Internet piracy is the act of taking illegally accessing and taking content from the internet. It can take many forms and affects many industries such film, music, software, electronic books and digital gaming. This literature review will focus on the most common forms of internet piracy, namely internet piracy affecting the film, music and software industries.
In terms of the importance of the issue, internet piracy is a highly prevalent problem in our society nowadays. It is also recognised as one of the most prevalent crimes committed around the world today (Chambliss et al, 155).
To understand the issue of internet piracy, three main questions will be reviewed. Firstly, what are the causes of internet piracy? Secondly, what are some advantages and disadvantages of internet piracy? Finally, which demographic …show more content…
According to a study by the IPI, there is a loss of several billion dollars from US music industries due to music recording piracy. (Siwek, 1) The study also shows a loss of more than 70,000 jobs, and those who do not lose their jobs, lose 2.7 billion in lost potential revenue.(Siwek, 15).
Piracy also causes a loss of content creators and stifles creativity. This is supported by an article on forbes.com, which states that loss of revenue from piracy would lead to marginal projects being scrapped, (Strauss) It is also supported by an article on theguardian.com, where Mark Batey, chief executive of the Film Distributor’s association states that “... when a film is copied or made available online, it reduces the value of that film around the world.”(Lodderhose). Gareth Neame, executive producer or Downtown Abbey, states that “long term (...) content simply won’t be created in the first place.” (Lodderhose). Therefore, piracy has many disadvantages, both on a global and on a local scale, causing an economic loss, a loss of creativity and a loss of