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Threshold for Piracy?
bigwayne writes "A continuing source of internal discussion, among the organizers of Zion LAN, is the topic of how strict we are to be concerning software piracy. It just seems common sense that a LAN party would be a perfect place to share music, software, movies, and do other reprehensible acts. However there isn't much, outside discouraging the act itself, that we can do to actually stop these things. One strong argument is that the legitimately obtained software we provide shares the same distribution method that the illegally obtained software does, and I wonder if this creates a double-standard far outside of any legal situation it creates. Another part of this also concerns our particular situation (our LAN is being hosted by a non-profit charitable organization), in that we'd be ethically remiss if we sat idly by and let such things happen, unmitigated. So, where do we stop passively caring about piracy, and when do we start cracking down? Are the circumstances of a LAN party such that trying to stop it is overambitious?"
Inform all participants in advance of your decision, and set a zero tolerance policy.
Request that anyone who does not wish to adhere to "no piracy" rules to not attend the event.
If they insist on attending and engaging in copyright infringement, round them up and politely escort them off the premises.
Just make it a policy that copyright infringment at the event is unaceptable and if your caught you will be expelled from the event. . .
Other than that , dont treat people like criminals
They may do it , they may not , but if you start putting in checks your going to make it a rather unplesant experiance for people
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
How would it be more "ethically remiss" because it's a non-profit charitable group? That's boneheaded hypocrisy and stinks of "Look at me, I care". And the Dumbest Ask Slashdot award of 2005 goes to...
Worry about throwing a decent LAN event. If you say the LAN is off limits, people will just use their CD/DVD burners anyway.
How about being a gracious host rather than a little warez nazi?
and promptly ignore copyright violations. You're not their parents, after all.
After all, I am strangely colored.
Tell participants that you don't want them doing any copyright infringement, and that the RIAA, MPAA, and the BSA have been invited.
They either show up or they don't.
If they do, you've basically ensured that any copyright infringement will be taken care of.
If they don't, you've invited the people who care about copyright infringement of their products, and fulfilled your duties in trying to prevent copyright infringement by telling participants not to do it.
That's the best solution to me. Don't monitor anything yourself, don't play cop.
Is it me or is this just strange? You mean every time a group of people gets together, somebody has to make sure they aren't exchanging the "wrong" information?
I'm trying to imagine how this will play out 10,20,50 years from now, when we all have wireless portable storage devices in our shirt buttons that automatically record anything and everything. Are we supposed to police every group of kids? Will there be a special Kopyright Kops that checks every get-together and sleepover? "All clear sir, unauthorized data storage devices have been neutralized!"
As long as you aren't creating environments strictly for the purpose of copyright infringement (try using that word instead of bullshit "piracy"), then I don't see why you have to do anything at all.
Why does everything computer related now have to be so concerned with 'piracy'? Why is it suddenly everyone's job to patrol everything you do to make sure you haven't commited the heinous crime of copying a cd? It's a sad state for the world to be in.
The I games by Multiplay in the U.K which are 1000 man lans have a no file policy
They have a system that cans for network shares and locks the connection out of the network until it is disabled. If that share had any copyrighted material they might throw you out.
Saying that, just hand round CD's and DVD's. Or even USB2 HDD's. Theres way round it, inless they have a guard on every row.
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game
I've long thought that software developers will eventually make software piracy impossible, (or at least difficult or irrelevant), by relying more on online content.
I'm not referring to online copy protection, but in actual value-added content. For example, it's not always meaningful to pirate the client of a MMORPG, since the meat is in the subscription content. Similarly, the developer of a first-person shooter might offer server-based content -- maps and tournaments -- that's not available on the client side.
Most folks who copy media seem to do so casually; might this provide them an incentive to pick up a full copy, making the argument about end-user piracy moot?
_____
Epidemic Groove - A casual RTS/Action hybrid for Windows
We're indie. We're working on our 14th game.
When you buy a game, you could get an extra "LAN party" CD that can be passed around and copied however you want. It could install game clients that will function as long as one licensed installation is on the network. I'm sure the publisher would rather be selling a unique copy of the game to each player, but let's look at the reality of the situation:
- You go to the party and somebody says "Hey let's play Super Machoman Elite Team Force 3000!"
- You don't necessarily want to buy this game, but you need to install something to play with your buddies.
- Somebody hands you a disc and you install it. You maybe tell yourself that you'll uninstall it or buy the game later.
- But do you?
The point of having a "LAN party" installer is not to make extra copy protection, which can obviously be circumvented. Just make it easier to make temporary installations that work only at the party. It will be more convenient for people to avoid pirating games that way. And as the licensed owner of game you can pass around a disc without fear of it getting pirated.Piracy is easy to recognize:
Piracy consists of any of the following acts:
(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:
(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;
(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;
(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;
(c) any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (b).
