Piracy In Digital Media

In today’s global media environment, the Indonesian government has to deal with more complex media conditions especially related to the increasing numbers of media piracy of global media contents in Indonesia. The Internet is also blamed as one of the media outlets that considered as offering new modes of media piracy, which opens a new debate whether the government should control the Internet or it should remain as a free domain without any interference from the government. Additionally, there is a growing social movement that attempts to reduce media piracy in Indonesia such as the Creative Commons movement. Based on this argument, this study proposes to explain the current conditions of how media regulation in Indonesia deals with piracy and how the Creative Commons movement contributes to the ongoing discourse. Using literature research, this study explores documents related to the topic, such as legislation documents, academic journals, news publications, and online articles. This study discusses how the Broadcasting Act of 2002, the Telecommunication Act of 1999 and the Copyright Act of 2002 are used as the basic frameworks for regulating the broadcast industry, the Internet and copyright in Indonesia. This study found that The Department of Communication and Information (Kominfo), which has a significant power in regulating the media, was acting as a lone-fighter in eliminating media and online piracy without any cooperation with civil movements such as the Creative Commons Indonesia. As a result, media and online piracy in Indonesia will continue to be difficult to eliminate.

Keywords: media regulation, media piracy, creative commons, Indonesia

This study seeks to find the relevance of traditional copyright laws in the digital age, their
relationship with the piracy issues in music industries, and a possible way to control ongoing
digital piracy. For this purpose of the research, a qualitative secondary method with documentary
analysis was chosen. Several available data from past to current were selected, skimmed,
synthesized, presented thematically, and finally analyzed in the research work.
The analysis results show that the copyright laws are insufficient and less relevant in the modern
digital age. The digital issues are somehow related to the copyright laws created by inappropriate
clauses and wordings. Secondary ethnographic data from the psychological perspective of piracy
show that the justification of illicit behavior and antipathy towards music industries is another
reason for piracy among youths. Finally, the study of emerging technologies such as blockchain
technology shows possibilities in solving revenue distribution issues, transparency issues, and
intermediaries' role issues. On the other hand, artificial intelligence shows considerable potential
and promising future of music industries in many ways while controlling the ongoing piracies.

Piracy is taking on an entirely new character in the age of media in the cloud. Global technology and business models are evolving rapidly, while regulators and lawmakers are catching up in attempts to work out a new set of rules of engagement. In this article, I explore the divergent developments between a retrograde global copyright governance regime and cloud-based media distribution that focuses on connectivity and access. I also examine attempts at business model innovation that seek to effectively embrace and control the continually evolving user–content– platform interaction in the cloud. This article will contribute to our understanding of this rapidly changing ecosystem and the dynamics between technology, law and market.

Copyright infringement is a growing concern, it usually affects the copyright owner’s economy. This study assessed undergraduate student’s knowledge of copyright infringement and indulgence in movie piracy, with the objectives of knowledge of copyright law and illegal file sharing and downloading; investigating the factors responsible for piracy and copyright infringement; and the ways for reducing piracy and copyright infringement. The survey research design was adopted for the study. Convenience sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 170 students of Awaaz Institute of Media and Management Sciences. The questionnaire was the instrument used for collection of data. The data gathered, including percentages and frequencies, were analyzed by using descriptive stats. Findings showed that the knowledge of copyright law in students is above 70% but they have strong perception that copyright infringement is a form of intellectual dishonesty. In addition, the results indicate that ignorance of copyright law and the lack of understanding of copyright law is the major reason for the copyright infringement and illegal file sharing and downloading over the internet. The findings also reveal that the over pricing of DVD/Blu-ray, online subscription and high prices of movie tickets is a contributing factor that lead students to infringe on copyright law and on piracy. The increasing awareness and knowledge of copyright law and punishment for violating the law was answered as the most essential way of eliminating copyright infringement and piracy followed by copyright warning and reduction in prices of online subscription, DVD/Blu-ray and movie tickets. It was recommended that basic courses and seminars should be designed and offered by all the students in a bid to creating an enlightenment as this will increase student’s knowledge of copyright law and stakeholders should reduce the prices of legal channels of movie to reduce movie piracy.

Keywords: Copyright law, Copyright Infringement, Movie Piracy, Perception, Knowledge, University students.

