Transcript An Introduction to Internet Piracy

An Introduction to Internet
Piracy
Adapted from Internet Piracy
Exposed by Guy Hart-Davis
What is Internet Piracy?
• Piracy conducted via the Internet
• What do the Digital Pirates Do?
– Since pirates steal stuff
– Digital pirates steal digital stuff by transferring files back and forth
– Getting without paying
• Stolen files include:
– music, video, pictures, texts, and software
– sensitive material, industrial secrets, government secrets
The Types of Pirated Files
• Music
– 2001, music files formed the largest category of piracy on the Net
– MP3 files traded using peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies
• Video
– Next biggest footprint on the bandwidth scale belongs to video
– anything from latest DVDs to sports games to music videos to
pornographic videos
– far fewer pirates trade video than audio (bandwidth issues)
Types of Pirated Files (2)
• Pictures
– The next in the chain, many are pictures of celebrities, movie stars,
rock stars, and pornographic pictures
• Software
– Next after pictures
• Texts
– least popular form of piracy
– people don’t like to read a large amount
– most books are cheap compared to music, DVDs, and software
– much harder to get a book into a file than music or video
Why Do They Do It?
• Because they want the stuff, and
• Because they can
When Do They Do It?
• Whenever they get the chance
How Do They Justify It?
• Some pirates couldn’t care less about justifying their piracy others do
try
• Lets look at some of their example justifications and begin a look at
the law
There’s no copyright notice on it
• and since there’s no copyright notice on an item it’s not copyrighted,
right?
• Wrong!
• Almost every original work is copyrighted, even if no copyright notice
appears on it
• Since Berne convention, it’s not necessary to include a copyright
notice on a work though it’s a good idea
• If you don’t know for sure that a work is out of copyright and thus in
the public domain, assume it is copyrighted
Everyone does it
– Everybody does it, sort of like speeding down the road
– We know there are laws against it but everybody’s still doing it
– Main difference between piracy and speeding is that the penalties
for piracy are far more severe
– Enforcement does tend to concentrate on the most blatant
offenders but…
It’s just a couple of files here and there
–
–
–
–
More or less true at the start but like many things
the habit tends to grow
In extreme cases, piracy takes over the pirate’s life
Most pirates keep their piracy under control as a hobby or a useful
way of saving money.
Well, its ok to make a tape of a few
tracks for a friend
• Can do this for yourself but it is not legal to give the copy
to anyone else
• It is a violation of copyright
I’m not charging for it, so its ok
• Actually, distributing the files is the copyright violation in
the eyes of the law
• It doesn’t matter if the violator is charging for the files or
not
• The only difference that charging for files or distributing
them freely can make is in the amount of damages that can
be awarded
CDs (or DVDs) are too expensive
• That may be true but so are expensive sports cars and that
doesn’t give someone the right to steal them
• Similarly no one has the right to steal the contents of a
copyrighted work whether it is on CD, DVD, paper,
canvas, or whatever
I’m promoting the artist by sharing their
music
• But if the artist or copyright holder has not specifically
granted permission to the person to distribute the track it’s
illegal
It’s fair use
• Briefly, fair use is a provision of copyright law that lets
you reproduce part or all of a work for reasons of
comment, criticism, parody, and so on
• More on fair use later
• Basically, Fair Use does not allow anyone to violate
copyright law
It’s there for free on the net
• The fact that copyrighted information is available on the
Internet means nothing more than that someone else has
violated ocpyright by making the file available for
distribution
• It’s still illegal to download the file and to possess a copy
of it
It’s freeware or shareware
It’s in the public domain
• A file is in the public domain for one of two reasons
• Someone has chosen to put a work whose copyright they
hold into the public domain
– Like a SW application so that others can freely use it
• Because the copyright has expired or been lost
• Many items in public domain are clearly marked as such
It’s copyleft
• serious pun on copyright
• A licensing mechansim designed to encourage the spread
and development of the SW in question
• Under a copyleft agreement, any distribution of the SW
must include its full source code.
• Anyone is free to modify or improve the SW and distribute
it further, provided that they make their modifications and
improvements available to all subsequent users
It’s not hurting anybody
• Creating a copy of a copyrighted work is assumed to cost
the creator or copyright holder of the work the benefit that
they should have derived from selling that copy of the
work
• Thus piracy is considered to harm the creator or copyright
holder
• In early 1990’s, Novell was reputed to have cornered 90%
of the networking market in China - but had sold only one
copy of NetWare there
• In late 1990’s, Novell’s share of the Chinese networking
market dropped precipitously as the Chinese pirates gained
enthusiasm for Windows NT server instead
Why is Piracy Wrong?
• Piracy is wrong because it’s stealing
• The law says that stealing is illegal
• Moreal codes say that Stealing is immoral
• End Chapter One of the Internet Piracy Exposed book