The DMCA does not agree with privacy and addresses it with the anti-circumvention provisions. It bars the circumvention of access controls and technical protection measures. Essentially, the DMCA is trying to stop piracy by stopping pirates from defeating DRM and other content access or copy restrictions on copyrighted works. They also ban “black box” devices which help facilitate piracy. However, these measures do not seem to be working in their intended manner. The safe harbor provisions protect service providers who meet certain conditions from monetary damages for the infringing activities of their users and other third parties on the net. There are rules the service providers must follow in order to stay under this protections such as sending notice and takedown procedures. Safe harbor has been used to protect and allow the internet to grow.
I think that pirating copyrighted material is unethical but there is definitely a grey area. According to one of the readings, “Many young people don’t see anything wrong with downloading from unauthorized sites or ripping from YouTube.” I think in general there is some unethical-ness to the illegal downloading. But have an understanding for those who have the material just in a different format. People work hard to create music, movies and other copyrighted materials and thus deserve to be compensated for their work.
Growing up I used LimeWire to download some songs and I still occasionally rip songs off YouTube. However, my main consumption of media now comes from Spotify and generally they are able to adequately cover my music needs. I never tried to rationalize or justify my actions on downloading music. I think a lot of people engage in piracy not necessarily because they are trying to “stick it to the man” but simply because it is easy and convenient. If people find a way to get something for free it’s hard to convince them to pay for it later.
Streaming services have definitely impacted piracy use. They solve the problem to an extent by providing an easy way to access large amounts of media legally. However, I do not think piracy is that big of an issue that has to be solved quickly. I don’t think it will ever be solved just like crime will always be a part of the world. But I think the emergence of streaming services are decreasing the need/want to pirate copyrighted material.
programming ethics 