Why Do People Pirate?

Piracy is something that we are all familiar with in one form or another, particularly in the current age of the proliferation of digital information.  It is defined as the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work.  One would even be hard pressed to find a person, especially those belonging to the slightly younger generations, who has not participated in an act of piracy in some way during their lives.  Whether it be downloading a song an burning it onto a mix cd, or buying a fake pair of Dior shoes (or whichever incredibly expensive brand specializes in shoes), or even downloading an old Nintendo game and playing it on your computer.  In fact, piracy is so rampant that many people do not even think twice about it.  They certainly do not feel as bad as they would have if they had walked into a store and stolen a piece of equivalent merchandise.  So the question is, what reasons do so many people have to continue to pirate copyrighted material without feeling any remorse?  

Probably because most feel feel that when they do pirate material, they are essentially just taking away some small amount of profit from a giant or rich entity or corporation, who does not really need the money in the first place.  This can be seen as an act of rebellion against the dominant capitalist ideals being propagated within our society.  Piracy is seen by some as an act of protest against rich corporations or individuals (essentially 'The [proverbial] Man').  The corporation in question could be an international record company who already has a strong hold on the market and plenty of money, and the entity could be a well known artist or millionaire who does not need any more money than they already have.  It is essentially the 'taking money (or a cultural commodity as it were) from the rich to give to the poor' mentality.  This view of piracy represents a very anti-capitalist mindset where the pirate is deciding not to contribute to the wealth of the already wealthy.  The problem here would be when independent artists/musicians or small business owners are effected and driven to have to stop producing their cultural commodity for lack of monetary compensation as a direct result of piracy.  

So now we have covered the rebellion against the mainstream aspect, but what about those who have no problem living in a capitalist dominated world, participate in it, and yet continue to pirate material?  To answer this question, we follow Pang's lead and take a look at what is happening in Asia.  Although piracy is a growing problem in North America, it is many times worse in Asia.  According to Pang, 85% percent of Asian computers contain pirated material, compared with North America's 33%.  According to Pang, Asian's are currently in a situation where they are moving towards a more modernized world, a world in which they desperately strive to build for themselves.  They look to the West (particularly America) as a model for successful modernization and they see America's cultural products as representations of this modernization (Pang, 20).  It makes sense that they would want to appropriate American entertainment culture if that meant that they could gaze, however briefly and in whatever quality, into the modernized world that they so desire.  Pirating this material is simply the easiest way to obtain foreign content and since Asia is so far removed from the United States, they do not really see the consequences of their actions ad therefore do not feel any guilt or remorse.  

As discussed in class, Western governments and organizations such as the WTO are increasingly putting pressure on Asian governments to crack down on piracy and put an end to this problem.  Indeed, piracy is a global problem, and it will take an incredible amount of work and time to put an end to the piracy issue.  Currently, the affected industries are working hard with governments and organizations to figure out the best way to deal with this problem, but there is much work to be done.  

Pang, Laikwan (2004).  'Mediating the Ethics of Technology:  Hollywood and Movie Piracy.'  Culture, Theory and Critique, 45 (1): 19-32.

SARS scare

It is always interesting to see how certain issues can become so skewed in the media that they become so much more (or less) than than they actually are in real life. The group presenting on the media's interpretation of SARS did an excellent job at outlining the media's interpretation of this 'panic': national, international, and otherwise. Even their first question "which one of us do you think could possibly have SARS", and the response "the Asian guy" perfectly demonstrated the way in which this event was portrayed by the media. It was apparent during the scare, or any big scare for that matter, that the media has a tendency to feel the necessity to find someone or something to blame the situation on. In this case, the obvious scapegoat was of course, the Chinese, which was an easy one considering he virus came from Guangdong, China. Sure, this was an easy connection to make, however, the media really pushed this assumption and completely deflected any blame which could have fallen on Canada. The group did a great job at showing this deflection when they showed us (or tried to show us as it were) the pictures the media displayed of people in Asian walking around busy intersections with masks on, making the public feel as though Asian had become a dangerous, diseased place who were infecting the rest of the world.

As always, this is another example of how powerful the influence of the media is. A few cases of SARS breakout in Toronto, and all of a sudden there are high schools in small rural Ontario towns (such as my hometown of Owen Sound) who are considering canceling there planned school trips to see musicals downtown Toronto. This was indeed a created media scare which had mass effects all across the country. I find it interesting that even back then (before I had ever heard of Communication studies) I was always a little wary of the things I heard through the media. This was demonstrated when I went on an adventure in Chinatown with my family during the height of the SARS scare to buy some fresh Asian lychee fruit (or as we called them at the time, SARS berries). According to the media this was an incredibly stupid and reckless thing to have done, however we sensed that this issue was being made out to be much worse than it actually was and so did not take it as seriously as the media would have liked us to have. A similar situation could be the MSG scare. According to my research, there is nothing harmful about MSG. Some people have been known to have allergic reactions to the substance (one man had an allergic reaction to it and this got blown up in the media, hence the MSG scare), however for most people it is completely harmless and has no damaging effects. However, because of a few specific cases, most people are suspicious of MSG.

The powers of the media continue to be displayed and are especially evident in 'scares' such as this. One must always be conscious of what the media is trying to tell us an try to take an objective approach to consuming the news.

