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RIAA/MPAA vs. xMule Author, EarthStation 5
Two bits of news in the ongoing battle between the RIAA/MPAA and the rest of the internet: One P2P company, apparently based in Palestine, has thrown down the gauntlet to the movie industry. Meanwhile, a developer of another P2P tool who unwisely chose to live in the USA has been shut down (mirror) by the RIAA.
this is getting fucking ridiculous.
It saddens me as a developer that you can't even deign to write a P2P add without the assumption that it will be used for sharing copyrighted materials and thus shut down by the RIAA/MPAA. It's really amazing to see what lengths these bastards will go to to protect their industry after a major, earth-shattering shift in their profit model.
I urge everyone reading this to be very diligent in your boycott of buying new music or going to see movies. I haven't bought a CD in 22 months and haven't seen a movie since (believe it or not) 1999. You can't cheat and plead, just one movie! It's the Matrix! I have to see it. Nothing but the bottom line is going to get through to these people. If these folks don't get the message and soon, you may find yourself asking for permission to write anything on your machine that moves bits around.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
(...) Earthstation 5 is at war with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Record Association of America (RIAA), and to make our point very clear that their governing laws and policys have absolutely no meaning to us here in Palestine, we will continue to add even more movies for FREE. .com) does not require any signups, registration,
credit cards and/or any other personal information to watch the first rate
streamed movies like TERMINATOR 3, BRUCE ALMIGHTY, MATRIX RELOADED, etc.
Our secure software protect our users who use our P2P application and
there is nothing that you can do to stop us, says Ras Kabir, president of
Earthstation 5 (http:/www.earthstation5 .com).
(...)
ES5 (http://www.es5
(...)
Ras Kabir's warning to the RIAA and the MPAA, "The next revolution in P2P file sharing is upon you. Resistance is futile and we are now in control".
OMG! It's what I call a man who has BALLS!!
I intend to flee if you try to arrest me.
Not quite, I think he is saying that he has to relocate to continue his work. Let's face it. The US is a pretty fucked place to live unless you're rich and have several lobbyists on the payroll.
Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
You have the right to do anything you want until the state takes that right away. The ES5 live in a country where american copyright is not recognized. You may argue that what they are doing is unethical. You might have a point, law does not dictate morality.
Now users of this software may be be breaking the law, but I would argue that they are doing nothing unethical. After all law does not dictate morality.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
> and it was struck down that they can NOT be held liable for what the end users do, I would think that could be used in court against nonsense like this..
There was no DMCA-type of law for guns, however. Apparently stealing copyright is more important than stealing lives in this country.
Sure, we should make guns illegal to ensure that only criminals have them.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
First of all, Boycotting is very easy.
You see, some of the worst movies ever made were from the past few years. (Think Gigli).
Tell your friends about how the media industry bought off scumbag politicians and circumvented your constitutional rights with the DMCA. About how they are targetting college kids (who are eternally broke thanks to a f*cked up higher educational system in this country) - and grandmothers. The boycott approach will only show the illogic in the media industries plan.
Also remind these fools that HIGH PRICES are the reason for slow down NOT PIRACY! Also the fucking recession might be a good reason, or a Republican in the White House (especially a brain dead former coke fiend father of slutty daughters) - ANY REASON can explain the lack of business growth in any sector.
I don't agree with the Palestinian suicide bombings, but all the evidence that I've seen suggests that Israel poses a far more immediate threat to most Palestinians than Iraq ever posed to the US; so if we're going to complain about killing civilians, let's start at home.
I'm pretty sure that Israelis wouldn't fuck with anybody if people stopped blowing them up. I've never lived there, but talked to quite a few people who have, and have family members and that seems to be a general consensus amongst them.
That should be their new slogan, "Stop blowing us up and we'll stop taking your land."
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
As loudly as they proclaim, "Get your Illegal Warez here, we will protect you, we got nothing but illegal sutff," I don't trust them to not be a trap for users. Think about it, RIAA/MPAA set this up, make it super duper abundantly clear that the only purpose here is to be illegal, they score a two fold victory: first their case is strengthened against P2P in general, and second, they eventually sue said company and in an "out of court agreement" come away with complete logs of who did what on the network. Now they get to really sue those people, and their case is all the stronger, "More people watched Terminator 3 on the net than went to see it in theatres!"
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
People don't download the crap. They don't even download the good stuff to avoid getting crap. They download to avoid paying.
Now, I'm no fan of any of the money-hungry lawsuit-happy big corps out there, but you have to use your head a bit. The RIAA business model is based around singles and one-hit-wonders. To get one decent song you want, you have to shell out for a whole CD or Album which often otherwise contains crap.
It's not about the expense of CD's themselves... I find that a CD with 90%+ good content is worth the bucks (if it weren't funding the RIAA)... it's about getting a shitty value for our dollar.
Now with movies it is different. Unless you go to opening night (and that's your choice) there are loads of movie reviews out quickly. The MPAA even admits that text messaging is speeding this process. Now, are these idiotic lawsuits a good thing? No.
However, to turn the buck around, is expecting to get away with downloading perfectly good movies just to avoid paying for them a good thing either? No! The MPAA does make good movies. Over the last year I've seen lots of em (American Wedding being the latest). They were worth my cash, and if the MPAA went after users who were providing bootleg/P2P movies I think that would be great. Going after the programmers is dumb... but everyone else is trying to freeload a quality product.
