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