The Pros And Cons Of Digital Piracy

Piracy is defined in Webster’s dictionary as, “the act of attacking and stealing from a ship at sea” (www.merriam-webster.com) this was the common use for the word until a new form of piracy arose. Digital piracy which can be defined as, “the act of illegally copying someone 's product or invention without permission”( www.merriam-webster.com) is now the more common version of the word. After, the rise of the internet it allowed for easy access of music and films and with policies lagging behind it allowed for people to download music and films without being punished. As lawmakers have slowly caught up with technology there has been a battle to fight copyright infringement and digital piracy. There is a moral dilemma that presents itself which will be further explored along with an …show more content…
Jeremy Bentham stated that Utilitarianism is, “The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.” (Rachels, 98). The problem is determining what creates the most benefit for the most amounts of people. Since, pirating takes profits from the companies that create the product it will ultimately affect everyone that works at that company due to the decrease in profits. While the people who do the pirating gain enjoyment of the product without having to pay for it. Going by that one could say that the most benefit is achieved by people pirating the products because they are able to enjoy the products with paying for them while having the least amount of suffering. Another way of looking at it is that many artists in the past have taken other artists’ beats and incorporated them into their own. This process promotes creativity within the music community which ultimately creates benefit for all parties involved. The copyright law prevents artists from doing so otherwise they have to suffer the legal consequences if they do decide to take another artist’s