What is Piracy?

So before we can really get into deep discussions about piracy and plagiarism, we have to define what they are. Concepts such as these deal very much in relativism and are thin lines to walk along, or at least they seem that way for many. In the earlier part of this blog I will focus on piracy and move on to plagiarism at a later time. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, piracy is defined as “the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright.” So what does this mean?

When I think or piracy a few things come to mind: The piracy video that plays in theaters with the intense music, the copyright warnings before movies, downloading illegal movies and music, torrents, Napster, Limewire, etc. So basically, we are using or taking someone else’s things without their permission and without paying for it. It sounds a lot like stealing to me.

The video below suggests that you wouldn’t steal a DVD out of a store, so why would you steal or pirate a video online? Is it only because we are less likely to be caught doing it online? Or is there something more? I think that pirating movies and especially music has become so commonplace and ingrained in our culture that we don’t see it as wrong. I wonder if part of this is due to the websites that offer music and movies to be played for free but are still legal. These sites make their money through advertising and perhaps by selling your email addresses to third parties, but we don’t have to pay for them so we think they are going unpaid for.

Because there is so much piracy that goes on and we can so easily find free music and movies (as well as many other free things), we have started to come to expect to get these things for free. We don’t deserve them for free, right? Someone else put their time and money into creating the movies and music and software. That is their livelihood. If they were intended to be free, the people wouldn’t get paid to do them. If they didn’t get paid to do them, the creators likely wouldn’t have as much time or as many resources to devote to creating those things, and in turn we wouldn’t have them. But somehow we have gotten into the mindset that we deserve to get the latest songs, movies, and software for nothing!