'Do you think internet pirates should be labelled as criminals?'

'Do you think internet pirates should be labelled as criminals?'

Online Piracy is “the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.” Piracy has become a world-wide issue due to the high number of demands in regards to entertainment, the availability and having the luxury to download content illegally. Online piracy has become a largely debated topic arguing if it is wrong to do it, and should offenders be considered criminals?

Today I will talk about how although internet piracy is bad, it should not be branded in the same class as other criminal offences.

When we hear the word 'criminal' we think of the worst. We may think of a robber, a drug addict, a paedophile or a murderer. But when it comes to online piracy should we really associate it with the word ‘criminal’? Although it seems clearly ridiculous to compare internet piracy to other crimes, it is a reality, and a harsh one of that with the government dishing out serious punishments for pirating. An example of harsh penalties can be seen in a case which happened in the United States, 2007. Jammie Thomas, is a single mother with four children who was fined $222,000 for illegally downloading 24 songs off the internet. That is a ridiculously large amount of money, and a realistic part about online piracy. Do you really think that it is fair for somebody to be fined almost 10 times the amount for downloading music online compared to a person who has committed a real criminal offence like a child abductor? It is idiotic to brand and treat online pirates as criminals when there are far worse crimes going.

The truth is, majority of people have either downloaded, been given or consumed pirated media at some stage or another. In fact according to 'GO-Gulf', 70% of online users in 2011 saw nothing wrong with online-piracy. But why is this case? The reason being is the growth of technology becoming more complicated than ever before. It’s hilarious that media corporations think that a...