The Ethics of Piracy by Unknown Author

This is my first editorial type thing that I have written for shoutwire, so I apologise if it’s not up to any standard of any sort, but thought it might be enlightening not only to general readers but also to any of the Movie/Music Companies that might actually read such articles. I have written this page purely for shoutwire so it is not just some blog of someone, it is something I have written solely for the purpose of publishing on shoutwire.

Currently I am studying philosophy, and thought why not apply it to the piracy situation we are currently in, as one could say that it is a moral dilemma of a kind, not as bad as euthanasia or abortion (though the movie/music companies would have you believe it is) but it is still one from a personal standpoint for some people.

Philosophically speaking there are 3 main philosophical views which are as follows:

Deontological Ethics – Mostly perpetrated by Immanuel Kant, this theory basically says that humans are to be treated as ends, and not means to an end. It also says that to find if any action is ethical, universalise it (apply it to everything), and if you can do that and the rule still hold, it is ethical.

Utilitarianism - First thought of by Jeremy Bentham this is a simple maths theory. It is based on the fact that an ethical decision is purely based on the amount of people that get the most happiness out of any given decision.

Virtue Theory – Originating back in ancient Greece with Aristotle, and having been tinkered with a few times since, virtue theory basically says that you should look at a persons decisions over a period of a time, not single out a single decision and decide if it is ethical. Ethics is about becoming something greater, rather than just making decisions of right or wrong.

Now I don’t know if many of you have realised this but according to these ethical theories, 2 out of 3 of them say piracy is ethical, I’ll explain further below.

Deontological ethics purely says that piracy is wrong, mainly because we are treating humans as means to an end, and that it is impossible to universalise theft because if everything is stolen, no one owns anything, so nothing can be stolen.

Utilitarianism however says that because the people that get the most out of piracy are consumers, then piracy is the most ethical decision to make. When if you think about it, plain piracy without any support for any of the industries is stupid because the industries would crash without any support.

Finally Virtue Theory is a bit more complex, and the one I think explains piracy best. As it is not purely concerned with you pirating something, it can consider other things you do. For instance if you just sit there downloading movie after movie, never visiting the cinema or renting films, or if you just download music and never by a single album or see an album live, then you are a bad bad person because you are not being supportive. However if you download films/music, but go and see the films in the cinema, or go and see the acts live, then in a way it could be considered that you are actually doing the best thing. The reason this could be is because if you go buy the DVD, see the film in the cinema, and rent it, or go buy the album, each single, and see each performance live, then you submitting to a capitalist regime which only cares about taking as much of your money as possible.

I just thought from looking at it it’s rather funny that ethically speaking, piracy can be the right thing to do, because movie stars, and music stars do not deserve multi million pound/dollar salaries for a job that just entertains when doctors/military/police are considerably underpaid in most countries.

Overall personal piracy does not in the long run really harm anyone if you are still supporting the industries by going to live gigs or going to the cinema often. In the case of live music you are actually giving the artist much more money by seeing them live as the record companies rip them a new asshole with the percentage they take out of every album sold, so unless you are a person who only downloads, or bootleg for financial gain, don't sweat it as certainly in my eyes you are doing bugger all wrong.

Source : http://www.p3erception.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Temp/Ethics.htm