We lived in a world where life’s so much easier than ever before. Wherein, copy & paste, is as easy as counting one-two-three! While sharing and downloading files takes more time, well, it depends on your internet speed. Not all things we share are beneficial to others, much worse, for the economy.
When I was new to technology, what I thought was that, everything that my friends sends me, are mine, and what I send to them will be theirs. Whether its music, a movie, or an e-book, all we care about is that it’s free. Internet made it all easy for us to send a file back and forth. But now I realized the effects of copyright infringement not only to the content creators, but also to our economy. I’m now well aware that most of the software’s we are using are counterfeit, and it’s very rampant not only in the Philippines but also to other countries.
Most of our operating systems like Microsoft are counterfeit, some of us are aware and some aren’t. We lessen the cost thanks to the brilliance of computer technicians, doing some magic or using software activators rather. They activated our software using unlicensed keys or accounts which is a form of digital piracy. But due to financial matter, I guess that some of the big tech companies allows us to use their programs illegally, but also encourages us to use licensed accounts in the future.
I have heard a story of a youtuber pirating Photoshop and other software’s because he is unable to purchase licensed account due to financial matters. He used Photoshop for practicing and making projects for clients, soon after earning through his pirated software, he bought a licensed account. He admitted that he was well aware that he is using pirated software before, but he also discourage other people to do what he did, if others have the financial resources to purchase a licensed account.
Writers, publishers, producers, and software developers doesn’t get the full credit and profit they deserved. Most of us are aware but doesn’t really care if it’s legal or not, as long it’s beneficial for us. According to piracy statistics published by www.dataprot.com, More than 70,000 jobs per year in the US alone are lost because of the lost revenues that came from music piracy and annual global revenue losses from digital piracy are between $40 and $97.1 billion in the movie industry.
According to MUSO, one of the leading antipiracy tracking and consulting firm, digital piracy is defined as the unauthorized use of another’s work. They defined that a pirate is a person who reproduces the work of others for profit, while the person doesn’t use the work of others for profit is called unlicensed audience. According to a survey by MUSO, published by www.variety.com, 53% of People who access pirated content agree it’s wrong to do so. Some factors that affects their illegal activities are cost and convenience.
Cost and convenience are the main drivers for pirating films, like for example, if you want to watch two different films, one film is on Netflix, and the other is on HBO, you have to subscribe to both premium subscription fees. According to a survey by MUSO, consumers claimed they try to find content through legal avenues first, but because of the cost and convenience that illegal streaming sites has to offer, consumers are encouraged to use illegal streaming and downloaded films.
In a blog site discussion on www.quora.com, entitled “Copyright Infringement: how do authors feel when people pirate their books?” An article posted by Piaw Na, an author of a book, shared his thoughts about other people pirating his work. He is a victim of digital piracy. Those who illegally reproduced, shared, and used digital files is a crime. Let’s not support digital piracy, so that writers, publishers, producers, and software developers will encourage to continue their works.
