Why Piracy?

This is a true story.

Over the weekend, I celebrated early Christmas with my wife.

Because she's awesome, and because she listens to the things I say, she got me a Kindle Touch.

"Yaaaaaay!" I said, flailing my arms happily.

The next day, started in on the nasty business of "setting up my Kindle." I configured my wireless connection, synched up my account, and prepared to make with the digital downloading.

I decided to buy a Kurt Vonnegut novel -- he's my favorite author, and I've read quite a few of his novels, but there's still a lot of quality "lesser works" that I've either never read, or started and stalled halfway through.

"Bluebeard!" my Kindle screamed at me.

"Okay!" I screamed back.

"Awesome!" shrieked my Kindle. "That'll be $11.00, please!!! LOL!!!!!"

"Oh," I balked.

I looked at the listing for the paperback version. I could get a used copy for $6.49 (after shipping). Heck, I could get a new copy for $10.20 (with free shipping). I thought this whole "digital distribution" thing was supposed to be cheaper. Wha...?

And I quickly realized, you know what? I could find this in PDF format for free. If I wanted, I could actually find the complete works of Vonnegut in every digital format available from one download link (I did so just now, using a simple Google search that took less than a minute).

I mean, how cool would that be -- I could just fire up a complete library of books on my Kindle the first day...and leisurely make my way through the works of one of the greatest authors of our generation, if I so desired.

So, not only would that save me $11.00...it could potentially save me over a hundred dollars, and it would cost me nothing. Besides, I've already purchased several of his books in paper copy -- what would be the harm in simply transferring them over to digital copies?

And Mr. Vonnegut is dead anyway (So it goes). The only people profiting from this would be the goddamn publisher.

I was tempted. Very, very tempted. I could load up my new sweet new gift with books that, to be honest, I probably would never have bought anyway (I'm never going to purchase Galapagos, Timequake, or Hocus Pocus, so it's not like the publisher would be losing any real money). And hell, I paid for the Kindle, and I already buy tons of stuff on Amazon...is me pirating one little book going to make an impact at all with that enormous company?

And what the hell? $11.00? Who charges that much? It doesn't cost $11.00 to make one little frigging e-book. I was being fleeced. Some asshole publisher with and OCR scanner is making a butt-load of money, and little-to-no expense.

Screw those guys. They doesn't deserve my money.

This is the mindset of our generation. And thus, the true danger of piracy.

I did buy the e-book...not just because if I didn't I'd come off as a huge stupid hypocrite if I pirated that stuff after my recent pro-SOPA ravings, but also because I'm really trying to break myself of that "piracy is okay in small doses" mindset...which, even after three years working in anti-piracy, I still find myself fighting. Even sitting here now, typing this, I'm thinking, "Aw, who's gonna' know about those books? Or even care?"

I don't know. Certainly not one of the commenter in my last post, who branded me an "industry shill," "dinosaur," and an out of touch liar who has "no idea of how things work."

I mean, I know the guy who wrote that...and he's a complete asshole, so I'm not really bothered by any of his accusations. But there are others out there who might think that, because I'm so close to this stuff, and because I get a paycheck from enforcing this stuff, that I'm not the most reliable, unbiased source.

I disagree.

First off, SOPA might just put me out of a job. I'm a very busy man at work, but that's only because the company I work for goes out of its way to abide by the DMCA and US copyright law (more than most companies do, in my opinion). If SOPA were to be passed, it's very possible that my job would either change dramatically, or go away altogether.

Secondly, I would argue that I'm much more in touch with the realities and dangers of piracy than the average person. I've seen the numbers (and generated my own). I've done the research. I've looked at the "confidential" numbers reports. I've seen the breadth, depths, and realities of the problem first-hand. Like I say, this is what I do for a living. I ought to be allowed to express an informed opinion without being accused of bias.

Finally, although I'm a fan of the company I work for, I'm fully capable of my own free thought, and in the past I have been critical of facets of not just my own company, but of the industry as a whole. And like I said, no one in my office has even expressed an opinion about this law one way or the other, and I believe some of them might actually even be opposed to it.

