SOPA What? PIPA Who?

Everyone have their own reasons to pirate, and most of us are like, "So what’s so wrong about ripping a CD/DVD for a friend? I'm just sharing and it doesn’t hurt anyone." WRONG! Pirating is basically stealing someone else’s property so that makes everything just wrong. It’s a crime, just like stealing a car from a parking lot or taking cash from a register, you’re hurting the owner by stealing his/her ideas or properties. Every crime has its own punishment, but for pirating, it includes, but not limited to, a free trip to prison and a nice big fine—I guess that doesn’t make it a free trip. So what is the government trying to do to stop these crimes or reduce pirating? The government is trying to pass some new laws or bills to prevent any online pirating—but that failed. We’re sure you’ve heard about SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and PIPA/PROTECT IP (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act) right? Kinda? Sorta? I don’t care? 

Well, SOPA and PIPA are aimed to stop foreign-based websites that sell pirated movies, music, and other products by stopping U.S. companies from providing funding, advertising, links or other support to the foreign sites. In short, SOPA and PIPA may lead to censoring of the Internet and weakening of online security. These bills have caused social websites, like Facebook and Reddit, and other websites, like Wikipedia and Google, to protest and oppose the bills. Not just websites that opposed the bills, even three officials under President Obama's administration opposed it. Those officials issued a statement stating that “online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, but the administration would not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Even though the officials did make that statement, it still sounds like they want to find a way to work around all these protesters and make everyone a happy camper. In regards to the officials’ statement, how do YOU think the government (government? huh? what’s that?) should stop pirating or should they just embrace pirating since it’s going to keep happening anyways? Feel free to tell us how you feel or vent if you want to because we like to hear what you have to say!

Ribeiro, John. "Wikipedia, Craigslist, Other Sites Black out Against SOPA at Midnight." PCWorld.com. PC World, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. <http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/248324/wikipedia_craigslist_other_sites_black_out_against_sopa_at_midnight.html>

Schatz, Amy. “What Is SOPA Anyway? A Guide to Understanding the Online Piracy Bill.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203735304577167261853938938.html>.

Why do YOU choose to pirate music?

                The most recognized form of piracy in our opinion is music piracy. Have you ever illegally obtained music? Yes? No? Unsure? Here is a simple test; if you answer yes to any of the following questions then you have been a music pirate.

1) Have you ever downloaded music without paying for it?

2) Have you ever burned/ripped a CD for a friend?

3) Has a friend ever burned/ripped a CD for you?

4) Have you and a friend bought a CD together?

5) Have you ever ripped a CD to your computer and then sold the CD?

The truth is you would be hard pressed to find someone who has never pirated music, so why might one do it? Listed below are a couple of reasons one may pirate music, do you think these reasons are excusable or inexcusable? Have you or a friend ever used these reasons to pirate music?

                1) Music costs too much.

                2) It is easier to download it for free.

                3) The artists have enough money.

                4) The record companies have enough money.

 What other reasons might someone pirate music?

http://beatcrave.com/2009-07-02/digital-music-piracy/

Piracy and Morality

Now that you know what piracy is and what it can look like, let's examine the aspects of this topic from a morality standpoint. i.e. What about and what of piracy is inherently wrong or right? By definition most people would automatically assume that this act is not only unlawful, but also unethical. However, this is not always the case. Take for instance, someone finds that one of their favorite cd's is beyond repair. Having purchased it recently, they are less than eager to purchase the cd again, so they decide to download the cd from a torrent website. Or another case, in which a group of people purchase cd's on an alternating basis and then burn and distribute copies amongst themselves in order to save money on music.

Technically both of these examples are instances of piracy, but could be construed as being different degrees of this offense. In the first case, less people would be phased because this behavior has become so prevalent. In the second case however, i would bet that more people would be uncomfortable being involved in such conduct. Also, in both of these cases, I am quite certain that the individuals involved did not give a second thought about what they were doing to get that music. When gaining new media requires so little a cost nowadays, people are more likely to bend the rules in order to keep up with all the latest flavor of the month or grammy winning artists.

Lastly, i should mention that these opinions are completely relative and up to interpretation. That is ultimately the point of this blog. And to finish this post I thought i would end with my least favorite ad on piracy that we all have to sit through every time we watch a dvd. Courtesy of all those film studio execs who make more money than they know what to do with.

What IS piracy?

For those who don’t know what piracy is, it’s an illegal and criminal activity that involves stealing someone else’s intellectual property—that is music, movies, software, etc.—and sharing it with others. Piracy has been an ongoing threat to business ever since people started trading with other countries. The word piracy originated from way back when sea trading was big in business and pirates, robbers of the sea, would seize goods from other ships for themselves.

Piracy has come to mean many different things over the years. Other uses for the word piracy have occurred in the late 20th and early 21st century, mostly relating with the stealing and reselling or distributing of electronic media. There are various forms of piracy and can be committed in various ways. Some most used forms of piracy are Internet piracy, optical disc piracy, computer piracy, and software piracy. The problem of piracy has arisen with the rapid advance of technology, making it easy for the pirates, the people who choose to play a part in stealing or copying digital media, to carry on their illegal activities.

USPTO. "Kids - Stop Piracy." United States Patent and Trademark Office. Web. 16 Feb. 2012. <http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/kids/kidantipiracy.htm>