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...
... middle of paper ...
...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.
Singers and songwriters need to make a living somehow. They know that downloading music is a way to get their voice heard, but they also know that it is significantly hurting the business. "When your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action," said RIAA president Cary Sherman (RIAA 1). There are a lot of people involved in the music scheme when it comes to who needs to get paid by the revenue. From the sale of one CD, singers get one small fraction of the cost, another fraction goes to song writers, musicians also get some of the profit along with retailers, engineers, technicians, warehouse working, and ever...
Piracy is typically an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea ( History of Piracy, )
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 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.
Warren, R. C. (2011). Piracy and Shipowners' Ethical Dilemmas. Society and Business Review , 49-60.
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.
The Golden Age of Piracy appeared with the rise of new empires and the discovery 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. Generating from 1655 to the 1730s, the greatest acts of piracy were recorded in history, with 2,500 to 10,000 total active pirates during this era. Whenever there were unprotected trade routes and treasures to be captured, pirates prevailed. Many pirates expressed the earliest ideas of freedom and democracy. Thesis Statement.
Because the term pirate is loosely used to describe all categories of pirates, a generalization starts to form, a type of generalization that fuels misunderstandings around pirates and draws the attention from the truth. The truth is that pirates have a rich and, actually, democratic lifestyle. They have their own set of rules to govern their actions. This kind of lifestyle hit its peak during the Golden Age of Piracy. Analyzing the sources from this time period shows that there is much more to what we consider the pirate lifestyle to be.
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 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...
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.
...stry Association of America and other sensible people continue to fight against it, piracy will always be contained at least to a diminutive degree.
Physical piracy-the copying and illegal sale of hard-copy CDs, videotapes, and DVDs-costs the music industry over $4 billion a year worldwide and the movie industry more than $3.5 billion. These numbers do not factor in the growing (and difficult to measure) problem of Internet piracy, in which music and movies are transferred to digital format and copies are made of the resulting computer file. Journalist Charles C. Mann explains why Internet piracy has the potential to be vastly more damaging to copyright industr...