Blog Essay

Internet piracy is not theft!

Internet piracy can be described as unauthorized online file sharing, counterfeiting and online hacking to use servers without paying but internet piracy is technically not theft; it is a crime, but not theft. The more appropriate or fitting metaphor could be “unauthorized use” or maybe even “trespass”. This blog essay will, firstly; discuss the misconception of internet piracy for theft. Secondly, the entertain industry and digital copies will be discussed. Thirdly, this blog essay will discuss the concession to why internet piracy is not theft and a refutation. Finally; finish off with the conclusion. Internet piracy is not theft.

Due to the rise of the technological age; and the advancement of the World Wide Web, internet piracy was given life and has started to grow so much that it has become something of a common thing in our everyday lives. Internet piracy is defined as infringing a piece of work that is under copyright to someone or a company, trying to distribute, display or reproduce these exclusive rights without acknowledgement from the copyright holder is illegal. Theft is one huge misconception of Internet piracy; it has become a “metaphor” to internet piracy and it is confusing what people think and what the law is (Larsson as cited by Enersto 2011). Yes, there are laws against internet piracy but labelling this action as theft can, and will not work but the entertainment industry have been pushing hard to label it as stealing.

People from the entertain industry like, for example; musicians place their work under the copyright law so their work will be protected from “thieves”. A thief is defined as someone who is caught in the act of stealing something that did not legally belong to them, but associating copy right infringements with stealing is incorrect (Green as cited by Couts 2012) . The reason why internet piracy could never be confirmed as theft is because the musician who had his music downloaded of the internet has not lost his original work; he still has it. The downloader only merely makes a copy of his work and copy is a key word in internet piracy as it shows the difference between stealing and not stealing in this argument and will likely prove that illegal downloads is not stealing.

Online music and movies are not physical things; they are something called “digital copies”. This means that they are an online copy of the original music or movie, so when and online downloader downloads these files it is important to notice that it is not theft; because as noted before, he made a copy of the digital copy. This scenario is different to a person walking into a store and taking a movie DVD out of the store without paying. Why? Because that DVD is a physical object that the store owns, therefore when someone was to take the DVD the store when no longer own it, classifying this as theft Wilson (2013). When comparing these two scenarios, there is one obvious difference that proves why internet piracy is not theft and that is an online download will not deprive the creative owner of his original work because it was only a digital copy. Even though internet piracy is not theft, it is still considered wrong to many people trying to make a living through selling their creative work or idea, like for example; musicians, artists, movie producers and even actors.

The entertainment industry believe that online illegal downloads is considered as thievery. This is why musicians place copyrights and intellectual property on their work so the law and everybody else will acknowledge that this piece of work belongs to the musician. The reason why the entertainment industry goes this far is because they believe that profit is lost when an illegal downloader makes a copy of their work, not only that, counterfeiters make illegal copies and distribute it online so others won’t have to pay to download James (2013). As of now millions of DVD, music and video files have been illegally leaked onto the internet and its making it harder on the original creative owners to make a living because illegal downloads keep occurring, however labelling internet piracy as theft will not help make this situation better for the entertainment industry because a lot of regular downloaders will not accept that illegal downloading is like stealing a car.

In conclusion it is obvious that labelling internet piracy as theft is incorrect, however it does not making illegal online file sharing right. Creative owners work hard for what they accomplish and they certainly need to be rewarded for their hard work and to make sure they get awarded they put copyrights and intellectual property on their work. Lastly I do not believe that illegal downloads are equivalent to stealing a car and that is where I stand in this argument.

• Couts, A. (2012) Illegal file sharing isn’t “stealing”: here’s why. Retrieved from                http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/illegal-file-sharing-isnt-stealing-heres-why/
• Degroote, M. (2012) Digital piracy wrong but not “theft”. Retrieved

from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865553832/Illegal-copying-wrong-but-not-theft-professor-says.html?pg=all

• Ernesto (2011) Piracy is NOT theft: Problems of a nonsense metaphor. Retrieved from                    http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-not-theft-111104/
• Green, S.P. (2012) When stealing isn’t stealing. Retrieved

from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/opinion/theft-law-in-the-21st-century.html?_r=3&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1333108962-MMcE/mz1IjRA34OYsq88Ag&#

