My senior Project Paper: The effects of Piracy

This is my paper thati turned in for my sinor project in high school (LAST WEEK) took three tries to pass


The title is suppose to be centered and double space the wole paper


THE EFFECTS OF PIRACY

There was an average person who downloaded music all the time and did not realize that what he was doing was making the music companies lose money. Then one day he started to download movies because his friend told him of a website that offered movies to download. He later received a warning letter from his ISP (Internet Service Provider) from the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) which told him to delete any copyrighted files on his computer or hard drives. He thought it was nothing but a fake letter sent out randomly by people to scare him. He still continued to download m more movies; music and also began to download computer software. Then one day, he thought since he bought so many blank CD-R’s and DVD+/-R’s, he could sell them to people he knew and around places like the Galt Flea Market. He was selling pirated items and didn’t get into any trouble; however, one day he sold software to an undercover police officer. The police arrested and fined him for internet piracy. This is one story about how a typical pirater starts his life of crime. A person who downloads music and attempts to sell CD’s to earn money for themselves and others. There are significant financial losses to companies who make the copyrighted item in question. Many people can get the movies, music, and software from any file sharing client or website they want because they assume that there is no harm or risk involved in what they are doing. Most companies only see it as a financial loss. They do not care what person sold to which people but, only the fact that the downloaded items were made by them and was not paid for. Realistically, it is a loss of money and possible profits to companies. This is basically a form of stealing. Piracy is an act of stealing other people’s hard work, and in some cases, distributing the products for free or by charging people, resulting in economic hardships on the music, movie and software industries as well as comsumers.
Many groups are attempting to fight against piracy by fileing lawsuits on downloaders on file sharing networks The Recording Industry Association of America are one of the first groups to file lawsuits on the ones who download music mainly on the FastTrack protocol . “The RIAA works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists” (“MPA|Anti-Piracy”). The movie industry‘s financial loss is tremendous. The US film industry alone loses $3.5 billion every year and software industry loses $11-$15 billion. Since piracy is worldwide, it is questioned which area has the most pirated items? The answer is Asia. About 84 percent of pirated discs around the world are from the Southeast Asia area (“MPA-Anti-Piracy”). Most of piracy may be in Asia but it is worldwide.
The amount of piracy has more than doubled since 1999 in America. In the UK the number of optical discs seized nearly quadrupled from 500,000 to over 2,000,000 (“MPA Worldwide Market Research”). The price of a blank CD is not much. It varies between 10 cents to 50 cents per blank disc depending on disc quality or the disc brand, for example Sony, TDK or Philips. Same with blank DVD’s; the price is 30 cents to $2.00 per disc depending on type. If they are so cheap why do the actual movies or music cost so much?
The price of the studio and the instruments used to make the recordings is what makes music CD’s so costly. All the time and money put into making music or movies and it gets downloaded, a lost sale due to it being downloaded. The record companies lose money if they can’t make up for what it cost to make a CD. (“MPA|Worldwide”) When people make a copy of a disc for someone else, companies lose what could have been another sale. Even programmers have this problem. They go through so much hard work to make software for computers and then a people buy it, make copies to give to others. The companies who do this have spent a lot of time and money in making their music or movies and sometimes they cannot make up for their loss. Piracy is what’s hurting the world economically but not much can be done than what is expected So, who will help them in their struggle?
There are many people against piracy. Groups such as the RIAA and the MPAA are against piraters, especially the people who actually pay for the original product. People buy the product because they support the people who made it; whether it is a movie or computer software. They want to support them and keep the price low for legitimate users. It is the fault of piraters that the prices keep on rising. Some acts of piracy could be supporting drug users or even terrorists! It is another reason to not support piracy due to the money it gives the people who steal. Some people who support the companies say they have always supported it 100 percent, but this really isn’t true. For example, when someone buys a music CD only some songs are desired, they only spent about $15 on the CD. They chose to use their money to buy the original copy and are allowed to burn themselves a backup copy and use the backup so they don’t mess up their original copy. This is legal as long as they keep their copy and not redistribute it. Then the person who supports piracy comes into play (“SIIA-Anti-Piracy FAQ”).
The pirater will someone for the CD so, when he borrows it, he will make many copies of it. Why didn’t he just buy the CD himself? He said that he didn’t want to waste his money. Downloading it would have saved them both the trouble of asking but they didn’t want to wait that long. There are application programs for the computer. They are p2p (“peer-to-peer”) programs used to “share” files (National Research Council). Many different types of these programs include many different networks that they run on. There is one p2p client that started it all.
Napster was the first file sharing client that had downloads but, the first was IRC for chatting and swapping files. Napster was what would be called now as a first generation network. It had a centralized file list, which was understood that the files were in one single list to download from (National Research Council). The US government found this way of sharing files illegal. The reason being because of copyright infringement. Other p2p clients soon followed were being released but different networks were used to keep them separate and different. They are all very similar though. The most well know one now is called KaZaA which runs on the FastTrack network. What has happened throughout the year of 2004?
