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MPAA Under Investigation for Illegal NYPD Payoffs
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Post is reporting that two NYPD officers are being investigated for taking illegal payoffs from the MPAA for busting sellers of pirated DVDs. According to the article, MPAA investigators would tell the cops where pirated movies were being sold, which is perfectly legal, but, after the bust, they'd give them several hundred dollars in gratuities, which is illegal. Naturally, the MPAA denies all of this."
For a rightious organisation out to protect the lawfull rights of artists they have a rather odd way of practice
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
"The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that it loses $3.5 billion in potential worldwide revenue because of movie piracy."
Surely the can't expect that their raids of arrests will provide them with more sales.
Where they thinking that as long they're already on the red number side, they could just buy themselves some police forces?
Scully: Should we arrest David Copperfield?
Mulder: Yes we should, but not for this.
FTA: Two NYPD veterans are being investigated by Internal Affairs...
From title: MPAA Under Investigation for Illegal NYPD Payoffs
So, who's under investigation here?
p2p is, as of now, the easiest system for getting entertainment on a computer. They simply can't do better. They can however do "just as good" and appeal to people's moral. I don't think they have the ability to trust their customers:(
If they did something with 3G or GRPS (mobile networks), which downloaded the music directly to my mp3 player, I'd buy it! Then it's hard to provide a good interface, and the files must be playable on many devices. All in all, they need a brilliant system, which does not exist yet!
The MPAA and the RIAA will stop at nothing to protect their monopolies. These 2 corrupt officers are just a tip of the giant iceberg of people that recieve huge sums from the MPAA and RIAA. Some others - Several politicians, Virus writers. Yes they employ these people to create nastyware to disrupt p2p networks. and many many more people are bribed by these organizations. The MPAA and the RIAA are among the most corrupt organizations in America. And the blatantly lie about their the root cause of their losses almost every year. It is about time they are investigated but I fear they may buy out the investigation.
the MPAA breaking the law to enforce the law. oh the irony.
People have been saying for years that the MPAA need to try harder to stop piracy before the movies get leaked. Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Maybe it's time they started listening.
Business Voyeur
The wolf reveals it's true colours. Now do the same to the RIAA and throw all their court cases out untill further investigate (which will lead to price fixing and various other crimes being "discovered"). And since it's been proven that this companies buy people off it'll be impossible to buy off the judge/jury because people wille xpect it and if it seems fishy it'll be looked into.
Good game gentleman. You lose this round and hopefully won't come back.
I like muppets.
The next step is to call them thieves.
I think you'll find that "racketeers" is the accepted term.
No, I would leave it to those who are in it for public service, rather than those who are in it to get rich. Besides, the pay is quite adequate.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I think we should run an ad in every movie theatre for MPAA members and affiliates to remind them that "Paying off cops is a crime". We could even show the cops who were paid off in the ad to remind them what happens if you bribe law enforcement officials as part of the cops settlement arrangement.
They want us to obey the law but forget to do it themselves. Great example guys.
If the police force finds it can't recruit the right people with the pay structure as it is then that's a sign that pay needs to be increased. That's got nothing to do with allowing them to accept bribes.
The music industry has been involved in payola for years and years, despite it being illegal. Why should they see this as anything different? They'll just come up with yet another excuse as to why this isn't payola. Is it a private gift from one individual to another, which -- totally coincidentally -- happens to be from an RIAA member to a NYPD officer? You can't prove anything! What, you want to outlaw gifts?
(In Soviet Russia, gifts outlaw YOU!)
If this is the case, then there is something wrong with the system. I thought that was what a salary was for.
There is something wrong with the system when cops for example feel it necessary to accept tips or moonlight as security with their uniform in order to make ends meet. I'm very offended by the practice but i'm not going to get angry with the cop because of it.
Can I pay a guy to be busy with minor offenses so that my major offense will be ignored?
Indeed you can... doesn't make it right but i'm sure you could. Look at speeding ticket quotas. A system punishes police for not writing a specified amount of infractions esp in times where a city needs extra money. Talk to police along major interstates and see what they have to say about the subject.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
No surprise there. Police agencies intentionally reject applicants with high intelligence. Don't believe me? Check this out, or this, or this. A cop who can't spell his own name would not surprise me.
How ya like dat?
You're a fool. Its not the beat cops that came up with that tactic. It was City Hall, federal gov't, and the Police Commissioner. The cops were just following their marching orders. Processing time was not the cops fault. It was an obvious plan to keep protesters away from the convention. Illegal, of course, but apparently the attention of City Hall.
