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U.S. Joins Hollywood in War on Piracy
Section_Ei8ht writes to mention a Washington Post article about a new joint initiative between the U.S. government and the entertainment industry. The government will now be aiding efforts abroad to stop copyright infringement. They cite the recent Pirate Bay fiasco, as well as the problems Russia is having with the WTO as a result of their thriving IP black market. From the article: "The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate U.S. companies lose as much as $250 billion per year to Internet pirates, who swap digital copies of 'The DaVinci Code,' Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free."
This is dumb for two reasons. One is that it is the US meddling in other nations purely internal affairs. The other is that it is yet another war on an abstract idea. (joining the war on terror and the war on poverty) Bad news, you can't win against an idea, only against a group of people (terrorists, pirates, the poor?). And yes there are too many pirates to even think about "winning" against them. They probably make up more than 50% of the population.
Philosophy.
They probably expect that after spending millions developing a well-received and popular video game, that people would dip into their pockets and buy it, rather than download a free copy and sticking two fingers up to the game developer.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
This is yet another excuse to trash our privacy rights and increase monitoring of the average citizen.
And you WILL like it, or we may decide to detain you.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
the war on drugs.
...who swap digital copies of 'The DaVinci Code,' Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free
Gee, you should be PAYING THEM to download that crap. Eew.
I'd like to see a study that looks at if people that pirate software and other copyrighted materials would pay for them to begin with. I'd also like to see a study of the commercial gains from piracy. For instance, downloading an MP3 from a friend of a song. The downloader likes the song, so he buys the entire album from iTunes. He now kmow about the band and enjoy them and will likely purchase more. All I see are press releases from the record and movie industry claiming they "lost" money.
The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate U.S. companies lose as much as $250 billion per year to Internet pirates, who swap digital copies of "The DaVinci Code," Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free.
These 3 products have a value of as much as $250 billion? Wow, these guys really are making too much money. Guess I better go download some more movies.
So first the government wants to ban the legal sales of Grand Theft Auto here in the US and now they want to ban the illegal download of Grand Theft Auto overseas? Are they for or against the game? Or do they just not want anyone to have it?
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
Ah, the democratic will of the people in action. At last the US government is listening to the cries of its people to punish those Swedish guys who make free stuff available and aren't breaking any local laws. Oh, wait...
It's unfortunate, but this is just more of the same.
But what are we going to do? Intervene more in the politics of other nations? Yeah they love that. We can go to war to get all our copies of Grand Theft Auto back (right before we ban them for being obscene).
Sooner or later India and China will have a larger say in global economics, and their positions on these topics will carry more weight. I wonder what things will be like when other countries don't bend so easily to the will of the U.S.
That's some prime directive...now we tell the "svede's" how to run their shit to?! I mean, do they want to make it so we can't travel to other country's????
It sounds like they're going to be moving to the war on piracy. I expect we'll be carpet bombing Stockholm before the elections.
Hopefully I was correct about all this, but the claims I have made above were made in many long-standing high-score comments in the last discussion about this subject, and not refuted, so hopefully peer review will have made me sound like I know what I'm talking about.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I for one had never heard of "Chamillionaire" until this article. Why site these specific items? It's almost as if they WANT me to go download it! Which I won't because piracy is bad bad bad. Everyone knows Ninja's are where it's at these days.
I forsee the future, and it is bleak. What's next, Cory Sherman for President??
"Remember kids, when you download MP3's, you're downloading Com^H^H^HTerrorism."
-Some Bloke
Is there heaven? Is there Hell? Is that a Tuna Melt I smell?-Primus
Hollywood will be teaming with the government to bring you candidates who although short on substance and integrity, are guaranteed to have voter appeal and provide a vehicle to forward the Republican party platform.
Why don't they make products worth watching. Most of the junk Hollywood makes isn't even worth my time even if it were free.
Yet another industry that failed to adapt to new technologies that's going to fight until their death.
Slashdot.. where people join together in deliberate ignorance.
