Piracy _ Jail-walking or theft
Case Analysis
Online Piracy – Jaywalking or Theft
Justifying what is right or wrong when trying to explain intellectual property rights is a difficult task. Those who become advocates for strong IP (intellectual property) protections underline that technological (such as in our case – video game duplication) innovations take extensive energy and skill sets in order to create; however, they are very easy to copy. Therefore replicating material suppresses innovation.
Then there are those who think that such material is free and easy to download directly on the device of choice without any physical or tangible add-ons. Advocates of such behaviour argue that file sharing technology grows creativity and allows unlimited possibilities to manipulate any kind of content, such as video games. These people simply do not think of the copyright company but of themselves and what they gain by doing as such. .
Bryan Lee seems to be a great supporter and fan of the developer (company) however he ran into a very unpleasant situation which forced him to take a drastic decision about his future. Like any good customer, Brian called customer service who unfortunately ended up accusing him (by insinuation) that he purchased a forged material and that this is why he is having problems with the process. (Beamish & Beamish, 2012) Customer service is set up in such a way that the company must be represented through the voice of one person. Without proper training, the employees can damage or even destroy the image of a company. Brian seems to be a very educated and informed young man who did his research beforehand on the matter. Customer supports seems to be integrating Brian into a minority group which can be perceived by the receiver as non-important. Also customer support made it a personal issue by stating how many sales they have lost because a piracy issue and felt to be very defensive on the matter which allowed Brian to attack the outrageous behaviour. (Beamish &
Online Piracy – Jaywalking or Theft
Justifying what is right or wrong when trying to explain intellectual property rights is a difficult task. Those who become advocates for strong IP (intellectual property) protections underline that technological (such as in our case – video game duplication) innovations take extensive energy and skill sets in order to create; however, they are very easy to copy. Therefore replicating material suppresses innovation.
Then there are those who think that such material is free and easy to download directly on the device of choice without any physical or tangible add-ons. Advocates of such behaviour argue that file sharing technology grows creativity and allows unlimited possibilities to manipulate any kind of content, such as video games. These people simply do not think of the copyright company but of themselves and what they gain by doing as such. .
Bryan Lee seems to be a great supporter and fan of the developer (company) however he ran into a very unpleasant situation which forced him to take a drastic decision about his future. Like any good customer, Brian called customer service who unfortunately ended up accusing him (by insinuation) that he purchased a forged material and that this is why he is having problems with the process. (Beamish & Beamish, 2012) Customer service is set up in such a way that the company must be represented through the voice of one person. Without proper training, the employees can damage or even destroy the image of a company. Brian seems to be a very educated and informed young man who did his research beforehand on the matter. Customer supports seems to be integrating Brian into a minority group which can be perceived by the receiver as non-important. Also customer support made it a personal issue by stating how many sales they have lost because a piracy issue and felt to be very defensive on the matter which allowed Brian to attack the outrageous behaviour. (Beamish &
Bibliography: Beamish, A., Beamish, P. (2012). Online Piracy: Jaywalking or theft. Ivey. Retrieved from https://learn.macewan.ca/bbcswebdav/pid-416759-dt-content-rid-809510_1/courses/004476-01-2149-1-OP91-92081/Online%20Piracy%20-%20Jaywalking%20or%20Theft.pdf on September 21st, 2014.