I, Pirate — An Unorganized Collection of Thoughts Concerning Piracy

Napster, KaZaA, Limewire, and Piratebay — all some of the most recognizable enemies of the modern age.  Starting in the summer of 1999, Napster’s emergence onto the Internet brought with it swarms of people who, almost as one, decided that they no longer wanted to pay for digital media.  With a flagrant disregard for recording artists, and the languishing RIAA and MPAA respectively, these pirates copied and distributed, seeded and leeched, and made a complete mockery of the copyright laws in place to prevent things like this from happening.  So why did it happen?

The mass popularization of piracy (the ‘why did it happen?’ question) is blatantly obvious and one that I’ll answer with a question of my own: How does everything for free, available always, with no corporate middle men sound? Does it sound appealing?  If it does, you’re not alone.  And with this mindset, millions of users logged onto the aforementioned services and began to pirate songs from various artists, software from various developers, and a backlog of movies — all of which (at least in my case) probably never would have been purchased because of financial constraints.  Although admittedly sardonic, my opinion comes in response to the collective corporate propaganda efforts that equate pirates to car thieves or serial killers (made that last one up).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU&w=560&h=315]

This anti-piracy campaign that has been circulated around, and made a mockery of, in recent years propagates a fallacious line of thought that associates pirates with the societies lowest thieves and criminals. (the ad assumes that you wouldn’t steal a car, a handbag, a dvd, or a television — so why on earth would you pirate a movie? Because it’s the same thing.)

Contrary to claims the video makes, cyber “criminals” are much less notorious than a car thief about to commit grand theft auto or a shoplifter stealing a $2000 Louis Vuitton handbag.  While most would never walk into a store and steal a copy of The Hobbit, those same people consistently have no problem at all acquiring a copy of it from Piratebay or a handful of other trackers. In his article “You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You,” Paul Tassi addressed this, stating that quite contrary to popular belief, “piracy is not raiding and plundering Best Buys and FYEs, smashing the windows and running out with the loot” and instead suggests that piracy is like “being placed in a store full of every DVD in existence . . . [with] no employees, no security guards, and when you take a copy of movie, another one materializes in its place.”  While this view is obviously not meant to be grounded in reality, it serves to exemplify an important point: there is a notable difference between physically stealing something and pirating it, namely that, as Tassi remarks, “there’s nothing going missing, which is generally the hallmark of any good theft.”

All of my pro-piracy rhetoric serves to underline the inherent problem in the archaic regulation methods plaguing media distribution today.  Take for instance the movie industry that first tells the consumer that they need to pay $15 for a movie ticket, and then an additional $25 to own it.  $40 seems like too much.  It’s something that has been made worse over recent years with the Ultraviolet movement, something that claims to offer consumers the ability to watch their movies on portable devices but first forces them to download software which regulates its use.  And, more often than not, the software acts as digital rights management (DRM) and requires a constant Internet connection to even work.

This is why people pirate.  What’s the solution?  I don’t know if there is one, but I would start by  suggesting those who see a movie in theaters get a digital copy of it for a drastically reduced price.  Another step in the right direction would be doing away with the Ultraviolet nonsense altogether and letting users decide where they want to get their digital copy from.  The people who are buying the Hobbit on Blu-ray for $25 aren’t the ones that need to be told not to pirate — they should be rewarded for not pirating.

Before someone gets up in arms and explains to me the economics behind the fight against piracy — I get it.  Save your fingers the exercise.  With that said, I’m sorry if sympathy towards the plight of the movie and music industry is something at the bottom of my list of day-to-day concerns.  Once the industries begin to care about consumers, consumers will care about them.  Until then, fly your flags.