...the figures for the "lost revenue" they pull out of their *sses gets larger and larger. I think the industry is goatseing itself there...
My sig is too lon
Comment removed based on user account deletion
How come we can generate these awesomely tight relationships with other countries regarding IP and copyright laws, but we can't get Chinese companies to not use 15 hour work days and below-living-standard wages to produce goods?
Oh, I see. Because neither one is good for Rich White Guys. Carry on, then.
I of am the type who doesn't think IP is property.
Unlike real property it'sn't in limited amounts.
The Const. reason was to help create more works.
It was designed to prevent people from selling others work.
It wasn't designed to prevent people from doing what they want with their own, including time-shifting and backing up, though of course those weren't thought of then.
Thomas Jefferson: "Just as a man could light his taper from an existing candle without diminishing the original flame, so, too, could he acquire an idea without diminishing the original source."
You could think that "stealing" the fire would make them need to use money to buy matches but that still doesn't affect his saying.
Now I am not completely against copyrights.
I do think that the current implementation is worse than having none at all but a better one would be to just penalize sellers and make the time [b]actually[/b] limited.
1e6 years is technically limited but I don't think they, the founding fathers, mean something like that.
No 70+ years. 10 is better.
I was thinking that the length should be related to how long it takes to promalgrate around.
Back in the 1700's it took decades. Now it takes seconds.
That means more people can access it sooner and decide if they want it.
For computer and movies it gets obsolete so quickly that even 5 might be reasonable.
Just remember that "Happy Birthday," "I have a Dream," and "Mein Kampf" are all copyrighten.
I want someone to do those in public to show how stupid the laws can be.
Especially since MLK jr. probably didn't want it to be private.
P.S. "it'sn't" is a contraction for "it is not"
P.P.S. I like using the word "property" because I get to quickely type the letters "e,r,t,y" which are next to each other.
Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
While i agree you cant 'win' with a fight against ideas, you can suppers them by instilling enough fear in the populace not to admit their 'ideas' ever again in public.
Oh, and not that i agree with it, but the WTO has effectively torn down all resemblance of 'independent states' in the world. And undermines a countries sovereignty.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
is the industry giong to pay for our government to do this? oh wait, taxpayers will.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Politics is show business for ugly people.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
"...Rich White Guys"
shoud be
"...Rich People"
There a a lot of rich non white people who profit from this behaviour. Like the Chinese, for starters.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I've yet to download any pirated copies of American entertainment. In my world there's Bach and Bebop, these I have on CD; then there's the rest of what passes for music. As for the rest of what passes for American entertainment there's nothing worth stealing coming from the America. I look forward optimistically to an offering from American entertainment that would be worth stealing and, possibly, even buying.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
I can only repeat the same argument against their piracy statistics so many times before I become bored with my own points. I think I'll try something new. Lets see, how about this one. Your piracy statistics are wrong because elevator vacuum cleaner torque wrench. It's not like someone at some point hasn't pointed out to these people how stupid their arguments are, it's just that they don't care. The man is not my friend. Why do I even bother to post this crap?
Read my short stories - You won't regret it.
It looks like a reporter has a hard time distinguishing between legal jurisdictions. I doubt that the Swedes would have wasted time criminalizing something that was already illegal. This is a perfect example of the fuzzy thinking that most people bring to this (admittedly complex) issue.
