Ben Hendel American Studies 5/12/2012

You wouldn't steal a car. You wouldn't steal a handbag. Downloading pirated movies and software is stealing, says the commercial, as scenes of a masked burglar flash by (You Wouldn't Steal A Car) . This particular commercial, part of the the MPAA's anti-piracy ad campaign, drew much ire from internet users, who claimed that piracy was not an act of theft and could not be personified as a menacing criminal. P2P file-sharers and piracy advocates clarified that, since the originally pirated software is not removed from the hands of the owner, it cannot be considered stealing. The one critical flaw in this counter-argument lies in the question of profit: The purpose of most software and popular creative content is profit, and if someone distributes your work for free, you have lost that profit. Piracy is, indeed, a form of theft, as the perpetrator robs an individual or group of the profit they would have earned. Piracy refers to the unauthorized use or copying of intellectual property. There is no question that it is big; in the past years, it has risen steadily; the Fifth Annual IDC and BSA Global Software Study finds that worldwide losses from software piracy increased 20%, or more than $8 billion from 2006 to 2007 (Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study). Conservative research estimates of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation show that digital piracy takes up 24 percent of global Internet bandwidth (IDC, ITIF). From 2004 through 2009 alone, approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks (Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study). The Pirate Bay, a popular worldwide filesharing website, has over 25 million estimated users alone, according to Variety Magazine.

The magnitude of piracy is not something to be taken lightly- since piracy is the theft of potential profit, $20 billion dollars worth of music is not being payed for. The economic consequences are vast. Commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce's Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy group, a 2010 study concludes that the entertainment sectors of the European Union could lose 240 billion ($324.6 billion) in revenue and 1.2 million jobs by 2015 (BASCAP). To put it into perspective, that is three times the amount of the workers employed by McDonalds worldwide. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, more than $58 billion is lost from the U.S. economy annually due to content theft, including more than 373,000 lost American jobs, $16 billion in lost employees earnings, plus $3 billion in badly needed federal, state and local governments tax revenue.(MPAA) Obviously, this has not gone unnoticed. The Obama administration has held a firm anti-piracy stance; Vice President Joe Biden has said on more than one occasion that Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft, and it should be dealt with accordingly." (Sanchez, ArsTechnica) The rise of internet piracy prompts some important questions: Is piracy morally wrong? What is the impact? Are the steps we take to stop piracy not enough? This research paper intends to answer all those questions and more- offer an in-depth analysis of intellectual piracy in sectors such as music, software, movies, and even the economy as a whole. Efforts have been made to confront piracy several times, but the history of anti-piracy has been riddled with barriers. During Obama's term in office, but perhaps the biggest effort was SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, introduced October 26, 2011. Under SOPA, websites that had infringed copyright would not be displayed in the results of a search engine. Furthermore, they would not receive income from advertisements, and sometimes be made inaccessible. The key piece here was that intellectual property owners could take these actions without a single court appearance, so essentially websites could be restricted and controlled under their good judgement (H.R.3261, 2011). The potential for abuse would be rampant, as no one would monitor who is on the internet blacklist. The bill deservedly received harsh criticism for restricting innovation and freedom of speech, and the

response was overwhelming. Major websites such as Wikipedia launched anti-SOPA campaigns and even blackouts to get people's attention. Google created a petition that received over seven million signatures (Thomas, RT). The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a US-based international digital rights advocacy non-profit, confirmed to RT that the online protests over SOPA and PIPA were the biggest in Internet history, with over 115 thousand sites somehow altering their webpages (Thomas, RT). Nine democrats, as well as representative Ron Paul , warned that SOPA would result in "an explosion of innovation-killing lawsuits and litigation." in a letter to Congress (Sanchez, ArsTechnica). Finally, on January 14, President Obama announced he would not support SOPA if it passed (John Gaudiosi, Forbes). That day, Lamar S. Smith, the representative who introduced the bill, announced in a statement that The House Judiciary Committee will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution, postponing SOPA indefinitely (Jonathan Weisman, New York Times). Since then, no effort has been made to revive the bill. In the post-SOPA political landscape, proponents of anti-piracy legislation understand that such a bill would be very difficult to pass. CISPA, or The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, received similar opposition to SOPA for its breaching of privacy (Patrick Steele, eff.org). The aim of CISPA, however, was not to combat online piracy but to provide information to government in the case of a cyber threat (H.R. 3523). ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, was a multinational effort; The intent being to combat intellectual property rights infringement, in particular trademark counterfeiting and copyright or related rights piracy" (ACTA 20). ACTA amassed 30 nations' signatures, including the US, but has yet to be ratified or considered seriously (Europa). Similar opposition arose from groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation , who aim to bring ACTA to the national spotlight (Eddan Katz, eff.com). Currently, the only major legislation limiting online piracy is the DMCA, or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, signed in 1998 by Clinton. It criminalizes circumvent[ing] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work, or, in layman's terms, it provides penalties for developing technology that bypasses copyright for digital