Anti-Piracy groups have flooded the FastTrack network with fake or screeching files, but that has not slowed down piraters from finding files using different forms of p2p (“SIAA- What is Piracy?”). There is mIRC (Internet Relay Chat), BitTorrent (BitTorrent network), LimeWire (Gnutela network), and others as well such as some warez websites. All these ways of getting files are illegal. Even if one pays a fee on the site, it is for the site owners not the owners of the copyrighted item. There are also many ways to describe the types of piracy there are (SIIA Anti-Piracy FAQ). “Downloading anything on the net saves you money but hurts companies. They may work hard but they are charging too much for their products. In knowing this, people turn to alternatives to get the program or movie” (Hernandez, Frank).
One of the types of piracy is soft lifting. This is taking software that has only a single license user agreement and installing it on multiple machines. Just because one person paid for it does not mean that he can use it in any way he pleases. It is also illegal if a hard drive with many programs with many different kinds of software with specific software license agreements are sold, this is called Hard Drive Bundling. They are not the ones who paid for it so it is seen as they should not be able to use it. Counterfeiting or bootlegging as most would know it as, is when someone makes a copy of something and try to make it look like the real item whether it is a movie or some software. This is the most common form of pirated discs found in flea markets. A CD-R copy is just basically a burned copy using a CD copier. It is not attempted to look as the real thing. Only written with the name with a marker to say what the burned item is (“SIIA-What is Piracy?”). People cannot rent software to another, because most have a specific license agreement that must be followed. It is typically a single user license for most products purchased meaning that it can only be installed on one computer. One must buy additional licenses for other people to use it legally but still, these items cannot be rented because the person probably will not uninstall the program after the renting period is over, in any way this is still illegal. There is another form of software called shareware or “try-before-you-buy” as it may be known. This is software that is a trial version. It most commonly has a time limit of how long the application can be used for.. Some shareware is crippleware which is a trial version with many of the features locked. People can use cracks or patches to unlock the features or disable the time limit and make it a fully registered copy. Keygens, meaning key generators, can be used to make a fake yet still valid code to register the software product. Freeware, while still being free, could be pirated if the software is sold to someone and is paid for both people have violated the license agreement of the software. Selling any type of computer software on many CD’s either online on such sites such as ebay.com to auction off what could be called a compilation CD (SIIA-Anti-Piracy)
Most piracy is now spread on the internet. Because of this, many rumors or “legends” which state the rule for downloading have been spread as well. Abandon Ware, trying an old software or game being free isn’t true. For instance, if the companies went out of business, it is still protected by copyright law. Up to 95 years is how long the law copyright stays with the product. Also is true with the 24 hour rule. It is another false rumor spread on the internet mostly advertised on video game ROM sites. ROM sites for games are for old game systems such as the NES. Sites say that one can try it but they must delete the game within 24 hours unless they are going to buy the original. It is not true. It is just as illegal as downloading a movie or music album (SIIA Anti-Piracy FAQ).
Piracy is done around the world but the laws are not the same. Most places have a lesser penalty for copyright infringement. In the United States, the fine is anywhere up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison depending on the amount of copyrighted items infringed (National Research Council 179). All this is similar around the world but not as strict. Asia has a lot of piracy in the south east. In China, 91% of their video and optical discs are pirated. The discs in the rest of Asia also come from China. The discs may still be expensive in China but they sell their discs for cheap and many countries imported them (MPA Worldwide Market Research).
Piracy is spreading, trying to enforce all laws worldwide is impossible. It is just like trying to stop the spread of drugs, crime, and terrorism. It is an unachievable goal, and people do not want to buy things that are too high in price. The cost of blank CD media isn’t high at all, it is just the cost for the movies music and software CD’s in stores. The RIAA and MPAA will do whatever is needed to make sure that they get all the money they deserve and while doing so passing different laws worldwide. The software, movies, and music are available everywhere on the internet. Piracy is stealing and selling it to others causing the companies to lose money and cause them to try to get their money back. Support piracy or not? Getting it for free helps people save money but will later cost them. Nothing in this world is free, everything that is has some agreement or some hidden fee. More p2p client will be made to avoid the new laws passed by making a new way of downloading. From Napster being shut down and BitTorrent near dying, there is always an alternative. It is not possible to have no piracy in the world but even with all of the consequences of piracy, people still download and sell music, movies and software. It will not stop, more and more people have access to DSL and Cable internet. More and more downloading can be done in such a short time. Rumors and knowledge spreads on the internet very fast, something new comes up, many more will know about it. All households have at least one form of internet to use and it would be pointless and expensive to monitor everyone online at all times. KaZaA, still the most known p2p client, like all things, cannot last forever but will be remembered for what it has done for the internet community.
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well? what do you think? is it a good paper?