Ok now I understand why the music industry said they have won the war on piracy. They are passing off the invasive tactics to a seedier ally. Yea I pirate stuff, I don't think anyone who has a PC and internet access has not. The fact of the matter is that there is so much complete garbage coming from both Movie and Music industry that I refuse to spend hard earned money on something that I cannot confirm that I like. I'm not going to purchase a car without testing it out first. Yea they complain about people downloading movies still in theatres, WTF as much as it costs for a single person to go see the movie let alone a family DAMN right I'm going to want to know what my money is buying before I dump 100 bux into the pocket of some half assed movie producer/director cause of his name. You can also blame the people in the movies for this to a degree too. 20+ million to make a movie as lame ass as war of the worlds?! You should have paid this out to people for the time they invested in seeing this atrocity(nothing personal Steven). With the current sequel a year tactics of movies and such, most of which don't deserve the first movie let alone a sequel, why do I even bother with over glorified TV shows with digital sound? Again I stress, its not that everyone wants to be a pirate, although I'm sure that some do, its that you leave little options to the contrary. Movie downloads should be widely accepted by now yet you stifel them for your "DVD" sales. WTF do I need to go to a video store to get a movie when my HIGH SPEED internet connection has wonderful delivery method built-in. If holywood wants to crucify someone start with its own. Make an example of the halfassed movies that come out in groves and make more people weep with disgust then creating a witch hunt out of everyday people to proclaim that you are losing 250bn a year on shit like "the da vinci code" (great book, lackluster movie). If you start asking a reasonable fee for the GOLD plated tin foil you're passing off as pure I'm sure that we will return in kind. Heaven knows the 2k a month I make which almost covers my place to live and just my bills let alone my car payment and other stuff just ain't worth trying to divey up a share to some guy who makes 20mil just to look good in front of a camera and wince when a bright light that he is told is an explosion. Please sue me for piracy you can have the 3.75c I have left at the end of each month till hell freezes over cause you sure as hell won't get more then that out of me no matter how much you stomp and stare. Holywood can kiss my ass just like the record companies. Make something I want and then make it affordable and we'll talk till then SUE ME.. can't get blood from a turnip... HM
The whole article sounded more like a RIAA/MPAA press release then anything resembling news.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
"Nothing is given to man on earth . Everything he needs has to be produced. And here man faces his basic alternative: he can survive in only one of two ways-- by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows. The creator faces nature alone. The parasite faces nature through an intermediary.
"The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men.
"The creator lives for his work. He needs no other men. His primary goal is within himself. The parasite lives second-hand. He needs others. Others become his prime motive.
"The basic need of the creator is independence. The reasoning mind cannot work under any form of compulsion. It cannot be curbed, sacrificed or subordinated to any consideration whatsoever. It demands total independence in function and in motive. To a creator, all relations with men are secondary.
"The basic need of the second-hander is to secure his ties with men in order to be fed. He places relations first. He declares that man exists in order to serve others. He preaches altruism."
welcome our old Government Overlords.
I personally have *never* downloaded anything that i was going to buy. If it wasn't available for free, and i didn't feel it was of any monetary value, id have done without. If its something i felt was worth money, i bought it. No one has lost a single dime in 'potential sales' from me due to piracy. However, they have lost out on all of my entertainment money due to their being an ass, as i refuse to buy anything from the 'industry' due to their actions. I know im not alone.
I am sick of it being called theft, and the total lies about the numbers. Screw them.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Except the ones having huge amounts of cash, of course.
Almost everything they did from the start of their first term to date have been in expense of majority, in profit of minority.
Minority always having the meaning "wealthy" of course.
Read radical news here
The US picks and chooses which of its laws it will enforce in other countries -- the general trend seems to be that if there is a belief that some US corporation can profit from the law being enforced, it will be; otherwise, the US government couldn't give a shit. Consider the laws here in the states (and recognized by several international groups) regarding chemical factories. Does the US start meddling with other countries when a US chemical company decides to open up a plant somewhere and blatantly breaks the laws it would be required to follow here in America? No. Labor laws? No. But turn it around,so that the company is producing its products here in the states and selling them overseas, and suddenly, the US is interested in enforcing American laws outside of America. Double standard?
Palm trees and 8
The key here is not to say that they've declared war on it. Whenever they do that to phenomena, it doesn't work very well, like the whole "war on drugs" or "war on poverty."
yep..
this nation has become so hijacked by a plutocratic and manipulative media elite that the US government now places this on a higher priority than terrorism, human rights violations, and other very good reasons to pressure other nations and refuse to admit them to the wto.