The perjurers obviously need to be punished, but its the inevitable result when you're arresting a city block, rather than people "disturbing the peace", i.e. the protesters.
If you really want to stop those tactics, you have to send a message to City Hall, not the beat cop. I like Bloomberg's general management of the city, but I'm still voting against him come November.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Not every crime is equally important.
Doesn't seem to be much point to me in arresting some guy who managed to get some income that way, when there are much more harmful people out there. I think most cops would be pretty happy with that at least they're not selling drugs or mugging people.
well then, stop arresting pot smokers! People who sell pot should also be ignored, it is about the same as selling pirating DVD's, only LESS harmful! They are not hurting anyone, they are not even hurting a business like those that belong to the MPAA.
Legalizing (or ignoring crimes related to) marijuana would only hurt the business of arresting marijuana users.
Zoot!
actually, interviews for actors for dvd-special-features cost a lot more than a couple hundred bucks. heck, just getting the rights to use interview footage from other sources like a movie's "red carpet premiere" can cost in the thousands. (consider how the documentary market is getting stagnated because the news people who hold the rights of post-viet-nam footage are charging too much to the point that non-profit companies like PBS's CPB can't afford it).
the only exception are those for whom their contract involved a percentage of the gross, like the producers, directors, and lead actors. they get paid a substantially higher portion of the dvd sales than the regular actors do.
for this reason, some dvd releases of classic movies don't get the "special edition" treatment up front (ala Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Chariots of Fire) -- the sales of the first release measure the interest. the profits are then used to pay the actors and other people (critics such as Leonard Maltin in the Disney films) to film the new interview footage.
its akin to getting a public speaking engagement. those generally run in the thousands, plus transportation and hotel fees, even for small actors like the various Imperial generals/admirals at Star Wars cons. Agents of actors NEVER let them do anything for free, because it reduces their value in the next film's negotiations.
however, its extremely rare for TV show actors to get a percentage of the gross unless its the fifth season and beyond of a HUGE hit like seinfeld or friends. just as the actors normally don't get a piece of syndication sales, they also rarely get a piece of dvd sales.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
The only cop I would ever expect to surf Slashdot is Robocop.
That is funny. I am something of an enigma. (Actually I've been told I look like that shape-shifting cop robot in T2...) It's amusing that at my workplace the brass alternates between blaming me for the computers breaking and asking me to fix them. My co-workers, however, just love the free computer help and advice.
Rest assured that my ultimate goal is to work in hunting down child porn as I hate the MPAA and couldn't care less about they're childish crusades.
"Agents of actors NEVER let them do anything for free, because it reduces their value in the next film's negotiations." actually i think the Screen Actors Guild prevents them from getting paid nothing. actors get paid 50 bucks or so for even a Leno appearance. i'm not saying that they make the same amount for a DVD interview, but if they do than that amount of money is so little that you could consider it free if it is divided over the volume of sales.
That because you live in the USA. in the rest of the world, especially in the developing world, the price of movies are grossly over prices.
I live in a country where if you look at purchasing power parity, our courrency is nearly 60% undervalued against the USD. So stuff here ought to cost only about 40% of what they cost in the US (in other words 60% cheaper).
Yet, the price of a non bootleg DVD movie here is about US$50 and it stays that way. So that makes it 700% more expensive then your US$7 instead of 60% cheaper which is the fair price.
Anyway, thats moot, my point is that the MP/RI-AA's arguement is flawed. A people with very low disposeable incomes are either going to buy a bootleg or not going to buy it at all. So there is no loss there because nobody would have bought the original if piracy didn't exist anyway.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
As someone who works closely with several police departments on occassion, I can assure all of you that the vast majority of police departments just don't care about piracy.
I know of several cases where machines were searched using forensic investigation tools for email records, child pornography, or other clues in "real life" crime, but that the vast number of illegal MP3s were quickly sifted and disregarded.
Its simple: Most departments barely have enough money to prevent/address the real problems, and padding the pockets for the MPAA really doesn't fit into it.
Jesus! Every time this stealing/infringing copyrights subject is brought up people start splitting words! It's ridiculous!
I'll just answer to all of you dictionary-nazis with a previous post attached to another story.
Why can't I mod myself up to +2 Angry?
"Live free or don't."
Who ever mentioned stealing? The subject concerned illegal copies. I defy you go find a story about the MPAA cracking down on DVD theft. You might find some, but they are kind of rare.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.