Piracy is a practice similar to piracy but in other contexts, especially hijacking or the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work. As we know, this happens in the world of social media and technology, people taking other people work and claming it as their own. People have been hacking since I can know of technology, examples of kids hacking the PSN network and taking millions of dollars of cash offf of people debit cards. Despite this, piracy online still doesn’t have government officals making laws about it. In the text, “You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You,” by Paul Tassi, it says,” What’s clear is that legislation is not the answer. Piracy is already illegal in the US, and most places around the world, yet it persists underground, but more often in plain sight. Short of passing a law that allows the actual blacklisting of websites like China and Iran, there is no legislative solution. That’s what SOPA and PIPA were attempting to do, but it so obviously trampled on the First Amendment, it was laughed out of existence as the entire internet protested it. The only other thing you could get the internet to agree on was if they tried to institute a ban on cat pictures.” Also in the same text, it says,” Piracy is not raiding and plundering Best Buys and FYEs, smashing the windows and running out with the loot. It’s like being placed in a store full of every DVD in existence. There are no employees, no security guards, and when you take a copy of movie, another one materializes in its place, so you’re not actually taking anything. If you were in such a store, you’d only have your base moral convictions to keep you from cloning every movie in sight. And anyone who knows how to get to this store isn’t going to let their conscience stop them, especially when there is no tangible “loss” to even feel bad about.” This is hurting thee case of copyright online, because if people can just go to websites where they can download a movie and watch the movie for free, without having to pay for it, it hurts the people who made it, get money for it.

Today’s society is filled with secrets that were meant to be kept but if we want to keep things hidden or secured, we have to make sure that our business must be kept private and that is where privacy comes in to ensure our security from illegal threats especially piracy so that we could have more time for important things in our everyday lives.

Privacy is defined as the condition of being free from being observed by other people which means that we have the authority to do whatever we want as long as we have things secured. But the total opposite of privacy is piracy which is defined as the act of illegally copying someone’s product or invention without permission, this actually means that someone takes advantage of stealing our work to claim it as one’s own and that is not a very good sign indeed. So let’s see the difference between piracy and privacy so we could learn more about the two.

We already learned that piracy is illegal in the world but that doesn’t stop pirates from stealing all the works from movie companies so they could sell them to unsuspecting victims. According to Forbes.com’s article, “You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You”, Paul Tassi explained that “As technology continues to evolve, the battle between pirates and copyright holders is going to escalate, and pirates are always, always going to be one step ahead. To be clear, this is in no way meant to be a “pro-piracy” piece, it is merely attempting to show the inescapable realities of piracy that media companies refuse to acknowledge. What’s clear is that legislation is not the answer. Piracy is already illegal in the US, and most places around the world, yet it persists underground, but more often in plain sight. Short of passing a law that allows the actual blacklisting of websites like China and Iran, there is no legislative solution.” This quote is a fact because pirates can use their tactical ways to copy movies so they could earn enough money to their own advantages but federal authorities raided their bases to arrest them and take away their evidence that would help put pirates behind bars.

Another perfect example was the 2014 film, The Interview, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, that put North Korea in a lot of rages and because of that, hackers were able to leak the movie that would put Sony in so much trouble that in the Quartz.com article entitled, “Everything We Know About How People Watched “The Interview” and What It Means For The Future of Internet Video”, Zachary M. Seward mentioned about the downloads that “The two million legal downloads of The Interview in four days compared to  1.5 million illegal downloads of the film in two days. Sony has only made the film available in the US and Canada, so the rest of the world would have had to resort to piracy, which was aided by some loopholes left open by sites offering the movie”, which is a compelling case to the situation nowadays and not even the victims know about what is going on with the film back in 2014.

