Modern Piracy And Its Effect On Society

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.”

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded between 2004 and 2009. Even with sites like iTunes and Rhapsody offering legal downloads, peer-to-peer file sharing still exists. Illegally downloading music has had a significant impact on the music industry resulting in a loss of profits and jobs, and changing how music is delivered to the masses. (Adkins, n.d.) Showing that even having the ethically correct option P2P sharing of illegal media is still thriving. The RIAA reports that music sales in the United States have dropped

For many years illegal file sharing and music swapping has been going on. Two very popular cases are the MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster case and the A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster case. Both cases differ in many ways however they also have similarities. A lot of music and other sorts of entertainment are being distributed for free all over the internet. What some people do not think of are the consequences that will be faced if they get caught. Not only is the distributor at risk for getting caught but those of us that download the software illegally can be charged.

It was previously mentioned, by Adams, how America should not wage war against the Barbary states, unless, America had plans of fighting them forever. While Adam’s words were not heeded, they rang true. From the ten years after the first Barbary War, to hundreds of years after the Barbary Wars, there is still piracy. Modern Day Piracy is commanded by Somali fisherman who attack cargo ships that travel along Somalia and the Gulf of Aden. The Somalian Fisherman first struck in the year of 1990, while their numbers have declined after 2012, there are still Somali Pirates. Some of the countries that have been attacked by the modern day pirates include Hong Kong, India, Liberia, Kenya, Taiwan, Denmark, North Korea, The United States, and numerous

Hollywood portrays pirates as swashbuckling outlaws with their own set of rules and loose morals, nefarious hideouts, and adventure at every turn of their lives; but that’s Hollywood. During the Golden Age of Piracy, about 1550 to 1730, pirates did traverse the Atlantic almost completely unchallenged; producing some of the most notorious pirates and privateers the world had ever seen. But not all of these pirates were outlaws, most were actually legal. And their hideouts weren’t really hideouts at all; just cities that were afraid of the Spanish and thought the pirates could protect them. And adventure? Well, some of the best and most infamous pirates didn’t want the epic battles that are pictured in many of today’s films. Something else

The United Nations and many of its committees and non-governmental organizations are actively involved in putting a stop to piracy and making the affected areas safe for trade ships and privately owned vessels to sail. The UN has several anti-piracy organizations that monitor and fight pirating. These NGOs (non-governmental organizations) include the IMO (International Maritime Organization), the IMB (International Maritime Bureau), and the BMC (Bureau of Maritime Crimes). The United Nations also uses the PRC (Piracy Reporting Centre) to collect incident reports and other data on pirate attacks. Within the UN there are also committees in charge of combatting piracy, some of which include: the Maritime Safety Committee and The Maritime Security

Piracy has caused many business to innovate to keep up with the threat of digital piracy

Piracy first and foremost is an attempt to copy or make use of what was not originally produced by the individual without right permission or authorization by the sole owner of this product for profitable means. This is a huge problem in even the most advanced of countries as a lot of individuals don’t see the damage or wrong in taking part in the buying and selling of these movies. As time and age has become more technological so has the art of piracy blossomed because of the easy access to technology there are different kinds of piracies, there is the video piracy, DVD piracy, cable piracy and many others. While strict laws have been put place to manage and prevent the occurrence of this event. Regardless of this it still is rampant and occurs.

In a nut-shell, although there are anti-piracy laws in place, piracy activities are still prevalent. the Looking at the statistics the piracy activities in Australia is predicted to decrease. However, piracy activities worldwide are increasing. Therefore, piracy preventive measures such as improved anti-piracy legislation and strategy, subscription-based business models and anti-piracy law awareness

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.

“Before the days of YouTube and the Internet, a band 's chances of striking it big depended on record companies. If a band was lucky enough to get a record deal, it gained access to a label 's vast resources and connections. The company paid for the band 's studio time, … and got its music played on the radio, reaching millions of record buying Americans” (Majerol, 1). Now, anyone with talent can post a video of themselves and become an internet sensation, only to then receive a deal with a label to continue growing their career. The issue is, with the Internet came digital downloading, and with the growing popularity of digital downloading came illegal downloading, known as Digital Piracy, which has affected the music industry greatly. This issue affects everyone involved in the Music Industry. From the small CD store owner to the Artist on stage, everyone has and continues to be affected by the growing popularity of digital downloading services. Artists, producers, and songwriters lose an estimated 12.5 Billion USD every year to illegal digital music services. Further, the economic impact from [digital downloading] is an estimated loss of 2+ Billion USD (Storrs, 1). This money affects the “little guys” in the industry and the average worker within the industry.

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

Companies like Apple, have decided that it is best to get in with the downloading business. However, an end to the illegal downloading conflict remains to be realized. The RIAA and associated artists continue to wage war against illegal downloaders while computer savvy audiences persist in sharing music files online every day. While it is undoubtedly true that downloading music is a crime, it remains to be proven that it is wrong. Without establishing this principle, most downloader's are likely to continue the activity. Even with new, inexpensive and available means of downloading files, they can still be shared for free online. The rift must be repaired between music lovers who feel that they have been taken advantage of in the past and recording companies and artists who worry about their future livelihood.