Cultural values and moral legitimacy: copyright infringement vs piracy

Cultural values and moral legitimacy: copyright infringement vs piracy

In the case of copyright infringement which is distinctly different from piracy we have the cultural value of sharing is caring up against the economic profit motive. Generally the sharing is caring value wins out because people perceive copyright infringement to be a victim-less crime while they at the same time perceive sharing to be of benefit to their friends. File sharing is popular because sharing is part of human nature.

Piracy on the other hand if the example is selling another's intellectual property is not a victim-less crime because it does take profits away from rights holders and gives those profits to pirates. Ultimately cultural values are not always correlated with licit or illicit activity on the local or global scale, because there are usually competing values between different groups.

An example could be free speech, this is a value which would be supported by some groups in some situations and opposed by other groups in other situations. The result is that in most countries and in most cultures speech is regulated. Absolute free speech does not exist, yet the ideal of free speech remains within certain cultures.

The stratum is a region of the brain responsible for subjective value coding. (Jean-Claude, 2009). Values are subjective because the human brain relies on it's ability to make calculations with regard to environment or under the influence of the environment. The environment itself influences the values of it's inhabitants because the environment itself and the situations of the subjects within it determine the direction of their goals.

“In order to learn about, and adapt to, an ever-changing environment an individual must have a representation of current and future goals and an ability to evaluate the outcomes of past actions. Thus, evaluative and predictive computations of rewards and punishments are essential to guide future decisions and enable decision making to attain (and maintain) a goal-directed focus.” (Jean- Claude, 2009).

This of course relies on the expectation that the subject would make the most rational choice from the range of choices they believe they have. The problems of regulating illicit activity in specific become apparent when the illicit activity becomes easier or more rewarding than the licit activity. So if we look at copyright infringement, it could be predicted based on neuro-science that music, movies, and other media offer a subjective value based on stimuli. Music for instance soothes the brain, is addictive, is generally considered pleasurable stimuli. Sharing with friends is also generally considered to be pleasurable stimuli as FMRI can show that sharing lights up specific regions of the brain.(Tankersley, Stowe, Huettel, 2007).

The current neuro-science shows that altruism is hardwired into the brain so that when environmental conditions allow for the expression of it, there is a high probability of it being expressed. In the case of copyright infringement it's a matter of altruism and neuron-psychology which shapes the on-line behavior. In the case of piracy it's a bit different as it's an economic decision. These cultural values can be restrained but never completely defeated unless defeated technologically, so legally trying to fight copyright infringement is bound to fail while technologically making it much easier for the vast majority of people to find and use genuine products as opposed to pirated products would reduce the demand for pirated products which would in turn reduce the supply.

References

Farjami, S. (2012). Is There a Place for Cyberethics? A Conceptual Look at the Effects of Cybertechnology on Ethics and Communications in Cyberspace. Asian Social Science, 8(4), 148-152. doi:10.5539/ass.v8n4p148

Jean-Claude, D. (2009). Chapter 6: Decomposing brain signals involved in value-based decision making. Handbook Of Reward And Decision Making, 135,137-135,163. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-374620-7.00006-6

Tankersley, D., Stowe, C., & Huettel, S. (2007). Altruism is associated with an increased neural response to agency. Nature Neuroscience, 10(2), 150-151.

Harvard. (2009, September 04). Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01 "THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER" YouTube. Retrieved from