There have been myths around digital piracy since it started with the beginning of the internet. People have their beliefs as accepted facts because their peers carry them over a period of time. Slowly and steadily, some myths are unfurled and broken by people who have experienced the truth.
If you don’t seed, there is no tracking:
Many people believe that if you don’t download files from sites, there will be no seeding, hence no tracking. However, companies taking copyrights and governments have become more intelligent than before. They keep a constant vigil on your internet activity, and the moment you start a download, they will catch you because when the file starts to download, it is already shared.
Therefore, regardless of how much you have downloaded or shared, you are guilty of piracy.
Everything is pirated:
Not everything that is created is available on pirate sites like thepirateproxybay. Only the copyrighted content of value to people for entertainment is generally available on pirate sites. Serious content like research and classified documents are not available on pirate sites.
VPN connection alone is a guarantee for security:
This is a complete myth. Yes, VPN does help you stay unnoticed to a certain limit, but even the best VPN is no guarantee for your security from regulatory agencies. They have the best talent and technology to find people using pirate sites.
The continuous shutdown of pirate sites all over the globe is enough proof that VPN cannot save you alone. You have to stay cautious while using pirate bay sites and torrenting.
People pirate because of monetary issues:
Monetary issues can be a reason for some, but most people pirate for the thrill of sharing content that is not freely available. Even if you put a zero-dollar tag on a certain content that becomes popular, you will find millions of people looking for pirated content rather than paid content.
Only young people are involved in digital piracy:
Although many people are involved in using the torrenting websites , this is a complete myth because using pirate sites is for the thrill and looking for content that is not freely available. Therefore, it is not solely the prerogative of the young generation to use pirate sites.
Anti-piracy laws have little effect:
On the surface, you don’t come across anti-piracy laws very often. But, once you make an infringement, you can feel the pinch of anti-piracy laws, especially in countries like US and UK, where these laws are very stringent, and the government has gone all out against torrent sites.
Many pirate bay sites have closed down due to constant action by regulatory authorities, which shows that although pirate bay sites come up with new sites every few years, regulatory authorities are not lagging or far behind.
Piracy does not affect sales:
Many experts believe and try to convince people through data that even with piracy of content, the sales of all contents have gone further, and therefore piracy has little or no effect on sales of content. But what many people don’t realize is that with the population of the globe increasing every day, the number of viewers for legal content would have been many times higher if piracy of content had not taken place.
Further, if there is no effect of piracy on content sales, why would companies releasing new content every week employ so many regulators and block their content with passwords and other systems. Definitely, there is a significant impact of piracy on content sales. Nobody can deny that if piracy is eliminated, companies releasing new content would realize many more times for their efforts compared to what they get today.
Free content is what people want:
This is absolutely untrue. Suppose you compare the revenue for content today with the revenue of yesterday. In that case, you will realize that the number of people interested in buying content rather than obtaining it for free has increased significantly. The number of people involved in piracy of content is on a decline with each passing year.