At my school, all English 4 students are assigned a project referred to as the "Senior Project". The idea behind this project is that the student must choose a current issue and argue for a specific side of the issue. For this project, I chose the issue of piracy. Specifically, I chose to defend the piracy of discontinued media.
The term "discontinued media" refers to items that are removed from the consumer market or simply unavailable in certain areas of the world. Note that this project primarily focuses on entertainment media such as films and video games due to their relationship with piracy.
The major points of my argument consist of the following:
One of the most obvious issues surrounding discontinued media is the difficulty in obtaining it, so some naturally choose to obtain these items through illicit means such as piracy. Conversely, the price of discontinued items also goes up with demand, causing these items to cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Confused? Go and try to buy a copy of EarthBound on eBay.It has long been known that the purpose of copyright is to protect a creator's right to their work, and therefore any profit they may make from it. However, media that can no longer be sold is incapable of making money for the creator. Instead, the items are sold by second-hand sellers, who are partially responsible for the drastic increase in item prices as mentioned previously.
The most unfortunate consequence of modern copyright law is its restrictions on media preservation efforts. These efforts mostly consist of work for media archives, which are mainly created for educational purposes. Since copyright law naturally protects recent materials, many archives avoid using them, but even media that has been fully discontinued is also subject to these laws, severely impacting the educational sphere.
"Copyright law needs to change." This a sentiment that many people (and some experts) agree with in some way, but it is undeniable that these laws have negative impacts on media collectors, archivists, and even students. Without proper adjustments being made, society and its facets which rely on archived materials risk being harmed further as more and more items become discontinued.
Modern humans are introspective. We study our past mistakes, build upon old ideas, and learn constantly so that we can take the utmost advantage that the future may hold. However, with limited access to educational materials, inconvenience is introduced. Any reduction in this inconvenience could be beneficial, arguably.
My paper on the subject can be viewed here: