Piracy Theft: In the Past

Piracy Theft:

In the past few years, the morality of copying music, movies, and software has emerged as a major issue of ethical debates. Since the times of the use of cassette tapes, consumers have basically been copying and sharing music and movies freely. Piracy, especially online piracy has hit a new high because of the Internet and the emergence of Napster and torrent files. The most important aspect of these debates is based on whether piracy is theft or not. The debates have generated huge controversies mainly because theft is largely considered as morally incorrect or questionable. The arguments on whether piracy is theft are also fueled by the potential negative effects that piracy has on the sale of original products.

Arguments on whether Piracy is Theft:

As previously mentioned, there are several arguments that have been made in support or opposition of whether piracy is theft. On one hand, piracy is not regarded as theft according to various people who argue that it doesn't contribute to the loss of the original but the multiplication and spread of the product or item. For instance, when an individual copies a game, he/she increases the number of that game in the world while the owner does not lose the original copy. Therefore, this people do not consider piracy as theft because by copying copyright protected materials that belong to another person, the owner of the material is not deprived of his/her ownership of the material (Muller, 2012).

On the contrary, piracy is regarded as theft because of the potential negative effects it has on the sales of the original items. This is primarily because the pirate is stealing a sale and thus contributes to negative financial impacts on the owner of the pirated material. Secondly, pirate may give bad reviews of the material they pirated which is likely to contribute to the loss of sales. The best illustration of piracy being theft is that of identify piracy and pirating credit card numbers. When considered as mere copying the digital information, pirating a credit card number just like software is not necessarily wrong because the owner is still in possession of his credit card. However, the use of the pirated digital information of a credit card is theft when the pirate uses the number to make purchases of various items (Billy, 2011). This makes piracy to be theft because the pirate is stealing the owner's credit and using it for personal benefit.

Impact of Piracy:

In addition to the inconclusive debates and arguments on whether piracy is theft, this issue together with file sharing and copyright infringement in the current digital world is very complicated. The actual determination of the morality and legality of piracy is largely dependent on provision of meaningful information of what digital media is and what it should be. The difficulty in identifying whether piracy is theft is also attributed to lack of precise language to explain several kinds of content and information exchange on the Internet. Generally, the debate on this issue is further complicated by the challenges associated with the privacy of the Internet.

Nonetheless, based on the impact of pirating music, movies, and software, piracy can be considered as theft. The illegal copying and distribution of illegitimately copied material has huge financial impacts on the worldwide economy. As the rate of piracy continues to increase across the world, this practice continues to cost the global economy in billions of dollars. Piracy contributes to lost tax revenues that would be beneficial to local communities as hundreds of thousands of jobs in various industries are lost. The huge financial impact is also attributed to the fact that huge amounts are spent on dealing with this practice while it hinders innovation, research, and development. Therefore, piracy tends to hurt everyone i.e. manufacturers, consumers, employees, and many other business segments or people.

Piracy is theft because the main purpose of copyright is to incentivize the manufacture of creative works and materials (Kain, 2012). The increase in online piracy continues to hurt the entertainment industry since creators of content are increasingly discouraged from innovative pursuits because of online piracy. Actually, similar to other industries, the entertainment industry has continued to struggle because on increased online piracy, especially during the recession period. Therefore, piracy is theft because digital piracy has contributed to more job losses across the board, especially in art and media industries.

Need for Online Privacy:

Due to the potential financial impact of piracy on the global economy, online privacy or privacy of the Internet is an important and crucial aspect to help promote copyright of materials. The enhancement of privacy of the Internet is important for the protection of manufacturers, employees, and consumers of such materials. Actually, privacy of the Internet is crucial for the protection of the general public from and the protection of the rights of owners or producers of the copyrighted materials.