All media is pirated, if not prior to its release, soon thereafter.

Internet Rule 2: All media is pirated, if not prior to its release, soon thereafter.

The second rule of the Internet is closely tied to the first, and indeed, to some they are one and the same. This thin seperation between the two is present largely because not everything that is copied is pirated, though obviously all things pirated are copied.

Due to the constant development of new and interesting things, there is always something new and interesting to see or do on the Internet, and a part of this is because of the quick and easy to access nature of ditigal media.  Unfortunately for many, that quick and easy to access nature relates to even things they think are hidden and secure.

Many computers which run anything that directly connects them to the Internet end up being compromised, be it via worms, viri, trojans or some random combination of the three.  The effect of which can do many things, but one of those effects is the ability for outsiders to access otherwise hidden data on these computers, data which may include musical tracks, private company data, software, source code or any number of other bits and bobs which should be kept under a tight leash.  This leads to a great deal of products which are near or have achieved, "gold," status finding their way onto the Internet months ahead of their planned release date.

Songs which may never have been planned for release, or were not of sufficient quality for album release may at times find themselves all over the Internet due to these leaks, not all of which are caused by computer compromise.  At times these premature or even undesired releases come via mistakes by technicians or out of their own particular sense of rebelliousness.  Whatever the cause, these files go out, and are unstoppable, once they escape, the file cannot be brought back under the control of the originator.  Like the fired arrow, you cannot call it back, for unlike the arrow, it has multiplied a thousand-fold before you've even seen it.

While not everything is pirated immediately, everything that is worth paying to have, is worth not paying to have, and is thus pirated.  These later pirated versions of things are often modified to remove protective measures placed by content distributors, these digital rights management tools interfere with the use of the product and can often prevent valid users from taking full advantage of their purchases.  These cleaned versions of items quickly become popular, and are even downloaded by the owners of official copies of products.

An example of a site where one obtains these pirate files is the Pirate Bay, where one can obtain anything from the latest recording from a Gorillaz session to the newest Wii game.

And here ends rule 2 of the Internet.