Every year more and more people start downloading music or movies. And it is a big problem for all the big industries now as they lose billions of dollars every year due to it. It is also very hard to stop or slow it down because most of it is done over the Internet and almost everybody has access to it. Hopefully this report will help you find some information about it.
WHAT IS COPYRIGHT PIRACY?
Piracy is the illegal copying and distribution of copyrighted material. Piracy costs the music, movies and software industry billions of dollars each year. With increased Internet speeds and with the introduction of formats like Mp3's, the ability to download and copy files has become a lot quicker and easier.
TYPES OF PIRACY:
There are different types of music and software piracy, all of which are illegal. Here are a few.
Types of Music Piracy:
- Simple Piracy: When multiple copies are made out of an original recording and are sold without the consent of the owner.
- Counterfeits: When an original is copied and sold in the manufacturers packing.
- Bootlegs: Unauthorized recording of a live performance and then the recording is copied and sold.
- Internet Piracy: When the music is compressed and distributed globally throughout the Internet.
Types of Software Piracy:
- End-User Piracy: When users copy software without licensing to do so.
- Pre-Installed Software: When a computer manufacturer takes a copy and illegally installs it on one or more computer.
- Internet Piracy: When copies are downloaded over the Internet.
- Counterfeits: When copies are made and distributed and sold in the manufacturers packing.
PENALTIES FOR COPYING AND DISTRIBUTING SOMETHING
The penalties for distributing music, movies, software etc. can be very harsh. They can be up too as much as $250,000 dollars fine and 5 years jail. Two university students were caught illegally uploading and creating a music website, they were given suspended jail terms and did a year of community service and paid fines instead.
IS IT ACTUALLY ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD MUSIC?
It is actually illegal to download music without permission from the owner or the recording studio or if the copyright hasn't yet expired. The RIAA ( Recording Industry Association of America ) can sue you for up to as much as $160,000 dollars US per song downloaded.
HOW DOES PIRACY AFFECT THE MUSIC, FILM AND SOFTWARE INDUSTRIES?
Piracy costs billions of dollars every year, affecting the software industry the most. Piracy cost the software industry a staggering $34 billion US dollars in 2005. This is mostly due to the high prices of software at around a thousand dollars each program. So when somebody downloads it they lose a lot of money. In 2005 the music industry lost $4.2billion dollars due to piracy and the motion picture industry lost $6.1billion dollars. That adds up to a total $44.3 billion dollars lost to those three in 2005.
HOW MANY MOVIES AND SONGS WERE DOWNLOADED IN 2005?
Millions of movies and songs are illegally downloaded each year and the number is still growing. Though recently with new programs like itunes and ifilms, legal downloading is on the rise. In 2005, 367 million songs were legally downloaded a %167 increase compared to last year. And an estimated over 400 millions songs were illegally downloaded. Every day 150,000 movies are downloaded illegally. That adds up to a total 54.75million movies in the year.
WHAT IS ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADED MOST?
Music is downloaded the most compared to software and movies. Over 400million songs are illegally downloaded every year compared to the 54 million movies. Though movies are downloaded the most it doesn't necessarily mean that it costs the most amount of money. The software industry loses 8 times more than the music industry.
WHAT EFFECT DOES NEW TECHNOLOGY HAVE ON DOWNLOADING?
Technology has a huge effect on movie and music downloading, a few years ago it would have taken hours to download a song and days to download a movie. With the Internet speeds we have now we can download movies and songs in minutes, even seconds. Also with new styles of formatting such as Mp3 and DivX music and movies can be compressed to 10 times as small.
Anti-Piracy Organizations such as the RIAA or the MPAA are growing and catching more and more people. A song or two downloaded every now and again wont matter though if you're somebody who downloads 1000's of songs or movies you could face big fines.
