Online piracy

Online piracy or software piracy is the practice of downloading and distributing copyrighted works digitally without permission, such as music or software. The principle behind piracy has predated the creation of the Internet, but its online popularity arose alongside the internet. Despite its explicit illegality in many developed countries, online piracy is still widely practiced, due to both the ease with which it can be done, the often defensible ethics behind it, and access to files that would normally cost money. Some of the most pirated software includes Adobe Software and Microsoft Office. One of the earliest recorded acts of unauthorized content copying was when fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited the Sistine Chapel around 1771 and heard Gregorio Allegri's Miserere being performed. The piece's sheet-music was only authorized to be owned by three people: Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, John V of Portugal, and Giovanni Battista Martini. After having heard it for the first time, Mozart went back to his hotel and transcribed the entire piece from memory, coming back again two days later to proofread the transcription against the performance. In the months following his transcription's publication, Mozart's fame for the act had grown to such an extent that Pope Clement XIV summoned him to Rome in order to grant him papal knighthood. Nathan Fisk traces the origins of modern online piracy back to similar problems posed by the advent of the printing press. Quoting from legal standards in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., he notes that there have historically been a number of technologies which have had a "dual effect" of facilitating legitimate sharing of information, but which also facilitate the ease with which copyright can be violated. He likens online piracy to issues faced in the early 20th century by stationers in England, who tried and failed to prevent the large scale printing and distribution of illicit sheet music. Starting in the 1980s, the availability of dial-up modems led to the creation of the first warez distribution groups.