I am neither industry shill, nor uniformed liar.

So what I want to do (after that super-long preamble) is talk a bit about "why" otherwise law-abiding folks pirate intellectual property. Or, rather, my three theories as to why they do so.

1) Convenience. Seems like a no-brainer, but, for those of us born before 1990, think about what "watching a TV show" used to entail. You'd have to learn about the show (talking to friends or reading about it in the newspaper), find out what time the show starts (by checking the TV Guide), then you'd have to stay at home and watch the show in its entirety, commercials and all. Now, with DVR and Video-on-Demand, you can skip commercials, and you've achieved what was once only a dream: full control the when and the where you view content.

But with piracy, you can now add what to that list. Studios are interested in limiting availability, because it means the consumer will want to pay a fee to increase their content choices.

For the consumer, circumventing this inconvenience is the most obvious excuse for accessing pirated content.

For instance, you hear that Boardwalk Empire is a show worth watching. It sounds like a pretty cool show (and it is), but HBO is expensive. You could wait until it comes out on NetFlix, or until the DVDs come out, but that takes forever.

Well, what if I told you about a site that has every single episode of Boardwalk Empire available, right now, for free? Pretty sweet deal, yeah? It's not like you want to pay for all the other shows on HBO or anything, and you're bored tonight...so...why not? Maybe just a couple of episodes...to see what all the fuss is about.

Seems like a pretty obvious, yet seemingly harmless decision.

Or maybe you finally grew a goddamn brain, and started watching the best show on television: Community. You go to NBC.com, and holy crap! Full episodes! High def! Free!!! You realize that you want to watch the full series!

Wait, where the hell is season 2!?

Nope. Not on NBC.com. Only the 5 most recent episodes are on NBC. Hulu? Nope. Have to subscribe to Hulu Plus ($7.99 a month) to watch season 2, and you already subscribe to NetFlix and Time Warner Cable. NetFlix doesn't have it available for streaming, so you'd have to rent the DVDs...but you're not signed up for Qwikster (lol), and the second season DVDs cost over $20.

Once again...hold the phone. Turns out you can see every episode for free online! No subscriptions, advertisements, or anything. Sweet!

Besides, if you do download it, it's probably good for NBC in the long run, because they have a new fan (you already subscribe to cable, and you have NetFlix) and you'll definitely start watching the future episodes...once you're fully caught up with the adventure of those kooky kids from Greendale Community College.

Again, it's that convenience factor, coupled with this notion that people are somehow gifted with the "inexorable right" to consume any entertainment content they desire...and that to withhold (or make them work for) that entertainment is just "corporate bullshit."

It's a culture of entitlement...and it's empowering piracy.

2) Access. Imagine this nightmare scenario. You're a Browns fan (yes, that alone is a nightmare), but you moved to Minneapolis to pursue your dream of becoming the next Gregg Steinhaffel (as if there could be another Gregg Steinhaffel).

Sunday rolls around, and you're totally geeked about the prospects of watching the high-powered, Colt McCoy-led offense catapult the Browns to a Super Bowl. Problem. The Browns will never, ever, ever be shown on national TV, and for some reason, the people in Minneapolis would rather watch the Vikings.

So you go to a sports bar to watch the game. It's pretty cool...but you end up plunking down $30 a week in beer and cheeseburgers. After 16 games of mediocrity, that'd cost you $480 damn dollars.

You could sign up for NFL Ticket, but you don't have DirecTV, and that anyway, the additional service costs $100 a year (which would save money in the long run, but it's still too damn expensive). You used to be able to get these games for free back in Cleveland...but now it's just a huge pain in the ass.

Hold the phone (no, seriously, hold the goddamn phone), you mean there's a website that offers all of these games for free? And I can watch it on my couch, in my boxers, eating a $1 Hot Pocket!? Hot damn! What a bargain!

How on earth could you say "no" to that? Why on earth would you say "no" to that?

No matter what a company does, or how easy and cheap it offers its services, it will never be able to compete with free. This is great for the consumer, because piracy is driving down costs from legitimate streaming services.

