Open Content and Piracy

Of course Open Content and Piracy are not the same thing and I'm pretty sure some people will be angry and consider it a blasphemy to put both terms in the same sentence. Others will be glad and will say that someone finally put them where they belong: together, claiming that "Open Content" is just an excuse for "Piracy" and denial of Intellectual Property. Actually, I disagree with all of the above.

Difference between Open Content and Piracy

Open Content is about developing content, making it freely available to others and giving consent for its open distribution.

Piracy, on the other hand is freely accessing content, distributing it or making it available to others without consent from its authors or from its legal guardians.

The Open Content Proposition

Truth be told, most open source and open content activists I know do not advocate piracy or don't care about it, choosing to practice a philosophy of using open source applications, reading public domain books and downloading music made freely available by its performers.

Some are not even against the restrictive intellectual property regime in place and simply advocate for compliance with open standards and the availability of options from which users can choose, so people are not forced to use proprietary software just to avoid being able to interact with other people and systems, when there are equivalent open source alternative applications available.

The Piracy Arguments

One could ask if there really is any need for an argument to justify piracy, other than the artificial elements and limitations introduced by corporate interests and the existing and restrictive intellectual property regime.

The position of millions of people from the new digital generation, comes from where we stand in reality. We are able to download video games, movies, songs, TV shows as soon as they are published, launched, distributed or broadcasted.

Yes, it's not legal yet under the current restrictions of the existing and restrictive intellectual property regime imposed to us without consultation and without consideration of the total social value of access to content.

But anyone with Internet access can download the entire collection of his/her favorite artist in one huge download. And sample music, movies, even books and audio books from around the globe.

Many of us buy music cd's all the time and go to the movies every time we have a chance, spending hundreds of dollars and maybe more every year on both items. But reality for is that it's easier for to download an album than to rip mp3's from the originals we own.

I have original albums of my favorite performers. However it was easier for me to download illegal copies of those albums than to sit down several hours and burn them into MP3 files. And of course, while at it, who could resist the temptation of downloading some extra music for which you have no original CD?

To justify downloads, some would argue that a good deal of the music or movies downloaded are not even available on the stores, in particular if you do not live in a large urban center of a developed country, which is the case of most people in the world.

The majority of people around the world can argue that if they dare order any album or movie on-line, they will end up paying more on shipping and handling than for the content itself, plus they will have to wait four to six weeks for delivery, risking not getting it at all in many cases.

There is no doubt that downloaded software and music are easier to use and handle than the original expensive ones people pay for.

So, a good deal of people are currently forced to live a double-life, a life of lies, because they download music and software, just like most young people, hiding and pretending they are something else, like the jews in medieval Europe, the first Christians and gays in many modern societies.

iTunes gave proof to the world that most of us download stuff not because it's free, but because it's more convenient. At US$0.99 a song, kids and grown ups around the world are downloading music 24 hours a day and Apple's machine goes "cash-ing" everytime they hit click.

For the question is, based on our practical experience, our day to day reality, can we, the new digital generation (I know I'm old, but I tag along for the free software and music), can we accept something less than that? Can we accept some controlling chains that keep us from full gratification?