Argh Is Not the Answer

To more effectively stop people from putting stuff online without permission from the copyright holder advocates need a better metaphor than piracy.

That words matter in politics isn’t news. Everyone from Aristotle through Edelman, and Lakoff to Luntz, and many more have written about the power of words. Words tell us what the debate is about and define possible policies. If “pro-life” is used in the abortion debate the focus is on the fetus as a separate living being and the outcome must be to restrict or eliminate abortions. If on the other hand “pro-choice” is used the focus is on the pregnant woman, she is given power and the outcome must be to allow abortions.

Which brings us to pirates.

Music, movies, television shows, and sporting events are routinely posted online without the copyright owner’s permission. This is illegal and costs copyright holder’s revenue directly through theft and indirectly through costs associated with monitoring the internet, pursuing violators and lobbying for better rules.

Copyright holders are losing the battle to protect their works. Part of this is a matter of law and part of it is a matter of culture. A lot of piracy is committed by people who don’t think of themselves as thieves. A lot of illegal file sharing is done by teens and college kids who would never shoplift a candy bar. Calling these folks pirates doesn’t help.

An Ask.com search for “pirate” returns more than 9,700,000 hits. The first two are for “talk like a pirate day.” Ask college students to think of a pirate and they tell you about Johnny Depp. Those students, many of whom regularly share copyrighted material, would never think of themselves as pirates. Talking to students about stopping online piracy just doesn’t make sense because it defines them as guys who say argh, chase wenches and drink rum. Indeed, one of the leading sources of unauthorized copyrighted material is called Pirate Bay and plays up the romantic notion of swashbuckling adventurers taking on powerful forces (the web site features a picture of an island with different areas called things like “Lawyers Gallow” (sic) and “Grave of MPAA”).

Advocates for copyright protection need to find a new metaphor, a new word to encapsulate the debate. The term should identify those doing the posting as violating both the law and social norms, identify the copyright holders as victims and set policy directions that lead to greater protection of intellectual property.

The obvious questions are how one goes about figuring out what that word is, and what some of the possible options are. Both of those questions will be addressed in another post.

(In the interest of full disclosure, Milo Public Affairs represents Vin Di Bona Productions whose show “America’s Funniest Home Videos” is routinely posted online without permission and Milo’s Principal, Peter Loge, sits on the Board of the Copyright Alliance. The views here do not necessarily reflect those of Milo’s clients or the Copyright Alliance.)