Remember, kids: Just say NO to violent crimes on or near the ocean!
Don't be a sheep, led by politicians, lawyers, corporations and pressure groups. (In either direction.)
You know what is right and what is wrong, and the limits beyond which right turns into wrong. Honour your personal code, and that's all that matters.
You need to balance common sense with your policies.
For example, if there is rampant out in the open piracy, it will reflect poorly on your event and could even possibly open you up to some claims of liability.
At the same time, you're not the BSA or SPA either, it's not your job or responsibility to make sure that no one has any pirated software on their machine.
Basically, make it known that piracy is not allowed. Anyone caught engaging in the act of software piracy will be asked to leave. And then stick to it.
If someone's screaming "Hey I got Episode III, who wants to grab it?" you give him the boot.
If someone quietly lets a friend grab his copy of Episode III without bringing it to anyone else's attention, there's nothing you can do about it.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
You do NOT want to take the legal and time responsibility for file sharing on your LAN. Simply make a statement that tells people not open file shares of any kind and that you take no responsibility whatsoever for anything found outside the official server, but also state that you don't have the time or resources to monitor the LAN for violations.
Ask a lawyer. Preferably one that knows something about copyright law.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
eh brother, haven't you heard about the great new technology called Trusted Computing? Put a chip with a hash code in every hardware and use a TC-aware OS (such as, unfortunately, Linux kernel 2.6.12) so that only authorised software can be executed. To fight mp3 sharing, cripple the OS to disallow file copying too!
If the copyright owners take umbrage, it's their responsibility to do something about it. After all, if you don't own the copyright on something, how do you know it's illegal sharing?
the layman's guide to computer science
well legally you'll probably be analogous to an ISP (just carrying content not taking responsibility etc...) Your job is creating a network for that LAN party, not deciding what's going to pass through said network :)
You call it piracy, you call it reprehensible, yet you turn to others' sanction for guidance? You are going to establish morality by plebiscite?
It's piracy, its illegal, its going on during your watch. Stop it.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Lots of employers make their employees take drug tests as part of the hiring process and some of them even subject their employees to drug tests during their employment. Usually, such practices are justified as being required by the Drug Free Workplace Act of 1988. But, such justifications are false. All the DFWA requires are drug awareness programs, and the definition of such a program is almost entirely left up to the employer, they can be as simple as handing out dilbert anti-drug pamphlets to new employees.
How is this connected to software piracy at lan parties?
It is advice via analogy.
Do as the smart companies do with respect to drugs. Formulate a policy forbidding piracy, hand out a pamphlet of piracy boojums and then don't worry about it unless somone actively brings an act of piracy to your attention. You will have covered your ass, which is all any organization outside of the BSA and SPAA needs to do, and at the same time wasted as few of the precious non-profit resources on fighting someone else's battle.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
If the BSA or RIAA or MPAA comes a knockin', send them packing.
If the police decide to make themselves known, tell them that you're not responsible (as posted) and that copyright infringement is a civil (not criminal) matter.
You're not these people's parents, IANAL but you don't have squat to worry about.
If anyone complains, escort them off the premises. Worry more about your building's insurance policy than about being the thought police.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Good point. We do realize we can't stop it from happening, but these guys at least make a discouraging environment, and that's directly what we want. Guarding every row now, that tickles. No way anyone would do that.
400 Person LAN for Charity: Zion LAN 2005
If you try and stop piracy at a LAN, firstly, you will fail, because you can't stop it, and secondly, you'll be looked at as "nazi organizers" and ultimately lose the respect of your attendees.
Have an official policy of "no file sharing". Post it on your web site, release forms, whatever. Then stop. You've cleared yourself. Don't ask, don't tell. You aren't under any obligation to start acting as the MPAA/RIAA's gestapo.
Why not just block SMB traffic? Some people have shares set up for a reason and it sucks to reconfigure them just for a LAN party.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
17 USC 512 indicates that a "service provider" is not liable for copyright violations conducted over their network as long as they meet certain conditions (generally, being uninvolved in any way other than routing traffic). A LAN operator in this setup might be regarded as a service provider:
17 USC 512(k) Definitions -
(1) Service provider. -
(A) As used in subsection (a), the term "service provider" means an entity offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications, between or among points specified by a user, of material of the user's choosing, without modification to the content of the material as sent or received.
(B) As used in this section, other than subsection (a), the term "service provider" means a provider of online services or network access, or the operator of facilities therefor, and includes an entity described in subparagraph (A).
(Insert standard IANAL disclaimer here)
You can't stop sneakernet!!!
How about keeping things simple and ignoring the issue entirely? If people, trade files, they trade files. Who gives a shit?
And voila! No headaches, no problems, no unhappy people.
Ah, the old excluded middle fallacy with a little tu quoque thrown in for good measure. Good ol' Slashdot. When I'm with my friends, and they ask if I want a copy of a CD, I say no. If they ask if I want a copy of Photoshop, I say no.
