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| Copyrights and Contemporary Piracy |
Copyrights and Contemporary Piracy
How different the world has become. Gone are the days when letters were written and sent out feverishly, days when the telephone was considered a luxury and somewhat of an mystery with its ability to connect people separated by oceans or continents. Nowadays, the internet has taken the place of most means of communication, its convenience and speed almost making letter-writing obsolete.
Gone are the days when villains were more easily identifiable in the persons of good old train robbers and highwaymen who would flag down carriages and rob people face to face. Nowadays, these villains are faceless names, slicker and harder to catch, thanks to new avenues they can take like online fraud or identity theft.
Gone are the days when terrifying, enigmatic, fascinating pirates roamed the oceans, looking for treasure to bury and wenches to carry off. They have been replaced by powerful, unknown entities who can bring you a DVD copy of “Ice Age 2” even before its official release.
How different the world has become.
A Brief History
The original definition of the word piracy is ‘a robbery committed at sea’. The earliest accounts of piracy date back to Greek civilization, when trading activities with Phoenicia and Anatolia were peppered with the occasional shipping attacks, said to be a by-product of trading. Those who perpetuated these attacks garnered the name peirates, Greek for brigand. Piracy was a very lucrative occupation and was even later sanctioned by some countries so that pirates could plunder other ships on their behalf. These rentable pirates of sorts became known as privateers.
In the early period of the 18th century, the meaning of the term piracy began to evolve. Previously, its various meanings involved an actual physical seizure of property owned by another. In 1701, however, the definition of a pirate as ‘one who takes another's work without permission’ was first recorded. This line of meaning continued to develop as the years went by. In 1913, the term pirate was used for someone who was an ‘unlicensed radio broadcaster’. Later on piracy also came to cover ‘the operation of an unlicensed, illegal radio or television station’.
Fast forward to the 1960s when hardware manufacturers such as AT&T, General Motors, General Electric, and other companies distributed software to go along with their mainframe hardware products. Later in the 1960s, the same manufacturers began to sell the software separately from their required hardware. This is when piracy began to be defined as ‘the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material’, later becoming more specifically known as software piracy.
Contemporary Piracy
At present, piracy is synonymous to ‘copyright infringement of software’. It includes creating an unlicensed copy of a program, movie, music, or videogame for whatever purpose, be it commercial or personal. Downloading the same (programs, movies, music, videogames) without paying for them also constitutes piracy.
It goes without saying that software piracy or digital piracy is something that is at once controversial and commonplace. While it has been declared illegal, it is still widespread and rampant, thanks to the internet and users who know how to get around anti-piracy software.
Despite its unlawfulness and illegality, piracy is committed without the pirates feeling any remorse. They easily have twenty counter-arguments for every ten that the proper authorities can muster. Many people who condone, if not commit piracy rationalize the act by blaming software companies, record companies, and movie outfits for making their products too expensive. Some don’t even consider piracy stealing because according to them there is really no loss of an actual physical object. As one pirate puts it, “Digital piracy… is hardly theft, since it is not depriving anyone of anything other than imaginary potential revenues.” Whatever side you’re on, there is sure to be a way to defend your position.
Digital or software piracy is not something far removed from the average person’s life. Anyone with a computer and connection to the internet can commit piracy, whether he commits it by downloading software online or asking someone to ‘crack’ the anti-piracy software of the program he downloaded.
Like piracy in the old sense of the word, contemporary piracy also has its own perils. Maybe the dangers that modern-day digital pirates face are not as potentially life-threatening as those that pirates in the olden days encountered but they are still perils.
People who foray into the world of piracy can encounter everything from fake software to harmful viruses and trojans that cause complete system meltdowns. As with any transaction over the internet, they also face the danger of having their computer systems hacked, or worse, being made to reveal personal information that will be used for innumerable and undoubtedly illegal acts.
Conclusion
It is easy to equate modern day digital or software pirates to the booty-stealing, throat-slitting, parrot-carrying, peg-legged men who have captured so many children’s (and adults’) imaginations and inspired an entire slew of literature filled with ship captains, villains, and swordfights at sea. While both contemporary and actual physical piracy are illegal, there is an allure to them that makes people want to commit them. However, their illegality is where the similarity ends.
While actual piracy (unlawfully taking another’s cargo while at sea) seems to be surrounded by an air of adventure, digital or software piracy can be committed in the room of a fourteen year-old boy. Modern-day piracy doesn’t require you to have a peg-leg or a parrot or speak a language interspersed with “Aye” and “Aargh”; it is done by at least one person we personally know, whether that person be our friend, family member, or even ourselves.
Whatever your opinion on piracy, its existence can’t be denied. While measures are being taken to prevent its proliferation, it seems as if the pirates are always two steps ahead of the ‘good guys’ by using, creating, and developing underground programs and techniques that always manage to get around whatever security measure a piece of software has.
Even laws are inadequate in curtailing piracy. It is difficult, almost impossible to prosecute someone who can lose himself in the vast online world. It is equally trying to be realistic about who the authorities should go after. Should they pursue users who just want a copy of their favorite song or movie just as aggressively as ‘professional’ pirates who do it for profit? The questions are endless, and the answers, it seems, are not coming as easily as one would hope.
How different the world has become. In our effort to make life easier through technology, we are presented with newer, bigger, never-before-seen challenges that constitute more difficulties, and these difficulties force us to venture into uncharted waters and govern unfamiliar territory.
How different the world has become. |
| Average rating: 4 | Add 06 Apr 06 Copy Righter |
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| Comments |
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| Ludmila |
Well, I think today you can hardly find a person who hasn’t commited “piracy acts” – taking a copy of whatever without paying for that. Look at any sites that offer free music for downloading, most often over the button DOWNLOAD you can see the following: “all materials/songs/videos presented here are for familiarization listening only; you are obliged to eraze the file after you’ve listened to it.” Have you ever followed this instruction? I doubt it. Though, if you don’t use what you have copied in commercial puspose, can it be considered violation of author rights?
The idea of copyrighting is in using all profit that comes from a certain idea, invention, creation of art/technological innovation by the person or company that has introduced that new something. 120 years ago Bern convention on protection of author rights was accepted by several countries (France, Great Britain, Germany among them); one of major leaders of this undertaking was famous French writer Victor Gugo, who was more than irritated by the fact that his books were published abroad in other languages and he was not supposed to get a sou from that. Next step in copywriting on an international scale was taken in 1952, was Geneva convention was signed (USSR got into the number of countries participating in this agreement only in 1973, on condition that anything edited in USSR before this date doesn’t fall under terms of convention). In 1995 Russia became a full member of Geneva convention (on same condition as in 1973). Which doesn’t prevent numerous businessmen from producing and selling illegal copies of films and musical albums. As they say, in the modern world the best weapon against violators of author rights is bulldozer (wich destroys seized illegal goods under observation of Ministry of Internal Affairs representative). Though such means of preserving author rights becomes uneffective with spreading of Internet and computer-literate users. |
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