Media piracy

Overview

Media piracy, more frequently referred to by more specific terms such as software piracy, music piracy, and movie piracy, refers both to:

The practice of illegally copying a source work (software, music, movie, or other)
The idea that such copying is morally equivalent to (traditional) piracy, which is presumed to refer both mass theft of valuables and tangible harm to the copyright holder

There seems to be a rising tide of opinion that calling such copying "piracy" or even "theft" is a serious overstatement of the situation.

This is a growing seedling article. You can help Issuepedia by watering it.

Copyright holders often employ various methods of copy protection to physically prevent (what they believe to be) media piracy, i.e. illegal copying of their intellectual property.