Why is Piracy Still Allowed?
by jk31214
I don't want to start a philosophical debate, but I will.
Why do people feel that this is a harmless crime? Instinctively, it's because, in fact, it is a physically harmless crime. No one gets physically hurt as a direct result of copying media. Sure, you may argue that someone put their hard earned time and money into creating it, so that hurts them financially.
In the business of entertainment, when large productions are involved, these productions are invested in and budgeted well in advance by their respected production companies. Entertainers are already paid for that effort in advance with the option for royalties thereafter. It's the large production companies which stand to lose their projected profits that take the beating.
Consumers put so much money into (((Hollywood))), music, and software and have abandoned financial backing of the service industry and manufacturing. The cost of media has been trumped up so much that regular people don't even think that it's worth the sticker price that companies are asking. That's why people steal it. Just look at how we value our movie stars and music stars in this country. No other country treats their entertainers like royalty.
In Plato's Republic, he philosophized that society created or deviated from its normal course in order to accommodate for all that was necessary, thus creating a new normal course. So, it's understandable that we have morphed into a country of audio/videophiles that elevate our entertainers to God-like status.
People love entertainment and software, but not as much as corporations are asking for it. Maybe if large media production companies lowered their suggested sales prices a little, people would be more willing to pay for a CD with two good songs on it.
As far as software goes, there is not one piece of software on the market that does not have an open-source counterpart. How is this possible? Do you mean to tell me that someone took their time, skills, and effort and focused them into creating software that emulates a "pay-for" application. Why the altruism?
Because someone was inspired to do it, out of the search for respect? Defiance? A testament to their own skill? Who knows? Whatever the reason, we're glad that they do it.
Thank you to the open-source community!
Allowing applications that people use every day to be hacked, modified, customized, and re-circulated lends itself to achieving progress more quickly and efficiently. Almost everything we use today is an improvement of something else based upon its creation in the past.
Newton humbly and famously quoted an old proverb of "dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants," meaning that the dwarf can see farther, not by virtue of better eyesight, but by simply being carried higher by his giant and gaining a better vantage point. When we are free to build upon the creation of others, we can combine our collective knowledge and soar to new heights in technology and design.
Perhaps letting go of this notion of media for profit, rather than creation for knowledge and respect, will let us focus our efforts elsewhere. Profiteers for entertainment center all of their efforts into making their next dollar on a piece of work when they should be continually inspired to create for the good of the people.
There is nothing wrong with expecting some compensation for your talent. But their expectations far exceed our willingness to pay for it. With a state of mind that all information is free for use, we could begin to focus our attention on manufacturing tangible goods for profit, harnessing and providing renewable resources to the world for profit, or providing useful services for profit instead of providing essentially useless and bloated entertainment for outrageous prices.
Think about the possibilities of humankind if private organizations didn't have to concentrate all of their effort on making the same products as their competitors over and over for a slice of the same pie, when each of them could just have their own pies.
Put an end to antitrust, frivolous copyright infringement claims, and corporate espionage. We as a people continually reinvent the wheel, which our competitors have already invented.
Not to be too far off topic, but people tend to give leniency towards piracy because it's inevitable. People already feel that there is no way to stop it, and, from their perspective, it's not that terrible of a crime.
Unless heads are cut off for piracy, I don't think people will ever stop attempting to do it.