Fluent Essays

With the recent growth of streaming services and ongoing efforts by media producers (movies, television shows, music) to make money from everything you watch, see, or listen to, there is a resurgence of intellectual property piracy.The owners and producers of the content will exercise every power they can find to restrict your ability to use the internet … because it might be piracy that you’re committing: (See cartoon at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Piracy_cartoon.gif (Links to an external site.))Part of what is driving the resurgence of piracy is the attempt to pull money from your pocket at every turn: (See cartoon at: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/music_industry (Links to an external site.))For this chapter, let’s look around and consider the following issues:What is intellectual property and what kinds of form does it take?How does the internet facilitate piracy?How have copyright industries, governments and law enforcement bodies responded to the growth of illegal copying online?How might we explain the high levels of involvement in such practices by young people?Whose interests does the criminalization of copying serve? Is there a case for decriminalizing piracy?How might we rethink intellectual property rights in the internet age? Should we reinforce the old model or adopt new ways of thinking about copyright?Don’t answer those questions (above), those are just for you to consider. Instead, answer these – post one comment of answer to these questions and one substantive comment in response to a classmate by the end of the weekWhat is intellectual property and what kinds of forms does it take?Whose interests does the criminalization of copying serve?Is there a case to be made for decriminalizing piracy and at what cost? cybercrime_and_society.docx Unformatted Attachment Preview Cybercrime and Society, Third Edition © Majid Yar & Kevin F. Steinmetz Chapter 5 Virtual ‘pirates’ Discussion • What is intellectual property and what kinds of forms does it take? 3 Introduction • Traditional concepts of “property” – Internet – transmission of information • Increasingly common kind of virtual property – intellectual property (IP) – E.g. books, computer software, musical recordings, motion pictures – Massive increase in theft of such IPs (intellectual property theft; copyright theft; piracy) – Reported losses in billions 4 Overview of intellectual property, copyright and piracy • Defining piracy, intellectual property and copyright • Intellectual property (IP): proprietary rights over forms of “intangibles” – E.g. patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyright, etc. • Copyright: the holder’s rights over a particular form of original expression – E.g. writing, music, paintings, computer software, etc. – Understanding copyright: buying a CD 5 Scope and scale of piracy activity • Copyright issues – “near-epidemic” levels – International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) – $710 to $917 billion lost in counterfeiting and piracy between 2013 and 2015 • Music – Billions lost in file sharing – Additional effects include o Decline in investment in new artists o Decline in the release of new music o Loss of employment 6 Scope and scale of piracy activity – Updated business models: digital downloads and streaming • Motion pictures • • • – $25 billion lost annually – Online pirated movies – 23.8\% of global Internet bandwidth – Illicit subscription television series • Computer software – More than half of software installed on systems was unlicensed in 2016 7 Scope and scale of piracy activity – $52.24 billion in losses – Includes unauthorized duplication/dissemination of video games • Book publishing – Rising demand for free online access to copyrighted books – Sci-Hub and academic research 8 The history and growth of internet piracy • Expansion of the Internet, itself – Today – 4.05 billion users worldwide – The growth and take-downs of file-sharing – Increasingly decentralized and fragmented • Advantages of the Internet and accessing copyrighted content • • • – Bypasses the cost of making content – Distribution of content is rapid – Allows unlimited copies to be made • – Bypasses border controls and affords users with anonymity 9 The history and growth of internet piracy • One of the earliest examples of digital piracy – the Homebrew Computer Club (HBCC) in the 1970s – Leaked copy of BASIC interpreter – Piracy or simply sharing information? • 1990s – bulletin board systems (BBSs), Usenet/newsgroups, file transfer protocol (FTP), Internet relay chat (IRC) • 1999 – advent of Napster – Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing of music until its shutdown in 2001 10 The history and growth of internet piracy • Problems with trying to shutdown file-sharing efforts – Decentralization (e.g. BitTorrent) • Content industries on the offensive – 2003–2008: Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) took action against ~30,000 individuals – BSA and the “No Piracy” program – Anti-piracy educational campaigns 11 The history and growth of internet piracy • Technological approaches to protect copyrighted material – Activation codes – “Digital rights management” (DRM) – Bypass: “craking” • Employing measures to avoid detection – Virtual private networks (VPNs) – A return to Usenet (deemed most effective) – Filelocker services 12 The history and growth of internet piracy • In the age of streaming services – “Stream-ripping” – conversion of streaming data into files stored locally • Piracy services switching to the dark web 13 Who are the pirates? • The ubiquity of piracy • – 2011 study – 47\% of computer users pirated software all/most of the time • – Music, video games, and other software (“softlifting”) • – Inverse relationship between age and piracy propensity • Key motivations – Desire to try out content and criminal strain theory – “Information wants to be free” (Brand & Herron, 1984) – Disdain for current business models – Money-making venture 14 Discussion • How might we explain the high levels of involvement in such practices by young people? 15 Development of anti-piracy initiatives: • Criminalization of piracy – Historically tackled through civil means o Low prosecutions even with provisions due to a range of factors – Two forms of criminalization o Using existing criminal sanctions • Formationofindustryorganizations(e.g.FACTand ACE) • Notable prosecutions 16 Development of anti-piracy initiatives: o Incorporation of additional provisions • Enhanced Copyright Act of 1956 • No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 • TheDMCA,TRIPS,andACTA • Legal regulation for content control – Holding ISPs liable for breeches by their customers o UK – The Digital Economy Act (DEA) o France – HADOPI o U.S. – SOPA and PROTECT IP 17 Development of anti-piracy initiatives: • Policing, enforcement and piracy – Proliferation of anti-piracy organizations – Creation of specialist liaisons to prosecute copyright theft • Anti-piracy education campaigns – Particular focus on younger individuals – School programs of the 1990s and 2000s o E.g. FACE, SIAA, and BSA o Warning the children and parents (legal repercussions) 18 Development of anti-piracy initiatives: • Organizations creating advertising campaigns – E.g. “Knock-Off Nigel” (Parkes, 2012) – Attempt to stigmatize copyright infringement 19 Discussion • Whose interests does the criminalization of copying serve? • Is there a case for decriminalizing piracy? 20 Thinking critically about piracy statistics • The law as a social construction reflecting power dynamics • Current statistics – product of inferences open to challenge • Major inquiries – Estimates extrapolated from detection and conviction rates – Attempts to quantify the scope and scale of the problem – Reliance on partial industry sources 21 Thinking critically about intellectual property rights • The counterarguments to the “demonization of piracy” – “Property rights” as something natural and unquestionable – Assertion of a straightforward equivalence between tangible and intangible properties – Actors will be materially harmed by piracy • Questioning claims of harmfulness and whose interests 22 ... 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