Cyberpiracy and morality: Some utilitarian and deontological challenges

pages: 103-117

Abstract

This paper analyses one of the main problems of our time in the world of Internet – cyber piracy. It is often said that it is illegal, since pirates who practice it violate certain domestic and international laws. When we ask for justification of this laws and their enforcement, philosophers and legalists usually apply to one of the two sorts of philosophical arguments - deontology and utilitarianism. The former think that piracy is immoral in itself, while the others argue it should be prevented, otherwise it will produce very bad consequences for society sooner or later, and thus diminish the overall happiness of the society. It will be shown, howe­ver, that both of these arguments, when closely considered, fail with their intention, and, if we decide to follow them, we actually arrive to the very opposite conclusion - piracy is justified. Keywords: cyber piracy, Intellectual Property Rights, deontology, utilitarianism