Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

MPAA Blames BitTorrent for Star Wars Distribution

Posted by timothy on from the what-do-you-burn-apart-from-witches? dept.

AI Playground writes "Slyck News reports on the MPAA's press release (.doc) blaming the BitTorrent protocol for the leak of Episode III. MPAA President and CEO Dan Glickman: 'There is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for everyone than this report today regarding BitTorrent providing users with illegal copies of Revenge of the Sith. The unfortunate fact is this type of theft happens on a regular basis on peer to peer networks all over the world.'"

6 of 1,196 comments (clear)

  1. they need to be stopped by timmarhy · · Score: 5, Informative

    from making misleading claims like this. it's already been ruled that copyright infringement is NOT theft

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  2. not enough magic? by yagu · · Score: 5, Informative

    From TFA:

    MPAA President and CEO Dan Glickman: 'There is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for everyone than this report today regarding BitTorrent providing users with illegal copies of Revenge of the Sith.
    and now, from a syndicated article in the Herald Sun (among MANY other papers):
    THE final chapter in the Star Wars movie saga grossed a record $US50 million ($66 million) from its first 24 hours in North American theatres, the highest box office tally ever for a single day, 20th Century Fox said.
    I guess the most revenue ever just isn't enough magic for Glickman.... he really does care about us after all!
  3. Re:Of course by Sendy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pirates are real!

    --
    GNU guru and mainframe hacker
  4. Re:Not only BitTorrent by pocketfullofshells · · Score: 5, Informative

    I thought it was funny the MPAA still continues to only blame the end distribution for these problems, i.e. the p2p systems where it can take days to get these files. Forget the fact that someone on the inside ripped it 2 days prior to release, forget the fact that the only reason its on bit torrent or any P2P network is that it was on the newsgroups first.

    Its funny... the fact that the newsgroups never make it on the news.

  5. The Supreme Court agrees by GoddessEvilena · · Score: 5, Informative

    Back in 1985 a man named Dowling was prosecuted for the Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property for selling infringing copies of Elvis records. U.S. Supreme Court in DOWLING v. UNITED STATES, 473 U.S. 207 (1985) http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?n avby=search&court=US&case=/us/473/207.html struck this down because copyright infringement is not theft. You have to deprive your victim of the item in order to steal it from them. Making copies doesn't deprive anyone of what it being copied, therefore its not theft.

  6. Re:the blame game by matts-reign · · Score: 5, Informative

    Bittorrent is used to allow large files to be shared without having to have a heavy-duty server. This is good for free software developers and GNU and the GPL and open source and to prevent the slashdot effect.

    --
    Waffles rock.