Internet_Piracy

Internet piracy Piracy is defined as: unauthorized use of appropriation of patented or copy righted material, ideas. Internet piracy creates a major problem in the music artists, movie companies, and software companies such as Microsoft. Music piracy is one of the largest forms of piracy in society today and because there are not many laws against music piracy yet it is very hard to stop. In turn artists loose much of their revenue to pirates and file sharers. Piracy is difficult to minimize, is ethically wrong and deprives artists of thousands if not millions of dollars. Internet piracy takes many forms. There is music piracy, which is the most common. An example of this is when Internet users take Mp3 (song file) off of sites without paying for the music they just stole. Music piracy is virtually impossible to stop. It is also practically impossible to protect the copyrights on the songs (Blackwell n pag.). Software piracy is also a major problem. Software piracy is when people take programs like Windows Vista, or Microsoft Word and give the programs to many people or if a person were make the program downloadable over the Internet. Due to software Piracy there was an estimated ten to twelve billion dollars in revenue loss just in the United States alone (“Copyright Infringement” n pag.). Movie piracy is not as large as music piracy or software simply because it is still fairly new. The top five countries with the most illegal download are China, Vietnam, Ukraine, Indonesia, and Russia. In 2003 United States had an estimated six point five billion dollars in financial loss (“Copyright Infringement” n pag.). What does the public think of music piracy' The public is split between liking music piracy and disliking it. Those who like music piracy like it because it is cheap, it is easy, and it doesn’t seem wrong to them because many do pirate music. In fact “Millions of Americans illegally download music off the internet every day.” (Anderson n pag.). Many of the pirates are between ages sixteen and fifty years of age. According to a recent survey one in ten of the people in the age group mentioned illegally download (Shields, n pag.). Fred VonLohmann a lawyer at electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco said that he thinks “trying to throw sixty million estimated Americans because they illegally download would be a bad idea.”(Anderson n pag.). The music industry is pressuring congress to make laws to stop piracy. This in turn made many of the fans of free online music say the music industry is trying to interfere with their right to computer privacy (Wright n pag.). ““Music piracy is universally accepted as not a crime or morally wrong.” Brian Robertson” (Blackwell n pag.). In Europe a group called the Pirate Party is trying to legalize piracy for some of the reasons stated above. Those who dislike music piracy think it is morally wrong, is stealing, and socially unacceptable. Most people who are against music piracy are involved in the music industry. Sheryl Crow a well known music artist exclaimed, “Music fans cannot expect their favorite musicians to continue to produce quality albums if they are not willing to pay.” As an artist she is not pleased that she is losing money to music pirates. The “Music industry wants colleges and internet providers to give them the names of consumers or students who download a lot of copyright music form hit artists.” (Anderson n pag.). If colleges and internet providers did this the music industry would be able to crack down on internet pirates and keep their loss of money down to a minimum. Music piracy is a gigantic issue in much of the world today. There are pros and cons to music piracy. The positive aspects of music piracy include; it is free, and it is an easy way to get music. Music piracy is free and because of this many people do this so they don’t have to pay for a CD or a song on ITunes. “More people illegally download music than buy CD’s in the US” (Anderson n pag.). The Internet makes distribution of music simple because it has so many people using it. Music is so easily accessible on the Internet because the so many people use it. The negative characteristics of music piracy include; it creates an enormous amount of money loss, and many people pirate music. Internet piracy creates massive losses in revenue to the music industry. In nineteen ninety nine the profit loss due to internet piracy was estimated up to fifty million per year. In two thousand and two music scales dropped from fourteen point six billion to twelve point six billion because of rampant stealing on the web (Wright n pag.). The amount of revenue loss is only because of the extreme amount of people that are pirating music off of the internet. Computer users download more than two point six billion free copyright music files a month says the Guardian news paper in London (Anderson n pag.). The internet is such an easy place to get free music because millions if not billions of people use it every day. United States Congress and many other governments throughout the globe have been trying to pass new laws involving piracy. In the United Kingdom (England) is considering ISP’s to block certain sites, cut of internet to repeat offenders of internet piracy, and slow downloading speeds. And in the UK felons could face fines up to one hundred fifty thousand Euros and up to ten years in prison for each illegal download (Anderson n pag.). In the United States representatives are trying to pass bills that would punish pirates and possibly limit the amount of piracy that occurs. In July of two thousand three Rep. John Conyers, D+Michigan, introduced a bill that would make it a crime punishable by up to six months in jail to put a copy righted song on the internet. Rep. Lamar Smith , R-Texas, introduced a bill in June that would require the FBI to work more closely with local police and internet service providers to crack down on illegal downloads.