Piracy

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Piracy once happened only on the high sea. There is a rich history of ruthless men and a few special ladies who conspired against nations and merchantmen. They stand as examples of an early form of egalitarianism, such as equal voting rights on ship-wide matters. Now the act of piracy has spread to the protection of intellectual property: literature, patents, music, software.

Of course, the victim of any theft will describe a thief to be fitting of everyone's condemnation. It is only natural that a victim to react with contempt. They lost some thing that they value, and in the case of cash, it is likely not to be returned. Property presents some possibility of recovering by police or private investigators. It has a unique physical identity, such as a car. Your car has a particular color, model, year, mileage, smell, etc. It has its own serial number. But modern piracy is a very different situation.

Pirate Car Example

If someone managed to copy your car, then they are intellectual property bandits. Moreover, if you help them by providing your car for close examination, then you aid the bandits in their crime(s). Bandits are now driving around in their pirated automobile. They have effectively stolen from the car maker. They own their own copy of a car through their own equipment and efforts. This was accomplished, however, without paying royalties to the manufacturer. The design was an unlawful copy.

Literature Example


Some no-name author, Shakespeare, has written a tome of novels. Now, he is a very clever writer but much better at marketing. He holds onto his tome before signing it over to a publisher, until the right offer is made. The right offer gives him control over every copy of his book. A reader cannot copy his book, or modify it in any way. If the reader violates the reader agreement, then they violate federal law, laws that are set aside for such matters as military, money, and foreign affairs. The crime is now one of federal proportion, and when a woman in her house outside of town copies a few pages of her favorite sonnet for her daughter that lives next door, she is subject to federal prosecution. Her copyright violation now requires time from a federal judge, prosecutor, bailiff, secretary, etc.

Now, two hundred years later, the words of Shakespeare have affected the world in many ways. As a boy, I remember reading the Tempest--of course not the original version, but a truncated form. The creativity that ensues from reading and acting the written word of Shakespeare is powerful for many people. It trickles down through acting, art, and popular culture. A great book systemically affects society if it stirs our emotions and beliefs. Words are shared and copied, and plagiarized words reveal frauds.

Creation is an event that is personal and private. An individual or group commit to some project and successful complete their goals. Creators now have produced some useful or intelligent thing. When they proceed to exploit their concept through commercialization, they are committing their conception to the world. They want the world to recognize its worth in the form of money. There is more than one issue at hand. First is the matter of ownership--the creators. Second is the matter of labor--the creation. Third is the intention of the creators--money or self-improvement or entertainment.

I recognize the arguments regarding creating new products. Many argue that creating a product for profit alone is much less noble than creating for the purpose of improving one's life. This argument is an ad hominem, and thus an irrelevant argument. These are moral tangents to the topic at hand, which is the matter of maintaining creative rights to an idea after its exploitation and proliferation.

The original idea in this example was a tome of literature. If an author is willing to have a million copies of his book sold, does s/he have to right to prevent a single private copy to be made? He wrote the book, for whatever reason. Then he sought publication, and as its popularity grew, millions of copies were sold. Thousands of illegal copies were made. Dozens of people were arrested and sentenced for federal crimes.

Plagiarism was never a concern in these federal matters, but only copying and selling additional copies--sometimes not even selling them! Now the lawyers belonged to the publishing company, and legal fees exceeded the gross pay to the author. Due to the swiftness of federal agents, thousands of copies were never read. Readers who were unwilling to pay for a copy will not have the opportunity to share the author's insight or understanding; will never have fresh ideas or perspectives about their world; will never have the opportunity to exercise their mind with another book.

Mental Copy Example


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