Encyclopedia of Science - Technology - and Ethics

Question: Discuss about the Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. Answer: The Scenario: Tendency and occurrence of video piracy and illegal downloading of videos from various sites are showing an increasing trend. A recent study lead by Robert Eres, a PhD student of Monash University has brought about a clear insight into the working of brain while engaged in stealing tangible and intangible goods. According to the research which studied the brain activity of 127 people who were made to imagine things- tangible and intangible, it was found that, it was difficult for people to imagine intangible objects compared to tangible goods. Next, they were asked to imagine stealing tangible and intangible goods. The observation was that the area of brain associated with guilt was less activated in the latter case compared to the former instance. This is the very reason why downloading a movie or song from a site without payment or permission is not perceived as a grave crime unlike taking away a bag or toy from a store. Even law abiding citizens who never resort to do the latter e ngage themselves in the former activity because of this very perception issue. The people engaged in this activity are only taking into account their action and are not thinking about the collective behavior and the results that arise from it. Many recent new items point to this direction. According to Powell (2014), there is no law to penalize people who download content for personal viewing and is just a civil issue when commercial viewing does not happen. Another important issue associated with video piracy is that it is supposed to be a victimless crime which gives all the more reasons for the perpetrators to continue on the same path. The Stakeholders: 1. The pirates or the people hosting the illegal download sites 2. The individuals actually performing the task of downloading 3. The film or video producers, people engaged in creative endeavors, people in cinema and television who can be grouped under the umbrella term of victims Ethical Issues: 1. Piracy which is a breach to intellectual property rights of the producers or the copyright holders. 2. Rights of many people who have been mentioned in the list of victims above are being violated by the few people who are engaged in this activity. 3. Piracy affects creativity and innovations in the field. Non-Ethical Issues: 1. Job losses 2. The perceived rights of the pirates. 3. Price rise associated with piracy 4. When the viewer depend on the low quality pirated stuff the reputation of the movie maker itself gets affected Consequences: 1. Many people are involved in the making of a movie like the producer, the director, actors, technicians, distributers and so on. Their lives as well as lives of their dependents are intrinsically linked with the returns they obtain from this endeavor. In reality this is not a victimless crime as seen from the part of the perpetrators. 2. A lot of creativity and innovations are involved in the creation of a movie or any new video for that matter. When it is being pirated without any benefits for the creators it amounts to violation of their rights and discourages new creations from being made. 3. The job losses that are resulted because of the lack of enough returns will adversely affect the lives of many people engaged in the various stages of the production activity. 4. It will also adversely affect the genuine audience as the price for them would increase to keep up with the lost income on the other side. 5. It in many cases leads to penalizing the innocent people whose assets are made use of by the pirates. 6. The people making use of these sites to download movies and videos are unaware of the legal and ethical adversities caused by their action as these are intangible goods and the general perception of piracy as a victimless crime. They are in many cases penalized for their ignorance and might not do so if they know about the consequences of their action. 7. The movie and industry is getting threatened by this very tendency of piracy (Strauss, 2013). Ethical Analysis Consequentialism Consequentialism is a theory of ethics where the ends or the consequences arising from an action determine if it is right or wrong. In this theory of ethics the circumstance, the previous happenings that led to this particular action and other instances are not taken into consideration to determine the rightness or wrongness of any action Sinnott- Amstrong (2015). While analyzing this particular action of pirating videos and movies the end effect on the various stakeholders is invariably negative. The victims include a wide range of people and all their lives are jeopardized because of the actions of the people who perform this crime (Spinello Tavani, 2004). The jobs, means of livelihood, creativity, innovative bent of mind are all negatively affected by piracy. The intellectual property rights of the copyright owners are violated by this action. Thus piracy is in no way ethical when analyzed using the theory of consequentialism as the end it results in is invariably negative and wr ong to the victims of the action. Just Consequentialism Theory of just consequentialism was developed by James H Moor in 1999 with an aim to provide solution to ethical issues involving computers and computer networks. It simply is consequentialism constrained by justice. There are a set of core values and rights that all humans have and know about and practice like lives, happiness, autonomy etc. When they do not harm these rights of others they are being ethical (Mitcham, 2005). But in case of piracy the people who are doing this activity when using their right of happiness through entertainment are interfering with same right of others who are the victims of this action. The right of the creators, producers and others involved in the creation of the art form is being curtailed and this cannot be justified. So piracy can be said to be unethical when the principle of just consequentialism is applied. Options: Better laws and regulations can be brought by the governments to make breaching of copyrights and IPR a serious offence. People who make use of these sites for downloading illegal content can be made aware of the seriousness of the issue Those who think that piracy is a victimless crime should be made aware that this is not so and many people and their lives are affected by this illegal action Care should be taken to ensure that the laws and regulations are being implemented properly. Efforts should be made to bring about innovations in the technology to prevent piracy. Conclusions : Many people who download from the various sites does not actually know about the various people whose lives are affected by them doing so. Creating awareness among people so can help to curb piracy to a great level. The loopholes available in laws and regulations are misused by the hosts of various sites. Strong laws so, to a large extend can prevent piracy from happening References : Mitcham, C. (2005).Encyclopedia of science, technology, and ethics. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference USA. Powell, R. (2014).Downloading movies and TV is not a crime.The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from https://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/downloading-movies-and-tv-is-not-a-crime-20141126-11uyie.html Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2015).Consequentialism.Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/ Spinello, R. Tavani, H. (2004).Readings in cyberethics. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Strauss, K. (2013).Tv and film piracy threatening an industry.Forbes.com. Retrieved 20 May 2016, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2013/03/06/tv-and-film-piracy-threatening-an-industry/#4779673f5e0e