The last example is about the Pirate Bay shutdown that took place in Sweden back in 2009. As Timothy J. Seppala stated in his Engadget.com article, “The Pirate Bay Shutdown: The Whole Story (So Far), “The Pirate Bay was the 97th most-visited website on the entire internet in 2008, according to Alexa data. During the 2009 trial that saw co-founders Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholm charged with $3.6 million in fines, along with time behind bars for aiding in copyright infringement, it was reported that The Pirate Bay had some 22 million users– roughly the population of Texas. We tried finding more recent information, but the official blog is offline too, and, even then, the outfit keeps current usage statistics incredibly close to its chest. The best we could come by was a graph showing an uptick in usage, sans any actual numbers to go with the jagged but rising, horizontal line. Because the site had to change domains a number of times before this last raid, in part to insulate itself from copyright laws, it’s hard to gauge just how popular The Pirate Bay was before last week’s shutdown. More information will likely surface in the coming weeks, as this latest raid is part of an ongoing investigation as well.” The quote itself made a strong point about piracy that it can destroy large companies, putting them out of business because of illegal downloading in the world. So that is where private security comes in so they could find, track down, and arrest the copyright pirates so that large companies could keep their work safe, secured, and private so no one will be able to hack into their database to steal their work once again.

So why are both privacy and piracy different? The answer is that they have purposes so that we could do what we want to do for our benefits. Piracy is strictly illegal to the world that if you download movies and television shows illegally, you could end up violating the copyright laws and that would put you to federal prison for years so it is very important for us to have security because it helps us feel safe but we have to make sure we have to keep our work private so we don’t have to end up like pirates in both the digital world and our society today. So, no piracy allowed, alright? Privacy= Good, Piracy= Bad.

Piracy is the practice of illegally reproducing and sharing information on the internet, such as music or software. Even though piracy is illegal in the United States of America, it still continues to persists and be successful despite the many legislations and plans developed to try to put a permanent stop to it. In the article “You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You,” it was stated that “It’s not moral, it’s not right, but it’s there and it’s easy and there’s no one to stop you from doing it, and never will be. It’s like being placed in a store full of every DVD in existence. There are no employees, no security guards, and when you take a copy of movie, another one materializes in its place, so you’re not actually taking anything.“ If there is always going to be an opportunity for someone to easily open a browser and download their favorite movie or song for free, how do you expect piracy to ever come to an end especially seeing that there isn’t anyone online to track everyone in the world committing the act of piracy and punishing them. It’s impossible, but instead of trying to understand why people in general participate in the act of piracy, many companies would rather spend millions of dollars to develop legislations and crack down on a few sites that provide the ability to do piracy. The reality is even if in some miraculous way piracy becomes permanently banned, the internet will come up with something new. It’s the same concept as if you tell a child no, they will plot/scheme and find another way to get what they want. Should that be the case? No, but it’s the truth of the society that we live in today. Another important argument made in that article is that “The primary problem movie studios have to realize is that everything they charge for is massively overpriced. The fact that movie ticket prices keep going up is astonishing. How can they possibly think charging $10-15 per ticket for a new feature is going to increase the amount of people coming to theaters rather than renting the movie later or downloading it online for free?” It is hilarious to think that movie studios believe increasing ticket prices will make people not want to illegally download movies online when its actually encouraging them to want to commit piracy at a higher rate. If things were more affordable, many people wouldn’t feel the need to illegally download things online. Why pay $15 to sit in a theatre with other strangers who can disturb you during the movie when you can download the same movie for free and watch it in the comfort of your home? It is the same concept as to why people sneak food into the theatre because popcorn and other snacks at the theater are overpriced. People don’t feel bad about participating in piracy because they know that everyone  is doing it and compared to other harmful crimes, piracy is nothing. A powerful statement made was “Treat your customers with respect , and they’ll do the same to you. And that is how you fight piracy.” I agree with this because if customers/consumers don’t feel respected and appreciated, they won’t care about respecting your products or second guess illegally downloading them, resulting in your company losing money.