This may be getting old, but I think this is making me physically ill. How on earth can anyone stand by and allow such corruption? how can anyone not suffering from clinical senility go along with this.
I mean.. f**k the national debt, or social security, or medical care, or rising poverty rates, or al queda, or the plummeting median wage, or the oil price gouging.. we MUST make sure the hollywood cartels are allowed to do whatever the f**k they please anywhere. >.
China gets into the wto despite massive and continuing human rights violations on the promise to "stomp out piracy".. and now russia.. a much better nation than china on these points, is being told "abandon your sovreignty to we the media elite or be isolated".
I'm getting tired of this.. whenever anyone wants to grab their pitchforks and torches i'll be happy to join you.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
What's wrong with infringing on the sovereignty of other nations? Isn't that what empires are supposed to do?
Only 1 or 2 percent of the population are actual pirates. The rest are leechers, I download stuff sure, but I'm never ripping or re encoding or cracking things.....I'm a leech, and I accept that...
But the US should leave other countries to their own affairs, I refuse to also believe that 250$ Billion is lost to piracy, I think at least 100$ billion is lost to CRAPPY GOODS! Has anyone seen the bad movies and music lately? Why was "Im n luv wit a stripper" Number 1 on itunes for 3 weeks?!??!?!??!?! They paid for it to be there, they arent exactly struggling, they have enough money to pay their music artists enough money to retire on at age 18 yet they complain about us stealing?
BS BS BS
To each his own.
The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate...
In other news, today The Big Bad Wolf announced that small children were causing serious damage to the forest ecosystem, and that in the future trespassing children would be punished more severely.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Yet another story that proves yet again how I was right. I should be getting negative marks for redundancy at this point.
Let's just hope they don't start another crappy youth brainwashing campaign like "Don't copyy that Floppy" featuring MC Double Def DP (honestly? What the hell is it with the government thinking we like rappers?)
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
The US in entering the information age in a big way, and the US vision of IP is simply plain wrong. The future is not one of "intellectual property", but of information services. Just as the commoditisation of the labor force led to the drastic death of the plantation system and all it's false property rights, the commoditisation of information in the information age will lead to the drastic death of the copyright system and false "intellectual property" rights.
The fact that Linux has taken off in the USA faster than any other nation is directly because the US is a bigger free market than any other market. The information age happened here first, the market and economy is the biggest market, and the internet penetration while not the highest in the world is still way up there. It is not Europe, Russia, China, or India that need to change. It is the US, and the pressures to change are bigger than life and are not coming from overseas, but comming from right here at home.
The truth is that the only way we are going to be able to get it on with the information age is to kill copyrights right here at home. I say we had better be ready for that battle, cause it's comming wether we want it or not.
Whats next? a US war on Linux. quote "Those linux hippies are taking away jobs and money from the American people, this is an outrage and we won't stand for it."
Shit like this is why I don't bother to read the news any more. It's depressing to the point of being totally demoralising.
If they do as well as Iraq and their mission in finding Osama Bin Ladden - then Hollywood has nothing to worry about.
Mission accomplished!
"people who drive on the left side of the road are driving illegally." It's true in the U.S... but not everywhere.
How do you suppose we pass in the US?
KFG
Someone thinks that russian kids have 250 Billion dollars that they would spend on Hollywood creations? Even if their counts are close, those copies are floating around because they are (relatively) cost free. If Hollywood managed to obliterate every pirated copy of everything they created, they would not end up with one additional dollar. People do not have 250 billion extra dollars in their pockets. They will just never see another Hollywood movie and not care when one comes to thei movie theaters.
I bought 5 books last night, knowing fully well that I could easily get them online for free.
I haven't bought any music or movies in at least five years due to the greedy ****ing **AA - that and everything released has been a -2/10.
Make stuff worth having and we will probably buy it... or you can just sue grandma for downloading without a computer, that always works.
Eventually it was discovered
...
