IDS 424:

FINAL PAPER

NAME Mohammad Askari

DATE 18 January 2014
TITLE Intellectual Property Attempts Against Internet Piracy
INSTRUCTOR Uğur G. Yalçiner
Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

a
research paper
by

Mohammad Askari

for
IDS 424

submitted
to

Uğur G. Yalçiner

18 January 2014
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction....................................................................................................................................1

Literature Review..........................................................................................................................3

Internet Ethics: .................................................................................................................4

Marketplace Regulation: ..................................................................................................4

Contractual Arrangements:..............................................................................................5

Technological Solutions:....................................................................................................5

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & PIPA (Protect IP Act):.................................6

The Anti-Piracy, Six-Strike Copyright Alert System:........................................6

Argumentation & Discussion........................................................................................................8

Conclusion....................................................................................................................................10

References.....................................................................................................................................11
Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

INTRODUCTION

In a decade characterized by the exponential growth in both the availability and activities

taking place online, the internet broadly consumes a large proportion of our daily lives. Due to

this rapid advancement of information technology, the whole world has turned into one big

nation connected through this worldwide network. Moreover, the emergence of popular social

media sites such as Facebook and Twitter has made flowing of information among nations more
[1]
freely than ever. According to a recent statistics published by Internet World Stats (2012) ,

about 35% of the world’s population has direct access to the internet. As a result, technological

changes are happening at an unstoppable and incomprehensible rate that has far outpaced the

growth of the market as a whole where the internet could possibly provide the best possible

environment for targeting consumers and sales.

Accordingly, in a commerce driven economy, the internet provides every possible need

for entertainment firms to grow freely and in turn create more profit. Internet piracy, also

commonly known as copyright infringement, contrasts directly with the motives of these firms

by shortening their profit margins. Consequently, many companies seeking fame and fast money

have fallen for online piracy which has become a huge business lately. A recent study found that

websites offering pirated digital content or counterfeit goods, like illicit movie downloads or

bootleg softwares, record about 53 billion hits per year. That, for sure, robs the industries that

create and sell intellectual products of hundreds of billions of dollars. This trend has created

many flaws in intellectual property field which lacks sophisticated strategies to stand against it.

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 1

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

While this threat has long been existed on the internet to the owners of the rights,

attempts to regulate control of internet usage have only delayed the widespread usage of

copyrighted materials. Therefore, a multifaceted research and plan is necessary to employ tactics

and develop a set of solutions balancing out the need to fight against infringement of copyrighted

rights online.

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 2

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

LITERATURE REVIEW

In the past, everyone was at liberty to read a book without breaching copyright, but on the

internet the simple act of gaining access to a site and perusing its content may infringe copyright,

even if the work is not downloaded or printed out. The manner in which copyright is created and

infringed on the internet has been the subject of considerable debate in recent years. In the

literature, the term ‘piracy’ is generally used to describe the cautious infringement of copyright

on a commercial scale and specifically, ‘online piracy’ refers to infringement of copyrighted

[2]
material on the World Wide Web (PC Magazine, n.d.) . While some internet pirates generate

income from their activity on a commercial basis, many people regard their engagement in using

copyrighted materials as on a non-commercial purpose. That being said, considering the role of

every individual person on internet piracy, altogether it can cause an enormous commercial

damage on a global scale.

According to Kain (2012) [3], when simple information is made available online, authors

of these works may simply not wish to place restrictions on the manner in which it is used and

may not seek any financial reward from those who make copies of their works. However, other

copyright owners and particularly commercial enterprises may see it as financially essential to

have their complex works, such as computer software, music or movies, protected by copyright

as the availability of their business is financially based upon earning money from distribution of

the work. Hence, to protect these rights, serious provisions have been made from the past to the

present to stand against online piracy and put an end onto it.

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 3

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

Internet Ethics:

One of the very basic attempts which has been suggested by a number of writers from the

past to present to stop internet piracy, is to change the behavior of users through education in the

ethics of using the Internet. In her article, Jessica Malm (2003) [4] asserts that in the long term, it

may be possible to reduce inappropriate uses of others’ intellectual creations by promoting

respect for the intellectual property of others via public education. But, as already discussed,

substantial sums of money can be gained through Internet piracy, particularly of computer

software and other commercial works, and ethical codes of conduct may simply be ignored by

serious offenders.

