Youth And Piracy free essay sample

This impact is so big that some of us ask ourselves how come people that commit piracy are working by themselves and are self-made people, somehow engineers. This act has taken a so large influence that it has become a common and usual action. The question that might be asked is do they really know what piracy is? Indeed, for some, many tend to think that the simple act of copying is not considered as pirating. In fact, piracy is when you use unlicensed software or a part of it for any kind of use, and consequently prohibit its authors from earning money from it. One of the biggest today’s problems in our Kingdom is that this informal sector is driving Morocco in a tremendous loss in terms of economy and integrity at a global scale. Unfortunately, youngsters are grandly responsible of many forms of piracy such as illegal downloads and/or software copying. In the meanwhile, is the average Moroccan ready to afford authentic software at a relatively high price? Whatever the answer might be, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to commit piracy, and one should greatly be submitted to severe penalties because it is of course in part because of piracy that our country’s economic health is affected. But why do we commit piracy, and what can be done to decrease the impact of this phenomenon. One of the first questions people should ask themselves is why do Moroccans and/or others commit acts of piracy almost every single day? Why does the phenomenon’s expansion seem unstoppable, despite Morocco’s fight against piracy placed as one of its top priorities? In fact, the phenomenon is still getting bigger and bigger due to the unstoppable progress of technology. Our country is still losing over the equivalent of over 200 Million US Dollars. Many good development aspects of Morocco have given the great chance and opportunity to piracy to experience an incredible level of growth. Indeed, according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), Morocco â€Å"has emerged as one of the fastest growing broadband Internet markets in the world, growing at a rate of 200% by adding a total of 135,000 DSL lines in the first three quarters of 2005, for a total installed base of 179,000 lines Special 301. † Given these evolutions, specific measures should have been taken because the â€Å"e-pirate† is in the Internet just like a fish is in the water. Thanks to the growing number of Internet lines and their bandwidth, piracy is almost in one of its best environment to evolve. Moreover, youngsters seem to enjoy this evolution as they are the ones who commit acts of piracy every day. Indeed, the less time the user needs to wait for an illegal copy to be downloaded, the more he will be encouraged to download. Moreover, the more Internet lines, the more the number of downloads. Indeed, due to these performances, â€Å"the recording industry noted that Morocco has the dubious distinction of being in first place in the Middle East and North Africa region in terms of music piracy. The recording industry estimated the music piracy rate in Morocco at virtually 100% in 2004 Special 301. † Fortunately, â€Å"next December, a law on intellectual property protection will enter into force in Morocco to adapt national law to international norms Morocco, Economics. † Moreover, it is true that it is in every human being’s nature to lean towards what suits him or her most. In other words, as long as people are given the opportunity to purchase software or music at lower price, they will continue buying counterfeited products. In fact, very few people are aware of the impact of piracy on our country’s economy, and some tend to only think about their own financial efficiency. Therefore, if buying a pirated product can make them economize money, we still are far away from solving the problem. That is the reason why one shouldn’t throw the whole responsibility on the general consumer. Indeed, Moroccans are very encouraged to buy counterfeited products because they can find many rare ones in informal places. But what are really the effects of piracy on our country, or any other one. It is very commonly known that piracy makes every country lose huge amounts of money. Indeed, there is an important economy indicator which is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Any company situated in a given country, contributes to the country’s GDP growth. If the sales and/or revenue of a given company decrease, the country’s GDP inevitably experiences the same consequences. Therefore, when the level of piracy is high, companies’ revenues decrease which leads to a global economy crisis when many companies get affected. According to a critic concerning piracy, the first country to be affected by it is the United States What is Piracy?. Indeed, it exports the biggest part of software around the globe, which is considered to be at least 80% of all the programs available across the countries. As stated before, piracy has taken a so large level that it has become common and usual. We might want concentrating more on Morocco and the kingdom’s so called software pirates. If one takes a look at the most important piracy sites in Morocco, one might notice the number of young people in front of their respective shops, full of illegal copies of movies and/or software and/or games. When economists gather all the information concerning piracy, they deduct that the high level of piracy in Morocco costs the government no less than 253 Million U. S $ Morocco, Economics. Shouldn’t we think that our economy would have been so much better if piracy was really penalized? Indeed, the problem in Morocco concerning piracy is that authorities tend to close their eyes on these kinds of problems when corruption is still a major barrier to development. We shouldn’t forget that the country has a youth to take care of, and teach them the good ways of making money. Indeed, youngsters are the ones who are the most stuck on their screens, most of the time spending their time downloading. Unfortunately, these people tend to defend their selves and downloading by saying so what? Why doesn’t the government do anything about this? Let’s try to be realistic for a few moments. Let’s take the example of the seat belt fastening when driving. As soon as the 100 Dhs fine policy for not fastening the seat belt was established, and that some unfortunates indeed experienced the feeling of paying it, almost no driver still holds the steering wheel without the seat belt fastened. Consequently, the number of deaths and accidents in Morocco has reduced. It might be the same case for piracy. If the authorities used severe fines and/or penalties for those who commit counterfeit, they would manage to dissuade people for buying counterfeited