Tenmatay, 2010-78004
Piracy: The Gray Area of Society
Piracy: The Gray Area of Society
If
you've ever been interested in any kind of electronic medium, you've probably
heard of piracy. It can be also found in advertisements, news, public service
announcements, and it even spreads through word-of-mouth. Be thankful for it
because without it, we would be deprived of many of life's distractions, and
possibly, a world full of the pleasures of art and music.
Then
why is it so hard for it to garner visible support? Sure it's illegal but so is
gambling in many parts of the world and we know it exists everywhere. Why do
copyright agencies, try as they might, still seem so lenient when it comes to
regulating their own laws? Or in some cases, impose too many security measures?
Do economic dependencies play a part in all of this? Are people really
concerned about what they leech off the net, legally or illegally? Is it really
that harmful to society? And if people do support it, to what extent? But more
importantly, is it a symptom of a service and distribution problem between
content creators, publishers, and consumers? This topic of discussion is pretty
common nowadays but it has become so rampant that if one tried to persecute anyone
who has pirated anything, may it be from the Internet or otherwise, that person
would have implicated just about everyone.
Piracy
essentially centers upon one word: Access. Why should we buy something that
requires a lot of hassle to get if we could get it faster and easier though
other means? The Internet is an immeasureable hub of connections and given
enough time and effort, anything that is dumped in the internet can be found
and retrieved. That means images, audio and video streams, published and
unpublished literary works, software, and of course, confidential and
copyrighted data. However, the Internet is only one part of the whole. We in
the Philippines know the other parts very well: Bootleg DVDs, VCDs, and CDs
that contain anything from the lastest games and music to the latest
video-cammed movies. Taken together comes a fact that becomes quickly obvious:
Piracy is everywhere.
With
this power of almost unlimited access, does it seem too powerful? Of course it
is. So many companies are losing money and eventually go bankrupt because of
piracy and prevalence of digital media. Blockbuster Inc., a well known retail
chain of movies and video games, has recently filed for bankruptcy blaming
piracy for their loss in revenue. Demigod, a MOBA (Multiple Online
Battle Arena) game released in 2009, experienced a very disasterous case of
piracy; out of the 138,000 gamers who played the game online, only 18,000
bought the game legitimately. This caused the game's developers, Gas Powered
Games, to underestimate their user base and it led to their game servers
crashing and again, loss in profit and revenue. P2P (peer-to-peer) networks
make free distribution of copyrighted music as easy as opening µtorrent, Limewire, or any BitTorrent client,
typing the name of the song, hitting search, and downloading.
It
is precisely because of these situations that security and anti-piracy
measures, as well as copyright laws are enacted and implemented. These can be
as benign as laws prohibiting copying copyrighted material under penalty of
fines and imprisonment, or as aggressive as local ISPs (Internet Service
Providers) cutting service to users who are suspected pirates.
But
would piracy eventually make the electronic medium as an inefficient means to
earn profit. That is actually not the case. Piracy does not mean free stuff.
Just because you pirated something, it doesn't mean you didn't, haven't or will
not pay for it in other means. Other people pirate things to try them out, some
pirated programs take additional effort just for it to work, and, on the
subject of companies losing money, according to David Rosen on his blog Wolfire
Blog :
The average pirate downloads
a lot more games than the average customer buys. This means that even though
games see that 80% of their copies are pirated, only 10% of their potential
customers are pirates, which means they are losing at most 10% of their sales.
(…)
Let's consider the following
scenario. Because game pirates can get apps for free, they download a couple
new games every day -- or about 500 games in a year. On the other hand, normal
gamers tend to play the same game for a longer time -- buying an average of 5
games per year. (…) Given these statistics, if the market consists of 10
million gamers, then there are 500 million pirated game copies, and 90 million
purchased game copies, From the perspective of every individual game, 80% of
its users are using pirated copies. However, only 10% of the market consists of
pirates.
And
finally, publicity. Due to the nature of piracy, things spread fast and gain
reputation. That's partly the reason why games, movies, TV series and
production programs are very popular today. These are quality products but a
video game costs $60 (usual retail price at release) + tax, and Adobe Photoshop
CS5 currently costs $699 + tax + shipping (if you prefer shipping). Multiply
that with our current exchange rate, factor in our economy, and we get about
60% of the population of the Philippines being able to afford buying them on
their own for at least one time and only a small fraction of that being able to
continually buy those products and their successors for a long time, and those
people might not even be skilled or interested enough to use them. Moreover,
there is the risk that what they get is not what they wanted and that equates
to lost money for them.
But
can we blame them and, by extension, ourselves? The world isn't big anymore.
Back then, piracy was just smuggling imported goods from place to place. It's
has always been an isolated case before because it takes a long time to move
those goods from country to country, town to town, etc. Now with the invention
of the Internet and the Global culture, just about everyone wants to know and
get into what is popular to the majority. What's more is that getting to them
doesn't involve copious amounts of time and energy. From Hollywood movies and
TV shows, hit songs, the latest apps, popular video games and eBooks to the
most wanted animé, and state-of-the-art computer programs. The whole world is
connected to each other now and it comes to no surprise that third-world
countries such as ours experience the most problems when it comes to buying
these imported products. What makes it all the more frustrating is that losing
access to these materials would ironically slow down their progress because anyone
talented enough to make use of them effectively are usually the ones who don't
have the means to get them.
