Friday, January 23, 2015

pi·ra·cy


/ˈpīrəsē/
noun
the practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea.
synonyms:freebooting, robbery at sea; 
archaicbuccaneering
"piracy on the high seas"
  • a practice similar to piracy but in other contexts, especially hijacking.
    "air piracy"
  • the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work.
    plural noun: piracies
    "software piracy"
    synonyms:illegal copying, plagiarism, copyright infringement, bootlegging
    "software piracy"


  • This is a topic I'm sure most of us are familiar with and even guilty of, but what I'm here to explore is if that guilt is justifiable. Even as a musician who puts their music on the seemingly endless interwebs I do not condemn piracy. In fact, I find it some times a more appropriate means of distribution.


Censorship
  • Say you live in a country that has some intense censorship laws but there's a movie that's on a banned list. Websites like Kickass.so and ThePirateBay.to can help get people get the content they want. Wouldn't you want your reach to extend to as many people on the planet as possible as an artist? You potentially create new fans and customers with Piracy. I've torrented albums from artists that I absolutely adore which prompted me to buy more of their music. Plus, sharing digitally can be more convenient. I want a friend living in another country to hear some great music from back in the states. Does that make us pirates for sharing?


  •  Price
Not everyone can afford to go to the movies or buy the newest album. At minimum you can expect to pay at least $7 on a movie ticket. Now while some of you think that that's nothing take a minute to think about the less fortunate. Not everyone is so lucky that they can just go to the movies. Sharing and torrenting make it possible for people to see what they're a fan of even if their pockets aren't deep.  Even music can be on the pricey side. I'd say expect to spend at least 10 bucks a pop. Shit, even video games. $50-$60 is a lot to spend on something. I'm sure some will argue that you to need entertainment, but will fail to realize that even video games are works of art. It is a vision forged by the very imaginative and (unless you're EA) made with passion and passed on to others.



Stealing
It could be argued that you're taking money out of the pockets of the creators. I even said that these are passionate artists that you're potentially helping to starve their children. Do people in the art industry make so little that they depend on every sale? Are we being fooled by the lavish lifestyles of these artists depicted by the media? I don't think so. They are still somehow able to afford everything that most of us can't even with piracy apparently running rampant. Again, I stress that even as a creator of art I don't feel like piracy is hurting me one bit. I have no problem with sharing my work or others sharing it. 


I do sincerely feel that piracy isn't all that bad. With tech advancing at an insanely fast rate it's hard to combat something like digital piracy. When you factor in censorship some of us have no other option. I don't take my passion for music and focus only on making a profit. I focus on putting out a quality piece of myself to share with the world. If it's only about money, you're not an artist.

- Daniel "Duranamo" Duran

Here's some funny memes I found:




















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