Editorial: Making a break with the tradition of piracy

Which, if any, location will be next to host their ilk is unknown as yet, but Polish piracy - as a common practice - is going nowhere.

In Poland the tradition of intellectual-property infringement stretches back to the heady days of the VCR, when video cassettes containing episodes of Dallas and Dynasty, recorded over to a point that skewed sound and picture quality, were swapped under the noses of the communist authorities. In many communities, extended family and friends would gather to watch the illicit Western programs in what was, in its own way, an act of defiance.

Apologists for digital theft might suggest that the Polish anti-authoritarian streak is a contributing factor. A more globally applicable (and defensible) argument points to the economic disparity between more developed, media-rich markets and their poorer brethren, in which piracy runs rampant.

There is merit in the second argument. Moreover, there is an arrogance implicit in Western nations' outcry over piracy in under-developed nations, particularly when the "best solutions" they're putting forward, along the lines of Microsoft Vista's integrated digital-rights-management (DRM) architecture, do nothing to address the root of the problem. These are, in other words, proscriptive rather than medicative approaches.

In dealing with media piracy there is no 100-percent solution - theft arguably predates any concept of property. However, reducing the rate of piracy in Poland to Western levels is a worthy project. Open-source software, web-based programs and digital download all offer promise, while bigger players like Microsoft should release products priced to the local market, if at the cost of a few bells and whistles. It will take some incentive to get Poles to break with tradition.