CASE STUDY
The
Pirate
Bay:
The World's Most Resilient Copyright Infringer?
he Pirate Bay (TPB), a Swedish Web site (Piratebay.org), is one of the world's most popular pirated music and content sites, offering free access to millions of copyrighted songs and thousands of copyrighted Hollywood movies. In June 2011, The Pirate Bay reported that it h ad about 5 million registered users, and 25 million non-registered users (so-called "free riders"). To put that number in p erspective, consider that it is nearly three times the population of Sweden itself (9 million). The Pirate Bay is regularly in the top 100 most popular Web sites in the world, and reach es 1 % of the global Internet popula tion, according to Internet analysts in 20ll.
…show more content…
The court said "By providing a website with ". well-developed search func tions, easy uploading and storage possibilities, and with a tracker linked to the web site, the accused have incited the crimes that the file sharers have committed." The court also said that the four defendants had been aware of the fact that copyrighted material was shared with the help of their site. The prison sentence was justified by "extensive accessibility of others' copyrights and the fact that the operation was con ducted commercially and in an organized fashion." In other words, the court believed the defendants were engaged in a commercial enterprise, the basis of which was encouraging visitors to violate the copyrights of owners. In fact, the primary purpose of The Pirate Bay was to violate copyrights in order to make money for the owners (commercial intent).
"Enable," "induce," and "encourage" copyright infringement and "intent to sell" are key words in this ruling and The Pirate Bay case. These concepts grounded in Western law are not "disabled" by new technology, but instead can be, and are, extensible to new technologies, and used to shape technology to society's needs and wishes. Indeed, there's a consensus developing among prosecutors and courts world wide that infringement is not justified simply because it's technically possible to do it
Piracy has become a major issue in the United States. For every motion picture that has been featured in theaters also has been pirated onto the Internet the next day, and for every new musical album that is released, yet there is a free torrent file of the album within the same hour. Even though these online pirates steal music and movies from other companies and make a drastic profit, yet these “rogue” websites receive 53 billions visits a year from across the globe according to Creative America. The persistence of the thieves that break copyright laws of the productions has lead the entertainment business to place a definitive complaint to the U.S. government of the constant notion of piracy. While the notion of piracy was not left
In the global market that we leave in companies are trying to find any and everyway that they can to get ahead in their respective markets. This most of the time brings out the most innovate thinkers that can come up with a way to keep it’s company on top of their market and sometimes we see that there are companies that like to take a short cut by using non legal and malicious methods. According to Lewis, (1985), Software piracy is the illicit copying of the operating instructions and applications programs, which make computers work, is a large and growing industry. The Pirate Bay is part of a European social and political movement that opposes copyrighted content and demands that music, videos, TV shows, and other digital content be free and unrestricted. In the words of the Pirate Party, “the Pirate Bay is a unique platform for distributing culture between regular people and independent artists, and that’s something we want to preserve.”
The first reason of why agriculture is a better way of life, is because according to document 1 farmers were less violent. Hunters and gatherers on the other hand were in constant state of tribal warfare. This resulted in 25-30% of adult males dying from homicide. Warfare was necessary to keep population density low. This was due to the fact that a certain place only had so much food to support one person. Farmers on the other hand could use a small piece of land and plant crops that could support many people. They do not have to fight over food therefore less war and violence.
I’m afraid that the issues that had to do with the rights for creators of content (authors of music, books, papers, etc.) to be able to profit from their work without being deprived of their livelihoods due to piracy, was confounded due to the ignorance of law makers about the nature of the Internet (the free flow of ideas, the ability to collaborate with people from all over the world and engage in thoughtful discourse and debate, etc.). Further, the influence of money and pressure being brought upon the government to pass the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) by very wealthy and influential organizations (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_with_official_stances_on_the_SOPA_and_PIPA ) created undue pressure to get Congress to act without thoughtful investigation into the
LimeWire, as many know, was a free peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing program. In August of 2006, LimeWire found themselves in some major legal trouble when the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) demanded LimeWire be ceased for good. In the suit, the RIAA accused LimeWire of operating a web service ““devoted essentially” to piracy by allowing users to upload and download songs without permission.” (“Major Record Labels Settle Suit with LimeWire”).
Facts: Grokster, Ltd. and another company, StreamCast Networks Inc, created software that allowed users to share electronic files through a series of peer-to-peer networks on computers without using a central server. This software allowed users to share any type of digital file, but most people used the software to share and distribute copyright music and video files without permission of the copyright holders, which was encouraged by the software companies. As a response a group of movie studies and other copyright holders sued Grokster and StreamCast for the infringement on their copyrights, arguing that the software companies were knowingly and intentionally using their software
Along with the development of a file format (MP3) to store digital audio recordings, came one of the new millennium’s most continuous debates – peer-to-peer piracy – file sharing. Internet companies such as Napster and Grokster became involved in notable legal cases in regards to copyright laws in cyberspace. These two cases are similar in nature, yet decidedly different. In order to understand the differences and similarities, one should have an understanding of each case as well as the court’s ruling.
