Piracy, a modern phenomenon

"Arrrr!" Bellowed Ned as he plundered his prize. Moving the arrow over the sacred texts, he clicked, and thus his torrent began to download. "4 more hours till I get ta see this movie fer free!"

Not exactly your typical pirate story, and yet this has become the new definition of piracy. With the economy the way it is, or how lazy or selfish the world is, piracy has become a new way of viewing the media that we have been denied the pleasure of viewing, or are just to damn stingy to pay for. I myself have been, in the past, guilty of this crime, but I grew tired of it. Be it movies, tv shows, music, it was usually downloaded from me. My excuse was money. I had none, and therefore could not see many movies in theatres. This was still no excuse, since to be honest, those ads are right: You wouldn't shoplift, you shouldn't download music. I never shoplifted because I had no money, so why do the same thing with the media? Because there's no security in your own home. You assume you're completely alone when you download something, and thus you believe it's okay. Over time, I began to change my outlook on life.

More recently, my thoughts have been more like "Why waste money on a bad film?" I watch a pirated movie, then I watch it in theatres or buy the DVD if it's good. The problem is, I know it's wrong, but I kept doing it, I'd do it, but then I'd actually pay for the movies that I want to watch, like Toy Story 3, or Harry Potter, or any of the Lord of the Rings movies, so I assumed it was okay. I realize now though, that bad movies are half the fun of the draw. You can't expect every movie to be a hit, nor every album, but that's the fun of buying. It's like gambling; You spend money on something, and you can either bust, or you can get rewarded in movie/music gold. I personally have begun to stop pirating, but sometimes I do it, like when I had to get the last episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender because my DVR didn't record it from Nicktoons for me. It's still stealing, I think, but it's about like going to Walmart and watching the movies they have playing on their TVs. You didn't pay for that movie, but you're still watching it. Besides Avatar, I have not downloaded anything in months, though my family keeps insisting that I do. Piracy has outside influences as well as from within it seems, but I ignore them and keep on with life.

I care for only one pirate, and that is the rum guzzling, sword slashing pirates we have in our old tales of the seas. Internet Piracy is not piracy, it is stealing, plain and simple, and I use it as nigh as possible.