That God
Did not want us to be
All the same
This was
Bad News
For the Governments of The World
As it seemed contrary
To the doctrine of
Portion Controlled Servings
Mankind must be made more uniformly
If
The Future
Was going to work
Various ways were sought
To bind us all together
But, alas
Same-ness was unenforcable
It was about this time
That someone
Came up with the idea of
Total Criminalization
Based on the principle that
If we were All crooks
We could at least be uniform
To some degree
In the eyes of
The Law
Shrewdly our legislators calculated
That most people were
Too lazy to perform a
Real Crime
So new laws were manufactored
Making it possible for anyone
To violate them any time of the day or night,
And
Once we had all broken some kind of law
We'd all be in the same big happy club
Right up there with the President
The most excalted industrialists,
And the clerical big shots
Of all your favorite religions
Total Criminalization
Was the greatest idea of its time
And was vastly popular
Except with those people
Who didn't want to be crooks or outlaws,
So, of course, they had to be
Tricked Into It
Which is one of the reasons why
Music
Was eventually made
Illegal.
--Frank Zappa (from the booklet of Joe's Garage, Acts II & III - 1979)
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Yup. Potential loss of extortion money always pisses the mob off.
How can I be downloading his album if I've never even heard of him?
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
So it took you a loss of $250 billion to notice. I've got one simple question... Does that mean that the people who couldn't aford to pay for a trip to the movie theaters got to keep a small chunk of that spare change you moguls didn't get?
(Wikipedia's article on Piracy.)
"It ain't a war against drugs.it's a war against personal freedom" --Bill Hicks
Wow, I can't think of a more beautiful thing you stupid politicians could be doing.
I'm going to write a letter right now to you all telling you how wonderful an idea this is, to force other countries to adopt our laws so they can pay for entertainment,
Why don't we force them to wear gold stars and send infringers to death camps?
Honestly, with the amount of HIV, poverty, malaria, influenza, strife, famine, and general nastiness out there in the world, I'm glad my hard earned tax dollars are going to supposed a 3rd party that doesn't give a rat's ass on this, and is instead out to make money for itself to support a bloated and outdated business model.
And us Americans wonder why the rest of the world hates us.
The article repeats the falsehoods that The Pirate Bay and the AllOfMP3.com are illegal file sharing websites. One is a legal under Swedish law and is a torrent site that does not host any copyrighted material. The Russian site, AllofMP3.com sells mp3 tracks legally by a quirk of Russian copyright law. The reason the RIAA is pissed is for 2 reasons, the first is that the songs are sold cheaply to both Russians and foreigners who go to the site which screws with their regional price fixing system, and the other is that they are not collecting the royalties to which they are owed because of those who are supposedly representing foreign copyright holders in Russia pocket the money themselves or they simply choose not to make the effort to get their share from those entities. This also infringes on the RIAA's patented business model which is mostly based on cheating artists out of royalties. If the writer did even a scrap of research beyond the press releases from the RIAA then at the very least the word "allegedly" illegal file sharing might be used instead.
The more lord vader tightens his grip, the more star systems will slip through his fingers!
Technology progresses as the will of the people. Nobody will ever put this genie all the way back in the bottle, nor should they.
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Think for a moment about this sentence. No not about the amount or how they arrived at it. Think about that sentence and and the saying, "you can't spend a penny twice".
That amount X is perhaps lost to the content owners BUT it is not somehow evaporating into thin air, that amount saved is being spend on other things.
So if the content industry gets the amount X then other industries will lose an amount X. Put simpler, that kid who has a allowance who just got a movie for free will now spend that money on his cellular phone, fast food, clothes etc etc.
It is the real problem with the content industry. They used to have to contend only with clothes for young kids pocket money. Now there is games and the phone to contend with. If you ever worked for a phone company you will know how many people get into trouble with their mobile phone bill. That is money they can't spend on music/movies/games. You can't pirate cell phone minutes but you can pirate content.
The industry world wide isn't being hurt by pirating, just the industries that are being pirated.
