A Tough Bunch of Pirates

Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales came to Southern California last week to caution youngsters about digital piracy. He left knowing how Nancy Reagan might have felt after advising a previous generation of youngsters to “just say no” to drugs. The high school students who attended UCLA’s daylong seminar were deeply skeptical, one going so far as to sport a pirate-style eye patch and bandanna.

If that’s the attitude of students in Southern California -- many of them with parents who work in the very music and film industries Gonzales is trying to protect -- it’s going to be a long uphill struggle to change young hearts and minds in the rest of the country.

Encouraging young people to do the right thing isn’t enough. Stepped-up prosecution and enforcement, as well as civil suits like the 725 claims against alleged pirates filed Friday by the Recording Industry Assn. of America, will be needed to make the message resonate.

Legislators in the United States and abroad must also create barriers against digital pirates. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which Congress recently passed, was a step in that direction. The bill makes it a felony to record a movie as it is being projected in a traditional movie theater (for subsequent online sale), in addition to barring newer-fangled digital theft.

Legislation, lawsuits and lectures are useful sticks, but there should be carrots too. Companies that create what pirates crave could start by making it easier and cheaper for consumers to legally acquire, enjoy and share music, movies and other fare. Today’s pirates are tomorrow’s customers. It could prove shortsighted to simply order them to walk the plank.