Recently the United Kingdom has began blocking ISP's in an attempt to reduce internet piracy. In other efforts, they first asked these websites to stop infringing copyrights. When the websites refused to do so, there was no other choice but to let the court decide. After reviewing the evidence the court decided these websites should be blocked. According to BPI, they believe that blocking websites is a more efficient way to stop internet piracy rather than trying to target an individual person.
I personally believe that blocking websites is a very good way to combat copyright infringement. Although, I do realize that with this way that nobody will be charged with a crime or brought to justice for the copyright infringement. I think that blocking websites is a great way to help put a stop to infringement but there also needs to be other ways to do so. I still believe that going after the individuals responsible is another great way to stop copyright infringement.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/uk-isps-block-21-websites-in-new-bid-to-combat-online-piracy-8912890.html
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Monday, November 18, 2013
$22,500 per song?
In
2009, Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University graduate student was
ordered to pay $675,000 in fees for copyright infringement of 30 audio
files. Tenenbaum admitted to the acts of infringement and plead guilty;
however, the charges were calculated on the conclusion that Tenenbaum's
actions were willful. The associate press states, "The only issue for the
jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels"
(Lavoie). Tenenbaum claimed that he would have to declare bankruptcy if this
verdict was not appealed.
The
associated press also states that this is only the second music piracy case
towards an individual to be placed on trial [as of 2009]. If this crime were
serious enough to foot such a large bill, wouldn't there be more cases like
this to surface? Do you think that these fines are in anyway justifiable?
It seems to me that if downloading and distributing 30 tracks is worth a fee of
$675,000, then our country should increase the penalties of crimes
that are actually violent and dangerous to society. Do you think Tenenbaum
should have a lesser punishment for pleading guilty to the charges? Do cases
like this change your view of pirating at all?
You
can read more about this case here:
Lavoie, Denise. "Jury orders
student to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading music." ABC News.
USA Today. Web. 18 Nov 2013.
<http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8226751>.
Friday, November 8, 2013
New Piracy Increase
According to a new study by a company called NetNames,
internet piracy is still on the rise.
Internet piracy downloads have increased ten percent in the last two
years. Slightly more than twenty-five percent of internet bandwidth use is
pirated content according to the report. This increase comes in the wake of efforts to
curb piracy by targeting websites used to post content. One reason these
webpages are being targeted more heavily recently may be the fact that there
are too many individual users of pirated content to try and enforce copyright
laws against them. By targeting the largest content providers, it may be
possible to reduce piracy at the source. The new report also had some
interesting statistics about the types of piracy that are still growing.
Despite the increase of piracy in general, music piracy has
fallen for the first time in years. At
the end of 2012, music piracy had fallen by thirteen percent. Piracy of movies
and television show had risen from the previous year. The study results suggest
that the music industry has been much more successful at curbing piracy than
Hollywood has been. Evidence of this may be found in the fact that Blockbuster announced
this week that its remaining stores will close. The dip in music piracy could
be the result of all the legal streaming services that are now on the internet,
but an article by MSU pointed out that since movie files are normally much
larger than music files, they account for far more piracy when measured by
bandwidth. This difference in file size could bias the studies’ results. For further
reading and any of the above statistics, see the sources below.
http://news.yahoo.com/blockbuster-exiting-us-retail-market-closing-last-300-173716438.html
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Internet Pirates Will Always Win
Recently, I read an article published in the New York Times that compared stopping internet piracy to the very popular game of Whac-A-Mole. Once you hit a mole with the hammer another mole quickly pops back up. This game is very similar to internet piracy. Countries around the world have been making countless efforts in shutting down websites that offer pirated movies, tv shows, etc. Some would say that they have been successful in doing so but after reading this article I am skeptical. Every time that a major internet piracy website is shut down another one soon appears.
Early in 2012, the website known as Pirate Bay, one of the largest BitTorrent piracy websites was finally shut down. Authorities blocked people from entering the site. As a result, the creators of Pirate Bay offered the code that ran their entire site and made it downloadable to everyone on the web. Every person that downloaded this code now ran basically a smaller version of this website straight from their home. As I stated earlier, this is the problem with shutting down internet piracy websites. Once you shut down one site, many others will pop up and piracy will continue like nothing ever happened.