Now
think of those aforementioned goods and remind ourselves of how we got some of
them, and how much of an impact it had in our lives. Our favorite movies, TV
shows, and animé, the ones that we sometimes bring around with us to cheer us
up when we feel down and needing inspiration. Music to make our lives lively
and enjoyable. We make friends and become relatable when talking to other
people by referencing what is “in” or current. Programs like Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe After Effects help develop our creativity. Some videos on Youtube come
from pirated material; the videos there, especially music videos and clips from
movies, are not distributed by the ones responsible for them, yet you don't see
all of them taken down by their proper owners. It's this gray area of society
that is worth noting when talking about piracy. Can we get all of these items
and integrate it into our lives without going drastically poor in the process?
We can't. Doing all things legally would only limit our potential to learn a
lot about the world. Like it or not, inspiration is still inspiration. Some
people make wrong use of it but most people make good, if not better, use of
it.
For
what it is and for what it's worth, piracy is good. Better and easier access to
material will always be good. Sure it's illegal and I'm not advocating its
legalization because, by design, it is illegal. What I'm going for here is us
to recognize it for its merits. It's not all bad. Piracy keeps everything current
and relatable for everyone. However, we should always find ways to give back
because pirating a product is a bad way to treat developers who spent money and
worked hard to create a good product. You can purchase the product later once
you have the means or promote it for others who can buy it. Support the
creators and developers. Piracy is just that; it's a service problem and it is
normal to accept that we all do it because there's no helping it right now. But
it shouldn't stop there. Once a better distribution service comes along,
support it. It helps everyone.
Sources:
[1] Crocker,
Ronnie, 2010. “Has digital age killed the video store?” Chron. The Houston
Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/business/article/Bankrupt-Blockbuster-gets-reality-check-in-1699093.php.
3 Feb 2014.
[2]
Chalk, Andy, 2009. “Demigod piracy running high.” The Escapist Magazine.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/91001-Demigod-Piracy-Running-High. 3 Feb 2014.
[3] Hameed,
Bilal, 2008. “P2P Piracy Costs the Music Industry $69 Billion in 2007.” Startup
Meme Techology Blog. http://startupmeme.com/p2p-piracy-costs-the-music-industry-69-billion-in-2007/.
3 Feb 2014.
[4] Raphael,
JR, 2009. “ISPs Join RIAA's Fight Against Piracy: Is Your ISP One of Them?” The Official PCWorld Blog. PC World Communications,
Inc. http://www.techhive.com/article/161978/riaa.html. 9 Feb 2014.
[5] “What
is DRM? Digital Restrictions Management”. Defective by Design. Free Software Foundation. http://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm_digital_restrictions_management.
3 Feb 2014.
[6]
“What is a Rootkit?” WiseGEEK. Conjecture Corporation. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-rootkit.htm.
3 Feb 2014.
[7] Rogers,
Matthew, 2010. “Irish ISP begins three-strikes program
to cut file-sharers' broadband connections.”
Download Squad. AOL, Inc. http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/05/24/irish-isp-three-strikes-file-sharing/.
9 Feb 2014.
[8] 31
March. “Virgin Media first UK ISP to adopt 3-Strikes-and-out on illegal
downloads [Updated]”. Cable Forum. http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/394/virgin-media-first-uk-isp-to-adopt-3.
9 Feb 2014.
[9] Jayasuriya,
Mehan, 2008. “Cox To Internet Users: Three Strikes and You're
Out”. Public Knowledge. http://www.publicknowledge.org/news-blog/blogs/cox-internet-users-three-strikes-and-youre-ou.
3 Feb 2014.
[10] Hrusa,
Joel, 2010. “Ubisoft Patches Assassin's Creed 2 DRM, Allows Local Saves”. HotHardware.com, LLC. http://hothardware.com/News/Ubisoft-Patches-Assassins-Creed-2-DRM-Allows-Local-Saves/.
9 Feb 2014.
[11]
Rosen, David, 2010. “Another view of game piracy.” Wolfire Blog. http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Another-view-of-game-piracy.
3 Feb 2014.
[12] 2012.
“Why are Video Games So Expensive”. Bright Hub, Inc. http://www.alteredgamer.com/free-pc-gaming/21118-why-are-video-games-so-expensive/.
9 Feb 2014.
[13] 2010.
“Philippines Population below poverty line”. IndexMundi. http://www.indexmundi.com/philippines/population_below_poverty_line.html.
3 Feb 2014.
[14] Fulford,
Adam, 2009. “Rising Popularity of Anime”. EzineArticles. http://ezinearticles.com/?Rising-Popularity-of-Anime&id=2994930.
9 Feb 2014.
[15]
Tito, Greg, 2011. "Valve's Gabe Newell Says Piracy Is a Service Problem".
The Escapist.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114391-Valves-Gabe-Newell-Says-Piracy-Is-a-Service-Problem.
10 Feb 2014
[16]
Tassi, Paul, 2012. "You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill
You". Forbes.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/02/03/you-will-never-kill-piracy-and-piracy-will-never-kill-you/.
10 Feb 2014
[17]
Colwill, Tim, 2013. "'We see pirates as our competition, we don’t see
Steam as our competition”: GOG.com on hatemail, torrents, and sharing games
legally". Games.on.net. http://games.on.net/2013/07/we-see-pirates-as-our-competition-we-dont-see-steam-as-our-competition-gog-com-on-hatemail-torrents-and-sharing-games-legally/
10 Feb 2014
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