media (DMCA 5). Regardless of past measures to combat piracy, current enforcement is lacking, mostly due to the inherent difficulties in fully putting an end to piracy. In the first chapter of their nonfiction book The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom examine the Supreme Court case MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. and its significance in shutting down file-sharers. In this case, Grokster, a P2P music-sharing service, lost to MGM and a slew of other huge corporations in a piracy suit. However, instead of weakening P2P file-sharing, MGM's victory strengthened it. Within weeks came Kazaa, an improved music pirating service that amassed over 250 million users in its first year (Brafman 23). After an inevitable lawsuit against Kazaa, a similar service was formed: Kazaa Lite. Kazaa Lite led to eDonkey, which led to eMule, and many other similar services. Brafman and Beckstrom argue that piracy is difficult to combat because it is decentralized, and fighting it makes it regroup and return even stronger. The harder you fight a decentralized opponent, the stronger it gets. The labels had the power to annihilate Napster and destroy Kazaa. But waging that battle was possibly the worst strategic move the labels made. It started a chain reaction that now threatens the entire industry (Brafman 26). It is this quality that presents challenges for any anti-piracy legislation. Assuming that a piracy service can be taken down, what is to prevent another from popping up just as fast? The processes of buearocracy and litigation take time, whereas the process of creating a web page takes relatively little time at all. All future measures taken to counteract intellectual piracy must take this into account. A critical question to address when before discussing piracy is the question of morals: If piracy is theft, and theft is a crime, why do people still do it? The answer is that piracy is not a crime in most people's minds. A recent Danish study found that 70% of respondents saw piracy as completely acceptable (Golijan, MSNBC). So why are people OK with stealing copyrighted content? Part of the answer, mentioned earlier, is that piracy makes a copy and does not remove the content from the

distributor. This seems to give file-sharers the picture that what they are doing is acceptable. Another reason is online piracy's popularity. It is the classic excuse of but everyone else is doing it; teens tend to follow established social trends, and the presence of other perpetrators gives gives them reprieve. Since piracy is so widespread, consequences will never be met because of the amount of people committing the crime; it would be too tiresome to reprimand all file-sharers. Clearly, if there were only a handful of file-sharers, then the deed would appear to be far more sketchy. The final reason involves the negative aspects of the music industry. It is necessary to point out that piracy gives even less to artists than purchasing their content; if you really cared about their profits, you would buy it anyway. I conducted original research by interviewing five different high school students about internet piracy are their attitudes to it. I asked them three guideline questions, and I asked them to elaborate with whatever thoughts they had on the subject. The questions asked were: Do you pirate content, if so what form? Is it morally correct to pirate? Why or why not? What are your feelings on this issue? The five students had different views and opinions, but some common themes were established. Music piracy was the only form of piracy they engaged in, and three of them agreed that it was at least somewhat ethically wrong. Three out of five said that they pirated, one said he did not, and one said from time to time. Two admitted that it was morally wrong, one insisted on doing it anyway. Three times, the justification involved the relative lack of significance or impact of the crime (I don't really care about the few dollars their losing, The artists I listen to are already successful and rich anyway, I can live with it since I don't do it too often). Two other justifications were about the inherent unfairness of the current music business, pointing to the cost, hassle, and artist profit involved. (if the profits truly were more to the artists, then I wouldn't support piracy, it's simpler, I believe I'm overpaying when i pay for music, and it's easy). The reason for why music piracy is considered wrong varied from i think it's wrong cause you are actually stealing basically and instead of paying for it, i get it online for free, instead of giving an artist money/ buying work that is theirs I get it online without consent of the artist to I'm breaking a law, which is morally wrong.