Marketplace Regulation:
[5]
Another principal practice discussed by Smith (1997) is that rather than attempt to

regulate activity on the Internet through the use of copyright law, it may be preferable for

commercial enterprises to change the way in which they market their products and conduct their

enterprises such that copyright infringement does not result in any meaningful loss. It has been

argued, for example, that creators should place material on the Internet without any expectation

that their rights as authors will be respected, but rather in the hope that the material transmitted

will advertise other works which are available commercially but not on the Internet. However,

considering the fact that the internet has been well established into everyone’s daily life, limiting

the internet to only a marketplace is of course not practical and unavoidable.

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 4

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

Contractual Arrangements:

Contractual arrangements are often regarded the most strategies being practiced online

for a long time. This has been in fact a more closely regulated system which may seek to protect

the rights of copyright owners by restricting access to material transmitted on the Internet to

those who pay a fee. Each use of a copyright work could, for example be accessed with a fee

being charged each time the work is used. In a world where electronic payments and cash are

widely available, those wishing to download protected copyright works from the Internet are

required to pay an online fee directly to the copyright owner or to a copyright collecting society

so as to use the works and services provided. Considering the case of fighting against software

piracy, computer companies often require users to buy a license key to use their softwares, or in

case of online services, an annual subscription fee is usually asked to get access to online

materials. However this should also be noted that, one of the major disadvantages about this

criterion is that those who are unable to afford the specified connection or license fees may be

denied access to the information being sought.

Technological Solutions:

Apart from the last three attempts which were basically based upon individual acts on a

smaller scale, a number of strategies fall under the category of nationwide acts carried out by

governments. Such approaches are commonly referred to as ‘Technological Solutions’ and use

technology as a tool to deal with copyright infringement on the Internet. These involve restricting

access to Internet sites or specific works and introducing some form of electronic surveillance

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 5

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy
and provision of activities. The following three acts were of the outmost important ones carried

out by the United States government against internet piracy:

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) & PIPA (Protect IP Act):

SOPA and PIPA are possibly the two most famous acts ever introduced to fight against

the explosion of piracy of copyrighted materials mostly carried on foreign sites. Both SOPA and

PIPA target websites outside the United States that carry pirated content. The way they were

supposed to be conducted was based on the technological technique of filtering performed in

countries like China and Iran. According to Internet Society (2011) [6], Since American law could

not directly touch such sites, SOPA would allow copyright holders to ask American sites and

typically gigantic search engines like Google to take down links to them, as well as advertising

networks to stop doing business with them, and requesting internet-service providers to block

traffic to them via DNS-Filtering technique. While, such approaches facilitate the management

of copyright licensing and protection of authors’ rights, they are often suffering from lack of

support. As they target offer from the problems of restricting freedom of Internet usage and may

also involve the possible infringement of privacy. Consequently, these set of controversial and

opposing ideas to the nature of such acts put a pressure onto the U.S. government and resulted in

terminating the SOPA bill and possibly PIPA in near future (Gaudiosi, Forbes Mag., 2012) [7].

The Anti-Piracy, Six-Strike Copyright Alert System:

Unlike the last two governmental public acts, the Copyright Alert System is a private

endeavor between the ISPs and trade associations. In fact it has been recently launched by

MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 6

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy
America) and it mainly targets individuals participating in act of illicit downloading of music and

movies through peer-to-peer file sharing services i.e. Torrents. The way it is supposed to work is

that MPAA and RIAA will monitor file-sharing sites and if they catch people uploading or

downloading TV shows, movies, or songs, they'll record the user's IP address and send it on to

the user's Internet Service Provider (ISP). Next, the ISPs will send their customer a series of up

to six escalating warnings, demanding the user to stop pirating copyrighted content. However, as

expected, the proponents of freedom of internet idea has stood against this act by arguing that

this strategy might force public services like coffee shops to stop offering free public internet

access. Hence the same set of actions, discussions and preventions exist for any possible similar

anti-piracy acts.

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 7

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

ARGUMENTATION & DISCUSSION

The previous study of the literature clearly illustrates how all attempts have failed to fully

terminate online piracy. Even though every act had contributed to decreasing the number of internet

pirates to some level, the need for new strategies is felt more than ever. It might be concluded that

there might be no best solution or answer to this issue as the failure of preceding anti-piracy attempts

highlighted the weaknesses and gaps in the existing literature. So further discussion and solution

planning is required to come up with the best possible solution.