Also in early 2012, a man named Mr. Spock, a Pirate Bay collaborator, stated in a blog post that his team was planning to build drones that would allow people to download illegal content wirelessly. This would present another huge problem because governments would then have to basically shoot down these drones to stop the content from being downloaded. Others have also talked about setting up servers in secure bank vaults and in underwater locations.
"Piracy won't go away," said Ernesto Van Der Sar, the editor of the site Torrent Freak. Countries have tried for many years to shut down piracy but it still continues. The Whac-A-Mole effect is in full force when it comes to internet piracy. As long as it is easy and available to offer new sites when others shut down, piracy will continue to run wild.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/sunday-review/internet-pirates-will-always-win.html?_r=0
Early in 2012, the website known as Pirate Bay, one of the largest BitTorrent piracy websites was finally shut down. Authorities blocked people from entering the site. As a result, the creators of Pirate Bay offered the code that ran their entire site and made it downloadable to everyone on the web. Every person that downloaded this code now ran basically a smaller version of this website straight from their home. As I stated earlier, this is the problem with shutting down internet piracy websites. Once you shut down one site, many others will pop up and piracy will continue like nothing ever happened.
Also in early 2012, a man named Mr. Spock, a Pirate Bay collaborator, stated in a blog post that his team was planning to build drones that would allow people to download illegal content wirelessly. This would present another huge problem because governments would then have to basically shoot down these drones to stop the content from being downloaded. Others have also talked about setting up servers in secure bank vaults and in underwater locations.
"Piracy won't go away," said Ernesto Van Der Sar, the editor of the site Torrent Freak. Countries have tried for many years to shut down piracy but it still continues. The Whac-A-Mole effect is in full force when it comes to internet piracy. As long as it is easy and available to offer new sites when others shut down, piracy will continue to run wild.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/sunday-review/internet-pirates-will-always-win.html?_r=0
How Netflix profits from internet piracy and why other companies should follow
I read an article that is linked at the bottom of this article that was published by Complex Tech that described how Netflix was using internet piracy to actual make a profit. The way they did so was by monitoring internet piracy and find the TV shows and movies that were being pirated the most. They utilized this information so that they could can update there library of movies and TV shows to satisfy their new users and current ones as well.
The article also stated that internet piracy is not hurting the economy and in fact it is actually boosting it. How you may ask? Studies last month stated that piracy was actually helping small and medium-budget films because it was spreading the word of them by peer-to-peer interaction. In China they believe that piracy has significantly helped the world economy because companies are starting to make imitators of the popular products in the world. Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman argue in this story, "For every instance of potential revenue lost to someone pirating Windows or cracking iOS to steal bits of code, there is something potentially generative added back into the world."
Do you think companies should follow Netflix's new game plan? Do you agree or disagree that internet piracy is actually boosting the economy?
http://www.complex.com/tech/2013/09/netflix-internet-piracy
The article also stated that internet piracy is not hurting the economy and in fact it is actually boosting it. How you may ask? Studies last month stated that piracy was actually helping small and medium-budget films because it was spreading the word of them by peer-to-peer interaction. In China they believe that piracy has significantly helped the world economy because companies are starting to make imitators of the popular products in the world. Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman argue in this story, "For every instance of potential revenue lost to someone pirating Windows or cracking iOS to steal bits of code, there is something potentially generative added back into the world."
Do you think companies should follow Netflix's new game plan? Do you agree or disagree that internet piracy is actually boosting the economy?
http://www.complex.com/tech/2013/09/netflix-internet-piracy
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Piracy Cases and Statisics: What is the Real Issue?
Companies are progressing in commitment to protecting their intellectual property from pirates both in the United States and Internationally as well. In July 2013, Microsoft announced that it had settled 3,265 copyright infringement cases around
the globe during the past year. At the end of its fiscal year on June
30, the cases totaled 35 across 19 U.S. states and 3,230 international
cases across 42 countries. Most of the cases presented were a result of consumers tipping off and reporting about the counterfeit software which enabled malware and viruses; since 2005 450,000 customers have reported to Microsoft about Pirated Software.
Ningbo Beyond Group of China, was one of the companies involved who had allegedly infringed the software company’s copyrights in Microsoft’s Windows, Office, Server and Visual Studio software. Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft obviously has taken piracy seriously not only in the United States but globally as well. Personally, I believe if companies whether big or small would take Piracy as a serious issue and make it apparent that Piracy is not going to be tolerated, such as what Microsoft is progressing to do, then there would be fewer cases throughout the years.
