The Response to Online Piracy: The“Three Strikes, You‘re Out” System, Is It Getting the Job Done?

Billions of dollars are lost due to the illegal downloading of copyrighted material. Music, movies, software, and books are pirated online just to name a few. With the rise of the internet, much quicker speeds, and other technological advances, it is now very easy to illegally download online content. Think of trying to steal a CD from a music shop. The stigma of being branded a robber is strong enough to deter most people from committing this kind of crime. However, illegally downloading a music file in the privacy of one’s home takes away this stigma. There is more incentive to commit this type of act. This is one of the many reasons online piracy is on the rise and not on the fall. To battle the online piracy wars, governments have decided on a graduated response system through legislation and through private contract law. The United States has evolved from the DMCA repeat infringer provisions to a graduate response “six strikes you’re out system. The different types of graduated response systems all aim for the same thing, deterring online piracy. The trend of the graduated response is to put more emphasis on education rather than punishment and going after commercial online piracy instead of individuals.