TL;DR: For the most part, we all know what internet piracy is or digital piracy but how can a person’s self-control causes them to download or upload pirated content from the Internet?
When I hear the words Internet piracy, I immediately think of copyright infringement or downloading music, movies, and software for free that are meant to be purchased. But meanwhile I don’t think of the kind of people that download or upload pirated content on the Internet. During my research, one article became really interesting, Adolescent Self-Control and Music and Movie Piracy by Malin and Fowers. This article has a compelling theory which is that teens with low self-control are more likely to download pirated content from the Internet. This theory was interesting to me because I’m someone that has downloaded pirated content from the Internet and I have not evaluated myself to see if I have low self-control. My view on this theory is that I don’t think it suits everyone. For example, I see myself was a person that has high self-control. I might choose to do things that are dangerous, but there are things that I would never do and can highly cost me. To test this theory I did an interview and asked series of questions some centered in Internet piracy and others in research theory. During my interview, the interviewee was pretty familiar with Internet privacy and had pirated things such as music, games, and movies. His first digital piracy download was music when he was in the seventh grade, he learned about downloading music for free by searching it up in Google. He agreed that it was acceptable to download thing for free online even if they are pirated because sometimes people don’t have the money to buy these things and also they are online for free. I was surprised by the answers he gave when I asked the research theory based questions. He agreed with the theory that teens with low self-control are more likely to download pirated content from the Internet. He also rated himself a three for his self-control level which meant that he had low self-control. This interview gave me the chance to test this theory and I concluded that this this interview supported the theory.
Q: What did you download without paying for?
A: Music, movies, games
Q: Can you give me your own definition of Internet piracy?
A: Internet piracy is like copyright, taking someone else’s work and putting on the Internet so others can get it for free
Q: Do you think it’s acceptable to download content without paying?
A: Yes is acceptable because you are getting the content for free and sometimes you don’t want to spend money on buy things when you can just get it for free
Q: What sites do you use to download pirate contents?
A: For music, he uses YouTubeMP3 Converter, For movies he uses Toronto and for games, he just Google it and finds it on personal blogs.
Q: When was the first time you ever downloaded a pirate content? A: In the 7th grade when he wanted to download free music.
Q: How many people do you know that download pirate content from the Internet?
A: Didn’t have a specific number, he thinks a lot of people that he knows, download pirate content from the Internet.
According to Adolescent Self-Control and Music and Movie Piracy, teens with low self-control are more likely to download pirated content from the Internet.
Q: What are your thought on this research theory?
A: He agrees with the theory that teens we low self-control are more likely to download pirated content from the Internet
Q: Rate your self-control from 1 to 5 (1 being low self-control and 5 high self-control)
A: He rated himself a 3
Q: What type of punishments should people get if they download pirated content from the internet?
A: People should pay a fine, but people who are uploading pirated content in a website should face jail time
American ISP Gooele photo by Jon Doe shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license