In our weekly meeting for the Opinion section of The Minaret, the staff was going over ideas for the week’s articles- as usual there was a great mixture of article ideas, a few that I was lukewarm about, until I heard about this one.
We all know what pirating is, and no, I’m not referencing Johnny Depp and Keira Knightly, though I do think Keira and Orlando should have been in the most recent installment of the movies.
The penalties for illegally downloading music and movies are getting more extreme. | Pryere/Flickr.com
Anyway, pirating, for those people who are somewhat unfamiliar is basically violating copyright laws, by copying, purchasing and/ or distributing illegal copies of different types of entertainment (e.g. music, movies). Now I am sure that we’ve all participated in media piracy, at least indirectly at some point in our lives.
For instance, Limewire, a huge form of media piracy that was free to download from the Internet and, until very recently, available to anyone, allowed users to download music without having paid for it.
Or, something I’m much less familiar with, but have heard a lot about; torrenting. A process that allows you to stream almost any form of media to your computer for download.
And of course, the numerous movie database websites that allow you to view virtually any movie out.
If you haven’t accessed at least one form of media piracy in your life, and you’re under the age of 40, I’m inclined to call you a liar, but I suppose I should congratulate you for doing so (not lying, but being a proper citizen and paying for your media). For those normal people who cannot attest to piracy pureness, I have some interesting news.
Recently, the government proposed an increase in punishment for media piracy and any violation of the intellectual property rights.
This increase would allow FBI intelligence to be able to wiretap a suspected home for further investigation, along with (depending on the circumstances and severity of the infraction) a fine of as much as $250,000, or as many as one to 25 years in prison.
Many people are upset with the recent suggestion, arguing that this will only give means to, and encourage the FBI to frivolously keep tabs on American homes.
I generally try to trust the government, some might criticize me for this belief, and for being someone who isn’t as politically minded as he could be, but I believe that it is the job of our government to protect us in any sort of situation. That being said, I am a bit wary when it comes to the unnecessary insertion of said government into the lives of the people.
When you give those in power the option to take more power, chances are they will. Once they gain this power, they are given an increased temptation to abuse that power. I know I probably sound like a really bad superhero movie, I believe the line is “With great power comes great responsibility,” but I’ll ask you to forgive the cliché for now.
I’m all for the new crackdown on media piracy- when Limewire went away, I switched over to a life of responsible, legal, iTunes purchases, so I’m safe- but I have to wonder when the movement goes from an increased strictness to over harsh assault, whether or not things are going a little too far.
I’ve already mentioned that someone convicted of piracy or infringement of the intellectual properties laws faces serious fines, jail time and now wire-tapping, but let’s take, for example, someone convicted of rape. In the state of Florida, the statutory rape law states that, “Unlawful sexual activity with certain minors if someone age 24 or older engages in sexual activity with someone age 16 or 17” can render the offender with a penalty of “up to 15 years in prison.”
So that’s to say that someone who commits a sexual assault crime could have a less serious consequence than someone who, say steals a song off of the Internet.
I’ve sat through one too many tech classes where the teacher explains the importance of customer purchases to the music/ movie industry and how it affects the individual artists and actors, as I’m sure you have, so I won’t go into the whole spiel for you guys. But how is it, that someone who commits rape is faced with consequences about as severe as someone who, say, steals a song from Drake online?
Is our government really saying that illegally downloading a song by a multi-million dollar musician is on par with raping someone?
That thought seems incredibly disturbing to me. So it is equally as bad to watch the last Harry Potter movie online, as it is to molest a child or murder someone? No, no it’s not.
Taylor Whitcomb can be reached at taylor.whitcomb@spartans.ut.edu
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