Online piracy is the illegal copying of copyrighted material from the internet. There are three main types: music, movie, and software piracy. Proponents argue that the financial impact is negligible and can even help sales, while opponents believe it poses a serious threat to artistic and creative development. The battle against piracy has been ongoing since before the internet, with security measures being developed and broken. The implementation of DRM has resulted in a backlash among consumers, and different countries have different laws on piracy.
Online piracy is a term used to describe the illegal copying of copyrighted material from the Internet. The term is widely used, both by opponents and advocates of online piracy. Opponents, such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) use the term to attempt to identify copyright infringers with sea-going pirates who plundered ships. Proponents use the term to recall the romance of the pirate lifestyle, with its emphasis on individual freedom and liberation among all else. The term piracy in this context actually has its origins long before the advent of the Internet, with author Daniel Defoe referring to pirates making illegal copies of his books in 1703.
There are three main types of piracy in this context: music piracy, movie piracy, and software piracy. While others exist, they are much less common, as they tend to involve very specialized disciplines. Conversely, although the exact numbers are not known, hundreds of millions of people participate in online piracy worldwide. The effects of online piracy are not well established, with each side submitting various reports establishing radically different ideas.
Proponents of online piracy argue that the financial impact of piracy is negligible and that in some cases piracy can actually help sales of a product. They argue that the vast majority of people who pirate music, videos and software are not people who would buy the product in the first place. Some even argue that some people pirate music to see if they like it, and once they do they start buying real CDs, or legal copies of songs, or going to concerts and feeding the system that way. They also point out that the majority of the price of a sale does not go to the artist and that, except in the case of top performers, artists can be helped by fans who pirate their music and donate it to them, or attend concerts so they see almost all the money.
Opponents of online piracy believe it poses a serious threat to artistic and creative development around the world. They argue that piracy reduces profits by reducing the amount of money an artist or programmer can expect to make and therefore reducing the incentive for them to create new work. They also point out that most modern music is produced not only by artists, who may be compensated by concert attendance or donations, but by a large support staff, including engineers, editors and designers, who may choose to no longer support the half if they cannot earn a living.
The battle against online piracy, or at least electronic piracy, has been going on since before the internet existed, with early software makers attempting new security features to stop people from making illegal copies of their software. Much of contemporary music and video is protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) packages, which attempt to limit the number of computers on which a media file can be used. Opponents, however, point out that DRM often ends up crippling media for legitimate media buyers, and that hackers can easily remove DRM if they really want to pirate it.
Neither piracy nor the fight against it seem destined to disappear anytime soon. Security measures continue to be developed, as well as the techniques used to break them and freely distribute copyrighted material. In many cases, the implementation of DRM and other security measures has resulted in a backlash among consumers, with some groups boycotting products that implement DRM. In Europe, actions against online piracy have sparked a political backlash, with a nationally recognized Pirate Party winning seats in Parliament. The international nature of piracy, and the fact that different countries have very different laws on it, is another factor that complicates the whole issue.
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