geekosystem

Who ever would have thought that one of the most relevant issues to copyright infringement and piracy in the 21st century would be something as seemingly insignificant as a semantic distinction? Yet, here we are. Granted, "copyright infringement" is an unweildy term, and "piracy" is one that can feel overly broad, but "theft" -- in almost any digital context -- is flat-out inaccurate and, frankly, misleading. Many people, myself included, will get dragged into arguments all the time for saying "piracy is not theft" and having it misconstrued as some kind of value statement. It isn't; it's a statement of fact. But beyond all that, there's another reality of digital media sharing, consumption, and control that is woefully ignored: Piracy is literally not theft, but the unwarranted takedown of non-infringing material is.

Ever since the takedown of MegaUpload, other cyberlockers have been a little antsy. If it can happen to the biggest player in the game, it can probably happen to whoever steps up to fill that pair of shoes. FileSonic, for instance, stopped allowing file-sharing at all, and BTJunkie -- a torrent site -- went whole-hog and completely shut down. RapidShare, another big player in the cyberlocker game, is trying to stay alive and has recently released an anti-piracy manifesto, detailing the extreme lengths to which they are going to completely avoid piracy. Besides taking anti-piracy far more seriously than any other cyberlocker to date, RapidShare's manifesto explains these measures as "responsible practices" and encourages all other cyberlockers to do the same.