Most do not agree that Piracy and theft constitutes a serious problem for the Industry, however I have found statistics that would prove otherwise. For instance, economically the annual cost of global piracy to U.S films in lost sales is $25 billion and 375,000 jobs are lost each year to piracy, costing American workers $16 billion in earnings. In the future, 1.2 million jobs could be lost in the European Union's creative industries by 2015 without significant policy changes, accounting to 240 billion euros.
So what is the real issue concerning Piracy?
Not only is Piracy widely used across the globe but it is in fact impacting economies both in the U.S and internationally. In an economy where jobs are scarce, the last thing the people need is more job cuts and the last thing the economy needs is a higher unemployment rate. The fact that people do not take Piracy seriously as they should is stifling in my opinion because it is effecting not only companies but workers and the community as well.
Piracy is indeed a crime whether it is software, music or movies being downloaded illegally, but what happens when people break the law and get off with only a slap on the wrist? The answer....piracy continues and the law continues to be broken while companies and workers suffer making life a little bit harder year after year. An example of this can be found through a case where the US Supreme Court refused to take up the case of a woman ordered to pay a $220,000 fine for illegally downloading music off the internet. The judge that presided over the trial threw out the verdict calling it "wholly disproportionate" and "oppressive".
How can companies abolish piracy if the courts will not even address the issue and make an example out of people who break the law?
Not only is the economy an issue when talking about Piracy but the court system not doing their job in my opinion is another issue. Piracy is an issue that needs to be dealt with sooner than later, and until the courts and other big companies get serious piracy will still be around, jobs will be lost and companies will suffer in the long run. So I ask you, how would you deal with the Piracy issue if you were the head of a big company or able to create laws for prevention?
For more on the topics presented and sources check out the links below:
Ningbo Beyond Group of China, was one of the companies involved who had allegedly infringed the software company’s copyrights in Microsoft’s Windows, Office, Server and Visual Studio software. Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft obviously has taken piracy seriously not only in the United States but globally as well. Personally, I believe if companies whether big or small would take Piracy as a serious issue and make it apparent that Piracy is not going to be tolerated, such as what Microsoft is progressing to do, then there would be fewer cases throughout the years.
Most do not agree that Piracy and theft constitutes a serious problem for the Industry, however I have found statistics that would prove otherwise. For instance, economically the annual cost of global piracy to U.S films in lost sales is $25 billion and 375,000 jobs are lost each year to piracy, costing American workers $16 billion in earnings. In the future, 1.2 million jobs could be lost in the European Union's creative industries by 2015 without significant policy changes, accounting to 240 billion euros.
So what is the real issue concerning Piracy?
Not only is Piracy widely used across the globe but it is in fact impacting economies both in the U.S and internationally. In an economy where jobs are scarce, the last thing the people need is more job cuts and the last thing the economy needs is a higher unemployment rate. The fact that people do not take Piracy seriously as they should is stifling in my opinion because it is effecting not only companies but workers and the community as well.
Piracy is indeed a crime whether it is software, music or movies being downloaded illegally, but what happens when people break the law and get off with only a slap on the wrist? The answer....piracy continues and the law continues to be broken while companies and workers suffer making life a little bit harder year after year. An example of this can be found through a case where the US Supreme Court refused to take up the case of a woman ordered to pay a $220,000 fine for illegally downloading music off the internet. The judge that presided over the trial threw out the verdict calling it "wholly disproportionate" and "oppressive".
How can companies abolish piracy if the courts will not even address the issue and make an example out of people who break the law?
Not only is the economy an issue when talking about Piracy but the court system not doing their job in my opinion is another issue. Piracy is an issue that needs to be dealt with sooner than later, and until the courts and other big companies get serious piracy will still be around, jobs will be lost and companies will suffer in the long run. So I ask you, how would you deal with the Piracy issue if you were the head of a big company or able to create laws for prevention?
For more on the topics presented and sources check out the links below:
- http://www.dga.org/craft/dgaq/all-articles/1001-spring-2010/internet-issues-piracy-statistics.aspx
- http://phys.org/news/2013-03-court-appeal-piracy-case.html
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/jul13/07-09casespr.aspx
Three trials and
multiple appeals later, she has been ordered to pay amounts as high as
$1.92 million—or $80,000 for each of 24 illegally downloaded tracks.