Kahn and Kellner state, “while the internet can and has been used to promote capitalist globalization, many groups and movements are constructing ways in which the global network can be diverted and used in the struggle against it” (710). This can include the struggle against capitalism. Hacktivists often create open source and software programs that can be used to combat the attempts of the government and corporations to control “internet experiences” (712). Websites such as Pirate Bay are created by hacktivists to freely share content such as videos, music, books, and other media on the Internet to avoid paying additional money for the things that we wish to entertain us with. Websites such as Pirate Bay are inherently anti-capitalist. These websites and the people who own them wish to promote a democratic view of the Internet where individuals can share files with one another at no cost. People who own these sites are combating the forces of capitalism and consumerism, and are trying to offer Internet users the things they want for free. Moreover, this seemingly oppositional website actually turns into a dominant website known by many who use the Internet on a daily basis. Through Pirate Bay, Internet users attack capitalism through the means of ICTs, website coding, and file transferring and take a stance on the laws associated with piracy. It is, in a sense, Internet Activism; yet, in an illegal
OPINION: I certainly agree with the final court ruling, the intent to obtain profit from the illegal distribution of copyrighted works is clear. They basically made the infringement easier for people, they gave them the tools and knew what their users could do with them. They used this opportunity to make profit out of advertisement, thinking they could get away with it.
The Supreme Court recognizes the defendant’s motives were used to persuade and encourage internet users to engage in illegal acts. “The evidence that Grokster and StreamCast, unlike the manufacturer and distributor in Sony, acted with purpose to cause copyright violations by use of software suitable for illegal use” (Jennings, 2010 p. 8.). The lower court decision was based on conflicting court interpretation regarding the Betamax defense. The ruling was misunderstood at the time. The Supreme Court noted thatGrokster and StreamCast continuously advertised to user’s computers while the users were using their programs. As the number of users increased the value of the advertising increased as well. Grokster andStreamCast made no effort to
The defendant is accused of copyright infringement in violation of the Copyright Act. Copyright violations were knowingly caused by the defendant by promoting the use of software sharing networks and advertisement solicitations that broadcast a message designed to stimulate others to commit violations. The distributor efforts were to supply services to a former file sharing client’s users, which copied and distributed infringing files. Furthermore, the defendant did not create a Web filter to minimize the infringing activity using their software. It was assumed the defendant made its “money by selling advertising space, directing ads to the screens of computers” that used their software intentionally encouraging others to infringe on
Online piracy is commonly referred to as a threat to businesses in the creative industries. The WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (a.k.a. “the TRIPS” agreement) defines piracy as:
We all know that downloading pirated music and films is illegal, but what exactly is it? The term piracy refers to the copying and selling of music, films and other media illegally; in other words you are copying and selling copyrighted media without the permission of the original owner (NiDirect, n.d.). With the massive growth of the internet and its ability to store and capture vast amounts of data, we have become much more reliable on information systems in all aspects of life, but it does not come without the risk of information technology being used unethically. With the number of IT breakthroughs in recent years “the importance of ethics and human values has been underemphasised” often resulting in various consequences. Not surprisingly one of the many public concerns about the ethical use of IT is that “millions of people have downloaded music and movies at no charge and in apparent violation of copyright laws at tremendous expense to the owners of those copyrights” (Reynolds, Ethics in Information Technology, 2015). This essay covers the ethical issues of downloading pirated music and films and the impact it has on music corporations and recording and film companies.
The rise of the Internet era opened the whole new market for traditional media full of opportunities as well as threats. Online piracy being one of them because the music and film industry loses £5.4bn in a year and if it was reduced by 10% it could have created up to 13 thousand jobs in the UK. There are various attempts taken to fight with online piracy; a case study of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement will be considered as well as other legislations attempting to regulate copyrights in the Internet. This
In Bangladesh, livestock is one of the most potential sub-sectors of agriculture which plays an indispensable role in promoting human health and national economy of the country. Livestock not only assists to upgrade the financial condition but also makes a substantial contribution to human nutrition. However, livestock is an integral part of a farming system which has a better contribution to enhancing the economy of Bangladesh. Large ruminants (Cattle and Buffalo) and small ruminants (sheep and goat) constitute the major portion of livestock. The present population of livestock is 23.7 million cattle, 1.47 million Buffalo, 25.76 million goats and 3.3 million sheep (DLS, 2015-16). The total contribution of livestock sub-sector to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Bangladesh is approximately 7.23% and livestock in agricultural production 17.32% (Anonymous, 2007). It also generates 13% of foreign currency and provides 20% fulltime employment and 50% partial employment of rural population (Alam, 1993). In this country, 80% rural people are involved with livestock farming (Siddiki et al., 2009). Most animals are reared in houses under the traditional husbandry practices where small ruminant especially goat and sheep are mainly reared for several reasons including meat, wool and skin production (Hossain et al., 2004). The production and productivity of animals are greatly hampered by different diseases including gastrointestinal parasitic infections.Gastrointestinal parasitism is a