Digital products are not physical or tangible, they can be reproduced at very low costs and have the potential for immediate delivery through the internet. Piracy is the unauthorized and illicit reproduction of licensed works (Jackman & Lorde, 2014). Sectors facing threats from digital piracy include computer software, music albums, motion pictures, high-resolution images, online videos, recorded audio, electronic games and e-Books. Piracy has been a threatening issue confronted by digital content providers in recent years.
Deontology perspective of piracy
The global piracy rate increased from 41 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2009. Africa has the highest level of software piracy with 74 percent of all software installed from pirated origins (Asongu, 2014). From a region were poverty and inequality remain substantial challenges, piracy is viewed as a necessary evil. From a deontological perspective, millions of people in Africa feel that they have a right to pirate digital material since there are imbalances in the north-south economic development. Therefore, piracy is viewed as a good thing for the poor as it has a positive income-redistribution effect (Asongu, 2014). On the contrary, deontological argument in support of intellectual property stresses that taking something valuable from someone is equal to robbing that person (Manjikian, 2018).
Utilitarian and virtue viewpoints
Piracy results in economic losses to the producers of cultural and business products, such as software. The damage caused by piracy far outweighs the benefit it brings to the pirate. This theft of intellectual property results in price increases for legitimate users and thus affects research and development efforts which can bring about better products in the future (Manjikian, 2018). From a virtuous perspective, intellectual property violations are unethical due to their tendency of exposing others to risk.
Again, all the individuals who contribute to the process of piracy either through purchase, production or hosting of pirated content are guilty legally and morally.
Ransomware
Ransomware is malicious software that denies you access to your computer or files until you pay a ransom (Li & Yi, 2017). There are three types of ransomware that are commonly seen:
•Those that encrypt personal files/folders. Files are deleted once they are encrypted and generally there is a text file in the same folder as the now-inaccessible files with instructions for payment.
• ‘Locks’ the screen (presents a full-screen image that blocks all other windows) and demands payment. No personal files are encrypted.
• There is also ‘MBR ransomware’. The Master Boot Record (MBR) is a section of the computer’s hard drive that allows the operating system to boot up. MBR ransomware changes the computer’s MBR so the normal boot process is interrupted and a ransom demand is displayed on the screen instead.
Indeed, ransomware is a form of monetized piracy. For years, software pirates have been benefiting from sales of cracked software online or on the streets. Now with ransomware, the pirates are using trojans designed to extort money from a victim. The argument will be, does the victim have intellectual property material on that computer? The fact that this victim has private data and personal files on that computer qualifies the process of ransomware in the pirate category. The victim will not have normal access to his/her system. Similar to the way pirates operate on the high seas, they hijack cargo vessels and demand payment.
References
Asongu, S. (2014). Software piracy, inequality and the poor: evidence from Africa. Journal of Economic Studies, 41(4), 526–553. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/MRR-09-2015-0216
Jackman, M., & Lorde, T. (2014). Why buy when we can pirate? The role of intentions and willingness to pay in predicting piracy behavior. International Journal of Social Economics, 41(9), 801–819. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/MRR-09-2015-0216
Li, F., & Yi, Z. (2017). Counterfeiting and piracy in supply chain management: theoretical studies. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32(1), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-09-2015-0171
Manjikian, M. (2018). Cybersecurity ethics an introduction. New York, NY: Routledge.