I am a student not a stupid ass fbi person or mpaa some shit.

p2p will live forevar!!! lol

feedback wanted on my paper please!!!

ill check back later, gotta sleep

PeAcE EZ-SLeEp EZ

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This is one story about how a typical pirater starts his life of crime

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Sounds like Refer Madness ffs.
http://www.phenry.org/junkdrawer/ref...ics/poster.gif

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what could have been another sale

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The factor missing here could be that it wouldve never been bought anyway.

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Piracy is what’s hurting the world economically

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Lets not be dramatic, most the numbers are fudged for hype anyway.

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They want to support them and keep the price low for legitimate users

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I take it that dosent appy to Music biz.

Alternatives...
There ARE other ways for the artist to get PAID
http://www.eff.org/share/compensation.php

There ARE simple legal solutions
http://www.eff.org/share/legal.php

my techer said to put that

i had to make it sound smart, yet stupid (easytounderstand)

^_^

wait, so irony? or are you talking about a paradox, in either case your teacher isn't very smart. Why would he/she aske you to put something smart which is filler information? I wish my english teacher was this easy :( (btw, wrote my english final today, aced the multiple choice, the written part on the other hand :ermm: )

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Originally Posted by cpt_azad

wait, so irony? or are you talking about a paradox, in either case your teacher isn't very smart. Why would he/she aske you to put something smart which is filler information? I wish my english teacher was this easy :( (btw, wrote my english final today, aced the multiple choice, the written part on the other hand :ermm: )

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not bad...the sad fact is that i couldn't muster any better than that if i tried.

english will be the death of me...i have it next semester, the suspense is leading to my untimely death!! :D

not.

A bit simple, and it could do with some polishing.

But it's a good paper at your level, I think.

i am 17 ^_^

an old peron...


i wrote this in december but fixed it a bunch last month

English(ghetto usa version!!!)

nah really it is english and only english (i ain;t white, im mexican, i hate spanish...)

i only know english, is that a bad thing or a good thing???

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Originally Posted by DDRFREAK1030

The US film industry alone loses $3.5 billion every year and software industry loses $11-$15 billion.

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Put them in the context on how much each industry takes in the same year, and those points take a blow.

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Originally Posted by Illuminati

Put them in the context on how much each industry takes in the same year, and those points take a blow.

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It always annoys me how the movie industry and such makes it out as if they are losing money.

They make well above what the movies cost to make, they just don't make as big a profit as they think they should. :dry:

And like JP is saying, I don't think all the people who own an illegal copy would have forked out for the movie or whatever, anyway.

In some cases the movie industry is probably losing money 'cos people have a chance to see what utter shite has been produced, without having to pay for the priviliege of suffering through it.

I don't think they like the idea of people being able to make an informed decision about what is sold, before having paid for it.

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Originally Posted by JPaul

The word "loses" implies lost sales. However it is unlikely that all instances of piracy are people who would have bought the item, had they not stolen it. I think this is unlikely.

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My point exactly.

The term "losses" in articles on this topic can be interpreted in different ways with different weights on the argument. Some people can read it merely as lost sales, others would read it as the amount they've lost directly due to piracy, others as being that much down compared to the revenue figures of the previous year and others (though unlikely given the business of such industries) are the industries not making any cash whatsoever but instead losing those amounts - The last being the unlikeliest but the most severe of the interpretations.

Hence why it's important to be careful with objective data and to make sure the context is known properly in an essay. :)

I seem to remember a report regarding the music biz stating a certain percentage loss.
I can only lay it out as an example as I dont have exact figures although its posted somewhere on the net.

First lets say during previous years as an example they had sold 5000 items while producing lets say 100 projects at which sold an average of 50 copies each.

Following lets say they had sold 4400 items while producing lets say 80 projects at which sold an average of 55 copies each.

Now the report could say theyre sales were down by 12% which would be a big number to show in dollars.
(5000 items down to 4400 items)
Although technically their per project sale was up 10%!!
(50 items sold per project up to 55 items)

Fact was that they had reduced their projects significantly so that of course the gross was down. Also if i remember in the report the fact they had reduced their production was not show as part of equation. It was later posted on a website how the numbers were manipulated. I would imagine if any business removed some of their stock or whatever they were selling it would be thought sales would naturally go down...