products and permit the country to develop its economy by reducing losses due to piracy. Economists estimate the amount of 200 Million Moroccan Dirham that is lost due to the high level of piracy Morocco, Economics. In the field of movies, music and software, near 70% of the products bought by domestics are considered as being counterfeited ones. It is not such a big surprise when the â€Å"capacity production [approaches] nearly 400,000 cassettes and 600,000 CDs a week† and when the prices of original ones are too high for the average Moroccan’s purchase power Morocco, Economics. Nevertheless, committing piracy is not only copying, it’s also stealing, therefore a crime. Some economists tend to defend piracy in Morocco based on the argument saying that Moroccans do not have to appropriate purchase ability to buy original software and/or movies. Well, hat they should know also is that the same average person still does not have the power to buy a LCD screen television, or a brand new refrigerator. When you buy software, you buy it once and that’s it. But concerning the refrigerator, it will one day be obsolete by the end of a few years and one will need to change it. Therefore, why people tend to excuse or justify piracy? Wouldn’t we be jailed if we steal a brand new television from a superma rket? Of course we will. But is saying that I stole it because I didn’t have the enough amount of money to buy it an appropriate excuse to justify my act? The answer is no. The problem with software is that they are â€Å"soft†, which means that they cannot be touched. Therefore, this characteristic makes them easy to steal and copy, easier and more discrete than stealing a refrigerator. Moreover, there are our local artists. Not only are they suffering from the outer competition coming from famous foreign artists, but also â€Å"are incapable of surviving from the income of their artistic work Special 301. † Indeed, unlike regular software, music CDs don’t possess a key or activation code to prove its authenticity, which makes them more vulnerable to piracy. This latter is creating very degrading aspects to our country. In the meanwhile, one should stop thinking about who is responsible for this high level of piracy, and start brainstorming about plausible solutions to stop or at least reduce and/or decelerate this phenomenon which seems like an unstoppable steam machine. In other words, what can we do? It is commonly known that piracy is a problem. Fortunately, every problem has its own solution; otherwise it wouldn’t be called so. Even though some measures are being taken or prepared by the government, there are some that might be useful for us and our country’s economic health. Some economists assume that in order to solve the problem of piracy, authorities should focus more on the real causes of today’s piracy expansion, instead of concentrating on penalizing the direct consumers of it. According to Craig and Burnett in their book Software Piracy Exposed, â€Å"companies and anti-piracy groups should concentrate their efforts on shutting down the most popular Web sites that host pirated software (295). † In fact, it is astonishing to see how much pirated software is available to download on these sites and all of them for free. Unfortunately, most of them tend to try making profit thanks to piracy. Indeed, they make visitors pay fees for every download they make. It would indeed be a great step forward if someone took the responsibility of getting rid of these web sites, as it will contribute greatly in every country’s economic situation. Moreover, at a global scale, Internet services are getting bigger and bigger, day after day, along with their bandwidth. Therefore, if these web sites still exist along with high transfer rate in the Web, even more files and/or software can or will be downloaded. In order to have an idea of the opportunities that piracy offers to consumers on these web sites, one might want having a look at them. Indeed, even the most famous and expensive software such as Microsoft Windows, Norton Anti-Virus, or even AutoCAD, is free for download on them. Some other economists tend to focus more on the copyright issues of piracy. Indeed, instead of trying to delete these kinds of websites from the World Wide Web, they suggest that the responsible of these sites will have to pay copyright fees for every single file and software they will make available for download. In other words, according to Gut Hart-Davis in his book Internet Piracy Exposed, a legal file sharing policy will be implemented (289). Consequently, only files and software which have copyrights will be available. Moreover, these sites will still require customers to pay for every download they make. As a result, a big part of the issue concerning copyrights might be resolved and artists might â€Å"start† getting the profit they were working for. Others tend to focus more on the strict aspect of music piracy, assuming that it is the sector mostly affected by it, especially in Morocco. In fact, according to Sameer Hinduja in his book Music Piracy Crime Theory, every single music file on the internet should not be available for free download, but with a certain price (45). In fact, this example is already implemented in France for instance, where each music file available on the Internet is worth 1â‚ ¬. Even the Peer-To-Peer network did not stand this new policy there, as authorities grandly started to control illegal downloading, in order to protect copyright policies. Moreover, it is also suggested that the price should be set according to type of file and software. In a nutshell, it can be claimed that it is true that piracy has very negative effects on our country’s economy, even though this latter might have some advantages in the short-run. Piracy places Morocco in the highest rank among North African and Middle East countries in terms of software and music piracy. The real question to ask is why do people have the ordinary reflex and nature to illegally download, purchase and copy software and music that originally cost a lot of money? One of the reasons behind the situation is the growing Internet services along with their bandwidths. Indeed, people have greater abilities and possibilities to download, and also have the opportunity to resell them in order to make profits from them. In the meanwhile, efficient measures are about to be implemented, and some are already helping countries deal with the piracy issue. In France for instance, music available for download on the Internet each cost 1â‚ ¬. Other economists suggest that Websites that host pirated files need to be removed. Thanks to these suggested solutions, many piracy and copyright issues would be corrected, including the development aspect of our Moroccan youth.