Interestingly, the four people who pirated stayed away from pirating movies, games, and software because it was more unethical and even more frowned upon. One person said music piracy exists because it is so easy and popular, unlike other forms of piracy. Another said I stay away from movies and games. One person didn't pirate movies due to services which provide them while still earning a profit (since the advent of Netflix and Hulu i don't pirate movies.). One person defended piracy as an honest and beneficial way of consumption. They said Piracy isn't as bad as they make it seem, it can help artists become recognized quickly. And it increases the amount of tours a band will do to earn money, which is good. Some important pieces of information can be inferred from these interviews. First of all, music piracy is big among high school students in the area, while other forms are less popular and less accepted. Second, many people understand that piracy is breaking the law and theft of potential profit from artists. They justify the act by pointing out the minuteness of the crime and flaws in the music selling business. Third, services that legally offer commonly pirated entertainment, such as Netflix and Hulu, can be popular and effective. Online piracy comes in many different forms. Music piracy is currently a spotlight issue in the United States, and is often the main form of piracy we think of. Mitch Bainwol, Chairman of the Recording Industry of America (RIAA), delivered a testimony before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in 2003 in which he attributes the drop in music revenue to the astronomical rise of piracy. At any given moment, well over five million users are online offering well over 1 billion files for copying through various peer-to peer networks... A song can be copied and distributed in this manner an unlimited number of times, without any degradation in sound quality... piracy through networks is viral: unless the user takes affirmative steps to prevent it, the user automatically and immediately begins offering the files that the user copied to millions of other users.(Mitch Bainwol, ?). Music piracy is a nationwide problem with $12.5 billion dollars lost in total economic output, according to the Institute for Policy Innovation's 2007 report (Business Action to Stop

Counterfeiting...). Proponents of music piracy and file sharing often overlook another form of copyright infringement that can be even more deadly: software piracy. The fact that software developers who spend months on coding can be ripped off of their profit from anonymous internet users in developing countries is a serious violation of their rights. The 2007 Fifth Annual Study by the Business Software Alliance attributes a rise in software piracy to an increased amount of internet users. Because the worldwide PC market grew much faster in higher-piracy countries and regions, the worldwide PC software piracy rate increased three percentage points to 38% from 2006 to 2007... losses from piracy rose by $8 billion to nearly $48 billion worldwide. In fact, real losses did not grow as fast as the overall PC software market. (Fifth Annual BSA...). Developing countries pose a threat to American software; China, Russia, and India had piracy rates of 82, 73, and 63 respectively as of 2007. All these figure above the worldwide weighted average piracy rate of 38% (Fifth Annual BSA...). The economic impacts are felt worldwide; In 2007, for every two dollars spent on legitimate software purchases, one dollars worth of software was obtained illegally (Fifth Annual BSA...). In their later 2010 Piracy Impact Study, the BSA made a case for combating software piracy. However, the impact of software piracy goes beyond revenues lost to the software industry, starving local software distributors and service providers of spending that creates jobs and generates much-needed tax revenues for governments around the world... Reducing the piracy rate for PC software by 10 percentage points 2.5 points per year for four years would create $142 billion in new economic activity while adding nearly 500,000 new high-tech jobs and generating roughly $32 billion in new tax revenues by 2013.(Eighth Annual BSA...). Clearly, software piracy is a worldwide threat; $8 billion is lost nationwide. Another large form of piracy is the copyright infringement of videos, more specifically films. Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA, delivered a testimony to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in 2003 where he mentions that At this moment, the movie industry is