But it's very bad for the content producers and distributors, who must now (in order to compete) find a way to distribute content for "next to nothing." This includes forcing viewers to watch advertisements intermittently (the "free" Hulu model), or charging a small subscription fee (the "Hulu Plus" model). It's not sustainable, since those fees will never ever cover production costs (which is why Hulu does not actually create content), so the studio will end up losing in the long run.

This is why studios need to limit content availability. There needs to be a reason for consumers to plunk down that extra $8.00 a month. If the content providers lose control of that, why would a consumer ever sign up for a $99 NFL ticket? Or go to a sports bar for $30 a week?

Once again, piracy wins, because it's not playing fair.

3) Because...fuck you! This is the most insidious. These are the people with a chip on their shoulder about the profits that the various studios, record labels, and distributors are pulling in. They are anti-corporation, and think that studios create easy-to-digest bullshit for the consumer to turn a quick buck.

To them, movie studios are gluttonous assholes ripping off the American consumer with terrible content. Film a Smurf's movie?! Great! It made $142 million in box office receipts! VICTORY! How about the Chipmunks movie? $217 million! Awesome! People love this shit, and it costs us next-to-nothing to produce! Transformers: Dark of the Moon? $352 million!!! Wait, what's this? The Descendants? Only $28 million?! Who is responsible for this bullshit?! You're fired!!! Goddamn, we hate our customers, but we'll keep shoveling out the shitty content and they'll keep lapping it us as our wallets get fatter and fatter!

So why should those assholes be getting any of my money? Screw them. I'll hop on a torrent and just grab every movie I ever wanted (including first-run theatrical releases) for free. I don't need a TV or cable box, I can just stream everything online. I'm not going to feed the corporate machine to churn out shittier and shittier content. Those guys can suck it (and by "it," I mean "my wiener").

Ah...that felt good.

Thing is, these people are not totally wrong. The MPAA posted record profits last year, mostly based off of terrible, terrible, terrible remakes and sequels. Good shows (like Community) get shitty ratings, while shitty shows (like Two-and-a-half Men) are just killing. Everywhere we look, corporations and are getting richer and richer, while content is getting dumber and dumber.

But...

If you really believe this, what are you watching? Obviously if you're a discerning viewer, you're staying away from dreck like Wipeout or X-Factor. But you're still downloading stuff, right? Who do you think makes that shit you're downloading for free?

Yep. Studios. Record companies. Artists. The assholes you're railing against. The ones with the talent and the money that you lack.

So how can you simultaneously be a fan of something, while hating the people who created it?

The hell is wrong with you?

Face it...you're just a greedy asshole, cloaking your theft in the guise of this "stick it to the man" bullshit.

I have no patience for people like you...who are just so cynical and hypocritical that they see nothing wrong with what they're doing, and feel no obligation to pay for any entertainment they digest.

I hope there are not many people out there like this...because if so, anyone hoping to make a buck off of a creative endeavor is screwed.

But I know they're out there...and I'm pretty sure that "industry shill" guy is one of them.


In Conclusion

Sorry, I couldn't figure out a way to transition out of that list format that I had set up, so I went all "10th grade history essay" on your ass.

Basically, I get it. There's a lot more going on with people turning to piracy other than the fact that "it's free." It's also a question of quantity. Content producers want to restrict access, while pirates want capitalize on that. Who could blame someone for watching pirated movies...something that they don't really consider to be harmful in small doses?

But it's our culture of entitlement that makes us think that way. It's hard to break free, but we must...because more and more people are going to realize just how much free content is available out there...and how easy it is to get. And it will start to have a financial impact.

Maybe it hasn't happened yet...but it will. Remember when no one had heard of Skype? Now, it's the only way to communicate long distance with someone. As piracy grows and overwhelms the companies trying to contain it, there will be a cost.

I believe that we need to address it, and that it should not be tolerated.

In Defense of SOPA

Look, I get it. I understand why people are scared.

They've got a good thing going now -- the internet is completely open, and it's this great place to exchange ideas, shop, connect with people, and find information about practically anything that has ever existed.

