Various points attacking DCI are often raised in educational campaigns, ranging from potential lawsuits to ethics. It is imperative that we understand these arguments to form an informed opinion of DCI. In this section, we present these arguments.

The Law and DCI

Lawsuits are often traumatizing experiences, and often not worth the supposed benefits of committing an illegal act. In this section, we explore this consequence of engaging in DCI.

Less cost, less quality

Very much similar to branded goods, unlicensed copies of copyrighted work, specifically software and movies, are of inferior quality compared to the originals. Users of unlicensed software will have to make do without technical support, and the integrity of the data is suspect.

Ethics

Ethics has often been raised as a point in criticism of DCI, that firstly, it is inherently wrong to benefit from another’s work without proper remuneration and secondly, DCI deprives the creator of profit.

Future Development

The creative industry can arguably be said to work in a cyclical manner; creators release a piece of work, and, with profits generated from its sales, improve upon that piece of work or create other pieces of work, hence fuelling a positive spiral of continual improvement.

Funding of Terrorist Groups

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Intellectual Property Committee and the Interpol, have provided evidence to show that many terrorist organizations are funded by the production or sale of pirated discs. It is likely that the large potential profits and relatively low penalties, especially in developing countries where enforcement of copyright is not so stringent, are factors which attracted these terrorist groups to use piracy of copyrighted material as a source of funding.

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