Online Piracy is Bad
Have you ever illegally downloaded music off the internet? If you have, don’t worry, 95% of music downloaded online is illegal. In 2010, over $59 billion worth of software was illegally downloaded . 71,060 jobs are lost annually due to online piracy. The US government should crack down harder and be more strict on online piracy. It causes the loss of jobs and creates a big dent in our economy.
What
Too much piracy is taking place and nothing is done about it. Every year the US government claims that they are taking online piracy very seriously and will be “cracking down” on it. If you are pirating you are basically stealing from everyone’s paycheck. Software is expensive, but for a good reason. Programmers are paid to make software and people are just stealing the money they make. Every year the amount of online piracy is raised. That means every year the US economy is worsening due to online piracy.
Where
Piracy does not only happen in the US. In fact, the US isn’t even in the top ten for piracy. Online piracy happens all over the world. According to Beijing Web Designers, China has the biggest piracy problem. 91% of computers in China have at least one thing that is pirated. That means that about 177.5 million computers include some sort of piracy. That’s just in China. In total, 42% of the world’s computers have pirated material.
Why
Online Piracy often occurs because people don’t have the kind of money to pay for things they want or need. Adobe Photoshop is the most pirated software on the internet, usually costing $1,000. Music is another big thing that is pirated. People download music for free not even thinking that it is pirating. Buying music can add up. When people pirate music they don’t usually think that they are actually stealing a lot of money, but an average iPod contains $800 of pirated music.
How
Pirating websites make it incredibly easy to illegally download files. The website “The Pirate Bay” is a perfect example. At the homepage of The Pirate Bay there is a link titled “How to Download”. If you click this link it takes you to a simple five-step process on how to get anything you want. First you just download and install the free software Bitlord, which allows you to download the torrent files and convert them into the actual file that you want. Then you just have to go http://piratebay.sx/, find a download, and click “Get this Torrent”. Once you have done all of these steps, Bitlord will convert the compressed .torrent files into the file that you came for. With pirating software being this easy, one wouldn’t think twice as to “just download one thing”.
When
Piracy occurs everyday. According to Beijing Web Designers, there are about 146 million visits to pirating websites everyday. That means that, on average, there are more than 100,000 visits to online piracy websites every minute. Most piracy is done on personal devices. Since piracy is happening so often it is imperative to be acted upon as soon as possible.
Who
Illegal downloading affects everyone. It especially affects companies. In 2010 the music industry lost $12 billion to online piracy of music and music videos. Not only is this affecting the music industry but it’s causing loss of jobs. Over 7,000 jobs are lost yearly in the US due to piracy. As you can see, piracy is a big problem because so many people are losing money and losing jobs (Beijing Web Designers).
Solution
The US government has proposed some solutions. Over the past few years, the US government have started acts to stop online piracy. The acts include CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act), SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), PIPA (Protect IP Act), and many more. None of these acts have currently passed. Another way that people have tried to stop piracy, according to USA Today, is that cable providers such as Verizon, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, etc. have slowed down the wireless of people who frequently visit piracy websites. One string of hope is that on January 19, 2012 the filesharing site Mega Upload was shut down by the United States Department of Justice. This gives us hope because it shows that the government is monitoring online piracy and can shut down websites if they have to.
Conclusion
We need to stop online piracy to benefit not only the companies that are being stolen from, but to benefit the economy. Online piracy affects everyone and it needs to be stopped. While you may think that you’re just saving money, you’re actually just hurting and worsening your country’s economy, and otherwise hurting yourself. So before you click that download button on that new song that just came out, think to yourself, “Is it really worth it?”