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The Pirate Bay is Here to Stay?
vitaly.friedman wrote to mention a Wired article about The Pirate Bay, a file-sharing crewe out of Sweden that thumbs its nose at the MPAA just for kicks and has yet to be shut down. From the article: "The Pirate Bay's legal adviser, law student Mikael Viborg, said the site receives 1,000 to 2,000 HTTP requests per second on each of its four servers. That's bad news for the content industries, which have fired off letter after menacing letter to the site, only to see their threats posted on The Pirate Bay, together with mocking replies. Viborg said that no one has successfully indicted The Pirate Bay or sued its operators in Swedish courts. Attorneys for DreamWorks and Warner Bros., two companies among those that have issued take-down demands to the site, did not return calls for comment."
The Pirate Bay isn't a "file sharing crewe", they're an open bittorrent tracker with a website. They're not a release group like Razor 1911 or The Humble Guys.
...
From the site's about page:
The Pirate Bay is the worlds largest bittorrent tracker. Bittorrent is a filesharing protocol that in a reliable way enables big and fast file transfers.
The Pirate Bay was started by the swedish anti copyright organization Piratbyrån in the late 2003, but is since October 2004 separated and run by dedicated individuals. Using the site is free of charge, but since running it costs money, donations are very much appreciated.
There is a nice directive-in-the-making called IPRED2 which criminalises copyright infringement.
They aren't hosting any of the content. Only text files (as explained on their web page).
:) )
It is not illegal (Again, according to their web page) to host files that *point* to the content. Untill that changes in their country, they will stay alive (also, so long as they can keep their bills paid, that would help...
bork bork bork!
The sad part is that a large number of slashdotters will convince themselves that this type of thing is good despite the fact that the site is very clearly engaged in theft. For the umpteenth time, no. Not theft. Copyright violation, or 'piracy', the land-based kind, where nobody gets boarded, killed and thrown to the sharks. And at that, they are not engaged in 'piracy' either. They are at most 'enablers' or 'accomplices'.
I don't really see how you're prevented from visiting any doctor you please. At least in Montreal, I can go to any damn doctor I please. I'm moderately sure that most other provinces work similarly.
In fact, I think most American insurance companies force you to stick to a particular HMO - this seems like an even worse loss of freedom, since you're forced to select a doctor not from what you decide is the best option, but from the pool that your insurance company is willing to pay for.
Admittedly, you give up one freedom - the freedom to use your pay as you please - but you also gain the freedom to visit any hospital, anywhere in the country, and know that you can get health care and you won't go bankrupt for it.
By Swedish this is perfectly legal. Some years ago a guy was sued for posting links to mp3's on his web page. And the Swedish court desided that it was nothing wrong with that. He didn't ditribute the mp3's only showing were they where. And the same thing is pirate bay doing now.
Hope my english is better the Swede in the muppets show.
There are some legal complaints and the response from TPB posted at their website: http://thepiratebay.org/legal.php Funny to read them though.
Daxy's Networking Blog
Social-democratic, not socialist-democratic.
The sad part is that a large number of slashdotters will convince themselves that this type of thing is good despite the fact that the site is very clearly engaged in theft.
You must be new here. Write this on the blackboard 100 times: "Copyright infringement is not theft."
Have you read their legal page? They're just taunting them, yes. Apparently they have some pretty strong precedent in Swedish law to back them.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
My information comes from friends who are doctors. They are really concerned about the problems that they deal with every day. Medical malpractice doesn't make up much of the costs of the system. What's actually happening is that we're treating medicine like a commodity. When you are selling a product that most anybody would pay almost anything for, and everybody's going to need it eventually, you're going to see skyrocketing prices. Anybody familiar with how the supply and demand curves work is going to understand that. Yet, you blame it on malpractice. Don't you believe in the market? Are you a socialist or something?
Otherwise, your comments are really ignorant. Sheiks? Cleveland? Huffington? WTF are you talking about?
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
-- Antipiratbyrån's efforts to halt file sharing have prompted Sweden's outspoken pirates to run for office as the Pirate Party. Party spokesman Mika Sjöman said pirates are alarmed by both the IP tracking and Sweden's newly expanded surveillance and wiretapping laws.
