What Is Piracy?

What is Piracy? Many years ago, piracy stood for “an act of robbery on the high seas” (ws Merriam). These days, it is not quite so cut and dry. In recent years, the definition has been expanded to also include another phrase, “the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright” (ws Merriam).

As technology advances, broadband speed internet connections become more accessible, and people become more familiar with the workings of the internet, copyright infringement becomes easier and easier. Fans have been distributing bootlegs of artists for years and sharing mix tapes made by friends, but never has there been so much of this material available at ones fingertips. In this day and age, in just a few minutes someone could “log on” and download nearly any album, book, movie, or program ever released вЂ" and even some not yet released.

Digital piracy is not a recent development. Even as early as 1976, people were discussing problems regarding digital copyright infringement, as apparent by an open letter written by Microsoft's Bill Gates, in which he discussed how better software would be available if less people copied stolen programs (ws Homebrew). In this letter, he was referring to their software, Altair BASIC. In these days, there was no Internet, and files were shared via bulletin board systems (BBS). These used a network created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S Department of Defense, which became known as ARPANET, to communicate (ws History). Arpanet later evolved into what we now know as the Internet.

Gates' letter not withstanding, software piracy was not considered a serious problem by the masses until the early 1990's. In 1992, the Software Publishers Association (SPA) released a video titled “Don't Copy That Floppy”. The video features M.E. Hart as “MC Double Def DP,” who goes on to rap about the downfalls of software piracy. This video even today has become “viral” thanks to sites like

Works Cited:

Grabois, Andrew. "Bound for success.(PRIME NUMBERS)(book publishing)." Ð' Foreign Policy. 154 (May-June 2006): 26(2). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Hudson Valley Community College - SUNY. 4 May. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=OVRC&docId=A145268900&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=hvcc&version=1.0>.

"Competing with free: can media and technology companies beat piracy and still make a profit?(The Davos Report)." Ð' Foreign Policy. 141 (March-April 2004): S12(2). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Hudson Valley Community College - SUNY. 4 May. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=OVRC&docId=A114241699&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=hvcc&version=1.0>.

MUNRO, NEIL, and DREW CLARK. "Digital Dilemma.(copyright laws and piracy prevention)." Ð' National Journal. 33.