Practice Essay 1

Internet piracy is defined as the distribution of other's’ work which allows the public to download online materials (Beynon, 2015). This leads us to the present where information nowadays can be easily found from the Internet, and there are many cases of people downloading data online. This action is commonly seen anywhere, especially in Singapore (Lay, 2014). However, the action of downloading online materials is not a rightful act. Unfortunately, the action is deemed illegal as the consequences are serious, and a worse-case scenario would be jail sentence up to two years (Beynon, 2015). Therefore, immediate actions have to be taken to minimize the number of downloaders and to protect the rights of the original authors. This essay will then discuss the problem of internet piracy and its current solutions, as well as provide possible suggestions to resolve the problem.

Internet piracy is a serious matter as downloading of online content is considered as illegal in the current society. This is because protection from internet piracy is an important matter to the authors as they have the rights to protect their own work from being copied or distributed unknowingly. According to Lay’s article (2014), Tower Records and Gramophone, two famous brand name music retail chains in Singapore, have closed-down their businesses due to poor sales. Thus, this shows that the impact of the problem is serious as if most contents can be easily downloaded free online, it will result in more businesses to close-down and lost of originality.

The first solution taken is to make changes to the Copyright Act where users will be blocked from accessing certain sites (Lay, 2014). However, according to Lay’s article (2014), this solution is not effective as there is still a large number of illegal downloaders. This is because the newcomers to internet piracy do not feel that it is wrong to download contents online since everyone is doing it as well. Therefore, blocking users from accessing certain sites is not effective as users will still be able to access other new sites that allow illegal download and also since they do not feel that it is wrong to download contents online.

The possible solution to resolve internet piracy is to have stricter law enforcement to minimise this illegal act. The government has to be firmed in the implementation of new and stricter laws such as increasing the number of years of jail sentences for online piracy from two years to ten years, and take strong actions to punish the people who performed internet piracy (Beynon, 2015). However, since internet piracy is performed online which is not physically seen, it is almost impossible to capture everyone who is involved in this illegal act (Beynon, 2015). Therefore, if severe punishment is given to the people who are caught in the act, this can create an image that people who are doing this act will be heavily punished. Thus, this will create an online fear that internet piracy is illegal as stricter laws and actions are enforcement.

In conclusion, immediate actions have to be taken to minimize the number of downloaders and to protect the rights of the original authors. Despite that there is laws implemented to control internet piracy, these laws lack enforcement, thus causing the public to continue their illegal act. Thus, the originality of the author’s work can be protected as internet piracy can be resolve.

Reference

Lay, B. (2014). Site-blocking wont be a panacea for online piracy. Retrieved 28 October 2015, from http://www.ipscommons.sg/site-blocking-wont-be-a-panacea-for-online-piracy/

Beynon, W. (2015). The Piracy Problem - The Hunt for an Effective Solution. The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 28 October 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/wayne-beynon/online-piracy_b_7880522.html