ARRRRRR

In today's economy it seems like everything is on its way DOWN. Markets are down, house values are down, moral is down, but pirates are way up. And I don't mean the Pittsburgh Pirates, cuz they're always down.

The image of pirates is changing. For the last 4 years the most popular Halloween costume has been pirate. It is no secret that we have Johnny Depp to thank for that, but it goes much further than children putting on their eye patches, hooks, and knickers. With movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and Hook portraying likeable, charismatic pirates, we've forgotten how vile, wretched, and totally awesome they actually were.

The face of piracy today has changed significantly. There are still open water pirates that board ships to plunder cargo, and terrify crews. However, today's pirates carry automatic weapons, GPS, body armor, and are often trained in combat techniques. Although the number of these pirates has steadily climbed in recent years, no other classification of pirate has grown faster or larger than the internet pirate.


Internet pirates are responsible for the reproduction and unauthorized distribution of movies, music, TV shows, books, video games, computer software, and anything else that can be digitized and shared with others.

Odds are that you have an Ipod or some other media device with music that you have copied from a friends computer, or downloaded from any number of peer to peer file sharing sites. If you do, you are one of these pirates. This is the problem.

Since July 2006 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have filed over 20,000 lawsuits against music and movie fans making criminals out of everyday Americans. I agree that peer to peer file sharing needs to be regulated, but criminalizing you and me is not the way to do it.

According to studies from the RIAA and MPAA, in the United States 71% of all internet pirates are between the ages of 16-24. Most of these pirates are using their parent's or school's computers to download their booty. Unfortunately, these parents and schools end up defending themselves in court.

Clearly the system is broken and needs fixing both for the sake of our economy, and for the sake of our music loving youth. President Bush recently passed a bill creating the position of copyright czar "a cabinet-level position on par with the nation's drug czar." If this is implemented correctly it could reduce the amount of Americans engaged in internet piracy, but legislators and law enforcement can't let it put all our youth behind bars. Unlike the war on drugs, the war on Ipods isn't increasing crime on our streets, and doesn't threaten the wellbeing of innocent people.

I urge you to take a look at your computer's hard drive. Look through those movies and music you've had for years, and spent hours and hours organizing and acquiring, and wonder what you're going to do with them when this czar gets his (or her) right to come after you.

Put on your eye patch, grab your gold hoop ear rings and eyeshadow, and say ARRRR.

Pirate Booty

1. September 19th is"National Talk Like a Pirate Day."
2. REALLY cool pirate facts
3. How did it get to this?
4. What kind of pirate are you?
5. Don't get sued?
6. So you want the numbers (.pdf)?