Come on people, you don't believe that anime should be "pirated", so why should movies? Want them to cost less, protest the huge f***ing wages going to bullsh*t actors or producers. Don't watch the movie. But if you go out and download Revelations insteading of paying to see/buy it... then you're no better them them... you're just being a greedy bastard.
In summary. Nope, we don't have to pay for the crap. But the stuff being downloaded isn't crap, or at least it's in demand, or it wouldn't be downloaded. I won't be buying any RIAA music anytime soon, but I will be seeing Revelations in the theatre, as it shoudl be. How about you?
Isn't it amazing how something so unimportant as a few studios that produce screen plays and music can drastically change the laws in a huge country full of freedom loving (wanting) people?
The RIAA and MPAA members wealthy off our dollar. Please don't spend more money with these people unless you don't mind kissing more freedoms goodbye.
See, in 1983, before CD's came out, LP albums cost about $6.98, and tapes about the same. Then CD's came out, costing TEN DOLLARS MORE! The industry's excuse was that CD's cost more to make, "better sound forever", and other rubbish. Now we know these all were lies. CD's now cost about 1/10th as much to press as records cost at their cheapest (and I'm speaking 2003 dollars here which are worth about half of 1983 ones). CD's STILL cost almost 20 bucks apiece. The record companies' excuse is that inflation has finally caught up, which is more bullshit. In essence, they TRIPLED the price of CD's over LP's, got rid of LP's (to remove choice), got rid of singles (to make sure that you HAD to pay $17.98 to get the ONE song you liked), raped the consumer for over 20 years, formed cartels (which would have been illegal in 1983!) and now when the consumer finally has the ability to fight back they respond by bribing our lawmakers to maintain the status quo by passing the DMCA, throwing the Constitution out the window in the process. Yep..sure sounds like an upstanding business model and a fair deal for the consumer, huh?
You are totally missing the point! The Israelis never go after civilians just for the sake of going after civilians. Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers will attack innocent Israeli men, women and children for no good reason other than to kill as many of them as possible. Why else do you think they send suicide bombers onto busses and into nightclubs? How many Israeli soldiers and politicians do you they think they think they are going to get by setting a bomb off in those places? The answer is zero. They aren't after politicians or soldiers when they set off a bomb in a public place, they are after innocent civilians specifically.
Do the Israelis kill innocent civilians too? Yes, but it is always result of collateral damage. They never target a Palestinian bus or nightclub just so they can kill civilians. They target terrorist leaders and operatives. Sometimes innocent civilians die in the process and that is a horrible thing but it is a much different situation when civilians are dieing as a result of collateral damage than it is when civilians are being killed just for the hell of it!
If the Palestinians would quit sending suicide bombers to kill innocent Israeli's then they could have their own state. The bottom line is that there is a certain percentage of Palestinians who do not want Israel to exist and they will continue killing Israeli's in a futile attempt to drive them out of existence. These people need be eliminated or locked up for good and the only ones that are going to be able to do that successfully are the Palestinians. The Israeli's can't do it and the Israeli's don't want to do it but since the Palestinian leadership seems either unwilling or incapable of doing it themselves then it doesn't leave Israel with a whole lot of options.
Almost every country in the world, the USA included, would put enormous pressure on the Israeli to withdraw from the West Bank and Gazaa completely if suicide attacks stopped tomorrow and a substantial amount of time passed without any additional attacks. The problem is, as it stands now, when a cease fire is declared it just gives the terrorist's time to rebuild, regroup and re-arm and then launch more attacks. These groups must be dismantled and eliminated or they must agree to a permanent cease-fire and put down their weapons for good before there will ever be peace in the middle-east.
If the Palestinians show a good faith effort in trying to dismantle and disarm these groups then the Israeli's must give them whatever time and assistance they may need and not resort to military action is response to terrorists attacks but allow the Palestinians themselves to respond.
It's going to require a good faith effort from both sides. Right now though, Abbas is still trying to reason with these groups rather than dismantle them and Arafat, as far as I can tell, is probably either working with them or is totally complacent. This has to change before anyone can reasonably expect the Israeli's to try and work with the Palestinians.
P2P has only created a %7 loss in the industry, that's right.. 7%. not a huge number either, and the artists who are bitching, right after they complain how they're going poor, they buy a new load of sports cars. it's crap, it's greed at its finest, people got tired of the greed and found a way to extend their middle fingers, so now these greedy companies want the government to supress the people into being a controlled permanent money flow. this is where mainstream music is about to die. what;s funny is that there was also a chart showing how much cd sales have tripled from p2p. The real problem are the real pirates, who copy cd's and then redistribute them for a lower price, etc. that's what has been hurting the industry for many years.. but, the industry didnt bitch back then.. so, I think it's just whoever's the easier target, and all that is going to happen in light of this is that the mainstream music industry is going to go broke eventually, people will get wise and listen to IUMA and indie labels. you'll still have the brainwashed people who will back the industry to the grave, becuase they're used to being controlled by someone much "bigger" than them.. and really, you think about it, the industry is below us becuase their existance relies on us. same with actors and actresses, and all of the media. same with the government and all the major companies. we made them, and they forget, we can destroy them, they're trying to make so we cant now, but, you really cant whip the human will down into doing that, well, at least, not right away.