"People are getting scared," said Sjöman. "The two issues are really connected because copyright organizations are telling the government you have to invade the right to privacy if you want to defend copyright. That's really destructive for democracy because when you make lists of people that will be the end of privacy."
It may sound like a joke, but Sjöman said the Pirate Party has 1,500 members, and has gathered enough signatures to participate in the Swedish general election in September. He said the government estimates that there are 1.2 million file sharers over the age of 18 in Sweden, and the Pirate Party needs only four percent, 225,000 votes, to get seats in the country's parliament. According to Sjöman, the success of The Pirate Bay illustrates just how embedded file sharing has become in Swedish culture. --
now THAT could be democracy in action!
If you want an example of a socialist state look to Europe - Denmark, Sweden and to a lesser extent the UK, France, Netherlands, etc.
Those are not socialist states. Social democratic, yes, but not socialist. Just because those two terms sound similar doesn't mean that they're synonymous.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Well, considering only the last fifty years: Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and of course the jewel in the crown; Israel. And those are only the highlights. Google for "us intervention middle east".
Freedom to not run across the border to have to use a doctor of my choice?
That's pretty hilarious, considering how many U.S. citizens organize trips to Canada in order to escape from the skyrocketing medical and pharmaceutical costs in this country.
The enemies of Democracy are
I'm swedish, and obviously I'm flattered by your opinion. However, you paint a little to rosy a picture. Countrary to popular opinion there are some homeless here, and if you visited Stockholm or Malmö I am surprised you didn't see any. Not homelessness on an US scale maybe, but the problem still exists. Also, the the privacy and freedoms you speak of is under threat here, just as it is anywhere else in the west. The swedish government is leading an effort to increase electronic surveillance in the entire EU, for example. (The opposition basically agrees, so I guess privacy will just have to take one for the team, no matter what happens in the upcoming election.) On the whole, this is a good place to live, and stand up well in comparison to just about anything out there. Just don't expect heaven on earth.
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
The kick is that you don't need to have shared property, just shared means of production (a big subset of property). Communism is perfectly possible in most market economies existing today through employee ownership.
First of all, there's not nearly as much crime in Sweden as there is in Australia. The Swedish government takes proper care of their people, so no one feels a need to commit crime. There's no homeless people sleeping in parks at night. People are much, much friendlier.
It is too cold to sleep in the parks, that is the main reason you don't see them there. It might be that we have fewer homeless people here than in other countries, but they certainly exist and the situation is not nearly as good as you suggest.
And there are many who feel that Swedes are cold, more so than friendly.
I don't have any crime statistic, but I would be surprised if it was much lower than for comparable European countries. The most scary thing to me is that we have an unemployment rate of about 15% today and this hasn't changed for several years. It is a social bomb ticking away.
They also don't have any terrorist panic. There's no "terrorism alert levels", and there isn't much security. There's not even nearly as many police around as there is in Australia.
I haven't been to Australia, but aren't you describing most of Europe here? I can tell you that many Swedes would actually like to see more police on the streets.
I just hope everyone who reads this post can imagine what life would be like to live in a country where you don't need to be afraid of terrorism or crime, a country where almost all of the population gets a good education, and all this despite alcohol (and probably other drugs) being more easily accessible in this country.
Are you suggesting that alcohol is easy to get in Sweden?! The alcohol taxes are among the highest in the world, and you can only buy alcohol in special government stores. They are closed on Sundays and it was only last year that they started being open on Saturdays.
I like Sweden, but I have to say that you have a very unusual view of my country. Either that or you are astroturfing for the government...
Reality or nothing.
UHHH how about the military bases that were in Saudi Arabia that bin Laden SPECIFICALLY called out as being a problem? FYI, those bases were quietly removed after 9/11. It wasn't until then that OBL started using the Palestinian conflict as a boogeyman.
Look, things are far from perfect, and Bodström does need a reality check, but things are far from as bad as you make them out to be. In fact Sweden still receives top marks for freedom.
And Guillou and Bratt served two years for not revealing their sources and are long since out of prison. In fact, the Swedish consitution again receives top marks for protection of the press, even though you're not allowed to perform espionage, which one can debate is exactly what they did (even though their actions were IMHO justified).
