Ian Harrison persuasive speech

Internet Piracy. If you’ve ever seen a movie, you’ve probably heard about it. You’ve probably seen that big FBI warning or one of those god-awful PSAs. Would you download a car? I know I would. Currently, piracy is illegal under copyright laws and is frowned upon by corporate America. But why do so many people still do it? Why is it so widespread if it’s such a crime? Why do people even go so far as to defend it in court?

Many people will tell you it’s theft, and with good reason. Normally, you would have to pay for whatever it is that you’re downloading. However, what if this is the only way you can get ahold of this content. Speaking from experience, it can be very difficult to find foreign movies for purchase, digitally or physically, here in the United States. What am I supposed to do? Sometimes it can take years for independent foreign films to be released here, and that’s if they are at all. Sometimes, piracy might simply be the only option.

However, obscure movies are obviously not the only things people pirate. It’s widespread, from music to movies and even to video games. Studios, labels, corporations, and other distributors of these products are constantly after thieves who would dare distribute their product without their consent. A lot of people agree with them, but let me present to you a scenario. Say you have a very large collection of movies on DVD and Blu Ray. Say you frequently loan out your movies to friends for free, cause you’re a generous person. According to current pricing, that means your friends have saved at least $20 and at most $50 to $60 each by not purchasing their own copy but simply borrowing from you. All of that eventually will add up to a lot of money saved. Now let’s imagine another situation. You own a movie and put a copy on torrenting site, which is where most people get their digital copies of pirated material. A lot of people download your copy. What is the difference between this and loaning a copy to your friends. Now, I understand the immediate response to this is that there are going to be much more people downloading your copy then there would be friends borrowing it. But don’t we live in a digital age where everything and everyone is connected? Isn’t nearly everything we as the human race do now done on a much larger scale? This is simply lending 2.0, for a bigger, more interconnected world.

Of course this also means that money is going to be lost by the creators as well as the original distributors of all of this media. So how do we finance their work? How do we pay these people whose art is their living? Well, the technology that brought us the internet and piracy can also bring us a solution to this dilemma: a little thing called crowdfunding. It’s becoming immensely popular among artists as a way to finance their projects. Most recently, Zach Braff used it to fund his latest film. What this will also create is a much more consumer-friendly artistic marketplace. It will cut out the middle man of oppressive studios, who sometimes take advantage of the artists they so graciously offer their money to. Nicholas Cage’s most recent movie, Dying of the Light, was a debacle that happens to be a great example of this. Because the studio didn’t approve of the director’s original cut, he was locked out of the editing room and his vision for the film was ruined. Many directors maintain great relationships with studios, but all too frequently do the studios have full control of the final cut. What’s to stop these studios from completely changing an artist’s vision into mass-marketed and “universally appealing” bilge? Crowdfunding and piracy mean that the corporations (who currently make the most money off of artistic licensing) are completely cut off, and the artist, who deserves all of the money that their art brings, benefits the most from their hard work.

Speaking of attention, another useful thing that piracy brings to the world: the ability to spread good art like wildfire. Bootleg copies used to be the way to go if you were a big fan of obscure underground music, but now, piracy allows you to find whatever you’re looking for at the click of a button. The widespread attention that piracy can bring to an artist could end up reimbursing them, through merchandise, live showings/performances, and even donations in some cases. Heck, some people might become loyal fans they choose to purchase a copy anyway.

Back to the issue of corporations. They currently control all of the money. It’s very difficult for a filmmaker or musician to get their work released or sometimes even made in the first place without “selling their soul.” These companies control the artistic landscape. They decide what gets the most hype. They decide what gets released in the dead zone of January and February and what gets released in the highly lucrative summers. The artist and the consumer are no longer getting what they both want, quality content. Instead, it’s become a game of money, in which no risks are taken and only the safe bets are placed. This is keeping a lot of undiscovered talent out of the market. The large network that piracy creates allows for discovery and revolution.

So I realize I’ve spent most of this complaining about these corporations and how they’re oppressing us bla bla bla, heard it all before, right? What if I told you we could fix this broken system? It’s simple really. I mean it’s the subject of this whole spiel. Piracy. Now, this is going to sound completely insane and will probably never happen, but just bear with me here. This slew of piracy clearly has these executives running scared. Hopefully, at some point, people are going to realize that this system is just not working. Piracy, to me, is a small act of rebellion against those who would destroy the artistic landscape and take advantage of hardworking musicians and filmmakers for their own monetary gain. I know I sound crazy, but aren’t you getting kind of tired of all this franchised crap? I love Marvel movies as much as the next guy, but they’re by no means great. I’d much rather see something as ambitious, new, and different as Interstellar having millions spent on it than whatever Michael Bay is doing. If these studios begin to lose money, they might be forced to listen to the demands of the people, and thus make it better for all of us. Instead of having to decide which movie to see at the theater, wouldn’t you like it if you could be involved on the ground level, and decide what gets made in the first place? That’s the end goal here.

So, in conclusion, I believe piracy is a means to an end. It’s a message to corporate America, saying we don’t have to deal with your crap anymore. No more ridiculous sequels, no more terrible remakes, no more music from artists who got old and bad years ago. We want content decided by the people and funded by the people. Call me a crazy rebel, but I think it’s time for a change. So yes, I guess piracy is theft, but what I want you to really think about who’s really being stolen from and what that means.

Works Cited

Lessig, Lawrence. "In Defense of Piracy." WSJ. Wall Street Journal, 11 Oct. 2008. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.