Avast! Ye scurvy dog! This is the image usually conjured up when one is discussing piracy. At one point in time, this was correct - sailors roamed the seas freely pillaging merchant vessels. Now a days, Piracy has mainly slipped underground. Chances are, you may know a pirate personally without knowing the crimes they commit. For these crimes are not public, instead they are committed online. Filesharing is on the rise, much to the parent media corporation's chagrin.
Piracy is popular because of its ease of use, and widespread availability. The requirements are simple - If you've got a computer with an active internet connection, filesharing is possible. Pirates rely on a technology known as "Bit torrent" this software allows large files, like a CD or movie to be broken up into tiny pieces and shared over the internet. Let's say Johnny has a CD, he can share it over the internet with Billy. Now two people have essentially the same file. When Susan downloads the CD, half the file comes from Billy, and the other half comes from Johnny. This process continues until literally hundreds if not thousands of people "own" the file. This constant sharing speeds up downloads and ensures anonymity for both the sharer and downloader. Each person only shares a tiny piece of the file, allowing pieces to come from sources around the globe, obscuring the identities of every party involved. It is still possible to be caught by your internet service provider, but the sheer volume of pirate traffic makes it extremely difficult to catch each and every pirate.
The sharing of copyrighted intellectual property is illegal in the United States. Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized reproduction, distrib...
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...n the artist can be supported for their creative efforts?
Try as they might, the media will never fully stop piracy. The underground subculture will continue to "share and share alike" regardless of legislation or of what some corporate giant has to say because people have realized the truth. The truth is the media hates losing money, the artist doesn't care, and piracy is an economical alternative to purchasing a stack of CDs or DVDs. I don't advocate the sharing of copyrighted works illegally - rather, I encourage one to take a step back and observe both sides of the issue, don't lie on national television, and do support the artist in their creative ventures. Supporting the artist is what the music industry should be about, not lining the pockets of the executives in charge, for they are not interested in music as an art, only in their own personal gain.
About 5 years ago Napster, a network software application, was being used to download music files. The network was growing faster than anybody who ever started it would have imagined. When artists, songwriters, and all of the other people involved in making CD's realized that this wasn't going to slow down any time soon, they decided that they needed to stop Napster. Little by little, Napster was being less used and it became harder to find the songs wanted until nobody used it anymore. When all of this was happening, other applications were made available. Kazaa and Grokster are probably the two most used Peer to Peer, or P2P file sharing networks you can find, although there are many others.
Piracy is typically an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea ( History of Piracy, )
However, despite the strong copyright policy and punishment of the United States Federal Copyright Act, as enforced by police as well as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), piracy still rages on, especially...
It is first beneficial to know the definition of piracy. Piracy has been characterized multiple ways from multiple disciplines. For the purpose of this paper, I will apply the definition of piracy from the 1982 United ...
The history of piracy dates back more than 3000 years. “It appears that the word pirate (peirato) was first used in about 140 BC by the Roman historian Polybius. The Greek historian Plutarch, writing in about 100 A.D., gave the oldest clear definition of piracy. He described pirates as those who attack without legal authority not only ships, but also maritime cities (http://www.piratesinfo.com/history/history.php).” The most common meaning of the word pirate recognizes them as an outlaw and a thief. Anyone who was caught and tried with the act of piracy would be sentenced to death.
In this paper, I will attempt to describe the piracy problem in China, discuss how the Chinese government is dealing with it, present the global effect, and finally arrive at what would be an ethical solution to piracy fitting for China's situation.
The Golden Age of Piracy appeared with the rise of new empires and the finding of The New World. Though throughout history piracy has been a recurring problem, but none of those times compare to The Golden Age of Piracy. From 1655 to the 1730’s the greatest surge in acts of piracy were recorded in history, with roughly 2,500 to 10,000 total active pirates during this era. These pirates were seen wherever there were unprotected trade routes and treasure to be captured. Many pirates expressed the earliest ideas of freedom and democracy. Thesis Statement.
The United States of America is a free country, then why shouldn’t the internet be free? Why should we have restrictions placed on what we can and cannot do on the internet? Every day, millions of users share files on the internet through numerous online sources. Whether they download music, movies, or software, online file-sharing can give people access to a plentiful amount of information. These files are often free and easily accessible by anyone. The practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information represents file sharing (Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing and Copyright Infringement: Are You Vulnerable?). Conversely many people see file sharing as unlawful. The reproduction or distribution of any copyrighted digital media or information defines internet piracy. Many people see downloading copyright files such as music, movies, books, and software as illegal. Music files, some of the first types of files to be reproduced and distributed through internet sources, contain the file extension .mp3. Several popular file sharing programs were developed in the 1990s and facilitated internet piracy. Big industries try to combat file sharing to help increase their revenue, however internet piracy actually increases revenue of industries and has numerous other benefits (What Is Internet Piracy?). The copy and distribution of digital files increased due to technology (Torr). Internet piracy, considered a problem all over the world, stands as difficult to stop along with other kinds of piracy (What Is Internet Piracy?). Anything can be digitalized and once something becomes digitalized it will be shared all over the internet (Torr). Canadian and European laws allow for the downloading of copyright files for personal us...
