The Conflicting Ethics of Piracy in the Modern World

Now that the how has essentially been answered, the real question is...

Why do we pirate?

And it is truly "we" in the collective sense, because it is all of us who participate in illegally downloading digital commodities. Music record sales aren't dropping 30-60% because of a few online anarchists living in their mother's basement, society, as a cohesive unit, is participating.

There should be an app for that. [Original]

But why? Not a single mainstream religion condones theft - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism all explicitly say that stealing is wrong. Yet we continue to visit The Pirate Bay, and despite new legislation, both proposed domestically and applied internationally to cull it, they are on the rise, not the wane. 

The answer, easily enough, is the same for reasons of cyber bullying.  The animosity provided by that magical cocktail of an internet connection and a computer monitor allows people to say, watch, and passively allow horrible, horrible things. The internet has desensitized an entire online culture to grotesqueness and immorality. There are a multitude of shock images and videos that serve to prove and feed this argument that circulate more specific communities like /4/chan and various other forums. 

When any individual sits behind a computer and connects, even when name, age, and location are divulged, there is still a sense of emboldened anonymity that touches every Human Being. The Ten Commandments have less significance when you're laughing at an old woman falling down an up escalator whilst listening to an illegally downloaded Shakira album. 

 Note: stats on illegally downloaded graphs not shown.

I think that's like dividing by 0. Or something. [Source]  

The internet, while providing the world with priceless resources such as connectivity on a global scale and endless sources of entertainment and knowledge, has also come with a price - nobody needs to know who you, as an individual, are; and it is this sense of detached individualism that allows a person to put aside their morals while on the internet.

This concept can be extended to any node of the internet, one of the most scary and "popular" being the group known as Anonymous. The individuals associated with this community never divulge personal information with each other nor anyone else, and basically do whatever the hell they want to the online community. They're fond of finding individual's personal information and leaking it online, as well as DDoS attacks. In one instance, they even hacked a network security firm that had been contracted by the government. That's like beating Charlie Sheen to death with a bag of cocaine (hint: this is impossible). 

I think you win when Charlie Sheen Overdoses. [Source]

But why?

Because they can.When making their threats to various organizations and individuals, they only carry out some (with varying degrees of intensity) - namely those that can be done on a computer (hacking). On the other hand, whenever they make a threat about something in physical space, they never accomplishing anything other than congregating in small protests wearing Guy Fawkes masks. 

I'm not trying to say anyone who pirates online is a hacker has the capability or motive to do the sort of  things Anonymous does - they are merely an extreme example of what this kind of mental state is capable of accomplishing. What I am trying to argue is that online piracy is a serious problem, not just for musicians, game developers, the film industry, publishing companies, or even consumers - but for the positive, forward progression of society as a whole.

Now he's off to find some ale and wenches. [Source]

The Cost of Piracy

Despite the fact that it costs the consumer nothing, Piracy does come at a price.

According to the RIAA, between $7 billion and $20 billion worth of songs are downloaded illegally - or in other words, 23% -69% of total music sales in the year 2009*. The reason for the study's utterly massive margin for error is not because of any statistical shortcomings - this kind of data is incredibly difficult to compile, based on the hydra nature of online piracy.

 No wonder the RIAA's having trouble shutting down The Pirate Bay [Source]

This is despite the fact that the digital market for music has undergone a sharp increase in recent years. The IFPI states that:

"Music companies’ global digital revenues grew by an estimated 12 per cent in 2009 totalling US$ 4.2 billion in trade revenues. Digital channels now account for 27 per cent of music sales, up from 21 per cent in 2008 (IFPI [link not part of quotation]). The music sector is generating far greater value from the online and mobile market than any other sector in the creative industries, with the exception of electronic games." [Source, pg 10]

However, this relatively new medium of revenue stream has not been enough to offset the losses of online piracy. Overall, the IFPI reports a 31% decrease in total sales from the years 2004 to 2010 [Previously linked source]. Despite this, most bands everybody and their mother has heard of are still doing alright, aloft in their copious amounts of cash from merchandising and ticket sales - so who does this hurt?

People like Tosin Abasi, or in other words, "debut artists".  It's becoming increasingly difficult for new bands to "make it" in the music industry. The IFPI reported a 77% drop in debut album sales from 2003 to 2010 [Previously linked source].