If I was hosting a computer-related function, and my friends were swapping software, I'd ask them to leave.
What I do or do not do is irrelevant to the OP, and irrelevant to the morality of copying software.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
How do you propose to do that without Layer 3 (read: relatively expensive) switching?
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
I've seen it argued that its safer to not try too hard. If you try to deploy any system to prevent piracy, you then run the risk of becomming liable for piracy that occours if the system fails.
...blatantly ripping off The Matrix graphics, names, logo, and then worrying about other people infringing copyright....
Baz
I've been lanning for years, going back to Doom & Duke Nukem.
I will say that at every large lan I've been to consisting of 500 to 1000 attendees, you find LESS people playing games. It's aggravating, just walk around and you'll see people searching every share in network neighborhood, the P2P of the day, and so on. You'll find lots o' empty game servers though!
The real gamers and people who want to play games will show up to a LAN despite anti-filesharing policies. Hell I think it would boost the gameplay activity if anything, I don't see you losing people.
I'm not advocating gestapo regulations on filesharing at a LAN specificly because of copyright infreingement penalties. I go to lans to play games and dag nabbit the other people there should be too!
That said...
Probably the best thing to do is go for "common carrier" status. Basically, you are provideing a transport mechanism for data, nothing more. This has it's pro's and con's.
- Pro
- You get a "get out of liability free" card.
- Con
- You can not control anything that passes over the network. (e.g. porn, racist remarks, profanity). The minute you exercise any control on the network, you suddenly have a "right and responsibility" to police the network.
As long as you don't want any control of the data on your network, you can be in the clear. You'll then have to keep an eye out for other problems though. Such as keeping children from seeing porn.Also, this may not be an option. Even if you do not exercise any control over the data on the network, since it is a LAN the courts might rule that you still have a "right and responsibility" to police the network. As such, stick with layer 2 devices, a layer 3 device would imply the ability to restrict content (e.g. you could filter all traffic on port 445 to kill SMB).
The reason I am using the quotes around "right and responsibility" is that this is the term used in the laws about vicarious and contributory infringement. Basically, one of the criteria for such infringement is that the owner of the venue has a "right and responsibility" to police an area. Again, talk to a lawyer about this. If you can't afford one, get a hold of the EFF, they will probably be willing to give you some direction in this without charge.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
If i bring my own machine, too damned bad, ill share whatever i want.
Dont like it? Then dont be surprised when i trash every machine in the building..
Attempt to restrict me, and see what it gets you.
Though id never visit one of those stupid gaming things so you and your dork friends are safe.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I don't think you have any moral or ethical obligation toward piracy at all, beyond what the organization itself does. You are neither the copyright holder or a law-enforcement agency. It's not your job to keep attendees on the straight-and-narrow.
That being said, you will need to think about this from a liability standpoint. I suggest you consult a lawyer and get him or her to advise you on what sort of policy to set up with an eye on protecting your organization from liability. Since you're a charity, it may be possible to get one to work pro bono.
There is nothing wrong with software/music/movie piracy - you should not try to stop it. In fact, you should even encourage it! - teach the visitors to use DC or bittorrent. It gets kids intrested in culture and it gives everyone equal access to it.
Here in sweden there are lots of LAN parties where piracy is rampant and there are even official warez-ftp:s provided by the crew, bigscreens with scrolling warez-ftp info, etc etc.. Its really nice and the visitors *love* it. (Piracy would not reflect badly on your LAN - it would be seen as a good thing with your LAN).
However, if you dont agree that piracy is good, maybe you atleast can agree to this;
I think its quite dangerous to crack down on exchange of information - no matter what reasons one might have. Afterall, its not YOUR business what information your visitors exchange over your network - its as little your business as it is the teleco:s business what you say to people on their phone network.
Arrr, me hearties!
What's wrong with piracy? I'll never understand how you land-lubbers get it mixed up with copyright infringement.
(No need for any kind of property that isn't my property on the high seas, anyhow...)
Because there are people out there who have a legal claim to intangible things that can be copied perfectly hundreds of times without loss. Because they have a zero-tolerance policy against said copying, and would prefer to see otherwise innocent person locked away for life rather than lose a potential sale.
Because they have lawyers, who earn money based on their ability to bring people, no matter how young or old, no matter how rich or poor, no matter how unable they are to pay (although the poor ones are usually better for quick, easy settlement).
Because they have computers of their own trying to find real copies of their content, and send out false copies of their content, to slow what they consider the rape of their property and their bottom line. And this still isn't enough.
But especially, because they've managed to brainwash enough people into thinking, among other things, that a group which exists as little more than a convenient legal fiction can legitimately lay total claim to an idea while leaving its creator swinging in the wind.
...okay. Maybe that came out a little high on the hyperbole scale, but it gets the point across.
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.