Also, the data processing directive, while misguided in implementation, is actually there to protect you, from corporations and the like. Really a blessing, but alas heavily disguised.
Stefan Axelsson
This should be changed to:
Passing on minimal debt to the next generation.
Some national debt is necessary for manipulating interest rates (Fed) which can be good for lowering interest rates and fighting inflation. Too much debt though...
Cause everyone wants a free Xbox360
UHHH? Which part of the Middle East were we occupying before 9/11?
Well it is a more consensual thing, but one of the reasons of 9/11 was Al Queada's desire to get the Americans out of Saudi Arabia so they could topple the Saudi Royal family.
Secondly, our support for Isreal is pretty much seen as American backed occupation. And don't forget what happened with Iran and the Shah.
My suggestion is that we stop publicly supporting Israel. Doesn't mean you can send money, weapons, and secret CIA type of assistance, but not so out in the open.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
"If you write a 20 page paper and turn in for a course and get an A, then someone photocopies your paper and turns it in and also gets an A are they doing something wrong or unethical?"
When i start claiming that i wrote the new metalica album, then your example would make sense. People arent passing off other peoples work as their own, they are merely disseminating other peoples content, almost always with credit to the original author. Thats why when you download an episode of lost it doesnt say "Churla's magic island of doom.avi" it says "lost.avi". IF you tried to pass off an episode of lost as your creation people would laugh at you. in other words, your analogy falls very far short.
Considering the rest of your post seems to be random words thrown together, i think we are done here.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
That doesn't change the fact that Canadian hospitals have waiting lists that are insane. Not private business would say "Sorry about the heart problem, come back in 6 months" because you would to to another hospital - and long waiting lists only save money if people DIE before they get thier operation!
My mother (and she isn't rich) forked out several thousand a while ago for a "grey-market" MRI here in Canada because that cost less than losing another 6 MONTHS of work waiting of our public care. Frankly, for 'minor' scans and treatments, anyone making better than minimum wage can afford better treatment than our public system provides. It's only major surgery where you really get any benifit.
A while ago there was an uproar because in Vancouver you could get your pet a CAT scan (no pun intended) in 48 hours, while the waiting list for people FOR THE EXACT SAME MACHINE was several months. Because you could pay to have your pet scanned after-hours.
It is a very complex mess of government intervention that has caused the problems that the US and many 1st world countries will soon face: someone has to continue robbing from Peter to pay Paul.
First, the inflation of currency is a double edged sword: it kills many at the profit of the few. The Fed prints new money out of thin air in the US, which is the direct cause of price increases -- home values go up, the stock market goes way up, consumer goods go way up, but salaries do not keep up enough. This means that while you earn more, you actually earn less as the dollar does not buy as much.
When you introduce a new supply of an item into any market, the price of the item will generally go down -- it will be worth less. When the Fed prints new currency, it eventually lowers the value of all the other currency out there. This is why home prices tend to go up -- the demand for dollars isn't as great. Pile on top of that the easy credit the Fed enforces (low interest rates), and people tend to buy more of something than they'd otherwise need (note the 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home being the norm).
At some point in time, the creditors who helped create these dollars will demand something in return for the notes they bought (receipts against a loan). If we can't produce anything, and we aren't worth anything, they'll foreclose. I like to think of the Chinese and Indians (who save up to 40% of their disposable income only to loan it to us) coming over to the US and living in our mortgaged houses, driving our leased cars, and watching our bought-on-credit widescreen TVs, while we slave in the factories to pay it all back.
Sorry you can't access blogspot -- I'm moving my blogs to my own domain name ( www.unanimocracy.com ) very soon, hopefully you can join in the "fun" in the future! Drop me an e-mail and I'll let you know when we made the transition.
"The most scary thing to me is that we have an unemployment rate of about 15% today and this hasn't changed for several years"
You really should have made it clear that the number is for jobless 16-24 year olds (15,6% in August 2005). The overall unemployment rate was 6.5% in August 2005. The number for unemployed youths has recently changed for the worse, but that's because Swedish statistics were harmonized with EU practices when the AKU system was introduced in April 2005. Under the new statistical practices students are counted in the national unemployment statistics during their summer break if they are registered jobseekers but fail to get a summer job.