Why Do People Pirate?

  In his article, Six Faces of Piracy, Shadow Economies of Cinema, Lobato states that “six different philosophical positions on copyright infringement: piracy as theft, free enterprise free speech, authorship, resistance and access” in the present digital era. Today, I would like to talk about piracy as access. In the article, he mentions that piracy can be the only way to access information and know other cultures. Moreover, as a result, pirate networks “provide the material routes for an alternative technological modernity, generating new forms of media access, emergent social practice and possibilities of change.” In short, through piracy networks, a way is born for people to get information and for society to change.

   For example, anime is becoming one of the worldwide cultures. Japanese anime is translated in foreign languages and loved by foreign countries. In addition, lately, even a lot of amine events are held in the world. For example, Anime Expo (United States) and AnimasiC (Germany). However, an article, why anime fanspirate the shows they love, mentions that being able to watch anime is not enough for anime foreign fans and piracy as access is a problem not only in the third world. According to the article, anime fans who live in America watch their favorite anime by doing piracy not because they don’t want to spend money, but they don’t have good ways to access it except illegal sites doing piracy. Because the companies' translations are not good. 

   In short, piracy is the only way people can understand what the anime creator intended and Japanese culture. In other words, companies that run anime sites don’t understand real fans’ needs. That is why they need to find a way to suit users’ needs, not just try to regulate piracy. By doing so, piracy would decrease and anime fans could enjoy more. In addition, as a result, anime culture will spread more. It is important to find ways in which both people who have copyrights and users would benefit.

Online sharing music is good for artists

    How do you listen to music? iTunes? Youtube? Spotify? Or CD? Thanks to the advance of technology, a lot of digital content are invented and we can enjoy listening to music in various ways for free or cheap. At the same time, labels and music companies struggle, because CD sales are decreasing. RIAA thinks that the reason for it is due to Internet sharing is common (Lessig, 70~71). There are a lot of arguments about whether piracy should be regulated or not. For example, Plotkin states, “the revolution in sharing will be painful for many, but ultimately society will benefit once everyone has free and easy access to creative works " (65) in Online File Sharing Will Benefit Society. In other words, he thinks that the situation where people can share music is good even though it might violate copyright. In addition, he says at the end of the article“Napster-like sharing communities will soon begin to transform many other areas of our social and economic life. The underlying enabling technology now being used to trade music files makes the rise of these new sharing communities all but certain" (69). I agree with his ideas and if the music industry won’t admit online sharing music and find another way, it is difficult to be able to survive in the Internet era. 

   Now, we have more possibilities to find new music through the Internet, because there are a lot of tunes and music videos uploaded by someone on the Internet. An article, illegal Downloading Benefits AlI, shows this situation is good for artists. This is because even if people didn’t know an artist when his song was put on sale, people have opportunities to find the song online after a few years later and buy it. Moreover, an artist doesn’t need to spend much money to advertise. Actually, Plotkin says, “wider distribution of free music will make good artists more popular than ever" (68). In addition, the sites where people can share music on online community are invented, for example, last.fm. Last.fm is a sort of social networking site and people can listen to radio, share music which they are listening with others, and find similar artists. Through such sharing music sites, we can make new communities. Moreover, there is a movement trying to make profit via sharing music sites. According to Universal Publishing and SACEM sign global licensing agreement with YouTube, a new business model which artists can make benefit from sharing music is about to start.

   

   As time passes, the situation and technology continue changing. That is why the music industry must not stick to their traditional ways of thinking and have to find new ways to attract many people. 

Amateur culture is bad?

   

   As the Internet spread, a lot of media content and sites have been invented and they have made our life more convenient. One of them is Wikipedia, “the collaboratively created encyclopedia”(Shirky, 109). In Wikipedia, everyone has the right to edit pages equally. However, Keen criticizes Wikipedia in the cult of the amateur. This is because people who edit pages of Wikipedia are all amateurs. According to Keen, an amateur is a hobbyist (36), not an expert. In other words, he wants to say that Wikipedia’s editors don’t have enough knowledge to talk about technical knowledge. That is why he insists that Wikipedia lacks trust. In addition, he argues that only professionals, for example lawyers and musicians, have the right to make and state something, because they are educated (63). He even says that cultures and content made by amateurs threatens the world and are worthless (60).

   However, do amateurs really threaten the world of culture and is the content made by amateurs as worthless as Keen says? I don’t think so. I would like to take up an example, VOCALOID. In How Virtual Pop Star Hatsune Miku Blew Up in Japan, a lot of people are addicted to Hatsune Miku and hold live concerts even though she is a virtual character. Her songs are made using VOCALOID by amateurs. If people have VOCALOID, anyone can make a song. VOCALOID is really famous and has become a sort of music culture in Japan. Some people who make popular songs are known as “VOCALO P” (P means producer) and make a living by making VOCALOID songs.

   There are a lot of songs using VOCALOID that have spread through YouTube and other video hosting services. Therefore, I think VOCALOID has been established as a new culture and doesn’t threaten existing cultures. Furthermore, as you can see many people are addicted to VOCALOID, we cannot say it is a worthless culture. That is why I disagree with Keen’s opinion. I think the culture made by amateurs has a same value as other cultures.

The influence of 2-Channel

   In Misbehavior in Cyber Places, Sternbeg says some troublesome online behaviors are flaming, spamming and virtual rape. With the rise of international computer-mediated communication (“CMC”), these behaviors are viewed as problems. These problems are caused due to the lack of familiarity with CMC environments (77). In addition, Sternbeg mentions that the Internet is besieged (85). In the article, although the author doesn’t express her position clearly, she shows some professional’s ideas about cyberspace (86). Cyberspace offers “both familiar territory and lawless frontiers”(86). I think that cyberspace can become the electronic frontier, but and some people believe we cannot allow cyberspace to become the Wild West have truth; keeping balance is important.

   2-Channel, the biggest bulletin board system in Japan, is a good example to explain why keeping balance is important. As you see in the article, 2-Channel Gives Japan’s Famously QuietPeople a Mighty Voice written by Lisa Katayama, 2-Channel has big influence in Japanese society and culture now and cannot be ignored easily. There are many bulletin boards dealing with society’s problems. These boards have a role as media, because anybody can become an originator and join arguments. At the same time, as you see in the article, some bulletin boards became the origins of occurrences. In short, 2-Channel has both good and bad influences on people.

   One of the characteristics of 2-Channel is that the speed of information is really fast. There are a lot of flaming occurrences in 2-Channel. These days, I often see flaming occurrences, because many people tend to post careless content on social networking sites, for example, Twitter and Facebook. Once someone post in 2-Channel, it is difficult to delete and stop the post. Most occurrences are caused by people don’t have “netiquette,” moral and media literacy. After someone finds such a post they spreads it by using 2-Channel. In this way, flaming occurs. When you use cyberspace, you should not forget that cyberspace includes danger and use it carefully. Speaking of Japan, lack of media education is one of the biggest causes of troublesome behavior. Even I, a native of the digital generation, had few opportunities to receive a lecture about media education. To improve people’s behavior on cyberspace, the Japanese government should advance media education.