Piracy did not exist thirty years ago, not as a culture, but it did certainly fifteen years ago (1980). Currently piracy is by law a federal felony, punishable with up to 5 years in prison and/or a $500,000 fine for "commercial" piracy and up to $100,000 fine for each non-commercial piracy.
The definition of piracy does nowhere require that the individual profit from his activities. According to law apparently a 12 year old could owe $10,000,000 for having 100 unopened .ZIP files on his computer.
A criminal who doesn't profit? There are those who claim that the software is the pirates profit. The pirate is not stealing money, however, he is merely copying bytes.
This too, the notion of theft where the victim still posses the original object, is a new concept. The American Government is very concerned that other governments realize how serious a crime this is. In the east, the idea of ownership of ideas is foreign to their way of thinking, hence much higher piracy rates.
To many people the following may seem simple and obvious, but I am not providing for those. The structure of the pirate community listed below focuses on traditional distribution - the BBS system. It does not encorporate the emerging trends in internet distribution of warez.
Law enforcement agencies, software companies, "enforcing" companies (SPA, BSA, etc.) already know this. Trust me, they've demonstrated not only their understanding of the structure, but at times the internal politics of groups.
All people use handles to protect their identity, and project an image. The general structure of various pirate groups can generally be found by reading an .NFO that is released in nearly every 'ware'. Law enforcement officials, public and private, monitor these files, using it to compile databases.
These people put a lot of time and energy into piracy. Despite this, they do not see a monetary return for their time. It is gone, wasted, and all to show for it is often gross amounts of data backed up. An active pirate has no time to look at all of his warez, merely glancing at what interests him.
People talk about 'lost revenues'. The fact of the matter is that a fifteen year old kid isn't going to buy Autocad 13, period. The kid isn't going to purchase 3D Studio, or Paintshop, or Microsoft Office. These aren't lost revenues!
More than that, these pirates are future consumers. They are using these skills to become computer proficient, contributing to the added demand for these products. These are the people who will talk their friends into buying computers (those who don't already own computers).
When I was 17 I pirated Stacker 1.0. I used it, learned it, and lost some data because of it. I helped someone out who had Stacker on their system some time after that, I saved their hard drive. This experience resulted in my first job. Without experience with these programs, we can't get jobs that use them!
This 'stolen money', these phantom billions that the SPA talks about is being spent on the computer industry. The average pirate I know spends all of his spare revenue on hardware. He is the cutting edge consumer who buys the fastest modem, the biggest hard drive, the best backup system. Whatever money the pirate does have (which is far, far less than the 'value' of the programs he's pirating) goes into computers and financially promotes the computer industry.
Another point is the potentially millions of unknowing 'pirates'. Software licenses tend to be very restrictive (see my copyright page for parody). It can (apparently) be illegal to use a $800 program on two computers that YOU own and use. The software companies wish you to purchase an additional copy for each system you own.
The original purpose of copyrights, and the idea of 'intellectual property' was to encourage innovation. Despite this, legal games of absurd patents stifle the software industry. The movie industry has successfully lobbied to extend period of film copyrights. Drug companies have extended their patent times.
Organizations like the BSA and SPA propagandize against piracy, encouraging disgruntled employees to 'nark' on their companies. The laws they threaten companies with are of their own writing.
If this is a crime, the motive is knowledge, experience. The current laws on the books were bought and paid for by the software industry, mainly to scare the hell out of rebellious 15 year olds.
Have you ever made a mixed tape for a friend?
Have you ever dubbed a movie?
Have you ever captured an audio file from a TV show or song?
Have you ever downloaded an audio file that was from a TV show or song?
Have you ever downloaded a short movie clip that wasn't a promo?
Have you ever let a shareware license expire?
Have you ever downloaded porn that came from a magazine? You are a pirate!
Bootlegging is defined (by me) as piracy for profit. Some groups are starting ask for money to become distribution sites, a practice I cannot embrace. In the popular press, and in the software industry's propaganda there is no distinction between the bootlegger and the pirate.
Informal polls show that software industry workers may have the highest piracy rates. My personal experience has confirmed this.
This is a quote from an SPA web page .
We are seeking to have as many companies as possible endorse this Policy Statement so that pressure will be exerted on those companies who have not signed to stop distributing unbundled software. SPA intends to publish the names of the organizations who have endorsed the Policy Statement so that both end-users and publishers may discover who abides by the terms of license agreements that contain these types of restrictions. This sounds like a threat to me. Sign this policy determining how you will sell products or we will try to publicly disgrace you. This apparently applies to end-users as well.
Another example from the SPA:
SAMPLE CORPORATE POLICY STATEMENT...
Any (Company/Agency) employee who knowingly makes, acquires, or uses unauthorized copies of computer software licensed to (Company/Agency) or who places or uses unauthorized software on(Company/Agency) premises or equipment shall be subject to immediate termination of employment.
Any employee running a full copy of doom that his son (who bought the thing) loaded onto his computer who runs it on HIS notebook, at work, shall be fired... This apparently dictates that any indication of piracy from an employee shall result in firing. If this was enforced, most companies would lose some key and valuable employees.
Piracy cannot be stopped. Any step made to prevent copies can be countered. Encryption inevitably will make it difficult to monitor net traffic for piracy.
There are those who would tell you that you should turn in your fellow employee. Industry propaganda wants you to visualize the lonely, poor programmer who is not getting paid for his work. It is the Microsofts and the Borlands of the world that finance the SPA. Corporate piracy investigators follow the pirate scene very closely.
I do not fully apologize for every piracy of software. I do declare that the issue needs to be debated, and the agenda should not be dictated by the billion dollar software industry.
Found in an .NFO (HtC):
þ If You Like It Buy it!
þ If You hate Delete it!
þ Support Software that works....