As to the amount, well you then have to simply ask, where the hell would the economy come up with a spare 250 billion dollars. Since that amount of money is unlikely to be stuffed behind the couch, even Bill Gates, the figure is meaningless. You may as well make it a gazillion for all the relevance.
If piracy was eleminated today the only thing that would happen is that you would see a shift in spending patterns. Perhaps the fashion industry needs to get in on the side of the pirates, cause if everyone has to pay for every bit of content they used to get for free, they will have a lot less money to spend on clothes.
The economy is not a infinite idea, there is X money and you can't just wish up an extra amount. That 250 billion just doesn't exist.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
We live in an age were every individual can have their own printing press.
Obviously we cannot have that much freedom. Information is dangerous for the masses.
Only the publishing/media companies know best.
To restore order, publishing should only be done by the big media companies.
The material should of course be screened by the Department of Homeland Security, to fight Terrorism.
120 years for copyright is not enough. 1000 years would be fair.
Restore something even better than the Stationers monopoly of 1557!!
Down with "Freedom of Press (Piracy)".
Apparently internet piracy in the US is responsible for over 2% of the GDP.
Seriously, this is the stupidest number they've come up with yet.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
When Bush says that your war is on the side of good and right, you know that you're in trouble.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
I wonder how life will be when the whole world is in prison...
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
But the movie industry just announced record breaking profits.
... and they claim that piracy is costing them the same as their record-breaking revenue. I think not. The fugres just dont stack up.
In 2005, profits from video sale were up 10%, and despite the fact that it was a really weak year for blockbuster films, box office totals were only down 1%. Here's how some of it breaks down:
Total video revenue: $21 billion
Boxoffice revenue: $23.8 billion
Total revenue: $44.8 billion
Total US generated Revenue: $25.5 billion
Especially given the RIAA statement from an article on slashdot just 2 days ago:
"USA Today is reporting the RIAA now claims that the issues surrounding P2P and piracy have been contained and are no longer as big an issue as they once were. From the article; 'The problem has not been eliminated,' says association CEO Mitch Bainwol. 'But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat.'"
The sooner they start getting heavyhanded with foreign pirates, the sooner we will see other countries pushing open source for economic reasons...
Never mind the benefit of not having a gigantic US-based software company running your computers for you.
As for the music and movies... who cares. Commercialized popular culture is a disease, so why would anyone want to steal a disease?
As some political commentator once said, once the feds declare war on anything the cause is already lost. How is a "war on piracy" going to actually accomplish anything? All it will do is provide an arena for posturing and bribery^h^h^h^hlobbying.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Obviously it is impossible to prove this claim, but it seems not reasonable because
1) some people wouldn't have bought a copy at $XY
2) fact that people can afford to give out $XY doesn't imply they will for any product at any price.
That alone is strikingly obvious, but the MPAA/RIAA experts keep treating people as if they were idiots. You are doing an heck of a job !
Consider also that many anti-piracy instruments are already in place also in other countries
Also consider that piracy and imitation on patents, industrial espionage and far worse crimes are tolerated if
a) one has a production going on in some cheap workforce country
b) one has control over it and you are selling somewhere else in the world
c) one has the right connections and is paying the right people
So if an engine is copied almost verbatim and the copied product is introduced into local market at a fraction of a fraction of cost this is considered good competition (while it's "dumping") and the ensuing reduction of workforce is seen as a natural effect of competition, f*ck you you don't have a right to a job ; yet the considerably less harmful (if not completely harmless) reproduction of a movie of a record is considered a crime against national economy, a job position destroyer, I have a copy-right to profit !
This is insulting to anyone with half a brain.
This I must say as amusing, that they would use this in way against another country with they way the act. I mean this only means that the US gets to have free trade with you but dose not guarantee that you get free trade with the US. Hell look at the Canada vs. US on softwood lumber. If that was any indication of how the US treats free trade I do not know why you would want to be part of it.
Just another case of the rule apply to you not us.
