Sega Pushes ISONews, and They Push Back

ttol writes "Take a look at our announcement at iSONews.com. Sega of America is trying to censor our freedom of speech by claiming our news service infringes on their copyrights on their Dreamcast system. We've got Ms. Jennifer Stisa Granick representing us (she spoke at DefCon). Sega has been sending out these notices for to other sites as well. It's time that someone can stand up for our constitutionary rights, and not let Big Business bully us around." ISO News doesn't distribute ISOs, so Sega is being very uncool. I think they're just pissed that only like 9 people bought dreamcasts *grin*.

Comments

Re:Quiz time

[emgeemg]

Question: is it really a case of "free speech"?

Yes, it is a case of free speech. As far as I can tell, ISONews does not distribute any illegal games themserlves. They simply report on what's out there. This is not and should not be a crime. If someone comes up to me on the street and asks if I know where he might find some crack and I tell him that the crackhouse down the street might be a good place to start should I be arrested as a drug dealer?

Warez fascinates me I guess, because people that wouldn't steal anything material - ie wouldn't walk into a shop and steal one of these games, feel totally justified in downloading them.

Agreed.

don't want to start a fight, I'd just really like to see some other opinions on this. Is it ethical?

It may not be ethical but "ethical" and "legal" are two very different things.

The Big Business Bill Of Rights

[root]

(1) We have the absolute right to control all our products and ideas, both hardware and software, and in fact, anything created by us, created by our employees, contractors, or thought of even in their "off hours" while they were working for us, and even after they quit (since they still have our proprietary ideas in their brains'). Even when said products are acquired into your possession (by legal means or otherwise). You will use them only and exactly in the ways we permit.

(2) We can change the product license/EULA at anytime and that is always legally binding on you, with or without your consent. Even if you're a minor.

(3) Software piracy is "theft" and a loss for our company everywhere except in our annual financial report (where the SEC requires public US traded companies to disclose all profits, expenditures, LOSSES, etc.)

(4) Negative reviews of our products are illegal, as this may result in financial losses. Also, the reviewer is financially responsible for any such losses he/she causes.

(5) Since we always own our product, we can use it to covertly spy on you, collect personal data, and secretly send it back to corporate HQ. Blocking this action in any way is also illegal.

(6) US law is world law, thanks to UN treaties which preempt the US constitution (See Article VI, ection 2), and other nations' constitutions. Non-compliant nations will be carpet bombed into submission (Yugoslovia, Iraq, etc.)

(7) Exemptions for archival backups, reverse engineering, security analysis, transfer of license, reliabiliy testing, etc., no longer applies to our products (see the DMCA).

(8) Even when we're wrong. We win the lawsuits. You are a mere peon. We have an army of lawyers and a mega-dollar legal budget and years to decades of time on our hands to sue and delay and filibuster you into litigation hell. Can you afford to "win"? You'll go bankrupt, your wife and kids leave you, and die a bum on the streets, of starvation, long before that happens. God bless the US legal system. And when we do win (rightfully or wrongfilly [in your opinion]), the win builds up case law in our favor to make us stronger against the next punk.

(9) Copyrights never expire. They never will ever again. Just get over your dreams of eventual intellectual property theft. We'll be working on patents, next.

(10) We reserve the right to make deletions, additions, or changes to this Bill of Rights at any time and any such alterations are retroactively effective from infinity B.C. to infinity C.E.

Why does the Dreamcast get so much flak?

[Bedemus]

I don't know why the Dreamcast always gets such a bum wrap... They've been on the market for over a year now, while the PS2 isn't even in the US market yet, but even a year ago people were saying they didn't want to spend 200 bucks for the best system out at the time because the PS2 would beat it when it came out.

Besides, Sega tries stuff in the states that there's no way Sony would even think of doing... Seaman, for instance, is an awesome "game" that does some truly innovative stuff that sega took a chance with and released in the states.

Anyway, I'm not a huge console gamer, but if any next-gen console survives, I hope it's Sega's.
--
NeoMail - Webmail that doesn't suck... as much.

