative

repercussions for producers of consumer products.

The classes that helped me understand the content in this article were Buyer Behavior,

The Social World, and some various psychology classes. The sociology class that I have taken at

previous university helped me understand the content and terms used. I am a bit of a critic in this

particular case, I think the article had some useful content but other than that was mostly drivel

and more just explaining the current state of affairs between the music industry and its

consumers than providing any real useful insight.