Piracy is defined as the unauthorized copying of any purchased software. Many online programs that are bought, are specifically for use by the user that bought it and their computer. People who buy software are called “licensed users” rather than the owner of the software because they did not create the software, they are paying to access it. Piracy is different from theft because theft removes the original document/ software and piracy makes a copy of the document/ software without removing the original document. Piracy is very common in today’s world. Many people watch movies online instead of going to the movie theaters to save money. Sites like 123movies or a jailbroken fire-stick allow people to stream movies freely. According to Paul Tassi, “There are no employees, no security guards, and when you take a copy of movie, another one materializes in its place, so you’re not actually taking anything.” The internet makes it easy to commit piracy because none of the streaming sites are blocked or leave viruses anymore. When you download a movie online, there is no pop-up ad or message that says you can not watch this content because it is copyrighted. Paul Tassi states “The primary problem movie studios have to realize is that everything they charge for is massively overpriced. The fact that movie ticket prices keep going up is astonishing. How can they possibly think charging $10-15 per ticket for a new feature is going to increase the amount of people coming to theaters rather than renting the movie later or downloading it online for free?” He is completely right on this and many people would rather wait for the movie to either come out on tv or wait until there is a clear stream of it instead of going to the movies. The good thing that AMC brought back is $5 Tuesdays where any movie is that price every Tuesday. When people hear that they would rather go on a Tuesday where they can pay $5 compared to $10-$15 on the same movie. Netflix is considered a threat to movie companies because they charge a considerably low amount to access hundreds of shows and movies. People prefer streaming apps like Netflix or Hulu instead of physical copies of DVD’s because these apps are accessible anywhere, anytime. The world is shifting to a time where physical copies are not necessarily needed. I feel like piracy is a thing that will not really go away. If there is a way to copy it, it will always happen.

How is piracy hurting the case for copyright online?

Piracy is changing the way people can watch or acquire things without needing to pay. This is mainly used when it comes to watching movies. Many movie companies are losing money because of how easy it is to view them for free online. I feel like this is something that can be beneficial to the user as long as you’re not the one that is losing the money. For example, Netflix raised the price of there streaming services and other services require you to watch ads like commercials to get some sort of revenue. In my house we use a jail-broken version of the amazon fire stick to stream almost any show/ movie for free using the show box app. Although its seen as illegal , it doesn’t hurt the users because it is a way of saving money. Back in the days, a similar method was used to to get free music but this used to lead to viruses on the computer but now in 2019 things been easier than ever and  it’s almost completely safe especially if you have a mac because they don’t really get viruses. You can easily convert music videos on YouTube into mp3 and add it to your itunes for free instead of buying songs that start off begin $2 or more. “The primary problem movie studios have to realize is that everything they charge for is massively overpriced. The fact that movie ticket prices keep going up is astonishing. How can they possibly think charging $10-15 per ticket for a new feature is going to increase the amount of people coming to theaters rather than renting the movie later or downloading it online for free? Rather than lower prices, they double down, saying that gimmicks like 3D and IMAX are worth adding another $5 to your ticket.They have failed to realize that people want things to be easy. Physically going to the movies is hard enough without paying way too much for the privilege”. I feel like there is always going to be a way when its comes to finding things for free over the internet because almost anything can be duplicated as long as you know how the programming works and how to install it. Most youtubers or public figures don’t even buy their editing  software subscriptions yearly, they just get a hacked/ cracked version and downloads it once and it stays without ever paying. I don’t even think it’s easy to get caught because of the fact that it constantly gets updated to be improved. I wonder how companies will try to find new ways to delete all of the piracy that occurs.

Briana Lugo

MCS 244

14 April 2019

How is piracy hurting the case for copyright online?

Piracy is the unauthorized use or copyright of someone else’s work. Piracy is illegal and a big deal in the united states, you can be sued or arrested for piracy. In the article “Everything we know about how people watched ‘The Interview’ and what it means for the future of internet video” by Zachary M. Seward discusses the issues about online streaming. Hollywood is losing millions of dollars due to streaming, many people are not attending theaters and the box office because they are now able to access films illegally online through all these websites that copyright films. When the movie “The Interview” was released people were allowed to purchase the film online through streaming instead of having to go to the theater.  The film generated over 15 million dollars with just online streaming alone that did not include the money they generated at the box office. Although the film generated millions because of their online streaming option there are also some downfalls to this .Seward states “The two million legal downloads of The Interview in four days compare to 1.5 million illegal downloads of the film in two days. Sony has only made the film available in the US and Canada, so the rest of the world would have had to resort to piracy”. The film lost a lot of money because they had over a million illegal downloads of the film, meaning over a million people were able to watch the film without paying a single cent. In the long run these streaming services can hurt business because they could lose over millions of dollars due to illegal streaming and downloads. Streaming platforms such as netflix and hulu are more convenient for those people who like to stay home and not go out to theaters to wait in line. But unfortunately streaming can cause a large amount of illegal downloads.