On the one hand, the opponents of online piracy assert that piracy poses a serious threat

to creativity and in general intellectual properties in the world. They hold that piracy cuts into

profits, reducing the amount of money an author or a programmer can expect to make, and

therefore spoil their motivation to create new work.

On the other hand, however, the main argument of proponents of online piracy has

always been that intellectual property and its acts are against the nature of freedom of the

Internet. They also further claim that the financial impact of piracy on companies is negligible,

and that in some cases piracy may actually help sales of a product. Moreover, they argue that the

vast majority of people who pirate music, videos, and software are not people who would

purchase the product in the first place and are those who might actually buy the copyrighted

work later on if they like it. Besides, the opponents to intellectual property rights even take a

further step and contend that it is not internet piracy that is causing industries financial and moral

damage; it is intellectual property causing such issues and that it should be modified and possibly

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 8

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy
terminated. They often claim that Internet should be free of intellectual property law restrictions

with all information being accessible to public (English, 2011) [9].

As can be sensed, while some of the internet piracy supporters’ arguments might be true

to some extent, the idea of reforming and dismissing intellectual property is far from being

acceptable. It is a basic fact that freedom for one person may bring on oppression for another.

The benefits of having free access to information on the Internet and the ability to download or

alter any files without restriction may result in creators of works suffering substantial damage

both to their economic position and to their intellectual reputation.

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 9

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

CONCLUSION

The research of online piracy shows that it has turned into a huge business over the past

few years and that it robs billions of dollars from industries providing intellectual products. One

can easily conclude from the past study that the war on piracy is far from over and that neither

piracy, nor the fight against it seems likely to go away anytime soon. The international nature of

piracy, and the fact that different countries have very different laws about it, is another factor

complicating the issue as a whole. As much as this is a battle over copyright infringement, the

bigger battle is between freedom of the internet and regulation of internet content. The resolution

of the question of Internet piracy will ultimately depend upon how a balance is struck between

the protection of various public individuals and private sectors. An effective balance will enable

Internet users to benefit from the wide range of facilities and services available on the Internet

while ensuring that those who create material are encouraged enough to continue the production

of valuable works in the digital environment. Unfortunately, the number and complexity of the

legal and social acts over Internet piracy are such that it is unlikely that all result in reforms

taking place. We can only hope that those regulatory responses which are adopted will be closely

monitored and evaluated in order for coming up with the best possible balance to strike between

both the opponents and proponents of the idea in a way that neither of the parties would suffer

from a financial damage or harm to their rights.

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 10

Intellectual Property Attempts
Against Internet Piracy

REFERENCES

1) Internet piracy Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16,
2014, from http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/63907/internet-piracy

2) World Internet Users Statistics Usage and World PopulationStats. (2012, June 30). World
Internet Users Statistics Usage and World PopulationStats. Retrieved January 16, 2014,
from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

3) Kain, E. (2012, January 15). Does Piracy Cause Economic Harm?. Forbes. Retrieved
January 16, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/15/does-piracy-
cause-economic-harm-how-to-think-about-economic-frontiers/

4) Malm, J. (2003). Ethical Reflections on Internet Piracy . Mälardalens University

Publications. Retrieved January 16, 2014, from
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590/Archives/07_11/Examples-
Papers_LectureNotes/Ethical Reflections on Internet

5) Smith, R. G. (1997). Internet Piracy, Issue 65 of Trends & issues in crime and criminal
justice. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology.

6) Internet Society. (2011, December 12). Opposition to Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Retrieved January 17, 2014, from http://www.internetsociety.org/news/internet-society-
joins-opposition-stop-online-piracy-act-sopa

7) Gaudiosi, J. (2012, January 16). Obama Says So Long SOPA, Killing Controversial
Internet Piracy Legislation. Forbes. Retrieved January 17, 2014, from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-
controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/

8) Weber, P. (2013, February 28). The anti-piracy Copyright Alert System: Is the Napster era
finally dead?. The Week. Retrieved January 17, 2014, from
http://theweek.com/article/index/240718/the-anti-piracy-copyright-alert-system-is-the-
napster-era-finally-dead

9) English, C. (2011, December 29). Internet Piracy is Not the Problem: It's Time To
Eliminate Intellectual Property. PolicyMic. Retrieved January 17, 2014, from
http://www.policymic.com/articles/3095/internet-piracy-is-not-the-problem-it-s-time-to-
eliminate-intellectual-property

Submitted by Uğur G. Yalçiner on 18 January 2014 Page 11