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2.0 OBJECTIVE
This unit defines the concept of digital piracy. It examines the various types of digital piracy and the economic cost of digital piracy.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Definition of Digital Piracy
According to Gopal et al (as cited Marcum (2014, p.12) digital piracy is “the illegal act of coping digital goods, software, digital documents, digital audio (including music and voice), and digital video for any reason other than to create a backup without explicit permission and compensation to the copy right holder”.
Digital piracy therefore entails the theft of materials online like software, music, movies and books without the consent of the legal owner of the material. These information products (i.e. software, music, movies and books) are usually regarded as being hardly excludable. This is because their creator often have difficulty excluding other persons particularly non-payers from using them. This problem may serve as a disincentive to some people who want to create digital products as they may be concerned about the difficulty in appropriating the revenue from their creative works. The internet and digital tools have facilitated an increase in digital piracy in recent years. People pirate digital products for various reasons such as for economic benefit, personal/group use or the sheer desire to prevent the product from generating the desired revenue.
Types of Digital Piracy
The various types of digital piracy as follows:
i. Music Piracy: This is the unauthorized downloading and sharing of music files.
Music piracy is a growing problem across the world. Music piracy is perhaps of the commonest types of digital piracy. This is because of its small size when compared to video; it can be easily shared from peer to peer. It believed that digital piracy is largely responsible for the drop in the physical sale of CDs and DVDs.
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ii. Software Piracy: This is the unauthorized copying and distribution of software that are copyrighted. It also entails downloading and installing the software more than what the software license permits. This kind of piracy can be done in several ways such as downloading, selling, sharing, and installing copies on multiple computers. Software piracy is a global problem. Its rate has risen to 88 percent in Venezuela and 77 percent in China (Marcum, 2014).
iii. Movie Piracy: This is the unauthorized copying and distribution of copyrighted movies. This can be done through several ways. The Motion Picture Association of America observed that majority of film piracy is committed by offenders using camcorders to record movies in theaters. These bootleg copies can be easily distributed online to thousands of consumers. There is also a peer-to-peer (P2P) network which enables internet users, through the exchange of digital files among individual computers (peers), to make files, search for file stored on other users‟
computers and transfer copies of the files from one computer to another. Illegal streaming sites also allow users to view illegal content (Marcum, 2014).
iv. Online Book Piracy: The advancement in digital technologies has facilitated the conversion of books into digital formats. This allows for easy distribution of books across the world. However, electronic books are illegally reproduced and distributed online. This growing problem has led to the deprivation of authors of the reward of their intellectual output. It has also resulted in huge losses to publishers.
3.3 Economic Cost of Digital Piracy
The economic cost of digital piracy is enormous. Aguiar and Waldfogel (as cited in Holt and Brown, 2018) observed that the recorded music revenues have dropped globally since the proliferation of file sharing technologies. This is not surprising given that peer-to-peer file sharing of music is common especially among young people. This problem is not peculiar to music as movies, software and books are also pirated. The U.S. Institute of Policy Innovation estimates a $12.5 billion yearly loss, including the loss of about 71,000
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jobs. U.S. workers lose $2.7 billion in earnings annually as a result of music piracy, while their federal and state governments $422 million in tax revenues (Marcum, 2014). A study by Ahmadu (2017) which investigated the effects of book piracy on publishing in Nigeria found that educational books, religious books, trade books, recreational books and reference books are being pirated in Nigeria and that book piracy affects investment in publishing business; discourage creativity among Nigerians; increase unemployment in publishing sector; lowers profitability to publishing companies and revenue generation to government.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Piracy of creative works is a global problem that has endured over time. Today, music, movies, software and books are more easily pirated and shared among peers than they were decades ago. This is because of the growth and proliferation of internet access and digital devices. However, this problem can be mitigated through more aggressive enforcement of the extant copyrights laws in Nigeria.
5.0 SUMMARY
This unit defined the concept of digital piracy and examined its various types. It also discussed the economic cost of digital piracy globally, including Nigeria.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
With relevant examples, explain the various types of digital piracy.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Ahmadu, I. (2017). Effects of book piracy on publishing in Nigeria. Information Impact:
Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, 8 (3), 103-115.
Holt, T.J. & Brown, S.C. (2018). Contextualizing digital piracy. In S.C. Brown and T.J.
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Holt (eds.). Digital Piracy: A Global Multidisciplinary Account. London:
Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group.
Marcum, C.D. (2014). Cyber Crime. New York: Wolters Kluwer.
Module 3: Some Emerging Patterns of Cybercrime II