People are no longer just posting files online. There are now torrents needed to gather the pirated media which are also illegal. But it is acknowledged as file sharing instead of piracy. There is no way to legally remove pirated media from the internet because it is available as public file sharing which is not necessary for posting anything. Laws are mostly focused on ensuring the safety of humanity, and piracy is not a big deal because it is not harming anyone nor is it necessarily harming anyone’s sales.

Film companies tend to say piracy cost them sales. Generally, prices for movie tickets and DVD’s tend to be overpriced. Being able to stream or find a free copy saves us money and time. There are millions of movies to watch, so if a movie comes out today, we all know in a few months, there are dozens of movies being released and older movies will get less marketing decreasing its value. So in a way, piracy is a great way to keep different titles relevant. If a person is willing to take their time to watch a pirated movie, most likely if they fail, they are not going to pay the $15-$30 movie ticket to watch it. They’ll most likely wait until it is found on a better downloading site or not watch it at all.

Piracy is illegal almost everywhere around the world, and in the United States it is taken very seriously. However, that doesn’t mean it still won’t happen. Many people still commit piracy underground, where they can’t be tracked. However, a lot of the times we’re the ones doing it. Paul Tassie, author of “You Will Never Kill Piracy and Piracy Will Never Kill You”, says that piracy is a service problem more than it is anything else. People who can’t afford, let’s say movies or certain soundtracks, will just download it off the internet. It isn’t legal, but it’s easy. iPhone makes this hard for it’s users to do, but Android makes it easy because it’s more flexible with what one can and cannot download onto its products. Back then there used to be Limewire, a place where people could upload tracks for others to download but it was taken down a few years later and it was believed that the FBI were hunting people down to see who was downloading these illegal tracks. Tassie also makes the point that even if these downloading websites are taken down, people will find a new way to download what they want. Nowadays, its hard and unpractical to go to the actual movie theaters or buy a DVD because one) you’ll probably only watch it once and two) it can be expensive. Timothy Seppala, author of “The Pirate Bay Shutdown: The Whole Story (So Far)”, he states that “The movie industry claimed that in 2006 alone, piracy cost it some $6.1 billion”. Pirate Bay was also one of the most popular websites to visit and had about 22 million users, the size of Texas according to Seppala. That’s a lot of money that’s been stolen from the movie industry, and there can be a major understanding as to why piracy is illegal. However, piracy being illegal is impractical. Although I don’t agree with copying someone else’s material (because it’s taking away their earnings), I do believe in things being more of an easy access for folks.

Piracy is the using someone else’s work illegally, without their consent in other words copyright infringement.  The way piracy is hurting companies businesses especially Hollywood is that many users can watch a movie without having to make a payment for purchase or rent.  A great example of this would be the movie The Interview that was technically banned from movies theaters and only viewed online through purchasing or renting it. In the article “Everything we know about how people watched “The Interview” and what it means for the future of internet video”, the two million legal downloads of The Interview in four days compare to 1.5 million illegal downloads of the film in two days. Sony has only made the film available in the US and Canada, so the rest of the world would have had to resort to piracy, which was aided by some loopholes left open by sites offering the movie. According to “You Will Never Kill Piracy and Piracy Will Never Kill You”, they said  projects with bloated budgets and massively overpaid talent might start to fade away, but that can only be a good thing creatively for all the industries. To threaten us with the idea that pop culture is going to disappear entirely because of piracy is just moronic. When it comes to piracy, all that money users are saving from purchasing or renting the movies is the money companies are loosing when people do not purchase or rent through them. Another thing besides movies would be music, back in the day there was this thing were one can download music illegally it was called Limewire. Limewire became very popular but it was later shut down. Websites like those tend to shut down then to later be replaced with something else, “More or less, a series of shutdowns led to The Pirate Bay’s rise to prominence anyway. Napster got shut down and LimeWire quickly took its place. LimeWire was replaced by uTorrent, and uTorrent is the current go-to for torrenting.” according to The Pirate Bay Shutdown: The Whole Story (So Far).