PIRACY; IT'S A CRIME?

In Hamelink’s reading this week, he discusses the ten internet commandments. Of them, thou shalt not use a computer to steal (2006, 122) is the most interesting topic up for discussion due to people’s lax views.

There are many different forms of stealing however piracy is the most common. According to the Australian Federal Police “Around 2.8 million Australians download music illegally via file sharing networks every year. Of these, three quarters claim to download every month” (2011).

This practice costs the entertainment industries excessive amounts of money and it hurts the artists that we obviously like (enough to download their work anyway). Yet we still partake in it regularly.

We’ve all seen the advertisement above whilst watching movies and most probably laughed at its ridiculous comparisons. However the points it makes are valid if not presented in an awful manner.  Unfortunately these go straight over our heads due to what Hamelink describes as moral distance (2006, 117).

Basically we participate in illegal, unethical activities like piracy, or cyber bullying as Rosie discusses, because we consider ourselves to be far away from the act or retribution. This is an unfortunate part of the new media world and will need to be monitored in order to maintain a level of moral modicum in the future.

REFERENCES:

Australian Federal Police. 2011. “Technology Enabled Crime.” Accessed March 20, 2011. http://www.afp.gov.au/policing/e-crime.aspx 

Double, Rosie. 2011. “Sticks and stones may break your bones... but online taunts will haunt you,” Rosie’s New Media Reflections. March 27. Accessed March 28. http://rosiesnewmediareflections.blogspot.com/

Hamelink, C. 2006. “The Ethics of the Internet: Can we cope with Lies and Deceit on the Net?” Ideologies of the Internet 115-130.

“Piracy It’s a Crime.” Youtube video, posted December 4, 2007. Accessed March 18, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU