Gyges' Magical Ring And Rampant Illegal Downloading

'Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Shrum, 2011, para 12). and Gyges shows this by, after finding a magical ring, he does things most moral people wouldn’t. Like killing the king, stealing power, wealth & fame. Gyges should act morally due to the social & religious views, as it is what was expected of each person during this era.

To be honest I’d probably do things that wouldn’t really affect other’s around me in a negative way. Like cloaking myself, so people like the neighbor gossiper, didn’t stop me when I had errands to run or appointments to get to. I’d also use it to pull off awesome, over the top surprises or pull pranks on my kids, friends or other family members. I could also use my new-found magic to help those around me, for the better. Like hiding victims of Domestic violence, children, animal or elderly abuse. No, I wouldn’t care about the ethical standards because I’m not hurting anyone or doing anything evil. The social backlash would come from people who would want to have what I have and to do what I am doing, and the religious repercussions would probably people from other religions trying to hang me or burn me at the stake because they would assume I am a witch of some sort, trying to use black magic to hurt people. I’m not using it for evil or to cause harm to those around me. According to the definition’s I would be consider nonmoral and immoral.

There isn’t really anything to argue about because it is wrong on so many levels. It’s immoral to take things that you haven’t paid for, asked to borrow or wasn’t given to you as a gift. It’s just wrong! I’d rather pay them for their talents and work, then take it. I know I don’t like when people take things or ruin my family’s stuff. So now I basically, just following the old saying “do unto others as you would want others to do unto you” (Matthew 7:12, Bible)

After reading this article by Barry Neil Shrum, I have found many interesting facts. Like Shrum, “believes that most people who illegally download music” don’t have a clue as to who they affect, what the mass affect is or will be in the future. I completely agree with this statement. As I also found out that in February 2011, there are a lot of losses that come from Illegally downloading things from the internet, like music piracy reports $12.5 billion, 71,060 U.S. jobs and $2.7 billion in wages are lost every year. That’s a lot of things taken and lost over the years. Did you know that 24% of all global internet traffic is digital theft and 95% of all the music that is downloaded is done illegally? That’s 1 in 4 people who are stealing intellectual property illegally downloading either copyrighted or trademarked.

I feel like if the Queen of Lydia didn’t want to be seduced by Gyges she could have turned him down, had him tossed in the dungeon or had him killed but she didn’t. Gyges then kills the king and steals the throne, again if the people and the Queen didn’t want that they could of easily over thrown him or stopped him. It didn’t even seem like they tried to stop him, they were just to happy to hand it all over. All of the power, wealth and fame. Someone who wouldn’t normally steal, will do so online because the internet gives them the same cloaking abilities as Gyges. People who don’t steal, don’t do it because they are afraid of being caught or being sued by the RIAA. They don’t steal because of the honor, integrity and it’s the right thing to do.

To do things like this today you are shunned, arrested, sued or fined, end up in jail or beat up. People don’t take kindly to thieves. Some countries will cut off your hands if you are caught stealing. I can’t argue this, because I feel like he was in the wrong and all those people who stood by and watched it happened are just as wrong as he was. I think they all should have been punished.