While the issue of internet piracy is steadily becoming a bigger problem, the ever elusive answer to the problem is needed more and more each day. The main caveat to trying to stop online piracy is that the issue as a whole deals with people’s freedoms and whether the government has the right to limit people’s freedoms online. Hypothetically, if the government were to say pass a law that does not allow a common person to upload a file to the internet, people would have a riot over it. The main argument against this law would be that it restricts the people’s freedoms by not allowing them to upload anything to internet. This makes for a tricky situation when trying to create laws against piracy, because the nature of a law itself is to be a blanket rule to cover all situations. However when it comes to things like the internet, certain situations can become very specific and trying to make a law that applies differently to each individual is nigh impossible.
In a scenario where a law could work to cover this issue, this is probably the most reliable solution. Have every file submitted to the internet be assessed to determine if there is any copyrighted material, and if not, receive an electronic signature. Have every file sharing be required to reject a file with an electronic signature that hasn’t been specified to be distributed publically. Of course, this would lead to issues arising, where the people would protest, saying things like: “This new law restricts upcoming artists, as it makes for more red tape when trying to share their medium” or “Our content was unjustly deemed ‘Plagiarized’ and now we are gated from trying to submit anything else”. These kinds of ideas would be lumped under the “Government is taking away our freedoms” umbrella.
The aforementioned solution however, is a fleeting one at best. If a file sharing website is taken down due to being a gateway for pirated files, somebody is going to find a way to register a new website and take the backlogged files from the old one and just port them to the new site. People will always find ways to avoid the filters that the government emplaces to try and stop piracy, causing the government to create new filters to thwart the current issue, creating a vicious cycle which leads to either the government enacting martial law over the internet entirely, or the government just giving up on the problem entirely and leaving the content creators in charge of their own product.
Internet piracy is extremely similar to petty theft from a 7/11. Somebody steals a product and the store enhances its security. Sometime later, some other thief comes along and does the exact same thing as the first thief, save for they found a way to get around the new security system, thus perpetuating the cycle. Piracy won’t go away unless there are no products to pirate, or people just start obtaining their products by legal means. Don’t redistribute, just speak with your wallet.
~And as always, stay classy
The aforementioned solution however, is a fleeting one at best. If a file sharing website is taken down due to being a gateway for pirated files, somebody is going to find a way to register a new website and take the backlogged files from the old one and just port them to the new site. People will always find ways to avoid the filters that the government emplaces to try and stop piracy, causing the government to create new filters to thwart the current issue, creating a vicious cycle which leads to either the government enacting martial law over the internet entirely, or the government just giving up on the problem entirely and leaving the content creators in charge of their own product.
Internet piracy is extremely similar to petty theft from a 7/11. Somebody steals a product and the store enhances its security. Sometime later, some other thief comes along and does the exact same thing as the first thief, save for they found a way to get around the new security system, thus perpetuating the cycle. Piracy won’t go away unless there are no products to pirate, or people just start obtaining their products by legal means. Don’t redistribute, just speak with your wallet.
~And as always, stay classy