Internet downloading, digital piracy, purchasing of counterfeit goods (all forms of copyright infringement)... these are not just some harmless ways to save time/money. Combine the ease of access, the lack of real-world consequence, and its 'normality' among ourselves and peers, Christians and the church risk overlooking this sin and accepting piracy as behaviour that is consistent with following Jesus.
Brief history of modern piracy
Internet piracy has been around since the early days of the World Wide Web - with the first real notable popularisation of this practice dating back to pre-Y2K 1999 with the release of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing program Napster, the daddy of all P2P programs. Used originally as a way to share music encoded in MP3 format over the web, the selection of media content made available via illegal downloads grew over time - to include films, entire seasons of television programs, books, video games, pornography and more - all easily accessible with just an Internet connection and a few mouse clicks.
Come the early 2000s, we would see Napster's lifespan come to an end, only to be succeeded by new P2P file sharing platforms such as Kazaa, LimeWire and the new P2P protocol BitTorrent emerging as the flagship method of file sharing. With the growing popularity of torrents, BitTorrent index The Pirate Bay was founded in 2003, providing links and mirrors for every form of content available on the file-sharing protocol.
Counterfeit physical media experienced its own boom during the 90s as CD writers became more affordable. Bootleg recordings of music albums, VCDs, and CD-Rom games grew in popularity - and the culture of bootlegging continued through the transition to DVD media. China-produced 'farn barn deep' became the go-to cheap way of getting yourself a physical movie/game collection at a fraction of price for real copies. The bootleg community was even able to crack region restrictions on DVD and video games media/devices, making the ownership of counterfeits far more appealing than the genuine products.
Just look at all those 'farn barn deep'...
Desensitisation to copyright infringment
Is digital piracy "theft"? Is downloading a song or movie considered "stealing"? What is "copyright infringement" anyway? Copyright infringement is defined on Wikipedia as:
"...use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works, without permission from the copyright holder, which is typically a publisher or other business representing or assigned by the work's creator."
The key word there is exclusive. Ownership of the media belongs solely to whoever created it and/or a representing party. Goods have a value attached, and must be paid for (unless they are strictly "free" or under a "pay what you want" business model), so when we copy/download this media, without having paid for it, we're effectively stealing.
Modern society seems to associate the act of theft as something potentially difficult to execute and/or an act that usually carries consequences/punishment. With that kind of mindset, we become desensitised to the implications of digital piracy, treating it as a commonplace "high reward, low risk" practice.
As high-definition video became more common toward the late 2000s, file sizes got bigger, movies actually appeared crisper on your computer monitor than at the theater, and new release films were being uploaded to the internet (by overseas viewers) before their local cinema "street date", pirating a movie became such normal practice, you'd often hear people say, "Yeah I just downloaded (movie x), gonna watch it this weekend."
Though we, the "one-of-millions" end user, may not have to face the legal consequences of our actions, more notable individuals in the digital piracy movement did end up paying for their infringements. Founders of The Pirate Bay were sentenced to 1 year jail and a total of US$3.5m each in 2009 for crime against copyright law. For people who say, "There's nothing wrong with piracy..." Well, evidently from the outcome of the trial, there is clearly something illegal or punishable with the practice/facilitation of piracy, because innocent people don't typically end up in jail with a 3.5-million-dollar fine against their name.
The line "You wouldn't steal a car..." seems to be the most laughable slogan of the lot, that it has even encouraged many to fantasise about a time when downloading a car would actually be a possibility, courtesy of Reddit's /r/WritingPrompts subreddit.
Another common misconception is that, as long as we're not trying to sell the media, it's okay to download and be in possession of it. Here's a real world example expressed by Brandon Price in his post, A Christian's Response to Copyright:
It’s not illegal as long as you’re not selling it.
Really? What other area of life does that logic apply to? If you came into my house, picked up my TV and started walking out the door I would probably say something like, “Hey, that’s mine! You can’t take that!” Can you honestly say that your answer to me would be, “What? It’s not like I’m gonna sell it!” When we make illegal copies of anybody’s work, we are taking what belongs to them. How does you selling it have anything to do with the fact that it’s mine?
