Further explantion and identifying some of the suspects.

Infringement

Software License Infringement or piracy, are popular topics of discussion, especially with how widespread it has become. The word piracy contains so many negative connotations while simultaneously captivating people’s minds with images of common people finding ways to circumvent governments and laws. A quick Google search of "software piracy" results with the popular digital content sharing website thepiratebay.org, as one of the top results (Google). The key issue with piracy is that when software is purchased, one becomes a licensed user rather than an owner. This fact is then either unknown by the user or the user is aware, but still considers the software to be their property and thus feels free to share it. Software companies argue the ethics of this and seek legislation to clearly define software as copyrighted material.

Infringing Organizations and Individuals

Organizations that take part in aiding the distribution of pirated content often defend themselves based on the rights to share digital content in foreign countries, but these websites can be used by anyone around the world and with that the issue arises. The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website that indexes Bit Torrents, a sharing protocol used to distribute large files, and the creators defend the site by referencing local laws and that the only information being stored on their servers are the links to the digital downloads stored in individuals computers. Though The Pirate Bay defends itself from the law, its approach is often juvenile (Neij). Other services allow users to pay a subscription fee in order to host digital content on their servers where it cannot be tracked. Within the countries that these websites are hosted, copyright laws do not prohibit the sharing of this content and in the event that the laws change, the servers for some are hosted in multiple countries with loose copyright laws (Libbenga). These groups have all found a way to make a profit off of sharing others software.

While peer to peer sharing networks get most of the attention, the main issue lies with the peers, the individuals seeking and sharing content through these networks. Without the existence of the networks, individuals will still find their own ways of sharing software with others. Perceived ownership of software is cited as a reason for sharing, but part of it is the selfish desire to save money as most pieces of software costs hundreds of dollars to purchase. Knowing the inevitability of piracy, Bill Gates references the piracy of the Windows operating system in China, submitting to the idea by saying "As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours," in the hope that users would license the operating system the next time (Grice). By this logic, the more individuals that are exposed to pirated software, the likely hood of them purchasing a license in the future increases.

Sources:

Google. (n.d.). Software Piracy. Retrieved November 29, 2009,

from http://www.google.com/search?q=software+piracy

Grice, Corey. (1998, July 2). Gates, Buffet a bit bearish. Retrieved November 29, 2009,

from http://news.cnet.com/2100-1023-212942.html

Libbenga, Jan. (2006, June 5). Pirate Bay resurfaces, while protesters walk the street.
Retrieved November 29, 2009,
from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/05/pirate_bay_reemerges/

Neij, Fredrik. (2004, Sept. 14). EA Response. Retrieved November 29, 2009,

from http://static.thepiratebay.org/ea_response.txt

Identifying the Problem

Piracy is a problem that has always existed ever since property was created, but with the digital age, piracy has taken on a new form that is still very confusing to people. Piracy's affect on the video game industry and others can be almost crippling at times, causing producers to come up with draconian ways of protecting their property in order to prevent massive loss of profits. So what exactly defines piracy and why should anyone care about it?

When I talk about piracy here, I'm not talking about pirates that go "yarrrrrr, shiver me timbers," but actually piracy is based on the act of copyright infringement of intellectual property such as software/games, music, books and movies. Any time we share a game online or in-person, we infringe on the copyright of the owner and that is illegal in the United States and many parts of the world. There goes one sale that the producer will never make and the cost of development for anything they make becomes a higher risk as piracy increases.
So why would you care if they loss a little bit of money when a full release video games costs $60, not to mention any Down-loadable Content (DLC) they release that is also over priced, right? Well the harsh reality is that many people just don't care about downloading digital content and at least for video games, there has really been no motivation to not pirate the game. The thing that has made it a more obvious issue for users ever than before is the incorporation of Digital Rights Management (DRM) software into a game, that can limit the use of the product if they can identify that you don't actually own the product legally. DRM has become a valuable tool for game companies to motivate players to buy a product. DRM includes simple things as having the user register the product once, login to a games online server, or in the worst case scenario, be connected to the internet at all times.

Despite the use of DRM, people still find ways to bypass the restrictions put on the game to ensure that it isn't pirated. With this constant struggle between the user and the game developers, the restrictions are increased in an effort to ensure that the product is actually legal and users will create a bypass for it and then distribute it to others.

As I continue this blog, I will take a look at the continuing struggle between users and developers over the use of the product. The goal is to show the arguments for both parties and in the end to find a solution to the problem. There will always be those who don't want to pay for something, but it needs to be made clear that just isn't the way to go and create incentives for legally obtaining a game.

Read Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_software
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/01/splinter-cell-conviction-future-ubisoft-pc-games-to-use-intern/