Standing Up to Creative Content Pirates?
Some movies portray pirates as humorous. But, when overseas pirates steal those movies and rob all the creators of those films of their income, not much of the Western World laughs over those types of very real pirates.
We know the saying, “See something, say something.” That became popularized in relationship to preventing terrorism.
We’re told not to get involved when an armed robbery is in progress—we’re supposed to leave that stuff to trained law enforcement officers. But what about when you hear of intellectual property thieves at work? Do you get involved, then?
The Internet is filled with innocent questions like, “I’ve recorded all 18+ seasons of ‘Law & Order SVU’ to the DVR from my satellite TV provider. How do I get them out of the DVR and onto DVD to give as Christmas gifts for people at work?”
The proper response is, “You can’t. Those materials are copy protected. It’s just for you to watch at home.” But you see that someone has responded with a product which is sold on the darknet to break the protections. You research further and learn that it’s illegal to do and use in many places in the Western world. But, not just copying, but selling such intellectual property is happening elsewhere in the world.
Do you chime into the innocent question and let the person know that it’s not legal to extract all those TV episodes (even if it is happening in other parts of the world) and it’s a punishable crime of theft in North America, Europe, Oceana, and elsewhere? Or do you tell yourself, “Who cares about those laws. The guy paid his satellite service to get those TV shows, he should be able to do anything with them he wants.”
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