Internet Piracy – Hope for humanity

It’s kinda funny isn’t it – the internet has turned millions of otherwise innocent people into true criminals. In fact, I’d be surprised to find any experienced internet user who hasn’t infringed some copyright law in one way or the other. Even the most moral of mothers and fathers must have watched an ‘illegal’ Youtube video or downloaded some random mp3 track. And yet, even tough the world is now full of ‘thieves’, no one really seems to really care besides the music labels and perhaps movie/tv studios. Even the little FBI warnings at the beginning of movies threatening prosecution or the reported lawsuits filed by the RIAA on individuals for lifesavings don’t seem to bother the average citizen.

 What is the reason for this recent phenomenon – is it that people think music/video should be free, is it that its just so damn easy to steal stuff on the internet, or is there perhaps a deeper layer to this ‘crime of our times’?

One of the most important, and certainly most shocking things I learned at school (besides  stuff in sex ed class of course), was that Communism, in principle, was actually a great ideology. All through my upbringing I was led to believe that it was the most evil thing on this planet – but as my history teacher explained, in a perfect world we would be governed by Communism. If people weren’t so selfish and greedy, then it would be the way towards the most harmonious society imaginable.

What does this all have to do with internet piracy you wonder, well in fact it has everything to do with it. You see, the main reason why people ‘steal’ on the internet isn’t because it is a much more conveniant way to obtain music (altough it sure is more conveniant), and it certainly isn’t because they don’t believe it is a crime – it is actually because of the communist/collectivist mentality rooted deeply inside every human’s brain. Music label execs, multi-million dollar artists aren’t regarded with much compassion in the eyes of the average citizen just working to get by. In their mind, they shouldn’t have to forego a large chunk of their earnings just so the rich get even richer. It is this type of psychological communism that gives moral citizens like you and me the moral freedom to commit crimes.

While it makes perfect sense that a Chinese person making 100$ per month gets the Britney Spears album for free rather than foregoing their sons’ school money to purchase it – it doesn’t make it legal in the eyes of the law. But what is the law at the end of the day… simply a set of rules to help society function better. Will society function better if this person starves and helps Britney make another 5$ or will it be better if he stays alive and Britney loses 0.000000001% of her revenue. You could argue that the Chinese person shouldn’t buy this album in the first place, but then again will this really help Britney’s cause or will it just take away from the one of the only available methods of entertainment for this poor bloke in China.

Laws are laws, but sometimes they shouldn’t just be broken they MUST be broken. Will I wait at a red light on an empty street if I’m driving my dieing grandmother to the hospital? Absolutely not, #@*!& the law! At the end of the day, beyond the laws, rules, guidelines, policies governing us all, people are looking after themself. Ironically it is a form of extreme selfishness that leads to this communist mindset. No one will ever feel like making sacrifices to their personal living for people much more fortunate than themselves unless they have to. 

At the same time, people wouldn’t commit these ‘crimes’ against those less fortunate than themselves. Charity fits into the opposite side of the spectrum of internet piracy - people give money to those less fortunate than them because they want a more balanced society. Of course, the amount of people ready to give away their money to randomers is a much smaller proportion than people ready to commit internet piracy. The psychological explanation behind this might be tied to a proffesor’s study that people are 2.5 times more motivated to perform an action if it prevents them from losing something, compared to gaining that exact thing. So people are more motivated to do something to make sure they dont lose their equality status than doing things to make sure others are on the same equality. Or you could just say that people are selfish and care more about themselves than others if you wana be boring about it.

What’s the lesson to take away from this all? Capitalism is wrong? No, thats not it – that debate was settled half a century ago. What we must take into account is that an extreme form of capitalism should not see government support. I’m in full support of our current economic and political systems where succesful people get more than those who aren’t. Without this system, society would cease to progress. However, when these companies and societies start getting greedy to the point where they use the law to ruin the lives of those not so fortunate, thats when I have a problem. It shouldn’t have to be extremes – where either we are a cutthroat society where everyones ready to backstab each other for a dollar or two, or no matter what you do you will still be equal with everyone else. The balance that must be achieved is that succesful people should continue to reap the benefits of what they sow, and those less fortunate should try the best they can to contribute back to society and give back when and IF they can. The government doesn’t start sueing homeless people who don’t pay tax for using the street lights on the streets do they? So these music/TV/movie industries shouldn’t get mad at poor people who download their goods – they don’t actually lose anything, because the poor wouldn’t have bought the good in the first place.

Of course, there are thousand complications that stem from this sort of outlook – how poor do you have to be to deserve exemption from having to pay for non-exclusive non-exhaustive goods? This is a tough matter to agree on, and in our society there will of course never be these sort of exemptions for poor people. The law doesn’t discriminate, and I don’t see an ‘entertainment welfare’ support seeing the light of day anytime soon. It is indeed a Darwinist state we have become, and the rich will continue to get rich whilst the poor will continue to be poor.

But as the internet has showed us, there is yet hope for those less fortunate! Hundreds of years ago it was the scum and nobodies of society that commited piracy in the seas in hopes of a better life. Today it is again the poor, young, and less fortunate who have a chance to get even with society on the virtual domains of cyberspace. Only difference is, this time no one’s really getting hurt and I have to say – this time around…. I’m siding with the pirates.