suffering from a loss of some $3.5 billion annually from hard-goods piracyDVD, VCD, videotape, and We do know from outside estimates that some 400,000 to 600,000 films are being stolen every day, and it is getting progressively worse.(Valenti, Online Filesharing...). These figures, however, only account for physical piracy not internet piracy. The MPAA, in its 2005 report The Cost of Movie Piracy, estimates a $2.3 billion national loss in 2005. Like software, most of the movie piracy threat is coming form overseas, at around 80% or $1.85 billion (MPAA). Nationwide, movie piracy costs around $2.3 billion, comparatively less than software at $8 billion or music at $12.5 billion. In conclusion we have reached several important points. The first is that digital piracy, or the copying of creative or patented intellectual content through the internet while infringing copyright law, is a large problem. Economically, it hurts artists by stealing their potential profit, and through the loss of jobs in the entertainment and software sectors. Aside from monetary reasons, it is a violation of an artist or patentor's right to distribute his intellectual work at his disclosure. The second point is that piracy is a crime that is misconstrued as acceptable for a variety of reasons; The owner does not lose the original content, the industry does not support the artists enough, etcetera. The final point is that anti-piracy has had a troublesome history, as past attempts were lacking and/or unpopular. Many people consider shutting down an illegal file-sharing website as an invasion of freedom of speech. Future attempts will have to be comprehensive yet at the same time not invasive. To answer the question, intellectual piracy is a problem in many ways that has a detrimental effect on American society. Piracy in the form of P2P file-sharing originally began with Napster's music piracy in 1999, and continued to grow and expand in various other forms, such as software, film, and patent. In fact, forms of piracy that are not music are not as widely recognized. These file-sharing entities are difficult to combat due to their decentralized nature- they can appear in any part of the world in any form faster than the slow gears of the legal system can take them down. As computers become more powerful and internet access becomes more widespread, the figures of piracy will grow. Some services have succeeded in offering an alternative to piracy, one which benefits the owners.

These services include Spotify, iTunes, and Hulu. Perhaps the ultimate question that arises is this: What can be done to stop, hinder, or lessen the effects of online piracy? From this report, it is possible to conclude four ways of combating piracy. The first is education, instilling in future generations that piracy is not accepted, such the RIAA and MPAA's publicity campaigns and commercials. The second is pushing for an anti-piracy bill, such as SOPA, which revealed that any comprehensive legislature will face resistance. The third is enforcement, like the lawsuits from the RIAA against file-sharing organizations. Such litigation is challenging due to the decentralized nature of piracy and its tendency to reappear in a different form or place, as did Kazaa and eDonkey. The RIAA announced in 2008 that they would end their lawsuits (?). The final way to curb piracy is to offer an alternative: Spotify offers a large selection of music at a profit to artists, and Hulu legally streams current television shows for free. According to the blog Torrentfreak, A Swedish study has revealed that Spotify has lowered the number of music pirates by 25 % in Sweden (Ernesto, TorrentFreak). All four ways are unique and have their own advantages and disadvantages. The issue at hand is important because intellectual property, being America's largest trade export, is responsible for over five percent of the GDP (?). It is important because it is current; At this very moment Congress is plotting new ways to stop the file-sharing machine. Never before in history has our government tried to extend its control over a realm as expansive and lawless as the internet; it represents a new challenge as we advance further into the digital age.

Works Cited

Motion Picture Association of America. MPAA STATEMENT ON STRONG SHOWING OF SUPPORT FOR STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT. Motion Picture Association of America, 16 Dec. 2011. Web. 2 May 2012. <http://www.mpaa.org/resources/5a0a212e-c86b-4e9a-abf1-2734a15862cd.pdf? &lang=en_us&output=json>.
-The Motion Picture Association of America makes most commercial films produced and distributed in the US, so they are a key shareholder in the piracy debate. They make case for the Stop Online Piracy Act in their press release MPAA STATEMENT ON STRONG SHOWING OF SUPPORT FOR STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT, citing the Institute for Policy Innovation Study that blames piracy for a $58 billion loss.

You Wouldn't Steal a Car. Commericial. youtube.com 12 May 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJuw8EA0cYQ&feature=related>

-This commercial, attached to DVDs and spread virally online, started a panic over the unjust portrayal of piracy. The clip compares people who download illegally to car thieves and other burglars. The tagline was You wouldn't steal a car, as it showed people stealing the items mentioned.

