Anti Piracy Efforts

Who is Involved in Anti-Piracy Efforts?

When most of us think of Anti Piracy efforts we probably think of government prevention. This is true, there are active government programs working to end piracy online. We thought it might be more interesting to show you the private market response to this though.The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), RIAA ( Recording Industry Artists of America, and multiple internet providers have joined together in an effort to stamp out piracy. They are focusing their efforts on bit torrent users. Their scheme is an effort known as the six strikes system. They will be repressing internet users access for repeated violations of copyright law. This effort is targeted at more casual file sharers as most advanced people are already taking efforts to mask their file sharing from their internet service providers.

 http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-starts-130225/

What type of Penalties Exist?

The penalties, both legal and financial associated with piracy can be very harsh. They are mostly designed to deter people from engaging in the act. They are often difficult to enforce, especially for the United State Government, because so much of the piracy happens overseas. Nonetheless, people have been arrested, fined and even imprisoned for copyright violations. 

In 2009 The FBI conducted a breakup of a major file sharing ring known as the "Warez" scene. This has become to be known as Operation Fastlink. They have made 60 convictions to date in this case. The penalties in this case are a possible five years in Federal Prison, $250,000 in fines and up to 3 years of supervised release (probation). This is by no means the only operation the FBI has run, but it is a good idea of what penalties exist.

http://www.fbi.gov/newhaven/press-releases/2009/nh030609b.htm

How Do You Report Piracy?

You can report piracy to the FBI via the website I will link below. It is known as the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3 for short. They have a form that you can fill out to report piracy. They currently working to eliminate a specific malware threat that has targeted people and redirected them to a website similar to theirs ordering people to pay a fine in order to have their computer frozen. It is pretty crazy that not even they are immune to the effects of internet piracy, malware, or identity theft attempts. 

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

Why Should I Care?

You may be asking yourself, Why would I care about anti piracy efforts? IWe understand most of you are college students with limited financial resources. It may not be affordable for you to buy all the music you enjoy listening to, and we can sympathize. But, Piracy affects all of us negatively. You may not grasp why a particular Microsoft program costs hundreds of dollars, well you are paying for other peoples copyright infringements. Software companies lose millions to piracy every year. They have to make what money they can legally so they have to charge more. Same goes for the motion picture and recording industries. If we can all work together to battle Piracy we can collectively steer people towards legal alternatives and hopefully lower the price of intellectual property.