Piracy becomes hot trend among teens
An unknown man steals movies online on a computer.
Pirates used to be great swashbucklers who were chased through the seven seas, but now they are teens in their living room.
Piracy is the unauthorized use or reproduction of the movies, television, music, books, or any other trademarked products. Piracy started as the counterfeiting of money, but slowly evolved into something that does not seem illegal. Piracy has plagued most countries and entertainment production companies around the world from Disney to Nintendo which, as reported by the United States Chamber of Commerce in 2021, caused an 11% to 24% revenue reduction.
Lately, there has been a rise in teens pirating their favorite television shows and music. Hamilton Southeastern High School junior Max Johnson engages in piracy to catch his favorite shows and movies. He said he engages in piracy mainly to watch obscure and older content he can not find anywhere else.
“I come from a more privileged area, and I don’t have to worry about not having streaming services or anything,” Johnson said. “I don’t mind waiting a bit longer to see [content] on streaming but sometimes you can not ever find it.”
Johnson attributes the rise of piracy to the easier access to the internet and a new mindset teens possess: that they are only one person pirating. Johnson said this mindset was put in his head early from his parents pirating movies and from looking at media companies revenue amounts.
“There are hundreds of millions of people who consume media every day,” Johnson said. “I’m not anti-corporation or anything, but one pirated viewing is not going to affect their bottom line at all.”
Johnson feels it is very important for people who pirate to engage in it with the right mindset. He said people should pirate to help preserve content.
“We’re moving into an era where a lot of things are digital: movies, music, video games, even books,” Johnson said. “If we leave it only to these companies to store and preserve these pieces of art, I do not think we will keep these sort of things alive.”
John Creek High School senior Ethan Palgeon feels people pirating content is still not right for any reason. He said that teens do not consider the bigger picture.
“A lot of people go into making movies,” Palgeon said. “By pirating movies these people don’t get money. Just like any other human, they need money to survive.”
Palgeon said that people are not just pirating because of the increased access to the internet. He feels that there are external factors from media companies that are influencing people to pirate.
“I know Netflix recently is trying to crack down on people sharing passwords,” Palgeon said.I think it has caused an uptick in pirated movies. Everyone wants to go against what the big companies are saying and boycott them.”
Southeastern High School senior Nichole Moore feels the opposite. She said pirating can be used as a way to let entertainment companies know they are unhappy.
“I do not support [JK Rowling],” Moore said. “I do not want to continue to watch HBO Max and send them the message that they should continue to support her.”
Hamilton Southeastern High School junior Joshua Logan has the in-between view that piracy is both bad and good. He said piracy may take money away from companies but it has unintentionally become integrated into everyone’s lives making it a common way to connect with friends and family.
“I’ve watched a few movies with my friends that were pirated, which were pay per view events,” Logan said. “I didn’t even think at the time those boxing matches and UFC fights were pirated.”
Logan thinks piracy feels so normal nowadays because it is not new. He said it has always been a part of his life since he was young. But this normalcy has led to people to ignore the dangers that do exist with piracy.
“If you go to some sketchy website on your computer you may get a virus,” Logan said. “You just have to know the right sites and do the research and know the risks before you pirate.”
In the end, Logan said that the risks of piracy and the benefits of piracy do not outweigh each other.
“It is up to the eye of the beholder to determine if they should pirate,” Logan said. “You may save yourself $40, but you may miss out on a fun experience in theaters.”