1. makes a rule
2. brakes the rule they just made
3. sues when others brake rule
4. Profits
I had a boss like this. Key word being had.
Well its not surprising, Hollywood joined the US Government first. First Ronny Raygun, the Jesse Ventura and Arnie. Maybe the Republican Party could put Carl Weathers up as the next presidental candidate and the holy Predator trinity will be complete! Or maybe in future, US elections could use peoples TV sets as voting machines, and depending on whether Commander in Chief or The West Wings gets more viewers, Geena Davis or Martin Sheen could be made the next prez.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
When I was in college I worked at Blockbuster Video.
One of the most shoplifted games was "GTA". In fact in one of our stores they had to keep all the games behind the counter.
Imagine that, a game about theft being the most stolen item in the store! HA! Ohh the irony.
Libertas in infinitum
Isnt piracy just an evolutionary process that is the early sign of what life could be?
Take away all of the money claimed money loss and then whats wrong about piracy? Take away economics, and the fact that artists need to be paid to live... (i get that beleive me)
I think Piracy is that part of humanity that wishes to evolve towards a free for all world. A kind of "star trek world", where all have access to software reguardless of price, poverty level, intellect, country, or carear.
Piracy is definatly a protest, its also a crime... Name one protest historic protest that isnt a crime.
Piracy is also full of new ideas that are not bound by law. Think Napster and how its changed how we buy music today.
Sure the idiots that sell illegal stuff on cd/dvd should be stopped...
but in the end... piracy is an evolutionary process that is a statement of our civilization... Some think that statement is about prices being to high.... but its also a statement about civilization.
Do you think pirates are undermining companies because they like to risk their existance.... or is there a more idealistic visionary movement behind their motions.
some do it for the ego... some do it for the fun, and some do it for the money unfortunately... but in the end... i think its about giving access to the people.
And i think thats a deeper meaning that no legal threat will ever succeed at beating.
Sure its a protest to prices, but its also a protest about civilization in many respects. Look at linux and the thought behind it. It's free.... for all to enjoy.
We're in a digital age... but we're not really there yet. We're still early on, we're still evolving and maybe the old ways dont apply. Piracy is nothing new to computers... infact the entire industry was built from piracy.
Piracy cant be cured by arresting people anymore than America could be cured by the english arresting revolutionaries... Although todays civilians seem far more willing to obey.
Its a political movement, as we see with the pirates bay...
Its a statement, its a crime, its a protest, its an idiology, its evolution and perhaps fledgling beginnings of the future of civilization. One things for sure is that it will change the way we live.
Unforuntately i see things becoming much more controlling, and our rights being squished out of existance as they try to control/end piracy. Such things will help further the political mindset of pirates though.
So how do we best deal with piracy? From a consumer view... lower prices. From a buisness point of view, lock up the pirates and kill them all.
In many respects i'm glad there are pirates. We would not have a windows OS or a MAC os without them. The industry was built from pirates. The richest people in the industry were pirates...
Again i'm glad we have people that think differently and have skills to undo the software that we are "licensed" and dont even own.
As things get more controlling... where do people turn?
I think the methods we are taking to deal with piracy are going to spawn more revolutionaries...
How many of you can honestly say "I hope the pirates dont find a way to remove the DRM features for Vista?"
Look at Itunes and how piracy has helped create an entirely new buisness. Napster... the worlds most successful and public group of pirates changed a world... because by numbers they were visible and the effects were shocking but also quite brilliant. Software delivery systems that can distrubute music by searching... Thats brilliant!
Now its the STANDARD for online music sales (Not napster but the methods albiet slightly different)
But the point is out of that large amount of visible pirates, came new ideas... buisnesses didnt say "we need to do something cause we're losing money" They said "We need to do this some how and MAKE MONEY"
Today we have Itunes, Napster, Microsoft's shitty music service, etc etc etc.. Yet another industry standard spawned fr
The US exports a lot of intellectual property. Think of Hollywood, famous american pop stars and all the software companies based in the US. This might be the only thing which the US exports much more than it imports. It'd expect the government to do something to try to protect this.
anything like their "war on terrorism"? Are they going to liberate users from malefic pirates?
