From the readings, what exactly the DMCA say about piracy? What provisions does it have for dealing with infringement? What exactly are the safe-harbor provisions? Is it ethical or moral for users to download or share copyrighted material? What if they already own a version in another format? What if they were just “sampling” or “testing” the material? Have you participated in the sharing of copyrighted material? If so, how did you justify your actions (or did you not care)? Moreover, why do you think so many people (regardless of whether or not you do) engage in this behavior even though it is against the law? Does the emergence of streaming services such as Netflix or Spotify address the problem of piracy, or will are these services not sufficient? Is piracy a solvable problem? Is it a real problem?
The DMCA doesn’t directly legally define or outline the issue of piracy (that’s covered in the U.S. Code, title 17); instead, it outlines the “safe harbor” provision, protecting online service providers from copyright-infringing materials shared by their users, given they promptly block access to these materials when copyright holders notify them of the infringement. This seems like an effective provision and has been widely implemented by all major content providers, and although there’s some concern over companies using copyright to censor speech, it seems to have worked well overall. There are some borderline cases where the user’s original work could be in jeopardy, but because of the myriad of sharing websites, the user can always find one that is willing to defend their work.
Although it’s illegal and unethical to download and share copyrighted material, it is not illegal to make copies of copyrighted material that a user legally owns, given that usage of the copies adheres to the user’s rights to the original (so it’s okay to copy CDs or scan books for personal use). I’m unsure whether “downloading” counts as “making a copy,” but I tend to believe that because the uploader is surely not making fair use of the copyrighted material, downloading it isn’t ethical either. Other acts of downloading copyrighted material are even less justifiable, since the user didn’t have rights to the original to begin with.
Personally, I have downloaded copyrighted books and music before, when I was in China. (Disclaimer: I’m now buying paperback books from Amazon and paying for Apple Music.) In China, the issue of copyright had never really occurred to me—we didn’t have a lot of access to new music and unabridged, contemporary English-language books, so for people like me who want materials in English, we’re almost encouraged to look online and download books. But when people have access, the only justification is price, and free is a good price, especially when it’s hard to catch these violations of the law.
Streaming services like Netflix and Spotify does help eliminate piracy in its traditional sense (where people download illegally shared files from the internet), but they bring another layer of problem: what if my friend pays for the rights to stream movies and songs, and I use my friend’s account to access these services? These companies seem to be okay with it, but does account sharing count as a form of piracy? I guess it doesn’t hurt the copyright owner as these streaming companies pay them per stream, but it’s a legal gray area that still needs to be defined.
Conundrum 