Modern Day Pirates

A short note regarding this piece. It was written several years ago and only updated today as far as names of bands and movies. I have thought very hard recently about this piece and am trying to justify my validation of theft. I appreciate the ability to access any song at any moment for free with only a thirty second illegal download but in the end... it is theft. No one will argue that the record industry has millions and millions of dollars that none of us will ever see. But it brings me to a question... actually more an argument within my own psyche. Is it theft? Is it theft if I borrow my friend's cd, load it onto my itunes, and then onto my ipod, and enjoy it for years to come. Surely no one would say that is theft. So why is it stealing if my friends cd happens to be on his home pc and I am just accessing it through a peer to peer network? I would greatly appreciate anyones and everyones input on this. I ask all my friends, from the crazy liberals to uber conservatives. Where is the line drawn? Or where should it be drawn? On a side note, Brian, thank you a million for actually making me re-read this and see how my thoughts have changed over the past few years. I'm sure Waters Edge may have a little something to do with that as you all have helped shape the man I am today. So, as Biff would say, "YEAH PEOPLE, COME ON, LET'S DISCUSS THIS....WHOOO!!!"

Modern Day Pirates

A short history of piracy

The word peirato was first used around 140bc by the Roman historian Polybius to describe those who not only illegally attacked ships but also maritime cities. During the ninth and eleventh centuries Norse riders, called Danes and Vikings, became the first pirates to become internationally known for their plundering. In later centuries, kings from varying countries would hire captured outlaw pirates to attack and ransack enemy ships while at war. These pirates were known as privateers. Privateers were granted a special license by the king to move freely among the waters and attack and pillage freely, as long as it was against the enemy at hand. Unfortunately for a captured privateer, many times the capturing enemy government would not honor these licenses, resulting in a public hanging from the gallows for all the townspeople to see. Many true pirates regarded these privateers as sell outs, leaving the life of freedom and anarchy they so endeared, for an old world equivalent of the 9 to 5.

The Modern Pirate

(This means you)

In modern day events the word piracy is used to describe the unauthorized copying, distribution, or use of copyrighted materials such as movies, music, or images. One can also pirate a licensed transmission signal as in radio or television piracy. It is in this case that I believe we are all pirates. I can think of several examples where one would be a pirate without even knowing they had committed a crime. We all, whether we admit it to ourselves or not, have seen or been witness to an unauthorized use of copyrighted materials. The CD that your daughter played in the car on the way to school this morning, chances are some, if not all of the songs, were burned illegally off of the internet. I hear you say “Well I didn’t steal the music, I just overheard it”. Well let’s suppose that the vehicle that you’re riding in is registered in your name. You are now officially “in possession of unauthorized copyrighted material”, and therefore, you are a pirate. It is hard for anyone in today’s fast paced, high technology atmosphere to honestly say that they aren’t a pirate. We have all been a pirate at least one time or another. And even more, we are all very good pirates. Most of us have never been caught, and never will get caught. We have committed near perfect crimes. We will never be forced to endure the wrath that our pirate ancestors like John Rackham or Mary Read were subjected to. Both were pirates who were captured off of the coast of Jamaica in 1720 and sentenced to death by hanging. Fortunately for Read, she was discovered to be pregnant shortly after capture and escaped the gallows. Unfortunately for her, she was sentenced to life in prison and, struck with a violent fever, died a few months later on the floor of her cell. Could you imagine being publicly hung in a town square now days just for jamming to the new Kanye West song you just downloaded to your ipod off of Limewire?

In retrospect though, the FCC and the Federal Government have recently started to come down hard on us modern day pirates. With fines ranging in the ballpark of $5000 per conviction, many of our comrades have gotten off the boats and on to a life in the straight and narrow of legal media downloads. Without the guidance of our heroes like Napster, the rest of us are forced to meander the seas of the World Wide Web in search of booty that hasn’t yet been captured by the government. While the modern day privateers pay as much as $1.99 for a single song, many of us still swashbuckle our way through high tech peer to peer networks cloaked by encoding software and fortress like firewalls. Our ships have now been equipped with the newest and latest versions of anti-virus software and spamware blockers, all to keep us from being infected with the many forms of plague now rampant in today’s high seas of the internet. We no longer live in fear of the cannon fire from an oncoming government naval vessel. We now stay on high alert for the newest worm that has been packaged in with the zip file of your fuzzy, out of focus bootleg copy of Dark Knight. And while paying top dollar to an honest, reputable download sight like Itunes or AOLmusic will insure you don’t get anything you didn’t ask for, the outstanding financial costs are what drive many of us to search out this illegal buried treasure. We are a society of instant gratification and we deserve it. Having to search through your wallet to find your credit card just to hear some Van Morrison when the mood hits you isn’t our idea of gratification. It’s far too much easier to double click on a single icon and have access to a vast world of free media. We have built these great halls of high powered servers and we demand access to them. We are the pirates of the twenty first century, all of us. Do not deny your true identity. And while most of us are still blessed with the function of both eyes and not forced to wear ruffled shirts and eat hardtack, we still seek the same fortune as our forbearers. It is our Spanish gold, the ability to take what we want when we want it, and without paying for it. Arrrgh!

We are pirates, and our black flag flies high.