Clouseau would have better luck than these daft new proposals

A recent report in the Independent newspaper in England outlined the government’s plans to put the onus on ISPs to help track down people who illegally download copyright material such as music and films. Under the scheme, Internet companies would be responsible for identifying and reporting illegal downloaders who then face large fines and having their access to the Internet withdrawn among other things. In all honesty, this has to be one of the daftest ideas I have heard in a long time.

Surely it would be much better to go after the people who upload the illegal files in the first place? First off, there are fewer of them so it should be easier and cheaper to catch them. There’s also the fact that in order to rent the space on a web server where you can store the files, you need to provide your name, address and credit card details. Now I’m no criminologist but I’d imagine that this would be pretty much all you’d need if you wanted to send a police car around to pick up some evil wrong-doers. The current approach is a bit like turning around and saying that you’re only going to concentrate on catching drug users and not the dealers, presumably because drug dealers are but humble shopkeepers.

Illegal downloads have also made an appearance in the translation industry, albeit to a lesser extent. I once had a student bound excitedly into class saying that he had found a “really cool website where you can download Trados for free”. Intrigued, I asked him about the site. He said “yeah, once you get past the porn ads and the pop-ups there’s this link…”. What the student had found was a crackz site. Nothing to do with drugs, crackz are hacked versions of software with the licence mechanisms removed or bypassed so you can, in theory at least, use the software for free. Software like Trados has long been a favourite and it goes to show that even translators with their impeccable moral standards can be tempted. At one point a few years ago crackz were so prevalent that I actually had to incorporate them into my technologies course. Not just because I agree with them but because of the hidden dangers of using crackz.

The problem with these sites, as my student found out, is that they are usually riddled with all sorts of viruses, malware and ads for pornography.

Computer piracy: It's not all rum and wenches

Then, even if you do manage to get past the flurry of boobs and other body parts, the software you download can contain Trojan horses which will do all sorts of bad things to your computer from stealing information to turning it into a zombie computer ready for the next large-scale, headline-grabbing assault on some high-profile Internet target. So by saving a few quid on downloading free software you could kill your computer and probably get yourself put on some FBI watch-list. Not worth the hassle really, is it?

Still, you can see why some people are tempted by offers of free software. The sheer price of many products can often seem unreasonable. Of course a lot of time and effort goes into developing these applications and companies don’t develop products for the hell of it. However, some companies are so bloated in terms of workforce and bureaucracy that their prices are artificially inflated. In the current economic climate you have to wonder whether this is a sensible way of doing things.

The long and the short of it is that piracy isn’t cool, it’s theft and by downloading files you are robbing people of well-earned payment, recognition and possibly even their jobs. Also, by stealing stuff you are hitting yourself somewhere else – in the case of music, your favourite band may get dropped before they get to their second album or you’ll get stung with exorbitant ticket and merchandise prices; in the case of software there’ll be less choice, more expensive support and training. Either way, you’ll be hurting yourself. But having said all that, companies could do more to understand why people feel it’s ok to download illegally and look at their pricing structures. People aren’t inherently criminals, so why turn them into that?