“The Piracy Ship Has Sailed”

Many of us know all about the piracy epidemic that occurred in the early 2000’s.  Millions of people were downloading music, movies, and anything else they could get their hands on illegally due to the creation of various programs that were specifically designed for this purpose.  Such programs are Limewire and Napster which are all no longer still in use, but at the time, they were some of the most popular software programs available.  With digital piracy becoming so common, these industries that had their material being pirated had to come up with ways to put out the fire, which brings us to the applications we use today.

YouTube, Netflix, and iTunes are three of the biggest names when it comes to streaming movies, TV-shows, and music.  Believe it or not, we have digital piracy to thank for the development of such applications.  Streaming is the most practical and successful solution to the piracy epidemic because it allows users to get the entertainment they are looking for, but not without a cost.  Some applications like Netflix require a monthly fee and give users access to a limited amount of movies, which do not include new releases or movies in theatres.  ITunes, for example, allows you to a buy any song you want for only 1 dollar, or you can buy the entire album for a discounted price.  This solution works well and has not eliminated the issue of piracy but most certainly has limited it.

Now we must look into the future.  What is going to be the next development in the removal of digital piracy? Will there be a return of epidemic that happened in the early 2000’s? Although it is hard to tell at this point in time we can draw some conclusions based on the history of the issue and the most recent developments. Obviously, you can’t beat a free product.  The only way to compete however is to develop something that is convenient, dependable, and also valuable.  Those attributes are able to sway users from the uncomfortable feeling that comes from downloading illegally.  Many other people think that it is going to take further punishment in order for people to fully realize the seriousness of this crime. In hopes that one day, we will view digital piracy the same way we view other crimes of theft, like robbing a bank. 

In summary, technology has moved mountains in its efforts to put an end to digital piracy, but there is still room for growth.  Further innovation must be made as well as an evaluation of our own personal moral code.  We must realize that someone is losing money every time we pirate material and there are other, legal, ways that these items can be obtained.  At the speed of the advancements in technology today, businesses will continue to provide and improve on ways for us to get what we need, the right way.

Written By: Christian Prather

With the increased use of the internet in years past and years to come there has been an increase in digital piracy in the music industry.  The music industry is perhaps one of the most influenced industries affected by digital piracy.  The popularity of digital piracy in the music industry has increased drastically because music is now really easy to access.  Before the age of the internet, in order to get new music a person would have to go to a store and buy a physical copy (i.e. CD or Tape).  Today, a person can simply buy a copy of a particular album with just the click of a button.  Online services such as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and rhapsody allow users to purchase new music in seconds.

With the shift of many musical artists distributing their music online rather than physically, there has been a drastic increase in digital piracy.  One person can buy a digital copy of music from an online source, and in turn post it online for anyone to download it for free. Popular music download websites that are currently in use are called Hulk share, 4shared, and pirate bay. These websites allow users to pirate music.  Music pirating is so advanced today that the general public can download the music before the distributing company sells its first copy. 

Digital piracy has affected the economy of the music industry.  The industry loses money due to piracy and causes the industry not to be as profitable as it could.  Some musical artist have attempted to slow down digital piracy but it will be nearly impossible to completely stop it.  Artist and distributing company are currently trying to find new ways to distribute music in order to halt digital piracy.  This will be a daunting challenge to the industry but with lots of research and experimenting they will find a way to end it.

Written by:

