Piracy and the youth problem
Monday, October 12, 2009 by victoria
I was reading the article by Majid Yar in our course reader, and it seems that the author has blamed internet piracy mostly on young people, and even goes as far as linking illegal downloading with "youth crime", as if that would have the same effect on society. I do admit it is true that young people are most likely and more often to be downloading music or softwares illegally from the internet, but is that really a crime that could cause such a high level of moral panic towards the youth? Even back in the days prior to the internet, people were able to make multiple copies of tapes and videos to share and give amongst friends. How is that different from downloading a file your friends have shared online?
In the article, Yar stressed on the survey results showing the significant number of young people feeling that downloading music and software online is acceptable, and how they admitted to intending to download from the internet within the next six months. I think young people are feeling this way because they cannot see any physical evidence to show that downloading is a crime. We learn as a child to not to steal, not to hurt others etc because those are crimes, and we get punished if we do commit a crime, or we see others getting punished for the crimes they commit on TV or newspapers. We learn clearly the consenquences of committing these crimes, and therefore these actions such as stealing and hurting others are imprinted in our heads as "crimes". But this is not the case when it comes to technologies such as downloading from the internet. The younger generation in society today grew up together with technology. Step by step, young people and technology grew and developed simultaneously. Young people have more knowledge of new technology, especially the internet. It has become a large part of young people's life, whether privately or publicly. Ie: how writing blogs online are a part of our course for this paper, and counts towards our final result. However, young people are never taught about the consequences of piracy, and therefore does not consider downloading as a crime. There are no physical action taken when someone downloads a song from the internet, not any that I have heard of anyway. We hardly ever see people getting punished for illegal downloading, and I'm sure many many people do it all the time without facing any consequences. In many countries, governments are still having trouble coming up with laws enforcing illegal downloading. I think this is a grey area that's still in development and will take some time for people to truely learn and understand.
In the article, Yar stressed on the survey results showing the significant number of young people feeling that downloading music and software online is acceptable, and how they admitted to intending to download from the internet within the next six months. I think young people are feeling this way because they cannot see any physical evidence to show that downloading is a crime. We learn as a child to not to steal, not to hurt others etc because those are crimes, and we get punished if we do commit a crime, or we see others getting punished for the crimes they commit on TV or newspapers. We learn clearly the consenquences of committing these crimes, and therefore these actions such as stealing and hurting others are imprinted in our heads as "crimes". But this is not the case when it comes to technologies such as downloading from the internet. The younger generation in society today grew up together with technology. Step by step, young people and technology grew and developed simultaneously. Young people have more knowledge of new technology, especially the internet. It has become a large part of young people's life, whether privately or publicly. Ie: how writing blogs online are a part of our course for this paper, and counts towards our final result. However, young people are never taught about the consequences of piracy, and therefore does not consider downloading as a crime. There are no physical action taken when someone downloads a song from the internet, not any that I have heard of anyway. We hardly ever see people getting punished for illegal downloading, and I'm sure many many people do it all the time without facing any consequences. In many countries, governments are still having trouble coming up with laws enforcing illegal downloading. I think this is a grey area that's still in development and will take some time for people to truely learn and understand.