The Positive Side Of Information Piracy
Piracy is illegal in most of the world and is usually frowned upon by a majority of people. Even though this is the case, maybe we should consider that there might be another side to piracy, a side that is not public knowledge. I believe that piracy can lead to good and bring down political censorship walls in the world and help with the spread of information, as well as helping companies gain more revenue. In a report published by European Commission (2017) they show that piracy actually has a positive effect on the game industry and that its effect on the book industry is insignificant. Then looking to the video uploaded by haxorcat (2007) shows that the creators of this anti-piracy campaign are using some scare tactics and playing on the emotions saying that pirating a movie is the same as stealing a handbag or even a car, and then compares it to the report by European Commission (2017) shows that they are not really comparable. This is because of the insignificance of one download compared to the significance of one handbag or even car. Piracy, while being illegal, it’s a way for people to consume and share information around the world. Freedom of information is something I at least take for granted. The fact is that this is not the case, all countries does not have the free flow of information as we do here in most of the western world. China is a prime example of that censorship is still a thing which is being used nowadays. This is an example where piracy might help, they could get access to books and movies that they couldn’t have access to otherwise and learn more about the outside world and how other people think.
The European Commission (2017) report also shows that every 100 movie or tv-show streams displaces 27 real purchases. This is a significant number that would mean that for every stream the company loses a quarter of their income from the pirate buying it legally. Putting this into number would mean that for every movie that someone streams illegally the company might lose $2 and that could be up to $8 or $12 per person per week depending on how much they watch per week. This is significant when adding up all lost income from all possible customers.
My conclusion from all of this is that we have to be able to see both sides of this thing that is frowned upon, that it doesn’t have to be bad and that it can be beneficial for everyone in the end. There are of course bad uses of piracy such as movies and tv-shows which is just hurting the company in the end. Most importantly though, I believe, is that we should have a free flow of information in the world and that people should be able to know what’s happening, and that the methods of piracy might help spreading that information.
References:
- European Commission. (2017). Study on estimating displacement rates of copyrighted content in the EU. Used 2019-11-13 from https://ec. europa. eu/growth/content/study-estimating-displacement-rates-copyrighted-content-eu_en - haxorcat. (2007-12-04).
- Piracy it's a crime. Used 2019-11-13 from https://youtu. be/HmZm8vNHBSU