It's good. I agree...and I use it constantly. The last thing we want is to have the government come in, screw it up, fill it with shitty advertisements, block content, and make it into some tame, corporate, soulless hellscape.

So, I get it. No one wants to see the internet ruined.

Many people believe that SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) will break the internet. Consequently, no one likes SOPA.

Like, no one.

I Googled the term "SOPA defense," and I got almost an entire page full of anti-SOPA articles, with one actual defense of the bill (written for the National Review by the guy who wrote SOPA, Republican Texas Congressman Lamar Smith) titled "Defending SOPA." This is the same guy who supported the totally retarded Abortion Pain Bill (where women seeking abortions were required to be "fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child"). He's basically a boring poster boy for every irritating Republican position out there.

Naturally, he does a shitty job defending SOPA, being out of touch with the realities of online piracy and completely missing the point of his own stupid bill (which he probably had quite of bit of help writing). techdirt.com jumped all over it, with an equally misinformed attack of the defense.

Lamar, if you're reading this, just shut up. You're not helping, and I don't like you.

The question is, who's going to stand up and defend this massively unpopular bill? Who has two thumbs, and the balls to say, "Hey, you know what? This isn't such a bad idea."

This guy:


Sweet Christ I'm handsome.

Full disclosure: I work in anti-piracy enforcement. My employer has never voiced an opinion, positive or negative, on this bill. No one in my office has spoken about it, and in fact, when I mentioned it to a coworker, he'd never heard of it before.

These words are my own.

Even fuller disclosure: I'm an actor, writer, and producer. I've also participated in illegal downloading -- my Napster and Kazaa download lists were quite impressive at one time.

So I get it. I understand why people download stuff online. And if you choose to watch movies on pirate websites, or download torrents...it's fine. I don't blame you, and I'm not silently judging you. I mean, I'd encourage you to pay for entertainment in some way (if you don't already), but I promise that your actions (illegal or otherwise) are of no interest to me.

But here's what I think: internet piracy is screwing us. It's hampering creativity, holding back innovation, and making it damn hard for a person to make a living as a creative professional.

Because, and here's the point I have not been seeing out there, internet piracy is an industry. It's not a 17 year old in his basement uploading videos out of the kindness of his own heart. It's professionals earning money by sharing files...and most have been getting away with it for years. Yep, these shitheads, risking next-to-nothing, are making a fairly comfortable living (you can easily make about $3,000 a month, more if you're an actual site operator) without investing a single creative brain cell in the process.

Having said that, we need to establish some ground rules here. Things that I think we need to agree on:

1. Internet piracy sucks, it's harmful, and it's wrong
2. Nearly everyone does it, but most people feel bad about it when they do
   
3. If we do nothing, it's only going to get worse
4. Current enforcement efforts are ineffective, and have been stymied by the out-of-date DMCA
5. The only people who should be making money off of a creative endeavor should be the people responsible for that creative endeavor
6. No one has "the right" to view any entertainment content. If you cannot afford cable TV or DVDs, then you are not somehow endowed with the inalienable right to consume that content without going through the process of obtaining a legal copy to watch
   

Can we agree on those things? I mean, I know people who are against SOPA aren't necessarily pro-piracy...they're just anti-censorship...and I think most of us can agree to the above.

Now, I can concede that the SOPA has some vague language that has the potential to be misconstrued. Not to the extent that the fearmongerers will have you believe, but yes...certain sections are problematic. The ACLU agrees, calling it a "Good Idea - Poor Follow-Through."

But this is why bills go through an amendment process. What you've read is not the finished product. If bills were automatically passed into law after being introduced, then we'd all have a public option for health care right now. In fact, the most egregious issues have already been fixed in the latest version of the bill.

The chatter around the interwebs is that this bill will give anyone the ability to contact an ISP, tell that ISP that a site has "infringing content," and that ISP will be forced (by law) to flick a switch and immediately block access to the site in question, with little to no oversight.