It doesn't help that counterfeiters, most notably the Chinese (who have moved onto counterfeiting food since media is not enough of challenge for them), have become so good at copying the original product, that it's nearly impossible to discern whether the CD/DVD you've bought is genuine or not without buying it from a trustworthy licensed dealer. When even physical goods can be faked so well both in appearance and quality, it can be hard to care whether we're paying for the real deal or not - which then could bring the decision down to a matter of price or convenience.
Motivations of consumers
In an age where cable/ADSL Internet is the norm, we cannot deny it is simply too easy and convenient to find the song, movie, video game, book, desktop applications or pornography that you want and have it ready to play within minutes. Add to that the portability of smart phones and the blazing speed of 3G data transfer - you can now pirate anything, anywhere, anytime.
And when we're trapped in thinking that piracy is acceptable behaviour, due to our ignorance we don't even think twice that when we go download a song/movie that we're committing a crime. It is stealing!
Common motives for engaging in copyright infringement are listed as (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#Motivation)
- Pricing – unwillingness or inability to pay the price requested by the legitimate sellers
- Unavailability – no legitimate sellers providing the product in the country of the end-user: not yet launched there, already withdrawn from sales, never to be sold there, geographical restrictions on online distribution and international shipping
- Usefulness – the legitimate product comes with various means (DRM, region lock, DVD region code, Blu-ray region code) of restricting legitimate use (backups, usage on devices of different vendors, offline usage) or comes with annoying non-skippable advertisements and anti-piracy disclaimers, which are removed in the pirated product making it more desirable for the end-user
- Shopping experience – no legitimate sellers providing the product with the required quality through online distribution and through a shopping system with the required level of user-friendliness
- Anonymity – Downloading works does not require identification whereas downloads directly from the website of the copyright owner often require a valid email address and/ or other credentials
Which of these motivations apply to us, and if all of them do, which individually are the greatest factors in our decision to "pirate"? Arguably, Pricing is the only constant across all forms of goods. The other complaints have been addressed over time by many media producers - most media is made readily available even in retail, typically aren't restricted in their use, and very rarely could we use 'shopping experience' and 'anonymity' as valid excuses to commit infringement. At the end of the day, every product has a price tag. 99% of the time it's down to the issue money, particularly our love of it and unwillingness to part with it (whether conscious or subconscious, direct or indirect) - ultimately the sin of greed - that drives us to commit these acts.
Implication and response for Christians
Alright, how do we respond to this culture of piracy? We've established that it's against the law, that it opposes the authority of our worldly government, and infringes on the exclusive rights of the creator. We can't have the excuse anymore to say, "Oh, I didn't know downloading that song/movie was stealing..."
Let's look at God's Word. Exodus 20:15 is pretty clear in the commandment of no stealing! In both Romans 13:1-7 the writer commands us to submit and respect earthly authorities - because they were put there by God to keep order. 1 Peter 2:13-17 puts forth an extra challenge, which we can better understand in The Message translation:
To address the issue of greed, we look to 1 Timothy 6:9-10:
What steps will you take to ensure you live in agreement with God's Word on this matter? Maybe that might include:
Let's look at God's Word. Exodus 20:15 is pretty clear in the commandment of no stealing! In both Romans 13:1-7 the writer commands us to submit and respect earthly authorities - because they were put there by God to keep order. 1 Peter 2:13-17 puts forth an extra challenge, which we can better understand in The Message translation:
Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government.By following God's will, by living according to His Word, in obedience, we are actually witnessing the Gospel to this broken world. For if we just "do as the pagans do", do we really bear the evidence of the Holy Spirit's work of transforming us - aka, being "born again"?
To address the issue of greed, we look to 1 Timothy 6:9-10:
But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.We could argue there's no relationship between piracy and a love of money - but if we consider the reality of the situation from a goods/services perspective, we are actually willingly withholding payment for products that we use and enjoy.
What steps will you take to ensure you live in agreement with God's Word on this matter? Maybe that might include:
- Deleting file-sharing programs/clients
- Deleting illegally obtained music/movies/TV shows/games/programs from your computer
- Paying for the content you'd like to keep (e.g. buying the legal licensed physical/digital copies)
- Using free/trial versions of apps instead of pirating paid ones
Only by God's strength can we turn from sin - it's only by the renewing of our hearts and minds that we can live life differently, set apart, from this broken world. If we rely on our own willpower, we may succeed at first but relapse into our sinful habits later on. May the Holy Spirit help us as we take this step of faith - to live out our freedom in obedience to God - to be a generation that conquers this culture of piracy.