Online piracy, also called digital piracy or internet piracy, is the practice of illegally downloading or redistributing copyrighted digital works such as music, films, or software. Modern online piracy grew rapidly after the 1999 launch of Napster, which let users trade MP3 files over a peer to peer network before a federal court ordered it shut down in 2001; BitTorrent based tools such as uTorrent and Transmission later carried much of that traffic. A 2019 study commissioned by the United States Chamber of Commerce estimated that global online piracy costs the American economy at least 29.2 billion dollars in lost revenue every year, and a 2023 surge recorded roughly 229 billion visits to piracy websites.
Facts
Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Online piracy (Wikipedia)
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
Sources
1. Online piracy (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia, Online piracy, History section
The release of Napster in 1999 caused a rapid upsurge in online piracy of music, films, and television, though it always maintained a focus on music in the MP3 format.
- Associated With: Cybercrime
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