Piracy on the Internet

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Piracy on the Internet

Written by Michael Rohde Tuesday, 14 December 2010 05:00

Everyone has read countless articles on video game piracy, movie piracy and software piracy. It is a topic as old as the copyright laws themselves. What is less commonly written about, but still happens on a regular basis, is article piracy.

Countless numbers of new websites and blogs are created each day. Not all of these new publications come up with their own, original content. Many of them simply link to currently existing content. That’s a fine thing to do, as long as the one website gives full credit and a link back to the original article. It’s called giving credit where credit is due. If a website does not bother linking back to the original article, then in essence what they did is piracy. They flat out stole another person’s intellectual property.

To the reader, this might not mean a whole lot, but to the sites and the authors it means their livelihood. It’s the same for game developers and publishers. If a person plays a pirated version of a game, the developer loses any money due to them and they might not be able to afford to develop another game. The same is basically true for articles. If someone copies and pastes an article from one site to another, then the original site loses the eyeballs and the potential advertising dollars. Without those advertising dollars, a site owner might not be able to pay their web host, or to pay their writers or to continue publishing new content that you want to read. What it boils down to is this: as a reader of video game sites, you should care when an article is pirated. You should care when a game is pirated. You should care when a movie or anything else is pirated. For piracy leads to a collapsed economy and ultimately everyone loses.

Here at GoozerNation we do not condone piracy of any kind. In fact, we loathe it. We don’t play pirated games, we don’t watch pirated movies and we don’t knowingly publish pirated articles. This is an issue that has struck home with us. Recently, one of GoozerNation’s contributors had articles stolen and posted elsewhere on the Net. And, most unfortunately, a GN Contributor pirated an article from another site and published it on GN. This was dealt with accordingly and now the topic is out in the open: GoozerNation does not condone, and will not tolerate, pirated articles; whether they are published here, there or anywhere.

With that said, if you are a budding journalist and would like to practice your writing chops, we would love to hear from you and will publish your articles on the video game industry. Or, if you’re already writing for another site and would like to have your articles gain greater exposure, we would be happy to post an abstract of your articles with a link back to the original publication.

The Internet can be a vibrant, collaborative ecosystem where everything flourishes. It can also be full of high waters and dangerous pirates. Beware the Jolly Roger.

Comments

+1 # ghaleon9946 2010-12-14 07:50

too true, this is a very common thing; and yet no seems to take the time to address it. (excluding you of course) And yes its theft anyway you look at it. You know when you go out and buy a new movie, and the anti-piracy advertisement plays? And it says,"you wouldn't steal a car would you?" "then why download illegal movies its the same thing" Well stealing intellectual property is the exact same thing. The saddest part is you only here of plagerism in schools. Never on the internet, becauset no one takes the time to think about the revenue it could cost a site. Anyway thinks for deciding to help make people more aware of this situation.

-2 # pirate yarrr... 2010-12-14 07:52

i like to download games! i can't buy to many so i take em usually from torrents.
Is it bad?

# DriZzLe 2010-12-14 08:11

Well, you stole that image of the Stormtrooper skull from a tee shirt(I own one of them). Did you link back to the original image?

# Michael Rohde 2010-12-14 08:53

Quoting DriZzLe:

Well, you stole that image of the Stormtrooper skull from a tee shirt(I own one of them). Did you link back to the original image?

Nope, I didn't get the image off a t-shirt. I got it off the Internet, and it didn't have any copyright info. If the legit owner of the image wants me to remove it, I will. Or, I'll give a link to his t-shirt shop. No prob.

-2 # Nick Taylor 2010-12-14 20:40

1) There is no evidence that file-sharing hurts sales.

Read that line again.

There are studies however that show that "pirates" are the very people who spend the most on media. File-sharing acts as free radio.

2) "Intellectual Property" has increased in scope of the last 100 years - to the point where we are the 1st generation to deny ourselves our own culture. This isn't for our benefit, it's for the benefit of corporations.

+1 # Michael Rohde 2010-12-14 20:51

Quoting Nick Taylor:

1) There is no evidence that file-sharing hurts sales.

Read that line again.

There are studies however that show that "pirates" are the very people who spend the most on media. File-sharing acts as free radio.