After the third trial, at which the jury awarded the music companies
$1.5 million, the amount was reduced on appeal to $220,000.
That's the amount in damages Thomas-Rasset was originally ordered to pay after her first conviction, but the judge who presided over that trial threw out the verdict calling it "wholly disproportionate" and "oppressive."
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-court-appeal-piracy-case.html#jCp
That's the amount in damages Thomas-Rasset was originally ordered to pay after her first conviction, but the judge who presided over that trial threw out the verdict calling it "wholly disproportionate" and "oppressive."
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-court-appeal-piracy-case.html#jCp
to take up the case of a woman ordered to pay a $220,000 fine for illegally downloading music off the internet.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-court-appeal-piracy-case.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-court-appeal-piracy-case.html#jCp
to take up the case of a woman ordered to pay a $220,000 fine for illegally downloading music off the internet.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-court-appeal-piracy-case.html#jCp
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-03-court-appeal-piracy-case.html#jCp
Consequences of Piracy
In present day, as consumers, products across a wide range such as movies, music, and even food are getting more and more expensive. I work for a grocery store and in my first month of working for that company, there were five cases of theft, three of which were one to two products and the rest were buggies full of our store products where the customers or thieves just walked out of the store. In order to cut down on stolen inventory we decided as a store to make one of the two entrances an entrance only in order to cut down on theft, which corporate does not take lightly. The effects of the thefts led to higher prices on the goods that were stolen which is unfair to other consumers that follow and abide by the law; we will not know if our method was effective or not until our next inventory count date.
The example above ties into Internet Piracy because downloading software, movies, music etc. off the Internet without the artists/companies permission is theft and against the law. Software theft is becoming a trend across the world and is widely practiced. Software piracy hurts not only companies but the end-user as well and results of software piracy have led to higher prices for honest law abiding users and a reduced level of support.
The losses suffered as a result of software piracy directly affect the profitability of the software industry. Because of the money lost to pirates, publishers have fewer resources to devote to research and development of new products, have less revenue to justify lowering software prices and are forced to pass these costs on to their customers. Breaking the law and participating in piracy have led to vendors and companies taking serious actions in order to cut down on illegal downloading and distribution of their product, however, it not only effects companies but as stated before it also hurts users as well. For instance, those who use pirated software: Increase the chances that the software will not function correctly or will fail completely, forfeit access to customer support, upgrades, technical documentation, training, and bug fixes and are subject to significant fines for copyright infringement.
Software piracy is stealing, just like taking a product from the store and not paying for it (grocery store example). If you or your company are caught copying and/or distributing illegal copies of software, you could be held liable under both civil and criminal laws. Software owners can sue you and seek monetary damages which brings up the U.S Copyright Law. The U.S Copyright Law states under Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319 : Copyright infringements can be punishable by up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned for up to 10 years. Violators can also be held civilly liable for actual damages, lost profits, or statutory damages up to $150,000 per work.
As a college student, I do not know a single friend, acquaintance or even teacher that could pay off those fines stated above. So why are people still downloading illegally even though the consequences are very severe? Possibly because the users are not up to date of how serious downloading material is and it's convenient, you do not have to pay 20 dollars to see a movie or pay 30 dollars to listen to a CD twice and never listen to it again.
I believe if the issue of Piracy was brought to light and users could see how devastating the consequences of Piracy are then they would get the message not to do or participate in doing it. Earlier I mentioned working in a grocery store and the problem of theft and our companies decision to do something about it by closing an one of the doors. This sparked at first concerns from customers but when they figured out why we did this they understood and found out that we were not going to take theft lightly.
Piracy has severe consequences if caught and I believe if companies and law makers would make it a point to make examples out of the pirates who download their material illegally to the world, not only will Piracy cut down but the consumer will have a better experience and have an increase in level of support.
For more information regarding this topic and sources of this blog check out the links below:
The example above ties into Internet Piracy because downloading software, movies, music etc. off the Internet without the artists/companies permission is theft and against the law. Software theft is becoming a trend across the world and is widely practiced. Software piracy hurts not only companies but the end-user as well and results of software piracy have led to higher prices for honest law abiding users and a reduced level of support.
