Internet piracy

Theft is the action of stealing something that belongs to someone else, but what If that which Is stolen is never actually taken? The debate over what Is to be done about a current Issue Involving ” Internet palace’ has been a hot topic In several countries, including the united States. The issue at hand is a claimed figure that allegedly spans upwards of 250 billion dollars translated to American currency in losses on behalf of several international multimedia franchises according to statistics compiled by the Director’s Guild of America.

These losses are observed in franchises including but not limited to: film, music, computer software, video games, publishing, and etc. Despite the claimed numbers of losses and statistics there Is a lot of internal conflict among average people over whether or not anything should be done about the matter of ” internet piracy or, as pro-piracy supporters of open media call ” file sharing. ” Acts of pro-piracy as of late include a petition against recently proposed anti-piracy legislation such as SOAP and APIPA that has received over 7 million signatures according to the Washington Post on January 19th, 2012.

This argue petitioning body of citizens represents a larger consensus demanding if anything Is to be done about the act of file sharing, then many of the citizens of the U. S. Do not want to be held responsible or suffer from any legislation proposed with effects such as the closing of websites or restriction of open web access, prosecution of file sharers, or prosecution of site owners. Due to this popular opinion among U.

S. Citizens, it is inadvisable for the united States government to proceed with any legislation regarding the matter without serious notice of the public opinions grading current statistics In relation to media economics, and the trending support of open media or ” file sharing”. To begin with, current statistics regarding file sharing are among the giant bulk of support foranti-piracy policies.

Many statistics, such as the previously mentioned figure of 250 billion dollars worth of loss, usually do not stagger the opposition due to extra variables that devalue the importance and relevance of the data given. In an article addressing the reliability of current statistics and data by Julian Sanchez of researchers. Com, he mentions that the Government Accountability Office has included data regarding this debate Is ” difficult, If not Impossible, to quantify the net effect of counterfeiting and piracy on the economy as a whole” (Sanchez).

Even given the seemingly straight-forward statistic of 250 billion in losses, the statistic only supports data concerning net worth of downloaded or duplicated software and cannot be considered entirely relevant since it does not account for what projected sales would have been without file sharing-and assumes that all products, such as movies or music, would have sold regardless of the price set forth by the collective companies and businesses. Additionally, the statistic does not represent augmented prices due to media sharing to make up for any possible losses or production costs to be met.

Other statistics put forth in anti-piracy opinion also follow the same trend as already listed. For example, the statistic of 375, 000 American Jobs lost to piracy every year, which Is only drawn from a portion the previous statistic and likewise assumes that there Is such a workforce demand to be filled within many already competitive social economics, it has become clear that many citizens do not consider the data to be a conclusive basis for legislation.

Furthermore, there is a growing consensus, not Just in the U. S. , but internationally as well that the act of file sharing is an acceptable, or at least a tolerated and relatively normal practice. The act of file sharing is so massive and popular that to stop it by prosecution is ” like playing the world’s largest game of Whack-A-Mole” according to the New York Times Journalist Nick Bolton.

In addition to the number of 7 million plus signatures for the petition against SOAP and APIPA, the Directors Guild of America even states that in 2009 there were over 250 million active international seers on the Pirate Bay, a site based in Sweden for the sole purpose of file sharing despite any opinions or statements from the U. S. Government. With this massive support for the pro-piracy stance through mediums such as this, it’s illogical to promote legislation of prosecution against such acts since it undermines the essential function of government, which is to stand as a service to the people it governs and represents.

In retrospect, before a conclusion is given, it is important to notice that such arguments based around American politics are entirely a product of a system of arguments and popular opinion. Thus, to claim that it is inadvisable for the government to pass laws against such a large sum of people is only relative through the implication of representing the peoples’ voice in government.

Therefore, the bulk of arguments made for file sharing is only out of the interest of the would be prosecuted or effected populace, and the bulk of arguments against internet piracy would likewise only be in the interest of those who are assumed to make less revenue due to the fallibility of the international media economic structure. In this sense, the entire matter boils down to a question of which party is to be represented and satisfied within the U. S. Government. In conclusion, the U. S. Overspent passing any laws for regulating the internet and its users should take into consideration the people that said laws will effect, and the consensus of internet users do not seem to be in accordance with these laws. Additionally, any legislation passed by the U. S. Against internet piracy also has an effect on an international basis of which the U. S. Government would be forced to go ended its national boundaries-and creates issues regarding foreign affairs which strengthen the need to analyze the pro-file sharing community’s opinions.

As well as observing the community’s opinions, out of the same issue of foreign relations there is a need to find out more specifics about internet file sharing and how it actually affects the national as well as world economy. For these reasons, it is advisable for the United States government to not get involved with regulating internet and web space since the arguments against piracy are too weak and not taken seriously by hose of the countering spectrum, in the hundreds of millions, of whom it would criminality.