Presentations, March 4th

Overall, there were four great presentations in this class which all brought up very interesting and relevant topics and discussions. The range of issues covered was especially nice, as it allowed for a variety of issues to be discussed and analyzed without much repetition. With respect to the issues pertaining to internationalization and globalization I thought that The Dubai group and the Starbucks group did a great job at making connections between what was going on on a local level compared to what was happening internationally. Both groups were able to apply their research to the international stage and connect it to the bigger picture of some of the themes we have been discussing in this course.

For example the Dubai group did a great job discussing the issue of censorship in the middle East and how the digital age is causing some concern regarding the free flow of information that the internet can offer. On page 230, Thussu states that "in many countries the growing use of the internet and its potential power to provide alternative viewpoints and exchange of information beyond national borders have generated anxiety". The power of the internet to create a collective knowledge base is one of the triumphs of the new technology and its ability to be a seemingly unlimited source of information is seen as a major success in the West, but a major detriment and nuisance in many places, such as parts of the middle East. The group outlined a scenario where a person from Saudi Arabi could go on the internet and read about the comparatively free lifestyles of those in the West. That person would potentially become jealous and might decide to abandon certain aspect of their religion. This provided an example of the ways in which the free flow of information caused by the information/digital revolution has begun to make fundamental changes to the lifestyles and mind sets of people living far from the source of the original information.

As for the Starbucks presentation, I found interesting their comparisons between the consumption habits and cultural atributes of various cultures and how that correlated to their view of the Starbucks experience. One of the examples used by the group was the Italians aversion to a 'fast food' style coffee shop as opposed to their more laid back approach to coffee consumption. It was interesting to think about the challenges an international corporation like Starbucks would face when trying to adapt to a local culture with its unique attributes. In a way it is refreshing to think that even in our highly globalized world, there are still significant differences between cultures, even when it comes to seemingly simple things like drinking coffee. It was also ironic to think that some people will travel halfway around the world only to stop in at a Parisian Starbucks for the same cup of coffee they could get in Hamilton.

Not to ignore the other two presentations, I thought it was very creative of group three to take a look at the comparison's between various cultures and their reaction to the resignation of Fidel Castro. It really shed some light on the differing agenda's of each nation observed. While some cultures seemed almost indifferent to the situation, others (namely the US) displayed a vested interest in the change in government and the group did a good job at explaining the reasoning behind each nation's attitude towards the resignation.

Let us hope that the next group of presentation's will be equally enlightening!

Thussu, Daya Kishan. “Creating a Global Communication Infrastructure.” International Communication: Continuity and Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 230.

'Scapes' Approach to Studying Globalization

While studying international communication, it is helpful to always be thinking about the world in terms of patterns and themes. Thussu uses the word 'scape' in conjunction with a prefix to describe the general theme or 'landscape' which it represents. For example the theme of ethnoscape refers to a way of looking at the world map in terms of the people who are living in certain locales, and who move from place to place. This term represents a wide variety of people including tourists, refugees, immigrants, students on exchange and professionals who move from one part of the world to another (Thussu, 62). Those of us who enjoy traveling to other places and countries will fall into this category in one way or another. Finanscape refers to the international flow of money, particularly with regards to foreign investment. The other two main 'scapes' are mediascape, which represents the global flow of media, especially the flow of electronic information as it flows around the world and lastly, technoscape, which as you can probably guess, refers to the transfer of technologies as it flows across national borders Thussu, 62). An example of technoscape would be the flow of laptop computers from factories in Shanghai to the hands of consumers in North America.

While these 'scapes' can exist in harmony with one another, it is often the case that two are present in the same area but are moving at completely different directions or perhaps are moving in the same directions, but at different speeds. These differences are called disjunctive flows and can result in dramatic differences experienced at the local level. For example of where two 'scapes' are at a disjunct with each other, China stands out as an interesting case study. When the ethnoscape and finanscape themes are applied to China, one interpretation would say that they are at a disjunct, traveling in opposite directions. With regards to finanscape, in the past decade foreign investment has dramatically increaded and China has become one of the worlds fastest growing economies as a result. Each year, 10's of billions of dollars flow into the country as direct foreign investment. However, with regards to ethnoscape, each year there are more people who have emmigrated from China, than there are people who immigrated from China. To make it clear, one can see that as money is flowing into the country, people are moving out of it, and migrating to countries like Canada.

An example of a disjunctive flow of mediascape versus technoscape could be seen with regards to the United States. American media is exported to many parts of the world, including Japan, who seem to love American media content and often try to emulate it. However, much of the technology America receives has come from Japan, who is generally a few years more advanced than the West. As entertainment media flows one way, technology flows in an other and opposite direction.

THinking about the world in terms of the movements and relationships of these 'scapes' gives globalization scholars a system for discussing themes and patterns which have emerged in our highly globalize world. It represents the diversity which is present between nations and can provide clues into the sorts of relationships that are taking place between countries as they interact with eachother. As globalization continues to occur at ever-increasing rates, consciously looking at and studying these 'scapes' will be beneficial indeed as a means of understanding more about what is happening on national and particularly international levels.

Thussu, Daya Kishan. "The Historical Context of International Communication" and "Contraflow in Global Media." International Communication: Continuity and Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 62.