Monday, May 7, 2012

Online piracy


For Hollywood it has become a battle to fight against online piracy. When Napster began it changed not only the music industry but also the film industry. Everyone everywhere could now download one of their favorite musicians songs or even their albums. While it took the music industry a while to fight Napster and online piracy they won in the end. Now with Hollywood it has become a little bit more difficult due to online piracy overseas. A few years ago when I was in the United States Navy we went to a country called Montenegro.  While I was there I came across a shopping area that had souvenirs you could buy. I saw many pirated DVD’s one of them including Spider-Man 3 which had not even come out in the states yet. I was shocked to see it out and yet tempted to buy it even though I would see it soon. Piracy overseas is harder to control due to varying laws of different countries. However earlier this year the government shut down and seized Mega Upload’s assets. With the shutdown of this “file sharing” site it has become a win for Hollywood and the government in the fight for online piracy. However that is only a few of the sites out there. The NFL managed to shutdown some sites prior to the Superbowl because of all the money they would lose. Worrying about a sporting event such as that is a good thing but there are other sites that make a profit from TV shows. If I wanted to watch a certain show but I did not have cable then all I would have to do is wait a few hours, look online for said show and then voila there is the show free for me to watch. Fighting online piracy will not be easy but I believe that with more strict laws for overseas countries it can be fought and won.





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