Well, this has come to be expected

[toast-]

The premiere 'news' site for the piracy scene finally gets a letter from Sega.

It's %100 true that ISONEWS does not distribute images of games, but the difference here is that ISONEWS reports news of groups releases of games.

They send out their own 'press releases' if you will that state they have released the latest game.

The question is: what is legal, or illegal about these 'press releases' (otherwise known as NFO files).

If these NFO files can be found as not breaking any laws: then sega has no case, otherwise, isonews has a bit of a problem.

I don't recall remembering anyone that has successfully been litigated upon for having mere NFO files.

Voltaire & Free speech

[Minupla]

Ah, therein lies the rub.

To quote Voltaire, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

The funny thing with Free Speech, you ethier have it or you don't. The minute you start saying, "Well this speech is OK, but that speech over there, that has to go", you open Pandora's box.

Personally there's a lot of stuff on TV or radio that I would rather not see. It all comes down to, what is one man's offensive trash, is another man's free speech, and simply because I believe that a certian site shouldn't exist (for whatever moral, legal, religous, or phil grounds) I have to respect their right to say it. Full stop. This is one of those things you can't do half way, lest you get book bannings, and all other sorts of bad karma stuff.

Like it or lump it, it's free speech :)

Minupla


----
Remove the rocks from my head to send email

Ambulance chasing? Now it's .com chasing

[philj]

Think about it... How do lawyers feed their kids?

20th Century: Ambulance chasing
21st Century: .com chasing

It's just the latest easy-peasy way of lining their pockets. I bet they charge $100 per letter/e-mail!

Re:I am all for free speech but...

[YoJ]

You mean a website like Ebay? Where a mix of legitimate and stolen goods is for sale? Hmmm. Not all ISOs are illegal. There really are people making ISOs that are demos, new games, etc. They are not all cracks.

Quiz time

[7thdream]

Question: is it really a case of "free speech"? I mean it's all good and well to talk about people's rights etc, but honestly everyone knows this sort of thing is purely directed to game piracy. I'm really curious about this - how many people think that the piracy of games under the banner of "backups" is actually "right"?
Yes sure ISONews is just that - a news site, and I'm not going to argue semantics on whether or not sega is being heavy handed, other than proposing this: if you coded games for a living, to sell, and yes increase the value of your business, would you like people to post them where people could download them?

Warez fascinates me I guess, because people that wouldn't steal anything material - ie wouldn't walk into a shop and steal one of these games, feel totally justified in downloading them.

I don't want to start a fight, I'd just really like to see some other opinions on this. Is it ethical?

Wait! Wait! I have a better analogy!

[spam-o-tron mk1]

Ok, say you have a house in a nice neighborhood. And you have a tool shed out back, where you keep your tools and a canteloupe. But that's not all: all your neighbors ALSO have tool sheds out back, and all these toolsheds are locked, and each toolshed also contains a canteloupe. Got it so far? Ok. Now, you have a friend who has a website called "toolshedlockshop.com", and another friend with a site called "toolshedtheft.com". Now, the first site sells the locks that everybody uses to lock up their tool sheds, and the second has instructions on how to break in to these tool sheds. Are you with me so far? Only problem is, the instructions aren't quite right, because he forgets to mention that you need a roll of electrician's tape to do the job properly without being caught.

Ok. So. Another friend of yours both bought a lock from toolshedlockshop.com and read the instructions on toolshedtheft.com. Only problem is, he doesn't know about the electrician's tape thing. So, he goes to break in to your next-door neighbor's toolshed, but doesn't tape up her pet poodle (obviously), so he gets bitten by the poodle as he's trying to climb the fence to get out of her yard. So the next day this friend comes to you with half a canteloupe and asks you where to get rabies shots. Considering that you've been wanting to sleep with your next door neighbor whose canteloupe he stole for months, but you hate her poodle, but also now know that you can make a killing in the electricians' tape market, do you tell your friend you still have five CD's and an old sweatshirt that he left at your house four months ago?

Bruce