How Piracy Has Changed The Face Of CapitalismPosted by ahc99 on October 24th, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Pirated WindowsXP

Photo by jurvetson

From Dictionary.com:

Piracy [pahy-ruh-see] is defined as the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.

Capitalism [kap-i-tl-iz-uhm] is defined as an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.

So what do you get when you have anonymous piracy thrown into orthodox capitalism?

Chaos.

Unassuming piracy has wreaked havoc upon our conventional model of capitalism. The alphabet soup of agencies from the MPAA to the RIAA have been cast into a state of flux ever since various file-sharing technologies have emerged as the new badasses of the neighborhood. The most frightening one of all, BitTorrent (also more ubiquitous known as P2P) has bred a whole new generation of pirates. And so far? There is no end in sight. Whenever they are able to catch ten pirates, a hundred more emerges. They are fighting a losing battle. This new age of file-sharing is like the Greek monster Hydra where when you cut off one head, two more sprout in its place. Only on steroids. You can see why the MPAA and RIAA are shaking in their figurative boots. And the only Hercules available would be to either (1) turn off the Internet or (2) implement pervasive Big Brother type web surveillance. Either one of the options would cause widespread uprisings and Anarchy.

Yet at the same time, I do realize that piracy poses a serious threat to those agencies that are trying to enforce copyright rules. If copyright rules cannot be upheld and anything can be copied, shared, and transferred with no impediment then why would producers, directors, musicians, and artists continue to work? After all, everything they have made can be possessed with a click of the mouse. If we want people to continue to create new products then there must be an incentive to do so. That is the foundation of capitalism, people work because they believe they will be personally compensated for it. With the pressure of piracy, which shares the work of the individual to the cooperative at large with no compensation to the individual, capitalism will crumble.

Since there is no clear answer to this problem in the foreseeable future, one has to ask why. Why has piracy become so prevalent so quickly? Why has the younger generation embraced every new technology that propagates illegal distribution of files? Recently a game designer and programmer named Cliff Harris asked the exact same question in a blog post, calling for pirates all over the interweb to explain why they pirate. This is the first time I have seen a programmer candidly ask for a reason and as a result, Cliff’s post created a furor of discussion. Personally I think the answer to this question is simple: Piracy is free and easy. Although the MPAA and RIAA want you to believe otherwise, the chances of getting caught are close to nil. And the cover of anonymity generally brings out the worst in people. The same people that will pirate most likely would not steal in a typical store. Truthfully, I don’t think it is surprising that our culture has embraced piracy given the low chance of being caught and the advantages of doing it. It is like speeding, everyone does it even though it is against the law. People just weigh the advantages of speeding and the likelihood of being pulled over and decide it is worth the risk.

What do you think are the reasons that people pirate and how do you think it will affect our culture of capitalism?

Filed under: Capitalism | 3 Comments