Tuesday, March 17, 2015

"Ethical" Computer Use: To Pirate or Not To Pirate

Truthfully, regardless of what laws on piracy there are, there will always be people who leak and pirate content. It is true that in some circumstances piracy isn't a victimless crime, but I personally don't believe that a 12 year old girl who downloads the new Taylor Swift album from youtube instead of buying it on iTunes because she can't afford it should go to jail for piracy. Obviously there are worse scenarios, but I'm not fond of imprisoning people for piracy. The prison system is overcrowded as it is. Many people don't go to jail even after murdering, raping, or assaulting someone, so why should someone go to jail for not being able to afford content?  People who pirate and leak video games before they're officially released and people who pirate and leak movies before they're officially out should definitely be fined and have whatever website they used to leak it shut down. People who pirate a program or a video game and alter it slightly and pass it off as theirs, whether selling it or releasing it for free, should be charged with copyright charges. However, I honestly can't see the point in imprisoning people for not wanting to pay $20 for an album, or $60 for a video game. There are much worse things in the world that our attention should be on.

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