Piracy - the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material…
Though not physical, information theft constitutes a crime just as serious or greater than other stealing other things. Imagine having spent years and years painting a magnificent masterpiece then having it unlawfully taken away and made available to all without charge.
Prevailing Attitudes
The 21st century is a golden age for the Internet. With 1,018,057,389 users and counting, trillions of terabytes are communicated over this vast network every day. “If general knowledge can be found in such vast quantities, why can’t ebooks, movies, music and games be available to anyone who wishes to download them? Information should be free to be accessed by all…” These are the attitudes of a new generation, accustomed to the Internet and file sharing. Unfortunately, these norms lead to communism, a political system were all are equally rewarded regardless of their contribution to society. Such conditions create an ideal breeding ground for laziness, lack of motivation, and revolution. Researchers will see no point in developing new cures, programmers will stop outputting useful software, directors will discontinue the production of movies, authors will halt the production of goods... The world will be at a technological standstill, any potential for innovation gone.
A Conflict of Interest
The business and the consumer are opposing forces. While one strives to make the most amount of money, the other tries to get the best deal. This simple condition may be the underlying cause of piracy. Have you seen software priced way more than it should? Usually it is the company trying to balance costs, but sometimes, businesses are greedy, marketing products way higher than their optimal value. Though the merchandise is good, it is at a price point the consumer cannot afford, therefore he turns to piracy, or illegally obtaining software at little or no charge.
Digital Orb
Our world has gone through a computer revolution, everything from photos to books, digitalized in a universal binary format. Whereas before it had been almost impossible to forge a painting, now it can be done by simply perceiving 1s and 0s in the right sequence.
Help from the WWW
51.42% of the world’s computers are connected to the Internet, creating a virtual world of communication. Anything can be sent through this web of data, including pirated materials. Though these can be hosted by web and ftp servers, the main problem lies in peer to peer applications, which create a link between those uploading and downloading. File sharing is encouraged in these application. It is only when one uploads a certain quota, that they can download. Consumers are profiting while businesses are losing big time. Their attempts to sue p2p operations have failed, for these programs were designated for legitimate file sharing, and the transfer of copyrighted files cannot be regulated.