Esta tese tem como temática a distribuição do entretenimento no campo digital – filmes, músicas, e produções correlatas –, e(m) sua relação com a tecnologia streaming (legal) e com a “pirataria” digital. Mais especificamente, este estudo aborda as relacionalidades de tais atores, enfatizando suas dinâmicas de coprodução e capacidades de habitação do acesso ao entretenimento e do regime de propriedade intelectual. Esta investigação objetiva analisar as relações que se instauram entre streaming (legal) e a “pirataria”, que atravessam, tensionam e (re)produzem o entretenimento distribuído ao público na atualidade. A partir de tal objetivo, é possível perceber que os arranjos do acesso e do consumo ao entretenimento são delineados não somente pela indústria fonográfica e cinematográfica, mas por elos legais e ilegais produtivos e transformadores das relações entre indústria, leis e “pirataria”. Neste processo, são sublinhadas características fluídas e estratégias contíguas entre tais categorias e agentes – a indústria e a “pirataria”. Também é possível visualizar os meios “piratas” e as plataformas de streaming como atores dotados de capacidades (d)e modos de habitarem (ocuparem, povoarem) o regime de propriedade intelectual, (re)configurando-o, atualizando-o e adaptando-o a seus interesses. Concluo que a distribuição do entretenimento é atravessada por elos legais/ilegais que, atuando em coautoria, interferem, habitam e atualizam a vida social, práticas sociotécnicas e as leis de regime de propriedade intelectual.

Grounded on a series of cases studies in Brazil, this thesis is an investigation of online audiences’ informal practices of viewing and distribution over the internet. As part of the steadily growing phenomena of peer to peer file sharing, television audiences across the globe are increasingly utilising the internet to informally access, distribute and/or facilitate access of television shows to others. For the purposes of this research, I use the term pirate audiences drawing from Ramon Lobato´s (2011) first use of the term, as well as similar uses such as “piracy audience” (Gustavo Cardoso, Lima, and Vieira, 2010), which are based on the notion of audiences involved in unauthorised practices of media sharing. I extend this conceptualisation of pirate audiences through an original empirical study. I examine how the concept of pirate audiences can offer a new way to understand piracy and audiences. I argue that this can be re-thought by exploring their informal practices of viewing and distribution of television content on the internet. Regardless of the source, generally, the content watched by a person who downloads is the same as a person who watches it on their television set. I draw from Nick Couldry’s (2011, 2012) work on everyday practices on digital media and analyse research on media file sharing and audiences’ digital practices. This analysis is developed through an investigation into how pirate audiences in Brazil create and maintain a parallel system of informal viewing and distribution of US television programmes through their informal practices on the internet. There is little research on television file sharing in Brazil as reports on internet use in the country only consider music, film and/or software downloading. Brazil is a BRIC country, one of the world’s largest economies and where over 20 million people are involved in unauthorised downloading of media. The investigation on Brazilian pirate audiences was undertaken using a mixed methods approach, which included qualitative and quantitative data collection. The main methods of data collection included online nonparticipant observation and analysis of downloading practices through websites and online communities in Orkut, online interviews and a focus group, and an online survey of 106 participants (n=106) who were regular downloaders of TV shows in Brazil. All data was coded and analysed by themes. The results demonstrate that informal practices are transnational because of the global reach of the internet. However, I argue that socio-political and economic aspects in Brazil have an influence on how people perceive and organise themselves in informal practices on the internet. This thesis supplements the literature on informal media economies and audiences research in online environments. By grounding the research in case studies in Brazil, the contribution to knowledge relies on making visible an activity that is considered criminal, but at the same time, it represents how audiences are evolving in the digital environment.

So-called ‘piracy’ is sometimes seen to be justified by the inequalities which deny economically disadvantaged populations access to cultural products, media and knowledge. Justification may also be related to the injustices that are seen to surround the mechanisms and power structures underlying authorship, ownership, rights protection and circulation. These kinds of justifications are frequently heard in Bolivia - the poorest and most indigenous county in South America – where, in turn, they are linked to the histories of foreign exploitation of the nation’s rich natural and cultural resources. Education, economics and the dynamism of cultural life in Bolivia today are highly dependent on the unlicensed reproduction and circulation of internationally produced books, software, music and video. Although copyright protection is enshrined in law and in the new constitution, no serious enforcement policy has emerged in recent administrations, including the current pro-indigenous government of Evo Morales, with its anti-capitalist and decolonising rhetoric. Based on ethnographic research in 2007-8, this paper examines some of the strategies adopted by Gregorio Mamani (1960-2011), an indigenous (originario) musician and music video producer, in the context of a market dominated by the unlicensed circulation of music videos. How did this low-income musician encourage (low income) vendors to sell and (low income) consumers to purchase ‘original’ rather than ‘pirated’ versions of his work? In short, how do justifications regarding access and fair recompense for artistic production play out in this kind of local, low income and unregulated context? It is shown how in his music videos Mamani exploited his indigenous identity to protect his interests, even strategically essentialising himself as a ‘noble savage’. His ludic warnings to those who might threaten his interests emerge as a kind of anti-piracy artform or entertainment – the ‘play of piracy’. Such play was nonetheless a deeply serious matter for Mamani who struggled intensely to survive economically as an artist, and recognised how piracy was able both to threaten and augment his celebrity and success as an artist.