criminal-law internet intellectual-property legal-terms
What does it mean to &quot;pirate&quot; a game, app, or other digital resource?
<p>I've heard the term "pirate" many times before, but I have never really understood it. How do people do it and why?</p>

<p>While software is often the subject of pirating, the term is also used generally for unauthorized use of any copyrighted material. It turns out that this terminology is very old. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement#.22Piracy.22" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia notes</a> that this sense of the word piracy is attested as far back as 1603 CE and was used as part of the language of a copyright treaty as early as 1886 CE. </p>

<p>In particular, people who use or distribute unauthorized copies of movies, television shows, videos of live concerts, and music are also frequently said to be engaged in pirating of the material.</p>

<p>The term is used in this context in <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat052505.html" rel="noreferrer">testimony before Congress</a> by the chief U.S. Copyright official in 2005.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2011/12/15/piracy_is_a_form_of_theft_and_copyright_infringement_is_neither.html" rel="noreferrer">Critics of the term</a> argue that "piracy," which originally meant armed robbery of tangible property on the high seas (a form of theft), is an inapt way to describe copyright infringement which is really different in kind than theft because copyright infringement does not deprive anyone of use of the materials, it merely impairs the legally granted monopoly of someone regarding how it shall be used. As Matthew Yglesias <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2011/12/15/piracy_is_a_form_of_theft_and_copyright_infringement_is_neither.html" rel="noreferrer">explains at Slate</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>If I steal your car then you don't have a car anymore, whereas if I
  duplicate a digital media file we both end up with it. The harm in the
  duplicating is supposed to be that by duplicating content that Fox
  Filmed Entertainment owns the copyright to, I'm depriving Tom Rothman
  of some revenue that he might have gotten had I instead gone out and
  bought a copy of the content for myself. That's fair enough for
  Rothman to feel sad about, but it's a totally different kind of thing.
  I didn't buy DC's animated film of Batman: Year One, and I didn't
  pirate a copy either; I watched it at a friend's house. The difference
  between watching a movie with your friend and copying your friend's
  Blu-ray is that one is legal and one is illegal. But in both cases you
  watch the movie without paying the copyright owner, and in neither
  case have you stolen anything from anyone.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>"Pirating" software means gaining unlicensed or unauthorized access to software.</p>

<p>The "crackers" (as they are known in the underground) who create these illicit method of access do so in many ways. They can either create "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_cracking" rel="noreferrer">software cracks</a>" which bypass the authentication mechanisms. Or they create "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keygen" rel="noreferrer">Keygens</a>" which generate valid keys for the software. Both of which are illegal. </p>

<p>Additionally, there are groups of people who specialize in releasing and distributing these versions of the software. They are called "warez" groups.</p>

<p>Many times, these cracked versions of the software have been "backdoored" and infect the computers of the people who download and use them.</p>

<p>The other answers are good, but no one touched on the other part of the question relating to why people pirate software. (Not sure if the why is off topic for LSE, but I saw it wasn't addressed)</p>

<p>Some of the reasons I'm familiar with are</p>

<ol>
<li>The pirate doesn't have the money to pay for the software</li>
<li>The pirate wouldn't normally buy the software, but would use it for free</li>
<li>The pirate wants to try the software before they buy a legitimate version</li>
</ol>

<p>Some of the interesting things to think about is that not everyone who pirated the software would have paid for the software anyway. In other words, X number of pirated copies doesn't necessarily translate into (X * price) lost revenue.</p>

<p>Additionally, <a href="https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_study.pdf" rel="noreferrer">the EU found that pirating may actually help software sales</a>.</p>

<p>In my country, pirating is fairly common. It has many reasons, including</p>

<ul>
<li>GDP per capita is much lower than in advanced countries</li>
<li>distribution costs makes prices even higher than in its original country</li>
<li>our language is different, so it's more difficult to spot piracy and enforce good behaviour</li>
<li>our country is small enough that only the largest publishers put in some effort to stop piracy</li>
</ul>

<p>While it's not necessarily true that a pirate couldn't afford a certain movie or computer game, they can acquire <strong>much more</strong> if they pirate all or some of it. For example, if one teenager has to save all their pocket money for one year to buy a single movie or game, while others download a new one every few weeks, then probably they are more inclined to pirate it.</p>

<p>The illegal material are plentiful out there, so the perceived cost of downloading something and probably having bad feelings about it can be lower than the cost of properly buying it.</p>

<p>Also, there is a social side to this. Teens are pressured to watch the same movies, play the same computer games as their peers. Another social aspect is to gain the trust, appreciation or admiration of others. Often pirating means exchanging illegal material between two or more people. It's viewed as a mutually beneficial act, at the expense of the publisher. Also, between "crackers" it's considered a feat to publish the first cracked version of a game.</p>

<p>I am not a lawyer, it's just my opinion what I know about this topic.</p>
