Anti-piracy
Encyclopedia
Anti-piracy is a term used to describe countermeasures against maritime piracy
but moreoften by some to describe the attempt to prevent copyright infringement
, counterfeit
ing, and other violations of intellectual-property
rights.
It includes, but is by no means limited to, the combined efforts of corporate associations (such as the RIAA and MPAA), law enforcement agencies (such as the FBI and Interpol
), and various international governments to combat copyright infringement relating to various types of creative works, such as software, music and films. These measures often come in the form of copy protection
measures such as DRM
. Richard Stallman
and the GNU Project
have criticized the use of the word 'piracy' in these situations, saying that publishers use the word to refer to "copying they don't approve of" and that "they [publishers] imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them."
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
but moreoften by some to describe the attempt to prevent copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
, counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
ing, and other violations of intellectual-property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
rights.
It includes, but is by no means limited to, the combined efforts of corporate associations (such as the RIAA and MPAA), law enforcement agencies (such as the FBI and Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
), and various international governments to combat copyright infringement relating to various types of creative works, such as software, music and films. These measures often come in the form of copy protection
Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...
measures such as DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
. Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
and the GNU Project
GNU Project
The GNU Project is a free software, mass collaboration project, announced on September 27, 1983, by Richard Stallman at MIT. It initiated GNU operating system development in January, 1984...
have criticized the use of the word 'piracy' in these situations, saying that publishers use the word to refer to "copying they don't approve of" and that "they [publishers] imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them."
Examples
- The June 30, 2010 U.S. Immigration and Customs EnforcementU.S. Immigration and Customs EnforcementU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security , responsible for identifying, investigating, and dismantling vulnerabilities regarding the nation's border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security...
crackdown on several video-hosting websites, such as NinjaVideoNinjaVideoNinjaVideo was a website created in February 2008 containing links to uploaded videos of TV shows, movies, and documentaries. Since June 30, 2010, the site has been unavailable, as a result of a multinational anti-piracy effort led by the US federal government. At the centre of the takedown was the...
. - RIAA suing file-sharers that share music over P2PPeer-to-peerPeer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
networks - MPAA encryption of DVD movies using the CSS cipher and prohibiting the distribution and use of DeCSSDeCSSDeCSS is a computer program capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, there was no way for computers running a Linux-based operating system to play video DVDs....
, while also having the effect of banning freeFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
/open source DVD player software. - "Coded Anti-PiracyCoded Anti-PiracyCoded Anti-Piracy is an anti-copyright infringement technology which marks each film print of a motion picture with a distinguishing patterns of dots, used as a forensic identifier to identify the source of illegal copies....
", also called CAP codes, as a way to put a forensic identificationForensic identificationForensic identification is the application of forensic science, or "forensics", and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident. Forensic means "for the courts"....
on the film to trace back illegal copies of films to the source. - Metal Gear SolidMetal Gear Solidis a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
and many other computer games require a piece of information from the game's jewel case for the player to progress after a certain point, making unauthorized copies effectively worthless without the original jewel case; however in the present day, said information can be easily be found on the Internet. - MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
removing Windows VistaWindows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
from various torrent trackers - Certain SNES games such as Super Mario All Stars and Donkey Kong CountryDonkey Kong CountryDonkey Kong Country is a side-scrolling platformer video game developed by Rare, featuring the character Donkey Kong. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994. Following an intense marketing campaign, the original SNES version sold over 8 million copies worldwide, making...
may sometimes show warning screens, usually caused by dirty or damaged cartridges or use of third-party peripherals. - EarthBoundEarthBoundEarthBound, also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! and released as in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console...
(Mother 2) for the SNES, in addition to showing warning screens and drastically increasing the number of enemies, deliberately crashes itself at the final boss fight forcing the player to reset the game; upon attempting to reload the game, the player's saved games are deleted if the copy is detected to be unauthorized. - Spyro 3 for the PS1, in addition to warning screens, removes elements of the game including items needed to be collected, and delibrately crashes and deletes save data on the final boss.
- MegaMan Operate Shooting StarRockman EXE Operate Shooting Staris a Mega Man action role-playing video game published and developed by Capcom for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It was revealed at the 2009 World Hobby Fair in Japan and released on November 12, 2009....
has anti-copying code that causes every step the player takes to reveal an enemy, in an unauthorized copy. - Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 contained code that detected unauthorized game copies and caused all of the player's buildings and units to explode a few seconds into gameplay, effectively rendering the copy useless. However this also ended up being a double edged sword as some players who legitimately owned a copy of the game reported this happening.
- Garry's ModGarry's ModGarry's Mod is a sandbox physics game using the Source engine. Garry's Mod has been available on Steam's content delivery service since November 29, 2006...
has an error code on startup for users who pirated it. The code also contained the users Steam ID, so when they posted the error code on the official forums, they can check the code and ban the user.