Author: Scott Piercy

Editor: Nigel Woodford 

An increasingly hot topic of discussion, the infringement of copyright has become a divisive issue. As technology catches up with and surpasses copyright holders’ ability to protect their works, more and more invasive technologies come to the fore. Real privacy concerns abound as well, as copyright holders become more insistent and bold about protecting their content.

You can naively argue the simple "it's right, it's wrong" approach to determine where you personally stand on the issue of copyright infringement, but the world rarely blesses us with the ability to categorize complex issues so easily. Let's take a deeper look into the actual issues, along with some historical perspective so that we can have a better understanding of what's really taking place.

Many think that this is a relatively new issue. History though, shows us that it's anything but recent. As long as human beings have been living in organized societies, reaping the benefits of technology, they have had to embrace and adapt to the societal shifts caused by technology. In every historical instance involving a technological impact, it is the society that has to adapt to those consequences, rather than the other way around. Oftentimes those consequences are quite unforeseen, even by the people who are responsible for the development of those technologies.

Fast forward. Today we see the internet becoming an utterly pervasive aspect in our lives, and even in its infancy having fundamental impacts on society at large. While I could write an entire book about those impacts, I'll limit myself to how these impacts relate to the two most popular entertainment mediums, audio and video. As I hope you'll see, it's not a black and white issue at all.