1. What is Piracy?
Week 2
January 29, 2013

2. Logistics
• The class Wiki is now available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Education_Program:University_of_Califor
nia,_Berkeley/Politics_of_Digital_Piracy_
%28Spring_2013%29
• This week enroll and do student training
• Berkeley Student Co-ops looking for
Central Level Wikipedian

3. According to Lessig:
• The most significant form of piracy is
commercial piracy, “the unauthorized taking of
other people’s content”.
• “This form of piracy is just flat out wrong”
• However, not all piracy is wrong if that term is
understood in the way it is increasingly used
today.
Chapter 5, “Piracy” in Free Culture

4. According to Webster
• 1: an act of robbery on the high seas; also : an act
resembling such robbery
• 2: robbery on the high seas
• 3: the unauthorized use of another's production, invention,
or conception especially in infringement of a copyright

5. Pirating Intellectual Property
• What is Intellectual Property (IP)?
• Creations of the mind: inventions, literary and
artistic works, and symbols, names, images,
and designs used in commerce
• IP did not really exist until mid 19th century
• The laws of IP have been empirically proven to
lag behind ‘piratical practices’.
• This includes Copyright Law

6. According to TRIPS Agreement:
• "Pirated copyright goods shall mean any goods
which are copies made without the consent of the
rightholder or person duly authorised by the
rightholder in the country of production and
which are made directly or indirectly from an
article where the making of that copy would have
constituted an infringement of a copyright or a
related right under the law of the country of
importation".(Art.51, n.14)

7. • The nature and meaning
of piracy has changed
over time, and will
continue to change.

8. Readings
• How much do judicial decisions affect the development
of culture?
• What would have happened if the court ruled that
permission must be granted to take a photo of something
which is not yours? Would it have been preventable?
[Eastman-Kodak would be benefitting from “theft” of
photographer, just like Napster, other pirating sources].

9. “Judicial decisions, while crucial in shaping the connotation
of piracy in our society, does not have a permanent effect on
the development of culture…regardless of the law,
expression is a natural desire of people. We crave the ability
to demonstrate and communicate the complexities and
troubles of our lives, and as such, humans are naturally
drawn to mediums such as writing or photography. Given
our innate desire to communicate, it seems to me that
judicial decisions can only setback the development of
culture, not permanently alter it. ”
-Douglas

10. • In the context of Lessig’s 21st century “read-
only” passive recipients of culture: Does ones
connotation of piracy change in the context of
someone sitting at home and illegally
downloading videos all day vs picking apart a
film to learn about how it was made in order to
learn how to make films yourself?

11. • “Piracy can easily refer to one who spends their entire
bandwidth on the pirate bay downloading theater
recordings of movies or someone who takes a movie and
picks it apart to its bare elements so they can adapt it to
their own artistic vision and learn how to make films. Of
course, most lawmakers don't realize this difference and
the few that do don't make the effort to clarify those
differences in speeches against online (or nautical)
piracy.”
• -Tim

12. Questions
• Is free access the result of pirating? If so, then does free
access necessitate pirating? In what ways does free access
democratize our institutions?