The losses suffered as a result of software piracy directly affect the profitability of the software industry. Because of the money lost to pirates, publishers have fewer resources to devote to research and development of new products, have less revenue to justify lowering software prices and are forced to pass these costs on to their customers. Breaking the law and participating in piracy have led to vendors and companies taking serious actions in order to cut down on illegal downloading and distribution of their product, however, it not only effects companies but as stated before it also hurts users as well. For instance, those who use pirated software: Increase the chances that the software will not function correctly or will fail completely, forfeit access to customer support, upgrades, technical documentation, training, and bug fixes and are subject to significant fines for copyright infringement.
Software piracy is stealing, just like taking a product from the store and not paying for it (grocery store example). If you or your company are caught copying and/or distributing illegal copies of software, you could be held liable under both civil and criminal laws. Software owners can sue you and seek monetary damages which brings up the U.S Copyright Law. The U.S Copyright Law states under Title 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq., Title 18 U.S.C. Section 2319 : Copyright infringements can be punishable by up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned for up to 10 years. Violators can also be held civilly liable for actual damages, lost profits, or statutory damages up to $150,000 per work.
As a college student, I do not know a single friend, acquaintance or even teacher that could pay off those fines stated above. So why are people still downloading illegally even though the consequences are very severe? Possibly because the users are not up to date of how serious downloading material is and it's convenient, you do not have to pay 20 dollars to see a movie or pay 30 dollars to listen to a CD twice and never listen to it again.
I believe if the issue of Piracy was brought to light and users could see how devastating the consequences of Piracy are then they would get the message not to do or participate in doing it. Earlier I mentioned working in a grocery store and the problem of theft and our companies decision to do something about it by closing an one of the doors. This sparked at first concerns from customers but when they figured out why we did this they understood and found out that we were not going to take theft lightly.
Piracy has severe consequences if caught and I believe if companies and law makers would make it a point to make examples out of the pirates who download their material illegally to the world, not only will Piracy cut down but the consumer will have a better experience and have an increase in level of support.
For more information regarding this topic and sources of this blog check out the links below:
- http://www.ipd.gov.hk/eng/intellectual_property/study_aids/software_piracy_fact/software_piracy_fact_c.htm
- http://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=345:consequences-of-software-piracy&catid=162:anti-piracy-articles&Itemid=373
- http://www.symantec.com/about/profile/antipiracy/consequences.jsp
- http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20050412c.html
Friday, October 25, 2013
Who's Stealing What
In all the discussion of internet piracy and the debate over
what kind of laws should be implemented to curb the massive amounts of pirated
material, little seems to be said about who is stealing what. Some nations
stand out for pirating certain types of material, and some of those nations are
placed on a U.S. government watch list.
Movies and television programs are a popular target for
piracy and Russia leads the world in dollar value of pirated videos at $250,000,000
in lost revenue. China follows closely at $168,000,000 in pirated videos. It
makes since that Russia would lead China in this statistic even though China
has a larger population, because more of Russia’s population has access to
internet access per capita.
In terms of music piracy, the U.S. leads the field with nearly
a 100,000,000 downloads. The United Kingdom and Italy placed second and third
with more than 76,000,000 between them. Music piracy got its start in the U.S.,
and the fact that we still lead the world should come as no surprise. New laws
and regulations targeted at limiting piracy are controversial in the U.S. as
people fear it could lead to more intense internet regulation. It will be
interesting to see if legal and low cost music download sites can bring more
users back to a legitimate means of purchasing music.
The U.S. government’s own trade report spotlights China and
India as leaders in the use of illegal trade secrets and patented material.
China receives special attention for theft of trade secrets outside of China. Because
so many U.S. companies outsource production and other business practices to
these countries and such problems are always a risk of outsourcing, this will likely
remain a major problem for some time.
As each part of the world can see what types of material are
the major targets of piracy there, they can better understand what kinds of
laws and regulations are needed to combat them in the future.
For further reading
and any of the above statistics see the following sources: http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-video-piracy-countries-map.html
http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/05012013%202013%20Special%20301%20Report.pdf
Monday, October 21, 2013
A Six Strike Rule for Internet Piracy
In March 2013, the countries top Internet Service Providers started this program to deter illegal downloading and encourage offenders to become law-abiding. The Six Strike Rule works as a series of messages:
First two: Educational messages to letting them know that their account has been used for illegal downloads.
Next two: Strongly worded messages with pop-ups that must be acknowledged before continuing to use the internet
Last two: ISPs will do things such as slowing a user's connection down to make downloading harder.
