The Nine Types of Internet Piracy

The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) is "the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry." Its main job, as stated on its website, is to promote, protect, and inform the industry. As such, it has stated and described the nine forms of Internet piracy: Auction Site Piracy, Classified Ad Sites, Newsgroups Piracy, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Sites, P2P (Peer-to-Peer), Torrent Sites, Sharehosting Sites, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), and Cracks/Serials Sites.

BitTorrent has grown in popularity to become one of the most common protocols for transferring large files; by some estimates it accounts for almost 35% of all traffic on the entire Internet.

An even greater number of websites and internet forums exist solely to archive and share such links-these sites are often referred to as "link sites" or "indexing sites."  This type of file distribution has grown to such a large volume that it has eclipsed the remaining P2P filesharing services.

I had previously only been aware of P2P, as it is so often mentioned in news articles when discussing piracy, and Torrent Sites, as they are so often discussed in the hallowed halls of high school. While they are not all relevant to film piracy (e.g. Cracks/Serials Sites are used to eliminate the limit on the number of computers a software can be installed on, such as the Microsoft Suite), it is still fascinating to see the various methods people use in order to obtain certain goods.

Source:
Internet Piracy - SIIA: Software & Information Industry Association. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.siia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=337&Itemid=350

The Only Explanation for the Large Economic Effects of Piracy is Copyright Math (TM)

Rob Reid presents a TEDTalk on the concept of "copyright math;" that is, the math the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) use to determine how much money is lost because of pirating. With a comical twist, Reid explains that the MPAA estimates that over $58 billion are lost to the U.S. economy every year because of content theft.

A slide Reid used to convey the absurdity of the MPAA's claim.

Because this isn't just the hypothetical retail value of some pirated movies that we're talking about, but this is actual economic losses. This is the equivalent to the entire American corn crop failing along with all of our fruit crops, as well as wheat, tobacco, rice, sorghum -- whatever sorghum is -- losing sorghum.

The movie folks also tell us that our economy loses over 370,000 jobs to content theft, which is quite a lot when you consider that, back in '98, the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the motion picture and video industries were employing 270,000 people.

In a February New York Times piece, an MPAA spokesman did his best by attributing the eye-popping $58 billion sum to “piracy’s impact on a range of tangentially related industries — florists, restaurants, trucking companies, and so on.”

Reid does a great job of presenting this information in an understandable and often humorous manner. This is a difficult topic: maybe because it's genuinely hard to create these estimates or maybe because the MPAA makes it difficult, as Reid suggests. Either way, it's undisputed that it is not easy to pin down numbers for job loss in the industry or revenue loss; however, the suggestion that florists and restaurants should be included in these considerations is clearly the MPAA grasping at straws to prove their point.

Source:

Reid, R. (2012, March 20). The numbers behind the Copyright Math | TED Blog. Retrieved from http://blog.ted.com/2012/03/20/the-numbers-behind-the-copyright-math/

Sony Pictures was Hacked and Five Films were Released. Is North Korea to Blame?

Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked on November 24 by the Guardians of Peace, according to The Chicago Tribune. The group left the note "Hacked by #GOP" and a red skull on the screens after they came back online and claimed they would release "secrets" they took from the servers. While no link to North Korea has been discovered as of yet, Sony is suspicious the government, considering their blatant anger at Sony's new film The Interview (see trailer below), where two people are hired to kill Kim Jong Un. Since the hack, at least five new movies have been released online and are now the subject of massive pirating.

The image that appeared on the screens of Sony computers on November 24.

"Fury" has been downloaded by over 888,000 unique IP addresses since showing up on peer-to-peer networks on Nov. 27, according to piracy tracking firm Excipio. That's high enough to be the second most downloaded movie currently being pirated, and it's not out of movie theaters yet.

KCNA, the official news agency in isolationist North Korea, quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman in June as promising a "merciless counter-measure" if the film is released.

While terrible from an international relations standpoint, I find this situation to be fascinating from a sociological standpoint (and from the safety of being across an ocean, of course), especially since Sony said they would confirm the accusation that the North Korean government was involved in the hack. The attack proves just how powerful media is and the profound effect it can have on not just an individual's emotions but also on entire governments. Yet the release of the five films is baffling, if #GOP really was working for North Korea, unless the group just did it to distract and mess with the company; after all, the notice it left on the computers is quite vague.

Source:

Tribune Wire Reports. (2014, November 29). Sony looks for possible North Korea link in hacking, movie leak - Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/weird/chi-sony-north-korea-hacking-20141129-story.html