"Piracy Impact Study." The Economic Benefits of Reducing Software Piracy. Business Software

Alliance, 2010. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://portal.bsa.org/piracyimpact2010/index.html>.

-This annual study by the Business Security Alliance was very useful in providing basic piracy statistics, such as worldwide losses from software piracy increased 20%, or more than $8 billion from 2006 to 2007. The BSA is a credible

Katz, Eddan. "Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut | Electronic Frontier Foundation." Stopping the ACTA Juggernaut | Electronic Frontier Foundation. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 14 May 2012. <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/stopping-acta-juggernaut>.
-This is a fiercely one-sided article against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement proposed by many governments of the world to combat counterfeiting and copyright infringement. The publisher is the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, dedicated to protecting the internet from limitations and government involvement.

Brussels and Wellington. "Joint Statement on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)." EUROPA. Communication Department of the European Commission, 16 Apr. 2010. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/437>.
-Joint Statement on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was a press release on the effects of an international treaty to curb copyright infringement by the European Union press. It was useful as it provided the implications and enactments of the treaty in plain english without having interpret the meaty bill itself.

Gaudiosi, John. "Obama Says So Long SOPA, Killing Controversial Internet Piracy Legislation." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopakilling-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/>.
-A column on the popular business magazine website Forbes.com, Obama Says So Long SOPA, Killing Controversial Internet Piracy Legislation provides the specifics on how exactly the Stop Online Piracy Act failed, such as when the President announced that he would not sign the bill if it passed.

Steele, Patrick. "Voices of Opposition Against CISPA | Electronic Frontier Foundation." Voices of Opposition Against CISPA | Electronic Frontier Foundation. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 19 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/Voices-Against-CISPA>.
- Voices against CISPA is a fiercely one-sided article by the Electronic Frontiers Foundation against one of the latest efforts to combat intellectual piracy, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. I used the website for general details about CISPA, as well as the reasons why it is facing resistance.

Weisman, Jonathan. "Antipiracy Bills Delayed After an Online Firestorm." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/technology/senate-postpones-piracy-vote.html?_r=1>.
-The strongly-written New York Times online article Antipiracy Bills Delayed After an Online Firestorm provided information on the internet backlash against the proposed Stop Online Piracy bill. Websites such as Wikipedia held blackouts, denying users their content, as well as banners and links to petitions. It was indeed an online movement.

Thomas, Sean, and Matt Trezza. "Bill Killed: SOPA Death Celebrated as Congress Recalls Anti-piracy Acts RT." Bill Killed: SOPA Death Celebrated as Congress Recalls Anti-piracy Acts RT. TV-Novosti, 21 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://rt.com/news/sopa-postponed-anonymous-piracy-337/>.
-This article, appearing on a Russian-American tech website, provided details on the failure of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which were useful for background and context, although the article was somewhat celebratory of SOPA's death.

Lasar, Matthew. "ArsTechnica." Sailors Beware: P2P Piracy Will Sink Your Jobs by 2015. Conde Nast, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/03/sailorsbeware-p2p-piracy-will-sink-your-jobs-by-2015/>
- This polemical article appeared on the tech news website Ars Technica. It dissects International Chamber of Commerce's Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy group's study claiming that piracy will cost the European Union $324.6 billion and 1.5 million jobs by 2015. It was useful in making a case on the shared content.

Sanchez, Julian. "ArsTechnica." SOPA, Internet Regulation, and the Economics of Piracy. Conde Nast, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/01/internetregulation-and-the-economics-of-piracy/>.

- This article on the tech/news website Ars Technica actually defends piracy somewhat, admitting that it is a problem but realistically analyzing the uncertainty of its impact on industries. The analysis in the article was useful in how I would approach the topic in my paper, and what topics I should cover.

S., Ernesto. "Music Piracy Continues to Decline Thanks to Spotify." Music Piracy Continues to Decline Thanks to Spotify. TorrentFreak, 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://torrentfreak.com/music-piracy-continues-to-decline-thanksto-spotify-110928/>.
-This tech blog highlights a case of a successful alternative to piracy. With Spotify, a legal online music service, the music piracy rate has dropped 25 percent. This gives a strong case to the method of combating piracy by creating a legal, profitable alternative.

