Mock Anti-Piracy Ad Summarizes the State of the Issue

Authored by Scott Goldberg on September 11, 2007 - 6:25pm.

The importance that piracy plays in the news has waxed and waned over the years. Of late the idea of piracy enforcement has become a laughable affair, as the battle between those who want to punish pirates versus those who want to steal music, television shows, and films has become ridiculous in the eyes of those who see it as a hopeless, and therefore humorous, affair. One group seems to have summarized that sentiment in a video clip you can see here. And having been viewed almost 400,000 times in the three days since its posting, it’s clear the public identifies as well.

On the neutral side of the argument – that is, as the argument is perceived to every day people who neither enforce anti-piracy laws nor break them – the issue is one of supply and demand in which our insatiable appetite for content, and the ability to get that content anywhere and everywhere, is too much for policymakers to overcome.

Stopping piracy is like stopping performance enhancing drugs in sports. The pace of research in designing new drugs, and the athletes seeking the edge that undetectable new drugs provide, is always a step beyond the research for detection methods.

And so it is with piracy. The battle between anti-piracy enforcers and pirates seems endless. Thankfully someone’s making fun of the tension.

Scott Goldberg