In light of the recent spate of Somali pirate attacks (here’s one interesting long view, and here’s another), I wonder if it’s time to start calling “digital piracy” something else.
It was a clever name, at least in the beginning. Hijacked movies, music, games, even books — yeah, it’s the outlaws taking from the establishment, creating some wealth for the common man, yada yada. But in recent weeks, as real-life pirate attacks have gained in intensity, violence, and geopolitical meaning, talking about digital thieves as pirates has come to seem clever to a fault, and inaccurate too.
Even for the Pirate Bay guys — about to learn their legal fate in a Swedish court — there aren’t many parallels between what they do and what the Somali marauders do. Not much use of force; no gunshots; and most of all, no ransom demands. The reason so many people are so interested in ocean piracy is that it’s a weird, complex, and long-lived problem; digital piracy, meanwhile, isn’t much more than clever thievery.
So should we rename it? Neither “e-theft” nor “d-theft” (for “electronic” and “digital,” respectively) are any good; they’re too bland and too broad. Maybe “dobbery,” as in digital robbery? Eh. Suggestions, please.
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Electrobbery?
Digitalarceny?
World Wide Wobbery?
The term pirate was a slang term invented by the software pirates themselves. I always thought it was pretty silly for the fbi warning to use that word. As far as coming up with a new name, there is no need. There is already a descriptive and accurate name for it: copyright infringement.
How about “copyright infringement”, since that’s what it is? Calling it “theft” or “robbery” or “piracy” might grab attention, but none of those words, under the legal definitions, have any bearing on the actual legal issues at hand.
Or is that just too many syllables? (Dig-i-tal pi-ra-cy, cop-y-right in-fringe-ment; nope, same number.)
isn’t ‘terrorism’ a catch-all?
It cant be anything like Burglary, Robbery, or even Larceny, because these are common law concepts that involve actual taking (and asportation) of the property of another.
Digital “piracy” is just violation of Copyright acts and DMCA, which is what it should remain called.
IMO the advertisements that downloading movies is stealing, etc. should be criminal.
d-fringement (digital copyright infringement)
Bootlegging?
E-theft eh? I didn’t know it was possible to steal public goods.
If you wanted to be all 1337 you could call it The Scene or my idea, Z* (Z Star, or Zz). The importance of Z being that market liberated goodz are suffixed with a Z. Warez, bookz, Moviez, Comicz, etc. It’s a little 1990s, but its very extensible.