Has your been melted by the epicness of a 10 string guitar yet? [Source]

The other side of this coin, however, is that the ease with which an artist can be discovered. Times Magazine writer discusses this issue in his 2007 article. He talks about how did in fact illegal rip a band's song from youtube - and then purchased two albums, and attended a concert. This is not just the sentiment of a single journalist, but in fact only a single testament of a consumer among many, many others. In fact, merely browsing torrents on The Pirate Bay for bands and video games such as Animals As Leaders and Mass Effect [Links purposely omitted] will show exactly what kind of empathy these new age pirates have - they often suggest purchasing the album for no other reason than to support the artists/developers.

*Wikipedia cited for the graph on record sales, which is supported by the various studies conducted by the IFPI.

In order to properly discuss the significance of digital commodities and how they enable online piracy, a brief explanation of what exactly defines a commodity, and from where its value is derived.

 Basically, we make a lot of stuff we don't need. [Source]

A commodity, which exists only capitalist society, is a product that is produced and created for the sole purpose of making a profit - as opposed to using it for personal use. Commodities in the modern era range from things like health care to computers, and high-risk high-return investments to t-shirts. An increasingly globalized capitalist market in the 20th century has radically changed the way business is done in the new millennium, and music, movies and video games are no exception.

One of the ways a commodity's value is determined is through the concept of scarcity, or the ease with which the item can be obtained. Gold, for example, can not be created (it's an element) and can only be recovered from the Earth in ever decreasing numbers, and is one of the major reasons that the price of gold has increased by more than 500% in the last 10 years.

The .MP3 file format has forever changed what music is. It is no longer confined to the the vibrating strings and rushing wind of musicians' instruments, like it was in the 19th century, and it is no longer bound by physical space like a vinyl record or CD like it was for much of the 20th century. Music has, in essence, transcended the 3-dimensional existence that Human beings inhabit, and in so doing have simultaneously duped capitalism's concept of scarcity.

Pretty much the only thing CDs are good for now.

It can be argued that Apple's iTunes store was the most essential force behind this movement, though other organizations such as Napster which provide more or less the same service played key roles. However, because of the rampant success of the iPod, people wanted to fill their shiny new gadgets with music - and they did. Apple is still reaping the benefits, with a 21.87% profit margin and $76.28 billion in 2010.

So music, movies, and entertainment (video games) no longer require physical space to exist. So what?

The "so what" is that they can be copied, quite literally, an infinite number of times, so long as the hard drive space to hold the (very small) files exists (hint: it pretty much does). Torrent files are basically just packages that can contain almost anything - music, video games, movies, and even e-books (the largest of text documents rarely exceed even 5 MegaBytes). Because we've already discussed how easy it is for torrents to spread via swarms, we know why this is a problem for people like the Lars Ulrich and the RIAA. Anybody who buys a few CDs online or in one of the few record stores still in business can put up an entire band's discography in a matter of minutes for quite literally, the entire world.

 Pictured: Pirates.[Source]

BitTorrent, .torrent files, and how they work.

Why look at torrents specifically, as opposed to traditional downloads, or at what limewire does with its cache of various files? The answer brings us back to the fact that the The Pirate Bay (as well as a vast array of similar and semi-popular websites), uses .torrent filetypes to let their users download their files - dozens of popular sites just like The Pirate Bay exist, but for reasons stated in the original post, none of these will be referenced.

Let's see some guy with a peg leg figure this out. [Source]

In order to first understand what a .torrent is, one must first understand what the revolutionary BitTorrent protocol is. First and foremost, a protocol (such as HTTP or FTP) is essentially the explicit rules and properties that govern the transfer of data between computing systems - in essence an algorithm. BitTorrent varies from your "typical" File Transfer Protocol, which is essentially a linear process of copying information, in that  it requires seeders and peers (seeders being a subset of peers) to actively assist in copying bits and pieces of the original .torrent file in order to construct the complete file on a computer or system that is not hosting it.

A "peer" is anybody who is currently downloading the .torrent file, and therefore making it more readily available for users to download themselves. Every peer who downloads from the host is in fact hosting it themselves - bits and pieces of it, at the very least. Users who have completely finished downloading the file, but allow it to continue hosting it are known as "seeders", and are very conducive to faster download speeds for everyone else.