The Government Must Combat Online Piracy (2001) (testimony of Bonnie J. K. Richardson). Print. -In The Government Must Combat Online Piracy, Bonnie Richardson speaks for the MPAA and makes
the point that the government must step in to provide a comprehensive anti-piracy bill. Her speech is organized into five sections: credentials, revenue, internet piracy, questions of jurisdiction, and finally government intervention. She compares digital exports to crown jewels, and believes that internet piracy is the single biggest impediment to digital trade.

Online File Sharing Threatens the Film Industry (2003) (testimony of Jack Valenti). Print. -Jack Valenti is the president of the MPAA, The movie industry, a large and important contributor to
the American economy, is under attack from online pirates who illegally download thousands of movies every day. The movie industry is making efforts to educate the public about the harms of movie piracy, but at the same time new technologies are making it increasingly easy for online movie piracy to flourish.

"Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting And Piracy." Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting And Piracy. International Chamber of Commerce, 17 Mar. 2010. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://www.iccwbo.org/bascap/index.html?id=35393>.
-This study conducted in 2011 commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce's Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy Group (BASCAP) concluded that entertainment sectors of the EU stand to lose $324.6 billion in revenue, as well as 1.2 million jobs, by 2015 (assuming that there are no changes in the way in which we deal with piracy).

Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study. Rep. Business

Software Alliance, 30 May 2008. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://portal.bsa.org/idcglobalstudy2007/studies/2007_global_piracy_study.pdf>.

-The Business Security Alliance's 2009 report on Software Piracy focuses losses in the software sector and security measures. The report emphasizes the threat and how software piracy- far from being an innocent, victimless crime- exposes users to unacceptable levels of risk, including the threat of identity theft or allowing ones computer to become a tool in further criminal activity.

Columbia University. Copyright Infringement and Enforcement in the USA. Issue brief. The American Assembly, Nov. 2011. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://piracy.ssrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/AA-Research-NoteInfringement-and-Enforcement-November-2011.pdf>. -The research note Copyright Infringement and Enforcement in the US from Columbia University,
attempts to give facts and context of a current issue. In its preliminary conclusions, it says cites that piracy is common (46% of adults), large scale piracy is rare (2%), and the majority of people oppose intervention (56%). Various charts and graphs are displayed and explained in detail.

Stop Online Piracy Act, H.R. H.R.3261, 112 Cong. (2011). Print.
- This is the original bill proposed by Representative Lamar S. Smith of Texas that would block access to pirated content through businesses, ads, and search engines. The vagueness of the power granted to corporations against copyright infringement was a fault of the bill. as well as its limitations on freedom of speech. The bill provoked intense backlash and failed.

Golijan, Rosa. "70 Percent Find Piracy Socially Acceptable, Says Poll." 70 Percent Find Piracy Socially Acceptable, Says Poll. MSNBC, 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 May 2012. <http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/70percent-find-piracy-socially- acceptable-says-poll-124679>.
-In this Danish poll found in msnbc.com, it is learned that seven out of ten Danish find it socially acceptable to pirate music. This is an important piece of information, because we learn that in many places people do not find the crime of piracy morally unethical.

USA. Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. 14 Dec. 2009. Web. 14 May <http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accordscommerciaux/assets/pdfs/actacrc_apr15-2011_eng.pdf>.

2012.

-This is the actual text for ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement signed by 30 nations including the United States. They agree on some future strategies for enforcing copyright infringement and counterfeiting from going on between their borders. Not much has been done with it, but it is possible that future negotiations will lead to stricter laws.

-Mitch Bainwol, the chairman and chief executive officer of the RIAA delivered this testimony before the senate committee on governmental affairs in 2003 in response to retaliation against the RIAA's hundreds of copyright lawsuits. He gives an honest and persuasive justification for the lawsuits, saying that the decision was taken only after suffering years of mounting harm and trying all other avenues. He believes that the most balanced strategy is targeting the most serious offenders.