The age of the internet is one of freedom, equality, open
community, and sharing. We share our life stories, our favorite articles and
cat videos, our opinions, but we also share our media. The age of Internet
piracy has dawned and is such an enormous force that stopping it completely is
not possible. The Peer-To-Peer networks that have developed, in combination
with torrent programs and increasingly advanced video conversion and ripping
programs allow for the creation of an entire marketplace of movies, music, and
whatever digital media people see the need to share. This marketplace has one
defining characteristic: it’s free. In the age of the Internet and file
sharing, goods can be transferred without the necessity of currency. How do
governments and media corps curtail such activity? There’s no stopping it but
limiting it may be possible. I’ve got a few ideas:
1. One option that could be taken would involve the media
corporations joining the Peer to Peer (P2P) network. I have heard of attempts
to upload broken copies as a ploy to discourage downloaders. I think it would
be possible for these companies to join the network of seeds and leechers for
whatever file it is they are trying to stop from being pirated, download the
copy and then corrupt pieces of it, which would then be downloading by the rest
of the network, creating faulty copies for many users, helping to undermine the
use of that particular upload.
2. Another option involves continuing the ongoing efforts of
the government to track down file sharing sites. While much of the illegal
downloads today are shared via peer to peer networks that need only a magnet
link to initiate, there are many sites that operate as providers of that link.
The government must continue to seek out pirate sites and compile lists of
illegal downloads being hosted or initiated in order to shut down the sites. While
many sites change domains following such heat, it creates trouble for them that
may slow down pirate activities. The government should also dish out hefty
fines and prison terms to the site operators, who could be charged per download
which could result in crippling damages to that individual or organization.
3. Another possibility, while hypothetical and potentially
unethical within the realm of net neutrality, would be for Internet providers
to create blacklists. It is well known they do monitor illegal downloading,
with a list of sites that have the potential to create illegal activities, the
ISP could slow down bandwidth to those sites to the point of snail’s pace to
either prevent users from visiting or to make doing so incredibly difficult.
This is no easy problem to solve and will need ever evolving
methods to control the scope of piracy and file sharing.
Hi Dylan,
ReplyDeleteWhile I was writing my blog post I also noticed that there was really no easy answer to stop file sharing, especially because it has become so common in our society. Instead of trying to come up with ways to stop it, would it be more beneficial to find ways that the music and movie industry can adapt to this new media environment?
I think that it may actually be impossible or take way too much effort to stop every single download, rather than change the structure of how artists get paid (Spotify)