The Internet continues to grow with increasing accessibility, allowing individuals all over the world to access pirated material seamlessly. “In most Western countries copyright law has devolved into some kind of drooling, malignant beast. Copyright is meant to protect the creator of a work—be it a painting, book, video game, or movie—from being ripped off. But thanks to the force of lobbies, copyright law actually protects the interests of publishers and broadcasters. The recently shelved Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would have let a publisher demand that copyrighted works be removed from the Internet, was the creation of lobbies and associations, not individual artists.” (Sebastian 35) This problem is becoming more relevant as technology continues to increase. Copyright Piracy is a reoccurring American issue and a massive nation wide epidemic. Copyright Piracy is the use of material produced that is then shared freely throughout the World Wide Web, illegally, without consent of the producer. The reason copyright piracy has become such a prevalent issue is because of the ever evolving Internet. The ability to connect and share information between people all over the world has become effortlessly attainable.
This issue has been brought up more recently than ever before. The World Wide Web is a wonderful place full of insight and information, however; like anything else it has its negative aspects and its positive aspects. The way technology has grown is incredible; we have gone from cells phones being wired into portable bags to having a computer in the palm of your hand. The entertainment industry has grown rapidly in the way of reaching more people due to these advances in information sharing. Above all this is a more than positive aspect of the Internet and entertainment. Due to the growth of technology some of these Internet sites have based their sole purpose on providing stolen files such as movies, games, art, and music. With revenues declining in these aspects of entertainment, due to illegal activities being the country that we are, we have stepped in and tried to combat this problem at its source. The source is foreign rogue countries. America would have the ability to go after these websites if they were American based. These foreign web sites are outside of the U.S. Border, in turn creating a metaphorical wall blocking the United States from taking legal action and prosecuting for illegal activity. The government has shut down multiple websites dealing with copyright infringement, it seems as they shut them down, they instantaneously reappear. The Government has begun to try to prosecute the people who steal this information from these foreign-based sites. They are then faced with another obstacle, the rights of Americans. The issue when dealing with copyright piracy in America is that foreign rogue countries do not have the policies in place that we have in America when dealing with copyright infringement. The major issue with copyright piracy is that the producers are no longer able to create without the required funds to do it. If everyone continues to pirate copyrighted material it will take away from the legitimacy of a copyright. The reality is if this continues at this rate, many of these businesses or independent sources will continue to lose large portions of income to consumer content theft; they no longer will be able to maintain the high costs of production to be able to keep the business and creativity alive.
The age-old debate begins with the definition of the Copyright Law itself “ To promote the progress of science and useful arts” and ends with the fact that we as American’s have the right to the first amendment, which states that it “protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference. ” Many believe that since they have purchased the rights of usage for material that they should also have the