The Piracy Situation

by R. Toby Richards

This is going to be controversial, for sure, but I want to urge the hacker community to actively advocate against piracy.  We all know the moral issues, so I'm not going to go there.  I'd like to point out some other issues.

The Law is Out of Control

Our lawmakers keep passing more and more copyright laws.

I don't think this would be happening if piracy weren't as prevalent as it is.  Content providers now err on the side of caution.  They cite copyright violations when they remove content that would have likely been considered fair use ten years ago.

A prime example: My seven-year-old daughter has started making "movies" by recording herself playing with her dolls, who serve as the "actors."  She also loves music, so there are typically songs playing randomly in the background.  Sometimes she sings along, which is adorable.  I wanted to share these with my family, so I put them on YouTube.  YouTube immediately removed them for copyright infringement.  WTF?  I mean, come on!  Really?

Copyright laws have been driven to the point of insanity because of all the piracy.  Were it not for all of this crime, I would probably be able to put my daughter's movies on YouTube.  People could be reasonable and see that I am not impairing artists' abilities to profit from their work, which is the point of copyright law.

BitTorrent could have a good reputation.  It's often the fastest way to download legitimate stuff, like Linux CDs.  But nooooo...  Now my ISP throttles me down to nothing if I try to use BitTorrent.

The Malware

Anti-virus technology these days is a joke.

We, the technically savvy, know several techniques for avoiding viruses when downloading content with peer-to-peer technologies.  Still, how many hours have you wasted removing viruses from relatives' computers because they just couldn't pay 99 cents for the latest Lady Gaga single?

People don't understand that you aren't going to find any places for piracy with no viruses.  The thing is that whenever you are downloading things illegally, you risk getting a virus.

Think about it this way.

A place on the Internet that is designed for criminals to congregate simply isn't going to be safe.  It's like taking a walk in the [[[ghetto]]] at night.  You might get mugged.  That's just the way it is.  So when you pirate, you always run the risk of downloading a virus instead of what you think you're downloading.  We understand that.  Your 15-year-old cousin does not.

The Debate

Okay, when I said that I wouldn't bring up the moral issues, I lied.

This is because I thought that I'd at least offer what I think is a compelling argument against the idea that piracy isn't stealing or that it's less bad than actual shoplifting.  Perhaps if you agree with me that piracy needs to stop, then I hope to help you explain it to others with these arguments.

Look, if you were to shoplift a CD or DVD, you have to realize that the disc only cost pennies to make and ship to the store.  The costly part of the disc is the money that went into producing and creating the art that is on it.  So, when you pirate stuff, you're only really stealing a few cents less than if you actually shoplifted.  What is theft?  Theft is the act of illicitly depriving someone of something.  Piracy deprives artists of the ability to profit from their work.

The idea that piracy isn't really stealing because you're not depriving anybody of physical goods just doesn't hold water.  Think of identity theft.  The identity thief doesn't deprive you of any physical object.  Like a pirate, the identity thief is only copying information.  In this case, he's copying your identity in order to purchase things with your good credit.  Still, we all acknowledge that identity theft is wrong.

A Call for Action

I hope that all of this makes sense to you.

If it does, then I ask that you more actively educate those around you about the issues.  Piracy is rapidly diminishing our ability to take advantage of fair use.  Piracy results in malware.  Piracy is wrong.  I hope that we can one day return to a world and an Internet where my daughter can sing along to Party in the U.S.A. on YouTube without being flagged as a copyright violator.

As icing on the cake, imagine what it would do for the misconceived idea of what a hacker really is all about if the media were to catch wind that the hacker community is coming out against copyright infringement!