Piracy is illegal almost everywhere around the world, and in the United States it is taken very seriously. However, that doesn’t mean it still won’t happen. Many people still commit piracy underground, where they can’t be tracked. However, a lot of the times we’re the ones doing it. Paul Tassie, author of “You Will Never Kill Piracy and Piracy Will Never Kill You”, says that piracy is a service problem more than it is anything else. People who can’t afford, let’s say movies or certain soundtracks, will just download it off the internet. It isn’t legal, but it’s easy. iPhone makes this hard for it’s users to do, but Android makes it easy because it’s more flexible with what one can and cannot download onto its products. Back then there used to be Limewire, a place where people could upload tracks for others to download but it was taken down a few years later and it was believed that the FBI were hunting people down to see who was downloading these illegal tracks. Tassie also makes the point that even if these downloading websites are taken down, people will find a new way to download what they want. Nowadays, its hard and unpractical to go to the actual movie theaters or buy a DVD because one) you’ll probably only watch it once and two) it can be expensive. Timothy Seppala, author of “The Pirate Bay Shutdown: The Whole Story (So Far)”, he states that “The movie industry claimed that in 2006 alone, piracy cost it some $6.1 billion”. Pirate Bay was also one of the most popular websites to visit and had about 22 million users, the size of Texas according to Seppala. That’s a lot of money that’s been stolen from the movie industry, and there can be a major understanding as to why piracy is illegal. However, piracy being illegal is impractical. Although I don’t agree with copying someone else’s material (because it’s taking away their earnings), I do believe in things being more of an easy access for folks.
Apr 16