Currently, one of the most popular parts of our culture today is piracy. When this topic is discussed, many men and women think of what appears to be the most common type: Internet piracy. However, there are actually a number of different ways individuals take part in this illegal activity.

According to www.symantec.com, there are at least five different forms of piracy. These include counterfeiting, internet piracy, end-user piracy, client-server overuse and hard-disk loading.

With all of these various forms of piracy being invented, free access to movies, music, books, software and other items that could otherwise be considered expensive to the average consumer is now very easy to gain. Downloading your favorite technology or entertainment products for free can be fun, not to mention light on your budget. Although, as innocent as it may seem, piracy is the same thing as stealing.

According to www.dslreports.com, piracy is not new and is in fact a form of theft. Downloading any form of copyrighted media for free without the license to do so is exactly the same thing as walking out of a store with items that you did not purchase.

Piracy can have numerous effects on a lot of things, but one of the worst results of piracy is the lack of money going into the music industry every time a song is downloaded for free. According to the music website www.riaa.com, the annual loss of money for the music business due to piracy is an estimated $12.5 billion.

Also, when an item is taken and not paid for, something other than money is at stake. Individuals who download things without paying for them are also putting the jobs of other people at risk because that company is losing money every time one of their items is taken for free.

Before you think about downloading that song you love or the movie you can’t wait to see without paying for it, consider what is being put at risk before making
a decision.