Online+Piracy


 * ONLINE PIRACY**

The internet was originally created during the Cold war by the US military designed as a method of communication that would outlast a nuclear attack, and they called the network APRANET. But now as you can most probably tell, the internet is not a military communication network, but something a lot more than that. The internet evolved in to something so complex, boundless, and has outspread to every continent. The internet has just over a billion users and growing very rapidly. The internet is enormous and has become an environment of its own. The environment has become a mass communication medium in which people exchange ideas, various types of information, and media. Thus, it has created many opportunities for individuals to benefit from this communication medium but simultaneously it has also now become a new tool for piracy.

There is vast amount of information available on the web and due to the nature of the web, information, media forms, and data can be easily copied with a click of a button. Because of this convenience of reproduction of information using the technology, it raises a serious concern for the creators of the content. Piracy has increased dramatically and has become widespread.

To begin with, one of the industries most affected by online piracy is the music industry. From websites that offer downloads of music to software that allow people to share their files, all contributed to a significant detrimental impact on the industry. Initially, the web consists of tons of unauthorized websites that offer ‘mp3’ files to download. Mp3 is short for Mpeg-Layer-3 is a compressed track either obtained from an audio compact disc or other ways which allows full tracks in a much more compact size without using quality. Some websites even have entire albums available for download and they are accessible to anyone. Eventually, online piracy took a step ahead with the invention of p2p (peer to peer) software. The technology behind p2p is that there is no central server that the users connect to, but the users themselves connect to each other and transfer files that are available on their storage devices. From each other’s computers, the users easily copied files that the software was intended to work with.

Napster was one of the first successful peer-to-peer programs which allowed users to share music, specifically mp3 files. Napster spread like wild-fire and became the primary software that people used to obtain music files. Stores lost a lot of profits and people now avoided actually purchasing recorded music. Napster was eventually sued and shut down by the American Courts after a Supreme Court decision. The decision was ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and was not based on the technology of copying off each other’s computers, but because napster maintained a database that kept track of the files that were being requested or which files are available from other users for transfer. This database proved to be enough evidence for the judges and the prosecutors to argue that the defendants had enough knowledge of the kind of content that was being transferred, which is copyrighted music, and they did not act upon it. After Napster was shut down, many others took its place and became successful by not repeating the same mistakes that Napster once made, such as having a central database. The more successful ones are Kazaa, Morpheus, and Gnutella. An estimated figure shows that approximately 2.6 billion copyrighted files are transferred in a month. (Educational Cyber-Playground, 2004). Against law suits, these softwares argue that they have no knowledge of actually copyright infringement occurring, they have just provided the technology, the most some go is forcing a pop-up window at the start up of the program reminding them that it is very easy to download copyrighted material, so be cautious and not to share any copyrighted content. How much does that really help? The truth is that most of these software creators rely on individual transferring mp3’s, and intend on improving their softwares in ways that can allow the betterment for further infringement.

In addition, not only do these software allow for transfer of music files, they have expanded to include all sort of files including clips, and movies. And now people can download full movies within hours or minutes. In reaction, the producers of this content being outraged by the losses file law suits and might even win them, but others will keep rising. For example, the release of Grokster which is another early p2p software that allowed sharing more than just mp3’s but also video files was used by the internet users to download thousands of movies and copyrighted clips, and was sued by MGM. MGM eventually won the case, however other software producers came out with such software that find and avoid the minor things that led to the downfall of the previous. Now, due to the nature of the internet, it’s become impossible for the music or the movie industry or any industry for that matter to fight this overwhelming communication medium. It’s become inevitable for the content of the mass media to be exploited by the new media.

The internet as intended offers much too freedom and too little control. Indeed its specialty lies in its attribute of ‘open source’ information medium which makes it so successful. No doubt the users of the internet are having a lot of fun with the technology and taking full advantage of it, but unfortunately its these industries that are facing the detrimental effects of the web’s ‘open mindedness’. What needs to be realized by the producers of the content is that the new media works on a different level, and with the ease of reproducing information, its become very easy for their content to be ‘violated’ in terms of intellectual property. Thus, in the near future, the creators have to find a way to better protect their content on the new media. But until then, it becomes an obligation for the users to avoid and not be a part of the infringement based on ethical and moral concerns. They should understand the detrimental effects of online piracy and realize that stealing is stealing, no matter what medium.

Intellectual Property, Effect of Internet on Intellectual property. (2005) Online at: < http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/copyright-2002/ipfaqs.html>, November 28, 2006

Educational Cyber Playground, Free Music Downloads: Is file sharing theft? (2002) Online at: , November 28, 2006.

Internet Usage Statistics – The Big Picture, World Internet Users and Population Stats. (2006) Online at: , December 4, 2006.