Digital Piracy

Narratives

• Trevor is doing a project for school. Since he is very adept at video mashups, he decides to use clips from different TV shows and movies to assist him with the project. After completing the masterpiece, Trevor is very excited about his work and wants not only his class but also the whole world to see his creation. He decides to post the video onto YouTube with an obscure name to avoid detection and uploads it onto five other video sharing services DailyMotion, Revver, GoFish, MySpace Video, and Facebook Video to act as mirrors. He then embeds the clip onto his blog and uses IM, email, text messaging, and Twitter to spread the word about this update.

Involves the use of the following applications: Adobe Premiere, Audacity, Trillian, Thunderbird

And services: YouTube, Daily Motion, Revver, GoFish, MySpace, Facebook, Textem, and Twitter.

• Questions raised from this scenario:
  • What constitutes fair use?
  • Does copyright laws impede on next generation's creativity?

• Trevor and friends are hanging out in his basement on a lazy Sunday afternoon. They just watched a trailer of an upcoming blockbuster film and the whole group is very excited -- they can’t wait to get in line to see the first midnight showing. Unfortunately, the film’s release date is one week away. With nothing else to do, Trevor proposes that he could obtain a copy of the film via a private torrent network whose administrator is a member of an infamous release group. A few of his friends brings up the concern about piracy, but since the group is at Trevor’s house nobody objects -- in fact, a few never realized this was possible, and the majority of the group wants Trevor to download the file and burn them a copy.

Involves the use of the following applications: Quicktime, uTorrent, PeerGuardian 2, DivX Player, XviD Video Codec, AC3 Audio Codec

And services: <Torrent Website>, <Release Group>

• Questions raised from this scenario:
  • Who should be more responsible for the piracy? The release group or the end user?
  • How does group mentality play affect piracy?

• After seeing Trevor successfully obtain the movie, one of Trevor’s friends decide to get more movies from a P2P program he installed a while back. After firing the application up, his computer freezes. Not knowing what happened, Trevor’s friend does a simple force reboot and after the restart, everything seems fine. In the background processes, however, the P2P program automatically shared his whole media folder to the rest of the P2P community without telling the user.

Involves the use of the following applications: <P2P Application>

• Questions raised from this scenario:
  • If a P2P program automatically shares all the media on a user's computer and the user is accused of copyright infringement, who should take the blame? The P2P company or the end user?
  • The tech companies hired by the media industries to track down internet pirates is known for only targeting uploaders, rarely downloaders. Is this technique working?

Introduction to Piracy

In the simplest terms, piracy is obtaining something without the proper rights of legal ownership. In a broader sense, piracy represents the whole range of theft. Like what the traditional usage of this term suggests, the actions committed by ruthless sea barbarians in the early 1700s are not so different from the methods Digital Natives use to wrongfully acquire or distribute copyrighted material online. Yes, the recent surge in piracy of Disney’s Pirates 3 movie is, least to say, ironic.

The main driving force behind the argument against piracy centers on the degree of copyright infringement. The creator of a new piece of work has exclusive rights or ownership over all personal products of labor. Exclusive rights include but are not limited to distribution, reproduction, perform and make derivatives of the original. Under United States and most foreign law, copyright infringement is the unauthorized use of any works or materials secured by copyright. Such actions usually impinge on the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, without a license to do so. Copyrights and the consequences of copyright infringement help protect intellectual property, protect ownership, and promote the society's technological progress.

Piracy Among Digital Natives

Numbers Tell the Story

• Discuss the latest trends among Digital Natives relating to how they perceive piracy
  • Gender differences
  • Social-economic differences
  • Family influences
  • Group mentality phenomenon

Dangers of Piracy

For those who download through P2P networks, the MPAA and RIAA have brought up the many potential risks one faces when accessing these servers. In the parental resources section of the MPAA website, the organization warns about four dangers of P2P programs: “Subject users to pornography, open personal files on your home computer to strangers online, increase the risk of a computer virus, lure kids into illegally downloading movies and music, which can lead to jail time and fines” [1].

The first three concerns the MPAA notes are typical risks users face when acquiring content through such systems. Many online hackers exploit the P2P search system for monetary gains. By analyzing the trends of high demand movies or music, these profiteers simply manipulate the file names of the viruses and malware they want to spread to match the names of popular song artists and movie titles. Average users who are unaware of these tactics often times are gullible enough to execute these masked programs without realizing the file’s identity. Even the ever-popular P2P software Limewire admits to the existence of viruses and other harmful material on their networks. In its online FAQ, the programmers warn Limewire’s users, “if you attempt to download a virus-infected file using LimeWire, you will be vulnerable to any viruses contained in that file” [2].

In addition to harmful materials one can download, many of these free P2P programs are packaged with third party spyware programs that will slowly but surely retard the speed and reliability of a computer. Like the infamous AOL installation back in the day, a handful of these shareware P2P clients come bundled with various harmful third party applications. By means of a deceptive installation wizard or simply packing other software with the executable, oblivious individuals get much more than what they originally wanted.

Finally, users face the possibility of legal consequences due to copyright infringement. Since most P2P search requests will pull up media across the whole copyright spectrum, the MPAA does not want children get the impression certain copyrighted content can be acquired without charge for the legal consequences does not discriminate by age. From a warning to a petty fine of $200 to $150,000 and 5 years in jail, the potential cost of piracy is very real [3].