The Golden Age of Piracy began around 1650, and ended around 1730. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea, but can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the criminal. The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. A pirate is one who commits robberies at sea, usually without being allotted to do so by any particular nation. The usual crime for piracy can include being hung, or publically executed. Some of the most famous pirates who were killed either because of piracy, or because of natural causes, are Barbarossa, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonney, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Greaves, William Kidd, Jean Laffite, Sir Henry Morgan, Mary Read, and Giovanni da Verrazano.
Although Britain cannot be blamed though for lack of trying, piracy still exists today. Yet, because the act continues at sea often far from land, it gains little media attention, and therefore less action from governments. China, despite being a number one producer of pirates, continues to deny that there is a problem while at the same time often pardoning those who are caught. Countries such as Indonesia and Philippines, which have been hardest hit in the past few years by pirates, are looking for international assistance. The West is, of course, looked to for solutions yet choose seemingly chooses to turn a blind eye, perhaps in the name of diplomacy. When the world is ready to combat the perpetual problem of piracy, it may discover that by intertwining tougher policies aimed at dealing with piracy with current or future trade negotiations, productive steps can be taken to initiate plans to curtail modern day sea wolves who prey on the helpless. The suggestion of ‘Piracy Charters’ will be discussed further as the means of which to add the topic of to multilateral agreements.
“Only two years ago, it took 72 days to get a highly watchable version of "Finding Nemo" online.” (Hernandez) Today, in the world of movie piracy this would rarely happen though. Most box office releases are available online within a few days or even hours of the box office release. “Last summer's blockbuster "Spider-Man 2," for example, was downloadable in first-rate form within seven hours of its premiere to the public…” (Hernandez). This shows that movie piracy is becoming more important to internet users, and piracy will continue to grow unless something is done about the problem.
Because of its intangible nature, and particularly the increase of the digital domain and the internet as a whole, computers and cyber piracy make it easier for people to steal many forms of intellectual property. Due to this major threat, intellectual property rights owners’ should take every single measure to protect their rights. Unless these rights are either sold, exchanged, transferred, or appropriately licensed for use in exchange for a monetary fee, they should be protected at all cost. In order to protect these rights, the federal and states governments have passed numerous laws and statutes to protect intellectual property from misappropriation and infringement. “The source of federal copyright and patent law originates with the Copyright and Patent ...
As a result of music piracy, the United States economy loses about $12.5 billion per year (RIAA). Not only do wealthy record labels and headline artists lose money, but songwriters, music publishers, music engineers, and even record store clerks suffer losses. Music pirates are people who share and download music over the Internet without paying for it. Piracy has been an ongoing issue for record companies and the artists they represent. It started all the way back in the days of cassette recorders and blank tapes. It eventually led to the compact disk, which was then used with the compact disk burner. The Internet helped produce a new and more unrestricted form of music piracy that would eventually lead to a threatening high. Consumers should not be allowed to pirate music illegally because it harms the economy, it causes financial harm to the musical artists, and it is teaching a wrong message to teenagers that they can steal and get away with it.
Piracy is a form of theft. Specifically, it refers to the unauthorized copying or use of intellectual property. Intellectual property is knowledge or expression that is owned by someone. There are three major types of intellectual property: 1) creative works, including music, written material, movies, and software, which are protected by copyright law; 2) inventions, which are protected by patent law; and 3) brand-name products, which are protected by trademarks. Many of the issues surrounding piracy have to do with the difference between intellectual property and physical property. A CD, for example, is a piece of physical property, but the songs on the CD are intellectual property. A customer in a record store can purchase a CD, but someone else still owns, or more precisely, has the copyright to the songs on the CD.
Internet piracy is not a victimless crime. Piracy is a term used to describe the illegal downloading of music, movies, games, and even software online. Although many people don’t feel that piracy is a crime that affects anybody, it really does. People pirate stuff online because it is free and does not require one to run to a store to get their product. People that pirate these things don’t think of the repercussions that go along with it. You can have to serve up to 10 years in prison, and pay a fine of $250,000.