LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- If mention of The Pirate Bay conjures up images of parrots , peg legs and planks , or geeky jargon like BitTorrent and jailbreak leaves you all at sea , this handy A-Z will help you navigate the choppy waters of the online piracy debate . `` X-Men Origins : Wolverine , '' starring Hugh Jackman , was downloaded over a million times after being leaked in early April . The Screening Room 's indispensable lexicon of online piracy will teach you cracking from key generators : You 'll never again be caught out wondering how `` X-Men Origins : Wolverine '' fits into warez . A is for anti-piracy Efforts to prevent the illegal transfer and use of copyrighted material -- often spearheaded by corporate associations like the Motion Picture Association of America ( MPAA ) -- using a variety of digital rights management ( DRM ) tools like encryption , product keys and serial numbers . Technologically often a step or two behind the pirates , the entertainment industry will sue for breach of copyright . B is for Bill Gates As early as 1976 , Gates wrote an open letter saying that software piracy could be a problem . Ironically , he has since said that Microsoft actually benefited from piracy in China , where over 90 percent of computers use Windows , most copies of which are pirated . The widespread use of Microsoft 's operating system has enabled the software giant to gain pole position in the fast-growing market . C is for cracking Modifying software to remove copy protection -- one of the technologies companies use to prevent unauthorized reproduction of media -- to enable the illegal duplication and proliferation of pirated material on disks and online . Mostly done by hackers , not usually for money but to gain respect within the hacker community . D is for digital rights management ( DRM ) Access-control technologies used by manufacturers . Most pirating technology is created to circumvent various types of DRM in order to share copyrighted material online . Apple rid its iTunes library of DRM in early April , but is charging users 30 cents per song to upgrade to DRM-free tracks . E is for encryption Originally used by militaries to protect secret message transmissions , encryption allows a user to transform and `` lock '' information that , upon transfer , can only be opened by a person who has the right `` key . '' Encryption software is one of many anti-piracy measures designed to prevent the spread of copying and transferring copyrighted material . F is for Free Culture movement Led by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig , the movement believes restrictive copyright laws are strangling humanity 's creativity . Under Lessig 's `` Creative Commons '' organization , the movement is advocating for the free copying and modification of creative works -- and rejecting what they perceive to be the culturally oppressive `` permission culture '' of copyright and intellectual property . G is for Global Software Piracy This report by the Business Software Alliance suggested that 35 percent of software installed on PCs worldwide in 2006 was pirated . H is for hackers Hackers `` wiped , '' or erased , all the data from the Recording Industry Association of America 's ( RIAA ) Web site in 2008 . The incident , which exposed serious flaws in the RIAA 's web security , was an embarrassment for the group , which represents the recording industry of the United States . I is for International Federation of the Phonographic Industry ( IFPI ) According to the IFPI 's 2008 Digital Music Report , up to 80 percent of data traffic via Internet service providers ( ISPs ) is involved in the illegal transfer of pirated material . J is for jailbreak Mostly commonly associated with the iPhone , it is the practice of downloading illicit software designed to bypass digital rights management , allowing people to upload pirated versions of official iPhone applications for free and use them on their phones . K is for key generators Small programs found on pirate sites that allow users to crack open key-locked software like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop by generating valid serial numbers for pirated copies of software that would otherwise only be included with legitimately purchased copies . L is for Limewire One of the oldest and most popular peer-to-peer ( P2P ) file sharing clients , Limewire is a free program used to search for and download pirated content . The program has been accused of having massive security gaps and an abundance of `` malware '' files , which contain computer viruses that infect users ' computers upon completion of a download . M is for Metallica The first major band to sue for online music piracy in 2000 , Metallica sued file-sharing service , Napster and three U.S. universities for enabling illegal downloading of copyrighted content . The case , which saw the rock group harshly criticized by many of its fans , was eventually settled out of court when Napster agreed to block illegal downloads of the band 's songs . N is for Napster Online music-sharing service created by a college student in Boston in 1999 , which spearheaded the widespread illegal copying and transferring of MP3 music files . A judge shut down the service in 2001 . Napster has since relaunched as a legitimate monthly subscription music site . O is for organized crime International recording industry organization , IFPI and Interpol say there are links between online piracy and organized crime and terrorism , citing examples from South America to South Africa and Eastern Europe to East Asia . P is for P2P More than 20 times as much music is exchanged on peer-to-peer networks as is legally purchased , the Economist magazine wrote in 2008 . BitTorrent is a growing P2P technology that allows the rapid downloading of large , multi-gigabyte files . Q is for quality According to a survey by the auditor Ernst and Young in India , 66 percent of people believe pirated content is of an inferior quality to the original , but 89 percent say they 've used pirated music or films anyway . R is for R4 card A $ 30 Nintendo DS cartridge that can be loaded with hundreds of free , pirated Nintendo games , the R4 card is cheaper than the store price of many single authentic games . S is for Sweden Prosecutors in the country filed suit against The Pirate Bay Web site earlier this year for `` promoting other people 's infringement of copyright laws . '' Dubbed the `` Internet piracy trial of the decade '' by UK newspaper The Times , the verdict against the site will have massive implications for the future of online file-sharing , but The Pirate Bay 's founders plan to appeal and have previously said that the site will stay up and running . T is for The Pirate Bay A very popular file-sharing Web site primarily used as a linking site to find and download pirated movies , music , video games , applications and more . It tracks BitTorrents -- file sharing protocols that enable big , fast file transfers . The Pirate Bay 's founders have constantly argued that the Web site does not violate copyright law because the site does not host any copyrighted material , but simply provides a service by indexing the BitTorrents . U is for Usenet.com Regarded as a source of much pirated material , this bulletin board site is being sued by the RIAA . Unlike The Pirate Bay , Usenet allows paying customers to download files in a way that is nearly impossible to track . But , like the Swedish site , Usenet has had to defend itself from charges that it encourages its users to violate copyright law . V is for video games The Entertainment Software Association says the industry loses $ 3 billion annually to online piracy . W is for `` Warez '' Slang for any movies , music , applications or any other materials being traded in violation of copyright law . X is for `` X-Men Origins : Wolverine '' A version of the upcoming blockbuster leaked online in March this year , the film has already been downloaded over a million times . The FBI says it is investigating the source of the leak , and the film 's star Hugh Jackman has spoken out , calling the leak `` a serious crime , '' and `` heartbreaking . '' Y is for YouTube The ubiquitous video site has been sued by major companies like Viacom for publishing and proliferating unauthorized video content online . YouTube has responded by removing copyrighted content , but popular clips of television programs are often reposted by users as soon as they are taken down . Z is for Zune Microsoft 's answer to the iPod plans to make its entire catalogue of music DRM-free , which will make it even easier to copy and share copyrighted music .
A run-down of the biggest online piracy moments since DRM in the century . iTunes is for Free Culture , a group that rejects the idea of modern copyright law . D is for Napster , technologies companies use to try to restrict online piracy . S is for Sweden , where the `` Internet trial of 1999 '' has just concluded .