Piracy forum misguided

When was the last time you pirated music? For many people I know, it's such a casual habit that they wouldn't be able to answer that question because they just don't think about it. Colleges have always been bastions of progress, ever since the first institutes of advanced study were opened in ancient Greece. Copyright transgressions are a reflection of this. Regardless of the moral, ethical or legal ramifications of the act, it reflects a huge flaw in the trade of intellectual property.

It's simple economics—if getting the file for free costs less in combined legal risk and moral dissatisfaction than buying it costs in sheer money, then an individual will very likely choose to take that risk unless it costs them more than they gain from the file. You wouldn't buy a song you don't like, and you probably wouldn't pirate it either. This argument demonstrates why the recording industry is an example of why the United States is not home to a true capitalist economy. I am a radical feminist, and as part of my more left-leaning beliefs, I oppose this "capitalist" system that oppresses people of lower social privilege than others. But that doesn't mean I oppose capitalism, because a true capitalist society would be one where the prices of goods and the payments for services would have no regulation to favor those who already have money, which intellectual property laws are an example of.

These—and many others—are the sociological problems with the Vassar Computer Information Services's recent "forum" on so-called internet piracy, but there are further problems relating to the structure of this forum. Rather than have somebody who teaches Networks give an explanation of how copyright holders catch pirates, the College has decided to exclude the people who actually understand anonymity and identity on the internet in favor of people who are more familiar with the penalties associated. Is it really wise to omit a neutral perspective from any discussion, let alone one this controversial?

—Erin Clarke '11 is a computer science major.