Malik Lewis

Digital Piracy Concerning Music Industry

Most people have some music they love to listen to in their free time or just in the flow of their day. Fortunately for us we can have any type of music on the go wherever we go, but with this technological advancement of portable music comes different options of receiving the music. Most people digitally get their music so they can have it on their IPod or IPhone, which brings up a problem concerning digital piracy.  How much do you think digital piracy is affecting the music industry? How can information systems discourage the behavior of stealing music online? These two questions raise a lot of good debates. I’m not so sure if there is one correct answer. It seems that music artist are not discourage from getting into the music industry as a career. Countless times I interact with people who express how they do not and will not pay for music when they can have it for free on the internet. Other times I come across people who always buy music whether it’s from ITunes or Amazon. Just from looking at the culture today it seems as if there are more people downloading instead of paying. When we consider popularity I can’t say that digital piracy is affecting the music industry at all. Artists are definitely getting the notoriety from the work they create. On the other hand artists might be losing out on some money from record sells and purchases online. Digital piracy is very prevalent in America because of how easy it is to be a pirate on the Internet even though the existence of the copyright. Although digital piracy is prevalent, Apple’s ITunes has really helped with the problem of digital piracy concerning music downloading online. Not only do people love the IPhone they also love buying music in ITunes because it is such an easy and reliable system. Is ITunes a information system that can solve the problem of digital piracy concerning online downloaded music? ITunes is certainly a success when it comes to paying for digital music or digital art. Digital piracy is a topic that will always deserve a serious debate especially in a age where everything is going digital.

Written by:

Braxton Ogbueze

Interesting facts/Recent Development 9/16/2014

There are three fundamental forms of piracy, music piracy, software piracy, and movie piracy.  Did you know that Netflix uses Piracy Figures to decide which shows to buy next? Piracy numbers are sky rocketing from year to year with the highest figures being file sharing.  In fact, 31 out of 34 films were released online in some form, the average amount of time it takes from when a movie comes out until it shows up on the internet is approximately 12 days. 70% of online users find nothing wrong with digital piracy and 67% of piracy sites are hosted in North America and Western Europe. Piracy is well on the rise and readily available and easy to access.  Although piracy is on the up-rise, so is recent developments and cases to prevent it.  Recent studies show that since Napster came about in 1999, music sales in our country have dropped 53%.  In a five year period from 2004 to 2009 approximately 30 billion songs were downloaded from a file sharing network. As of recently government is considering new approaches to digital piracy and copyright laws.  Many bands and newer TV shows such as House of Cards and Radiohead allow people to download their programs and music for free online. In 2010 there was measured 3/690 petabytes of infringing contents the vast majority of BitTorrent sites make money through advertising.  All of these sites will have banner adverts, pop-up adverts, and typically they have adverts of all kinds, for casinos, dating sites, and even download managers.  Recently, google placed USD 900 million bid for Nortel’s portfolio of 6000 patents.  Wall Street Journal headlines about Federal prosecutors pursuing digital piracy with many different cases. They also talk about how many other countries are working on fighting off digital piracy as well.  Overall Digital Piracy is becoming a big threat to our country.  Of January 2014, Google has received its 100 millionth piracy notice.  Google with a market of more than 370 billion dollars has directed internet users to illegal sources of music for years, harming more than 500 licensed digital music services worldwide.

Resources:

http://insurance.laws.com/online-piracy
 http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-piracy/
http://piracy.web.unc.edu/factsfigures/
http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=piracy-online-scope-of-the-problem
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2014/s4085062.htm
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/10/21/studymediapiracy
http://topics.wsj.com/subject/D/digital-piracy/2448

Digital Piracy, Something that cannot be killed

If your like the most people then you know you hate commercials and ads. All they do is get in the way. What if I told you there is a way around those commercials and ads. Is that something you would be interested in? Well I am sure most people have heard of piratebay.org, what most people use, and limewire from back in the day. Thats your answer. Your answer to watching those TV shows without commercials and listening to music without ads or even getting an entire album for free. If that is your answer, then you know your a pirate. A pirate who steals from people online. Just how it was with pirates who sailed the sea, the pirates who steal entertainment online today are committing highly illegal activities. You would not think of this because what care is there to you? It is not your work that is being stolen. There is nothing for you to feel guilty about. Almost everyone just thinks of it as a way of using a resource at hand. This resource that you use, and what an amazing resource it is, is called Digital Piracy. Digital Piracy is simply the practice to illegally copy and steal videos, software, music, etc. Expect to learn the hard ache that song writers, actors, or any other person who is in the entertainment industry go through. People in the entertainment industry, believe or not, lose tons of money from people leaking movies, songs, and albums before the release date. I know I would be highly upset, but then again it is not my work. Like I said before, what do we have to feel guilty about? Its a resource, and in the world that we live in, it is all about learning to use our resources. Stay tuned in to read and learn more about what digital piracy is and what it does.