Solutions

Educate the Young

• Getting the message across to the new generations of Digital Natives

It is human nature to want to fit in with the rest of the populace. For example, if the majority of Trevor’s peers does not condone or commit piracy, it is highly unlikely Trevor will spend Friday nights at home downloading the latest blockbuster for he will be at the movie theatre watching the film with his friends. Thus, it should be the media industries’ goal to embed piracy’s immoral ideologies as early as possible in the heads of rising Digital Natives.

Although the representatives of the entertainment industry are currently pushing massive anti-piracy educational campaigns onto the public sphere, their efforts are not enough. The facts about piracy need to be incorporated into public school curriculums across the country. High school government classes should stress the consequences of copyright infringement. Parents should take part in addressing the dangers of piracy before they teach their children how to use computers. With a solid piracy awareness educational program in place, the next generations of internet users will be ready to make rational decisions about electronic theft.

Improve Business Strategies

• Adapting to the new digital environment
  • Embrace the inevitable online music movement
    • BitTorrent and MPAA Join Forces [4]
  • Develop better technologies to aid sales

• Providing legal, more attractive alternatives
  • Reduce material costs of current physical albums
  • Renew incentives to collect

The main incentive to obtain pirated files instead of purchasing them from a legitimate seller is because of the undesirable high prices of genuine media. In a study conducted by the RIAA, the consumer prices of producing a CD nearly rose 60% between the years of 1983 and 1996. Fortunately, the price of blank CDs fell 40% during this period, otherwise “average retail price of a CD in 1996 would have been $33.86 instead of $12.75” [5]. The RIAA notes because “the amount of music provided on a typical CD has increased substantially, along with higher quality in terms of fidelity, durability, ease of use, and range of choices,” not to mention today’s insanely over the top marketing strategies, the prices of production has been consistently on the rise.

This price trend also is occurring in the DVD sales industry. With the DVD player penetration rate in American households up from 23.6% in 2001 to 76.2% in 2005, DVDs are definitely on demand [6]. The average price of a DVD title, however, rose from $20.52 to $21.35 from 2001 to 2005 while the price of blank DVDs were falling lower and lower [7]. Money conscientious consumers who are always hunting for deals turn to free P2P services or cheaper pirated versions of media because the real stuff is simply too expensive.

Adjust Policies & Enforcement Techniques

• Creating new policies that clarifies digital fair use
• Setting the examples (for the prosecution)
  • Sue illiterate sympathizers and root release groups
    • Suing Your Customers: A Winning Business Strategy? [8]
  • Be aware of social backlash
  • Keep an open mind & avoid being greedy
    • Piracy stats don't add up [9]

Reflections

• Is piracy really causing problems for the programming/entertainment industries?
  • Russian teacher fined for MS piracy [10]
  • Profits from Piracy: Microsoft in China [11]

Raw Statistics

The data in the following sections are pulled directly from studies done by various sources concerning piracy and other matters. Data is grouped by source. The goal of this section is to provide at a glace concrete data.

Pew: Teen Content Creators and Consumers, 2005 [12]

• More than half of online teens are Content Creators. Online teens enjoy new opportunities to create, remix, and share digital content.
  • 19% of online teens keep a blog and 38% read them.
  • Older girls lead the blogging activity among teens.
  • Teens surpass adults in blog keeping and reading.
  • Blog readers are more prevalent in highly wired and high-income homes.
  • More than half of teen bloggers update once a week or more.
  • Blog reading usually stays within a teen’s personal network.
  • Bloggers manipulate content by sharing and remixing.
  • Teens also create and maintain websites for others.
  • Teen bloggers are tech-savvy and heavy internet users.
  • Bloggers care more about copyright than non-bloggers do.
  • Urban, highly wired teens are more likely to share original artistic content.
  • When it comes to sharing self-authored creative content, older girls stand out.
  • Like adults, some teens use content they find online as a palette for personal expression.

• Most teen downloaders think that getting free music is easy and it’s unrealistic to expect people not to do it.
  • 51% online teens say they currently download music files and close to one-third say they download video.
  • Just 18% of online adults who were surveyed at the end of 2004 reported music downloading.
  • Older teen boys with broadband are the most likely to say they get music online.
  • Like adults, teen downloaders get their music from multiple sources
  • Teens are as likely now to have paid for music online as they are to have tried peer-to-peer services.
  • Teens are twice as likely as adults to report video downloading

Relevant Research

PiracyEdu Homepage

Viacom the Latest Company to Misunderstand the Internet, Jason Kolb, 2007

YouTube-Viacom Page on TopTenSources, Various Editors, 2007

Viacom Terrorizes YouTube, Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, 2007

LA Times: Is Copying a Crime? Well…, 2006

Which Videos Are Protected? Lawmakers Get a Lesson, 2007

June 6, 2007

Majority of Youth Understand “Copyright,” But Many Continue To Download Illegally, 2004

Movie Swappers Put on Notice, 2004

Poughkeepsie Online: Music Swappers Sued, 2003

Suing Your Customers: A Winning Business Strategy?, 2003

In Court's View, MP3 Player is Just a 'Space Shifter', 1999

US youths use internet to create, 2005

PDF: Teen Content Creators and Consumers, 2005 [13]

June 7, 2007

MPAA copyright victory is 'website killer', 2005

BitTorrent and MPAA Join Forces

Piracy stats don't add up, 2006

Russian teacher fined for MS piracy, 2007

Profits from Piracy: Microsoft in China

Legal Notes

Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute - US Code: Title 17, Copyrights

Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute - Constitution: LII

NET: The No Electronic Theft Act

DMCA: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act