• James, D.T (2013) Internet Piracy. Retrieved from

 http://www.enotes.com/topics/internet-piracy

• Janda, M (2012) Illegal downloading not theft. Retrieved

 from http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3482325.htm

• Wilson, M (2013) Piracy isn’t theft… But its effects are wide and far-reaching. Retrieved

from http://betanews.com/2013/09/16/piracy-isnt-theft-but-its-effects-are-wide-and-far-reaching/

Piracy Article Summeries

http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-not-theft-111104/

-Piracy is often referred to as "theft" and this idea is a problem according to Stefan Larsson, a sociologist of law; he thinks it is a "metaphor" and it is distancing what people think and what the law is. Stefan Larson goes on to say that the "theft-metaphor" suggests that the person stolen from has lost his object, but he has not, because it has only been copied. This is an easier way to approach the "theft-metaphor" idea; when someone steals something from someone that person will have lost his possession, on the other hand when "file sharing" (Illegally download) is committed the original owner does not lose the original item. File sharing only makes a copy of the original item. The problem is internet piracy is often equated to as a "theft" because the creative owner assumes he has lost a sale.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/illegal-file-sharing-isnt-stealing-heres-why/

-Law professor Stuart P. Green implies that copy right infringements is not associated with stealing at all. In order to steal something you must deprive the owner of whatever that thing for example if someone were to download a file legally belonging to the rightful owner and has used intellectual property rights on it has lost the "potential" profit that could have been made. You could argue that we can't know whether the downloader would have paid the purchase price had he not misappropriated the property.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/opinion/theft-law-in-the-21st-century.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1333108962-MMcE/mz1IjRA34OYsq88Ag&#

-Megaupload.com is being sued for crimes but theft is surely not one of them. Stealing is usually described as when one person gains over someone else’s lose. Most people do not believe that illegally downloading something of the internet is equal to stealing a car; say if I were to illegally download a file from a musician without paying. Technically the musician has not lost anything but the assumption is that he has lost a possible sale. Illegally downloading a file is still a major problem in this internet era and people with original ideas and creativity who put their work or ideas on for sale should be rewarded for their hard work. 

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865553832/Illegal-copying-wrong-but-not-theft-professor-says.html?pg=all

-The music and movie industry want to frame illegally downloading their files as stealing but most people do not believe the claim that illegally downloading a file online is equivalent to stealing someone's car. Piracy is more suited as trespass or unauthorized use but not stealing. Trying to push this idea through people's heads won’t work because calling "copying" is not "Theft “it only makes a copy of the original item therefore we can say that the original owner really doesn’t lose anything. A study done in 2004 claim that internet file sharing or illegally downloading is the cause of music sales decreasing but realistically downloads have close to zero effect on sales. Another "assumption is that when; for example if I were to illegally download a song without paying, I would be stealing money from the musician and this is flawed because its only an assumption that I would have paid the price for the song. Downloading a file is simply put this way; it is not theft, the owner has not lost anything, the downloader only copied the item.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3482325.htm

-Mark Colvin, an expert in white collar crimes suggests framing internet piracy as theft is somewhat of a joke and Professor Green from Rutgers University implies that young people do not buy the idea that illegally downloading something of the internet is like stealing. If a musician for example; uploads his new song onto iTunes and I were to download the song of a file sharing site for free, the musician has not lost anything; his song is still on iTunes for everyone else to buy. The owner still has his original file. He can argue that he has been deprived of the profit he could've made by assuming that the down-loader would have been willing to pay just to have the file but that is only an assumption. The entertainment industry and parliament have really tried to push the concept of illegally downloading a file is equivalent to theft but Professor Green is still implying that it is suited as "unauthorized use" or "trespass" because saying a person has stolen something is much more serious than the situation really is.

http://www.enotes.com/topics/internet-piracy

-Basically Illegal downloads is thievery. A idea or object that is Intellectual property is knowledge or expression that is owned by someone and protected by the law. Intellectual property laws protect creative works like music, inventions and brand names. By copying something online that was not authorized by the owner is theft. The problem of internet piracy did not gain international attention until Napster gained an enormous following. Piracy is most problematic towards the entertainment industry where millions of files have been leaked by illegal downloader’s and sharing with other illegal downloader’s. Yes the owner does not lose his original belonging but he/she does lose the profit that he/she could have made. Napster offered music files and movie files for free which was harmful to the entertainment industry and despite vigorously fighting against online file sharing, it still remains a big problem.

Intro

Hello Patsy.

My topic is "internet piracy" and here is my address: leng2point0.blogspot.com
Internet piracy is not a crime.