Wrapping it up

Wrapping it up!

This is the final blog in our series on online piracy. Thank you for following and leaving comments. The blogs and the project may be coming to a close, but the issue is not. Current and proposed legislation is likely to broaden the scope of what is considered copyright infringement and set precedents for heavy fines or worse for offenders.
There will always be the battle, however, of who will police the legislation and how far reaching do the regulations have to go before they infringe in the citizens constitutional rights to privacy. The RIAA and the MPAA still want deep legislation and the internet wants more of a self policing type of regulatory system.
Recent DMCA court cases have tended to favor the defendant in a manner that requires the party bringing the take-down notice to have a real and substantial reason for doing so. See Lenz v Universal here.
The internet is packed with arguments defending both sides of the political issue of how do deal with copyright infringement. The RIAA has an entire section of their website devoted to education about music piracy. YouTube is saturated with user videos about defending the right to a free internet. Some of which have been used in this series.

Here are a few extra things worth checking out........
The Artist Bill of Rights.... http://artists-bill-of-rights.org

Answers to copying for personal use....... http://www.lawguru.com/legal-questions/-/vhs-video-hold-proof-purchase-335845093/

Department of Justice court actions........... http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2013/01/04/6829199.htm

Trade wars and government intervention......http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/opinion/a-new-front-in-global-trade-wars.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0

and check out these case.......http://www.dmcahandbook.com

These links were extras that we came across in our research, but didn't really fit into any catagory of our outline.


Remember, pirates are the large corporations that steal software, they are the companies that steal movies and records and resell them, and they are the individuals who download music illegally.
Piracy will always be a problem in the same way as drug trafficking and illegal firearms sales. All we can hope to do is slow down the pirates, educate the users on the perils of using pirated goods (viruses and the like), and hope that legislators and enforcement agencies deal out punishment that is justifiable and commensurate to the degree of the infringement.

Kid Rock Piracy PSA

WARNING: This video contains language that might be offensive to some viewers.

 We covered who the pirates are, what is being pirated, and legislative attempts to curb piracy. We outlined and provided you with an avenue to report piracy and some of the pitfalls of using pirated goods. We brought to you some of the injustices like Aaron Schwartz and some of the protests like Google and Wikipedia.
In the end, whether you download music for free or if you are selling stolen copies of Avatar, you are hurting the economy to some degree and risking damage to your hardware and face fines and hard time.
You make the choice.
Thank you for reading and commenting on our blogs.
Justin, Lloyd, Doug, Michael and Curtis

BSA.org

Can Online Piracy Be Stopped?

The BSA (Business Software Alliance) established in 1988, is made up of several of the world's largest software makers. Its primary objective is to stop software copyright infringement of its member’s products.

http://www.compuchannel.net/2010/04/20/la-bsa-nombra-representante-en-el-salvador/

Two of the campaigns they have used are "Play it Cyber Safe" and "Bust your Boss".

http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2004/08/10/copyright_crusading_with_the_bsas_cyber_ferret.html

The "Play it Cyber Safe" campaigned is directed at students. They are trying to educate students to what copyright laws are and why they should be using legal software instead of pirated software. This approach is trying to teach students that integrity and honesty is essential in all areas of life.

This campaigned can enlighten the students to how piracy affects not only the individual, but also the companies personnel that produce and manufacture the products. If people don't buy the product because they can get it from friends, then this has an economic effect on the companies that produce and manufacture the products as well as the people who are employed by these companies and their families.

The "Bust your Boss" campaign is directed at current and former employees that have knowledge of their organizations using pirated software. They are trying to show business owners the importance of not using pirated software.

http://www.plixer.com/blog/netflow/nail-your-boss-with-netflow/

This campaign is a little more tricky, since a disgruntle worker could cause a current or former employee a headache with the BSA by accusing them of using Pirated software, which would spurn an investigation and disrupt their services even if they were not using pirated software. On the flip side this would catch some of the companies that are getting away with using pirated software in order to lower their IT overhead.

Does a small company have the right to use the same licensed program on 3-6 computers? Or should they also be held to the same scrutiny as the large companies? 

 

Kris Mukai

 STOPPING online piracy is like playing the world’s largest game of Whack-A-Mole. Hit one, countless others appear. Quickly. And the mallet is heavy and slow. In the arcade version of Whack-A-Mole, the game eventually ends — often when the player loses. In the piracy arms-race version, there doesn’t seem to be a conclusion. Sooner or later, the people who still believe they can hit the moles with their slow mallets might realize that their time would be better spent playing an entirely different game.

- Nick Bilton(The New York Times)

Internet Pirates Will Always Win  (August 4, 2012)

How To Fix Online Piracy  is an article in Forbes from 2011 That gives a look at SOPA but more importantly tries to instill hope that although online piracy may never go away, it can at least be slowed down and curbed.

To learn more please visit bsa.org

 

Next time: Wrapping it up