technoculture203-09

Musical piracy, for me, has always been a tough concept to wrap my mind around. I admit to downloading my fair share of music via old programs such as Kazaa, back when P2P fire sharing was just getting started. I’ve stopped that process in the past years, but not because I realized it was “wrong” but only because programs like iTunes made it easy to download single songs or albums quickly and with no fear of government retribution. Perhaps it is the issue that consumers cannot put a true face to their theft, that piracy has never let up since its induction into society.

Additionally, the way that many adds address piracy is odd. This video, one that I have seen many times in a movie theatre, suggests that piracy has just as immediate and devastating effect as stealing a car from someone. Piracy is stealing, yes, but I don’t think that anyone would argue that Britney Spears getting one less dollar from her new song is as dramatic as grand theft auto. Apparently “The IT Crowd” in Britain thought the same thing, because they created a spoof video comparing movie piracy to a number of outrageous illegal acts, such as shooting a police officer. What makes this add funny is that when compared to what people think of as “real” and dangerous crimes like murder and identity threat, piracy seems very tame.

Also, with new articles like the one mentioned in class about pirates being the most likely to download music legally, it seems that the music industry has less and less ground to exact harsh punishments on teenagers for piracy.