The least honest, most selfish, things a person can say these days are that information “wants” to be free and that online piracy does more good than harm as it concerns copyrighted material. These are items we most definitely want to believe are true but exist just outside that realm of possibility. Information in and of itself has aims that are as clear and discernible as the aims rocks have, and the biggest contribution of online piracy is the option of bringing to awareness, through experience, a consumer’s actual opinion of a copyrighted item – which, mind you, does not necessarily translate into sales.
It is time to stop romanticizing our free love for free access to products and look at this more objectively. Consumers who pirate copyrighted goods are not bastions of a future free world. By and large they are parasites on the system of consumer goods. This is a horrible position to be in because these are entertainment goods, far from necessities. The drive to obtain these items is based on want. That want is actually created by the entertainment industry itself through their marketing departments.
It is no wonder that the entertainment industry is so upset by the state of digital piracy today. It’s no wonder that they created SOPA and PIPA to tighten the reigns on what can be posted online. Granted, their response to the situation is pretty horrible. Claiming that the bills were shot down as a result of a grassroots misinformation from the “copyleft” is a far cry from the reality – a strong reaction to a bill that gave an already powerful industry more control in the ill-defined but currently open world of the internet.
To an extent, though, the entertainment industry is right. Continue reading “Watch out for the entertainment industry’s future protective acts in the name of copyright”