The Anachronism of E-book Piracy

By convention, piracy essentially refers to robbery at sea. The crime lies here in the violent theft of property. [1] What I question first, though, is whether the analogy of online piracy, in particular e-book piracy, is accurate. To start with, online piracy involves no violence. This pares the problem down to theft, and thereby the idea of ownership of property. Theft, which is basically a change of possession of physical property without the owner’s voluntary and informed consent, is problematic because it necessarily deprives the owner of his own property through wrongful means. However, digitized material such as e-books is different in the sense that it can be shared without deprivation to others. In this respect, insofar as the analogy of “piracy” is meant to designate theft, the term “online piracy” is a misnomer.

[6] H. Ward Classen, A Practical Guide to Software Licensing for Licensees and Licensors (USA: American Bar Association, 2007), p. 16