It's not clear what will happen if you reach the sixth warning and the nature of the punishment. The users will not be fully cut off from the internet and they can work their way around the system by changing or masking their addresses. The real goal of the new system is to inform users that internet piracy is unlawful and wrong. Last year their was a proposed Anti-Piracy Law that would have given regulators the power to shut off websites but it was turned down.
I believe that the Six Strike Rule is a strong program that is somewhat beneficial. I think it will deter many from continuing to illegal download files because they will fear that they will be caught. The users that it will not impact will be the users that know the laws and anti-piracy programs and know the way around them.
What is your stance on the Six Strike Rule? Do you believe it is beneficial or not?
Here is the link to the full article from The Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323978104578334272714999326
First two: Educational messages to letting them know that their account has been used for illegal downloads.
Next two: Strongly worded messages with pop-ups that must be acknowledged before continuing to use the internet
Last two: ISPs will do things such as slowing a user's connection down to make downloading harder.
It's not clear what will happen if you reach the sixth warning and the nature of the punishment. The users will not be fully cut off from the internet and they can work their way around the system by changing or masking their addresses. The real goal of the new system is to inform users that internet piracy is unlawful and wrong. Last year their was a proposed Anti-Piracy Law that would have given regulators the power to shut off websites but it was turned down.
I believe that the Six Strike Rule is a strong program that is somewhat beneficial. I think it will deter many from continuing to illegal download files because they will fear that they will be caught. The users that it will not impact will be the users that know the laws and anti-piracy programs and know the way around them.
What is your stance on the Six Strike Rule? Do you believe it is beneficial or not?
Here is the link to the full article from The Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323978104578334272714999326
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
New piracy regulations in the United Kingdom underway
Almost a quarter of downloads in the United Kingdom infringe copyright, and while only 2% of the web traffic is responsible, it is costing the UK music industry along an estimated £200 million (319,880,000 USD) annually. The British Phonographic Industry has decided to take action in an effort to combat piracy by tracking websites that link to illegal content. The BPI then requests search engines to remove the sites from their relative search results in attempts to slow revenue growth for those hosting the content illegally. Google has been working hard to combat piracy and their transparency report indicates that BPI has requested the removal of over 35,401,959 during this year.
I support the efforts of the BPI, and applaud Google for dedicated resources to tackling the global issue of piracy. However, in terms of how piracy has impacted the economy and end-consumer, I feel conflicted. I believe it is true that if companies had funds accounted for by pirating they could devote capital to furthering the progression of the scene, yet recent studies show that what the music industry lacks in audio sales, it makes up for in live performance revenue. Income from concerts has increased 10% annually, making music pirates out to be the loss leader. In response to the popularity and convenience of pirating, new businesses have surfaced creating affordable streaming options like Spotify and Google Play, which allow users a complete music library available on demand at a low monthly or yearly price. These services benefit both businesses and end users, providing evidence that the long-term economic effects of media piracy are not exclusively poor.
What do you think, does the economy really suffer due to piracy or do you think the claims by the music industry are a bit exaggerated?
You can read more information about piracy in the UK and the effects of piracy from my sources below:
- Newsbeat meets the team tackling music piracy online
- Ofcom: Piracy accounts for one in four downloads
- The Hidden Effects of Media Piracy
I support the efforts of the BPI, and applaud Google for dedicated resources to tackling the global issue of piracy. However, in terms of how piracy has impacted the economy and end-consumer, I feel conflicted. I believe it is true that if companies had funds accounted for by pirating they could devote capital to furthering the progression of the scene, yet recent studies show that what the music industry lacks in audio sales, it makes up for in live performance revenue. Income from concerts has increased 10% annually, making music pirates out to be the loss leader. In response to the popularity and convenience of pirating, new businesses have surfaced creating affordable streaming options like Spotify and Google Play, which allow users a complete music library available on demand at a low monthly or yearly price. These services benefit both businesses and end users, providing evidence that the long-term economic effects of media piracy are not exclusively poor.
What do you think, does the economy really suffer due to piracy or do you think the claims by the music industry are a bit exaggerated?
You can read more information about piracy in the UK and the effects of piracy from my sources below:
- Newsbeat meets the team tackling music piracy online
- Ofcom: Piracy accounts for one in four downloads
- The Hidden Effects of Media Piracy
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