Pros And Cons Of Piracy Laws

Have you ever seen a movie that cost you $250,000 and five years of your life? Because that is what committing the crime of physical piracy costs you. There are two different types of piracy such as digital and physical. Both have the same principal behind them. Many people don’t consider piracy as a real crime. Because there is no physical evidence of digital piracy, often people see nothing wrong with what they are doing. In reality, they are committing a similar crime as the person who walks in a store and steals a DVD. In both cases, the patron is responsible for his or her actions and should be punished justly. The definition of stealing is to take another person’s property without legal permission and without intending to return it. Stealing is not only morally wrong, but can also get someone in trouble with the law. Piracy has become more of a trend and easier than ever with the new digital age.

Addressing the issues of the act will not only help prevent it for the future, but limit and make the current perpetrators question their actions. Piracy is not a victimless crime because of injustices made towards the entertainment industry and one’s moral compass.
Piracy has, first of all, taken away from so much of the glamour and money that Hollywood receives. Why go to the movie theatre and end up paying twenty bucks for a movie that one will be able to download free of charge in just a few weeks? It is because the content available for people to watch is not made for the public. Each image is privately owned. These people paid to make the movie to be enjoyed, so in return, the audience should pay to watch the content. These people’s mentalities have become more focused on convenience rather than logistics that they are forgetting digital piracy is a crime that has consequences. Studying why people commit piracy crimes, Cheolho Yoon discovered that benefit, perceived risk, and habit are factors that go into the actual intentions of committing the crime. When someone purchases a DVD or Blu-ray and put it in the player, a preview screen comes up shortly that warns people of copying the movie, and that the consequence is to pay a hefty fine. Some people discard the warning, and do whatever they want. Soon to find out that not only is it morally wrong, but basically stealing from the producers and directors of the movie.
In addition, streaming companies such as Spotify and Pandora have raised many eyebrows in the music industry regarding the piracy issue. They sneak by with not letting the user “directly choose” which song they are wishing to hear, and making them pay in order to. Nonetheless, artists such as Taylor Swift made it a point for her music not to be allowed on Spotify, saying that it was “not right for [Spotify] to take away from the artists’ achievements” (Seabrook). This turned many of Swift’s fans against the company, and made other people in the music industry question the intentions of streaming services. These services are ultimately an injustice to the community by taking so much of the money and recognition of people in the music industry.
Moreover, taking away from the money that goes into content creation has a rippling effect. Especially when the same type of people who pirate movies, are the same type of people who enjoy a certain movie genre. This means that each time a movie is pirated, it is losing revenue it deserves to pay back the staff, producers, actors, and directors; as well as taking money away from the chance of there being another movie in the line of series. It is a major injustice to the system and to anyone who contributes with the content creation. Not only this, but it also goes to show that there are real people on the other side of the screen that feel the repercussions of the senseless few clicks the perpetrator takes.
In the recent study by Cheolho Yoon, the intention that digital pirates have is none other than to do with necessity. This can go all the way back to the need for people to get jobs so that they have money in order to buy their favorite music in the first place. With crime comes guilt, habit, and remorse. With piracy comes guilt, habit, and remorse. This article tests the theory of planned behavior and ethics behavior as well, categorizing digital piracy as a guilt bearer. Making piracy a habit can alter one’s moral compass and ultimately make them less strong in making wise decisions. Any degree of stealing is stealing, whether it is robbing a bank or downloading your favorite movie onto your Apple laptop.
There are many rebuttals to my argument such as: it doesn’t affect anyone because of one download, the music industry has enough money as it is. John Seabrook would note otherwise in his peer-reviewed journal on streaming services. Album sales will be going down for everyone, including people like Taylor Swift just because of how easy it is to access music these days. If the world wants more music, they have to give back to the music industry in order to produce and distribute more of their favorite music. The only answer is to limit the usage of digital piracy and services that promote piracy. Also, if the government raised the intensity of the consequences of digital and physical piracy, and made it known, piracy rates would decrease. So many people that commit the crime, do not end up realizing that what they are doing is a crime because of how popular and easy it is to do.
However, some people will say that piracy is needed in order to protect civil liberties. Paul Marks’ argument is that in order to regulate piracy crimes, the government must have the right to sift through personal documents thus infringing on first amendment rights. The ultimate goal is to eliminate piracy in the United States to make the people more respectable and give the music and movie industries the respect they deserve. If someone is suspected of piracy, and have nothing to hide, then there should be nothing to worry about. I believe that it should follow the same principle of how if an officer wants to search a home or car, and they have a warrant or enough evidence to be able to search, than they have the right to. People who insist on not having things like their computer downloads searched, just make themselves seem more guilty than if they would have let the search happen in the first place. Also, some people have the mindset that downloading just one movie couldn’t do any harm, but when 2,000 people have the same idea, numbers add up and the amount of money being becomes enlarged.
In conclusion, digital and physical piracy laws should be more strictly enforced and respected.

When someone purchases a DVD or Blu-ray and put it in the player, a preview screen comes up shortly that warns people of copying the movie, and that the consequence is to pay a hefty fine. Some people discard the warning, and do whatever they want. Soon to find out that not only is it morally wrong, but basically stealing from the producers and directors of the movie. I believe everyone has the ability to choose what is right and what is wrong when looking at things from a logical viewing. Piracy is not a victimless crime because of injustices made towards the music and movie industry and one’s moral compass. Each person plays a critical role in protecting the movie and music industry from this theft. While the government does their best to regulate these laws and create social justice, there is only so much they can do to defend against these seemingly invisible crimes. So it is up to citizens to do their part in enforcing these laws and reporting these foul

crimes.