2) "Intellectual Property" has increased in scope of the last 100 years - to the point where we are the 1st generation to deny ourselves our own culture. This isn't for our benefit, it's for the benefit of corporations.

I could write another entire article on how utterly misguided you are. But let me reiterate a main point to you: you should give credit where credit is due and not simply steal other people's work and pass it off as your own.

-2 # Nick Taylor 2010-12-14 20:41

(snip - this commenting system is truly terrible)

Watch this http://bit.ly/dLcz for some background on your own history.

3) There is no such thing as "Intellectual Property". For a while, there was a distribution bottleneck - and gatekeepers made a lot of money... then the bottleneck disappeared - and now they are trying to legislate the old conditions into perpetuity, with zero regard for the integrity of the democracies that host them.

4) Remember. Just because something makes sense in your head, doesn't mean it's true.

5) The image you pirated was originally pirated by someone else from George Lucas wasn't it?

# Michael Rohde 2010-12-14 20:55

Quoting Nick Taylor:

(snip - this commenting system is truly terrible)

Watch this http://bit.ly/dLcz for some background on your own history.

3) There is no such thing as "Intellectual Property". For a while, there was a distribution bottleneck - and gatekeepers made a lot of money... then the bottleneck disappeared - and now they are trying to legislate the old conditions into perpetuity, with zero regard for the integrity of the democracies that host them.

4) Remember. Just because something makes sense in your head, doesn't mean it's true.

5) The image you pirated was originally pirated by someone else from George Lucas wasn't it?

That image was not necessarily pirated from Lucas, instead, it's an interpretation of his work. Star Wars characters are iconic symbols of popular culture. The mass majority of people worldwide recognizes where it comes from. Lucas himself will not be hurt by someone using his art in this creative manner (as compared to someone pirating his movies and selling them).

On the other hand, if someone copies and pastes an article from a relatively obscure website and puts it on their own website and passes it off as their own, that does hurt the original writer as they do not get the credit for writing it.

# Ryan Johnson 2010-12-14 21:23

I don't pirate stuff. If I want to play something, I ought to pay for it, or at least get good trade value given for it. I want an original. The only games I have ever played illegally are ones that I don't know HOW to get, and I've even written companies to request they re-release old games in this modern culture of downloads for purchase.

A MILLION pirates can get on here saying it is right, but if someone came to your house and stole your child, then claimed it as their own, you'd be a little pissed, especially if the government agreed with them. These games and articles and what not ARE "children" to some.

Yes, one person can buy one copy of a game and then mass distribute it online. That will crash the industry. Only reason people who argue that way have a foot to stand on is that we haven't gotten there, but I know that it's not just production values making my games cost three times more than when I first started gaming..

-2 # Ross Pruden 2010-12-14 22:10

Copyable content—by definition abundant and non-exclusionary—do esn't hav the same attributes as a scarce resource. I can steal your car and you are left without one. That's theft, it's illegal and takes value away from you. If I copy your image of a car, you still have the original image. That might be infringement, also illegal, but does it take value away? You still have the photo—what have I taken from you?

The more we use culture, the more value it has—sharing content adds value. Ergo: infringers buy more: arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/04/study-pirates-buy-tons-more-music-than-average-folks.ars
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/21/study-finds-pirates-buy-more-music

But this article is about stealing attention via article piracy. Shouldn't it be more about reputation?
www.techdirt.com/articles/20100903/03261210889.shtml

+1 # Ryan Johnson 2010-12-14 22:16

If the image of the car was linked to advertising revenue which was in turn taken through someone else posting the image of the car and recouping their own revenue whilst someone who did an internet search for that particular topic clicked the second link over the first, then yes, something has been stolen.

# Michael Rohde 2010-12-14 22:49

@RyanJohnson Very well, said.

@RossPruden: Yes, sharing and using content does add value, as long as you credit your sources. When you use content and pass it off as your own, then morality comes into play. And if it steals potential revenue, then you might as well as stolen a car.

In the case of stealing articles, yes, you are stealing attention, you are stealing pageviews, and therefore you are stealing advertising revenue.

Reputation comes more into play when the pirate is caught. And then it's nothing but gaining a bad reputation for the pirate.