The 21st century pirate award goes to… anyone with a computer.

By Sophie Clarke 

Internet piracy, lets be frank, we all know someone who has done it. The rise of the Internet has opened many paths, one of them unfortunately being file sharing and cyber crime in the form of theft (commonly known as piracy). In 2010, music piracy was estimated to have incurred costs of over twelve billion dollars (Morris and Higgins, 2010, p. 470). Marsh and Melville examine how mass media communication, particularly the Internet, has paradoxically become a facilitator and genesis of cyber crime rather than just the conveyor of crime news (2009, p. 153).  They also examine, how typically, cyber crime is a term associated with morally reprehensible crimes, such as online pornography and pedophilia rings, or terrorist groups, or even identity fraud. However many people do not associate breaching intellectual property laws through file sharing with other such cyber crimes, despite the wide ranging damage it creates.

Digital piracy is seen as an ‘acceptable’ crime within society, and even among my peers it is almost seen as a form of entitlement to free entertainment, or a rebellion against multibillionaire companies. Many individuals do not acknowledge or care that victims are impacted by cyber crime, even if they are less tangible than ‘normal’ victims (Morris and Higgins, 2010, p. 478). Cvetkovski 2014 argues that infringing copyright laws through illegal downloads is even seen as “morally permissible” (p. 250). Cyber theft has become such a common place phenomena that even television shows, such as the British comedy the ‘IT Crowd’ have begun to satirize it:

But why do people pirate, when otherwise they would be law-abiding citizens? Cvetkovski 2014 suggests that pirates hold the perception that the victims of cyber theft are corporations who are ‘soulless, profit driven, exploitative and devoid of human feeling’, and thus, it does not matter if their actions cause these corporations damage (pg.251). Cvetkovski further argues that there is a media taboo around the crime created by mass media, with corporations being the only interest group rousing support for deterrence of the issue (2014).   

A recent article in the Washington Post confirms academics suggestions that the general public does not view piracy as an inherently ‘bad’ or criminal act. In fact the articles argues that in order for a behaviour to be considered deviant, it must go against the grain of society, if it’s a commonly engaged in action, “then its just part of the mainstream social code”. The author links this to actions of piracy, arguing that it is neither deviant nor necessarily viewed as criminal because it is such a widely accepted action by the generation who is engaging with it (Dewey, 2014).

It may be fair for trendy columnists and tech-savvy teenagers to argue that participation in online file sharing may not necessarily deviant if they considered everyone else in their demographic to be also engaged in the practice. However, while it may not be considered deviant, it is still unequivocally illegal (at least for the time-being). The social acceptability of piracy in no way changes its status under the law. Despite the reasoning put forward by ‘pirates’ (some of whom I know) that was outlined earlier, I still question the necessity of such popular acts of crime.

On a final note, it is widely known that not just any television shows are pirated. But some of the most pirated television shows are ironically about crime (Breaking bad, Arrow etc.) (Wallenstein, 2014). So why have we resorted to committing crime just to access television shows about crime?  What is it about crime that any means are justified to access narratives about it? Or is the fact that it is a crime show not really impact the downloading habits of cyber criminals, because any form of free entertainment is hard to turn down.

Reference List:

Cvetkovski, T 2014’ The farcical side to the war on media piracy: a popular case of Divine Comedy?’, Media, Culture and Society, vol. 36, no. 3, pp.246-257.

Dewey, C 2014, ‘Study: Digital piracy linked to internet addiction, ‘deviant’ friends’, Washington Post, 2 June 2014. Available here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/06/02/study-digital-piracy-linked-to-internet-addiction-deviant-friends/.

Marsh, I. and Melville, G 2009 Crime, Justice and the Media, 1st edn, Routledge, London.

Morris, R and Higgins G, 2010 ‘Criminological theory in the digital age: the case of social learning theory and digital piracy”, Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 38, pp. 470-480.

Wallenstein, A 2014, ‘Most pirated TV shows, network dominated by broadcasters’, Variety, 28 April 2014. Available here: http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/most-pirated-tv-shows-networks-dominated-by-broadcasters-1201165817/).