Online Piracy Problem/Solution
This Isn’t Piracy in International Waters Stealing. There is more to it than just the grab-something-off-the-shelf-and-go approach. Online piracy is defined as “the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc” (“Piracy”). It really started to become a problem in 1999 with the creation of Napster. Napster was the first peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing program that enabled users to download and share music for free (“Harenber”). Since Napster, which is now a paid service due to various lawsuits, the online world of file sharing has evolved from not just music but to movies, operating systems, books, magazines, TV shows, and more. Online piracy, which has become a problem over the years, is on the rise and needs to be stopped. If you download something from the Internet that is protected by a copyright, and you don’t pay for it, you are committing copyright infringement. Piracy is always copyright infringement but copyright infringement isn’t always piracy (“The Difference Between Piracy and Copyright Infringement”).Simply going to Google and typing in “free music downloads” doesn’t guarantee that you will be downloading a copyright-free song. More than likely, if you are downloading a popular song, it will be protected by copyright. And because it has copyright protection, and you are getting it for free, downloading it is illegal.
The problem of piracy is a relatively new concept. Although “piracy was around long before the Internet went public,” the Internet is now the main reason why piracy exists (Strickland). There are approximately 25 million active users on The Pirate Bay (“Piracy by the Numbers”). This number alone shows how popular piracy is, even though it is illegal. The number of jobs lost each year to piracy is 375,000 “…costing American workers $16 billion in earnings” (“Piracy by the Numbers”). $25 billion--”the annual cost of global piracy to U.S. firms in
The problem of piracy is a relatively new concept. Although “piracy was around long before the Internet went public,” the Internet is now the main reason why piracy exists (Strickland). There are approximately 25 million active users on The Pirate Bay (“Piracy by the Numbers”). This number alone shows how popular piracy is, even though it is illegal. The number of jobs lost each year to piracy is 375,000 “…costing American workers $16 billion in earnings” (“Piracy by the Numbers”). $25 billion--”the annual cost of global piracy to U.S. firms in
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