Software Piracy

I personally think that piracy should be allowed.  I think this because the act of piracy allows for one to discover new media, can be used to access media that isn’t available to consume in a legal way, and is not losing content creators money.

        Piracy can be a great way to discover new media.  For example, if I had heard of a new artist that wasn’t available on a streaming platform, and I wanted to see if they put out other good songs, listening to a downloaded album could lead me to go out and buy the album or go and attend a show when the band comes to my town.  Also, piracy could allow me to test out a new game that came out for PC to make sure my computer could run it since you typically cannot return opened computer games and it would be a bummer to spend $60 on a game that doesn’t work and cannot be returned or resold due to product keys.

        Piracy can also be used to view media that isn’t available in a specific area.  For example, if I were from another country and wanted to keep up on local shows in that country, chances are that I would not be able to legally do that.  Also, there are shows that used to air on TV and are no longer on the air and not available to steam on services like Netflix.  That doesn’t seem right to me, to not be able to view a piece of art (which all media is), because there are no physical means of doing so.  That would be like the Mona Lisa being locked away and it being illegal to view it on the internet, it really makes no sense.

        Piracy isn’t really losing content creators money as they claim.  Chances are in most cases of piracy, the person who downloaded the media wasn’t likely to buy it otherwise.  Piracy could lead to one of these people to either legitimately purchase the media or spend money on other merchandise and revenue streams that likely give back more to the artist.

        Piracy isn’t right because it is stealing which is viewed as both immoral and illegal.  It is viewed as immoral because most people’s moral compass includes the idea that stealing is a bad thing.  It is illegal because the law states it is theft and it is punishable by massive fines, prison time, and loss of internet rights.