by Douglas Black

Created on: April 20, 2009

Interestingly, the word piracy has always had an air of mystique or adventure, despite the true nature of these heinous crimes. In the days of old, piracy was nothing more than a band of
scallywags riding the seven seas in search for a vessel to pillage and plunder of all its valuable belongings. Keeping in mind that piracy is no longer limited to any actions committed on open water, they also exist here on dry land.

Now, long after the days of Spanish galleons and pirate ships, there is another form of modern day piracy. Sure, there are still a few incidences of old-fashioned pirates, raiding and pillaging, but with the new age, comes a new form of crime.

Copyright infringement is the unauthorized use or reproduction of any material that is covered by a copyright law. Basically, if you have a copyright, any attempt to reproduce, perform or make derivative works is considered a criminal offense related to piracy. How does piracy affect the economy? This is a difficult question to discuss without raising a few eyebrows, or spawning a heated debate, but it doesn't take an accountant to know it has a drastic impact on economics.

Honestly, piracy whether upon water or land is going to have some kind of affect on the economy! Piracy, modern or archaic, starts from the top, affecting the victim, such as the artist or copyright holder, and trickles down, eventually impacting even the meager tax payers, whom had little to no contribution to the actual act. Lets consider the example of the heavy metal band Metallica, whom between 2000 and 2001 launched one of the largest lawsuits against one of the largest on-line peer-to-peer file-sharing network, Napster.

It all started when one of their unreleased tracks "I disappear" was leaked, prior to its release on the Mission Impossible II soundtrack. Soon, after radio stations and the Internet were saturated with pirated copies of the song, which greatly affected the overall sales of the album upon release. Drummer, Lars Ulrich was quoted saying: "We take our craft - whether it be the music, the lyrics, or the photos and artwork - very seriously, as do most artists. It is therefore sickening to know that our art is being traded like a commodity rather than the art that it is." He also indicated that Metallica was being robbed of much deserved profits, to this new-age form of crime.

Interestingly, Metallica and many other music artists have finally accepted that the World Wide Web is a medium much to broad to ever control, and although

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