The ACLU article above describes this nightmare scenario: "Katy Perry could decide that the awesome video you just posted on YouTube rocking out and lip-synching to her latest hit was, in fact, copyright infringement. All Ms. Perry would have to do is notify YouTube’s ISP of the supposed copyright infringement, and YouTube’s entire site could effectively disappear from the Web, perhaps even before YouTube was notified and despite the fact all other content on the site was non-infringing."

Forgive my language, but that's fucking retarded. And wrong. And it ignores something which the SOPA can never change -- that silly thing called "due process." It's in that constitution somewhere...not sure exactly where, but I'm pretty sure it's in there.

Either way, there could be no switch. Anything like that would require a court order. How do you get one of those? You have to go to a federal judge for approval. What is required for approval of a court order? Oh. Right. "Evidence."

For the judiciary, the presumption of innocence still exists, and any action taken on this law would still have to hold up to judicial scrutiny. This bill is not a constitutional amendment...so all of those awesome "bill of rights" guarantees from the constitution would still apply.

If Katy Perry's copyright owner could prove the video in question was not fair use, and that YouTube was "primarily designed or operated for...violations of the Copyright Act", and that they've taken "deliberate actions to avoid" enforcement, then yeah...they could potentially be shut down. But that'd be nearly impossible to prove in court, and if it can't be proved in court, then law enforcement still has to abide by federal rules of evidence.

SOPA is not a constitutional amendment. It is a bill, with the potential to become a law. Let's be clear about that. The constitution still wins.

So don't be afraid. Legitimate internet usage will still be protected, and cannot be infringed upon. This includes fair use -- a code that everyone creating content should familiarize themselves with. In addition, most copyright holders need (and actively work with) sites like YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, and Google. Those sites are not the problem.

The problem is jurisdiction. This is the reason that The Pirate Bay can respond to legitimate copyright infringement take-down requests with a hearty "Go fuck yourself" (as well as an entire page dedicated to being assholes about the whole thing). This is the reason that a Russian-based music sharing website can decide to set their own licensing costs without the copyright owners consent.

You can access any site in the world via the internet. It's great, but what happens when one of your country's most important exports is being distributed for free via the internet? That country has an obligation to plug that leak. Do you think Saudi Arabia would just sit idly by as people took their oil and gave it away for free online? Or would Columbia just allow people to come in, grab any many coffee beans as they could carry, then turn around and sell those beans for a fraction of what they cost to produce?

Of course not. America must look after its own financial interests. If that includes blocking access to illegal websites, and stoppering advertising dollars flowing into that site, then so be it.

And it's only going to get worse. More and more people are "cord cutting;" essentially canceling cable television, and digesting all of their entertainment content online. However, watching habits have not changed. The current roll of legitimate streaming sites (Hulu, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon) have restrictions on what's available and when. Consequently, when these cord cutters find out that practically every show and movie ever filmed is available for free somewhere, they'll either drift away from legitimate services altogether, or supplement their pay services with pirate services.

Either way, with free pirated content in the mix, any legitimate service is unsustainable until that problem can be dealt with. SOPA would do a good job in addressing that issue. It won't make it go away (and I don't think anyone involved with the bill thinks it will fix online piracy for good), but it will make accessing online content much more difficult...which is how it should be, dammit. People used to build shacks in the woods, with complicated distribution rings to bootleg whiskey during prohibition. All people need to distribute illegal online content is a computer, an internet connection, and a comfy chair.

So anyway, if you're truly frightened of this legislation, I would ask: "When was the last time a federal law ruined an entire industry?" Prohibition doesn't count; that was a constitutional amendment (a difference we've covered already). But has a law ever been passed that ruined an entire sector of business? I'd be curious to know...because I can't think of one.

These things have a way of evening out over time. If the law truly overreaches, it will be struck down by the courts. If it somehow breaks the internet, industry pressure will force concessions, and court cases will iron out the details. The sky is not falling, chicken little. It's a good bill, addressing a serious, growing problem. If it's passed, the only people who should be truly afraid are the guys making money from internet piracy, and the piracy customers. You good, law-abiding folk have absolutely nothing to fear.