A "leecher" is any kind of peer who is detrimental to the "health" of a .torrent download. For whatever reasons, an individual may refrain from seeding once the download is completed, and deny the rest of the "swarm", as peers are collectively referred to, of another seeder. Additionally, users can throttle the speed at which their BitTorrent client downloads (and therefore uploads); this occurs fairly often when content is distributed illegally, such as on The Pirate Bay, because it makes the illegal download more difficult to detect.

The end result of this protocol is that the busier a .torrent file download is, the faster it completes. With a favorable ratio of seeders to leechers (anything around 1:1), a 3 gigabyte file can download in less than an hour. It's possible to download an entire band's discography in a matter of minutes.

 Nothing says technological advancement like hive-mind mentality. [Source]

That isn't, however, to say that BitTorrent is used only for illicit purposes - Facebook uses torrents to distribute updates to its servers. That very same article goes on to talk about how universities can reduce the number of servers necessary, because of the relative ease with which BitTorrent distributes files, which saves money in addition to time.

What is piracy?

With the exception of Somali pirates in destitute regions of the world, and other isolated incidents, piracy on the high seas has ceased to exist. Instead, in today's highly-digital world, there is a new, apparently insidious way in which people are stealing from others. Chances are you've heard of a little sight called thepiratebay.org. It was only ranked the 88th most visited site in the world by Alexa.com. While there are numerous examples of file sharing websites to use as examples, for the sake of not divulging more than what is already common knowledge, only The Pirate Bay will be discussed in this blog. It is assumed that, anybody reading this blog is at the very least aware of the website's existence, because let's stop kidding ourselves - the only people who are hitherto unaware of it either still like Ike, or are otherwise unable to locate the Ethernet ports in their computers.

The very very technical definitions for piracy in the United states can be found here, under Title 17 of the United States Code, Chapter 5. It states that:

Anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner as provided by sections 106 through 122 or of the author as provided in section 106A(a), or who imports copies or phonorecords into the United States in violation of section 602, is an infringer of the copyright or right of the author, as the case may be.

But that's boring.

The people who matter (see: corporations) in the case of internet piracy are the people (remember, corporations are people too) with money. This blog will focus mostly on the RIAA, the Recording Industry of America, but it's important to note other similar trusts/companies exist: the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association), the IIPA (International Intellectual Property Alliance) the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) just to name a few.

The RIAA cites examples of piracy such as:

"Music theft can take various forms: individuals who illegally upload or download music online, online companies who build businesses based on theft and encourage users to break the law, or criminals manufacturing mass numbers of counterfeit CDs for sale on street corners, in flea markets or at retail stores" [Source]

However, it can be broken down to simply "taking something that is not yours to take"; the RIAA and agencies like them have a fondness for using words like "illegal", "theft", and "counterfeit" (think about that one - how can a DVD truly be counterfeit in the strict definition of the word? Are the actors fake? Are the scenes different from the original? While yes, illegal copies they may be, they are in fact genuine copies - such is beauty and horror of modern technology). This kind of vocabulary is dripping with negative connotations used to essentially guilt their audience. Seeing as the international online community is not about to repent for the sake of contrition, a scolding from the collective record companies of the world won't change anything; and both sides, the pirates and those they steal from, know this.

Rather than just hoping these Generation Y pirates see the errors of their ways, the various industries affect by piracy are reacting. DRM software (Digital Rights Management) is becoming a more and more common tool to fight against copyright infringement. While DRM refers to the broader idea of embedding files with programming in addition to the content (a song, a movie, a video game, etc.) that attempts to thwart any "unauthorized" copies. This is done in a multitude of ways: Blizzard's games won't let you play their newest titles without logging into their Battle.net account. DVDs come with CSS (Content Scramble System), which is a relatively weak encryption algorithm.

DRM is however, essentially useless.

A quick visit to The Pirate Bay and you'll find scores of video game (big name titles - Assassin's Creed II, Mass Effect II, Starcraft II) torrents with the DRM still attached! What happens is that basically every torrent comes with a way to bypass the DRM that comes with it (this is usually done in various ways) - so rather than blow a hole through a proverbial mountain, they just walk around it.

So what is digital piracy? Neither the government (internationally or domestically) nor large corporations ahve been able to effectively curtail it; but it essentially boils down to people are still taking things from others that do not legally belong to them - only rather than these "people" being gruff old men with a peg leg on a pirate sheep, they're all of us.