I do not believe that the "they wouldn't have bought them anyway," line of thinking qualifies as a valid justification for copyright infringement. The only time it is important is when the "content" industry claims losses amounting to huge sums of money they never had. It doesn't mean that infringement is ok, it just means that the industry's claims are quite disingenuous.
The Davinci Code? Puhleeze. Who would download that garbage? I only use bittorrent to download cheezy british scifi sitcoms from the 80s.
Lets see ... pirates v. politicians. Who has a larger army? Who has better technology? Its pretty funny to think about. Kind of like pissing against the tide, no?
I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
The whole of Hollywood is about 10 Billion. Video games are about 10 billion, Porn is about 12 billion, Music is about 6 billion. While these figures are nothing to sneeze at (A billion is still about a thousand million!) It makes me wonder what idiot pulled the $250 billion number out of their Arsche.
(On a sidenote with all the attention being paid to "Celebrities" and how much press the whole of Hollywood gets: The payroll of Norfolk Southern is about half of all the revenues of the whole Holywood film industry. Puts things in perspective doesn't it?)
Hajo
Hajo Monogamy: Belief so strong that millions of people end perfectly good relationships in order to start a new one.
I worked in Mexico for about a year and I'm not sure if it's even possible to buy a legitimate version of software, music, or video. I'm sure you can somewhere but you'd have to look around whereas pirated versions are everywhere. I especially liked the modified sony PS2 with perhaps all availabe ps2 games pre-loaded into the console for only slightly more money than a legit machine ; )
they're not gonna catch me ridin' dirty.
Me: "Hey, Bob?"
My neighbor Bob: "Yeah?"
Me: "There's someone walking out your back door with a TV -- and it's a TV you borrowed from me.."
Bob: "Oh, shit! I'd better call the police!"
Me: "Thanks, Bob"
Here, let me get the obvious argument out of the way: "A TV is a physical object! Digital copies are not!"
Alright. "Hey, Bob? There's someone going into your house and making copies of your hard drive -- including that email I sent you with my account information."
There's a huge difference between perceived loses & real loses.
They appear to be taking a page out BSA's book to reach such conclusions.
Using the entertainment industry's analogy, every P2P download represents a lost sale,
& it sounds & looks good to the average Politician!
Now if we use an example the flaw will become apparent.
Example: If Photoshop's latest version get's downloaded via P2P 100,000 times does
that mean they lost those sale's?
Answer: At $649 US a pop I very mush doubt it!
Being generous I'd guess only 1% to 2% of those 100,000 people would truly pay
$649 US for Photoshop if that was the only way they could get it.
I think it would be safe to say the true cost of Piracy isn't $250 billion, but closer to the
$2.5 to 5 billion mark anually.
In all likelyhood the U.S. government will spend more than that amount each year hence
forth in fighting Piracy, thanks to the lobby groups mystical figures.
Apparently my fellow citizens can't get enough of war because the United States has been at war with one thing or another since I was born. I refer to North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, "The commies", drugs, drug "lords", Grenada, Iraq, Serbia, "Terrorism", and now "internet pirates?".
The words "as much as", clearly include, yeah you got it - the number ZERO. :P
How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
When the US government gets involved and demands favors, things get done. Take Pirate Bay, as an example. If you try going to http://thepiratebay.org/blog.php?id=29 you'll find - Oh wait a second, the US pulled some favors, had the site illegally taken down, and what - it's back? No fucking way!
;)
Notice what they're doing now. They're flaunting it - before they had cannballs fired from the ship at a Hollywood sign, today they're using an abstract phoenix in the shape of the pirate ship as their logo, and in the blog (see link above) they have offers from many in various servers to set up redundant hosts. The MPAA and RIAA cannot and will not win. They HAVE to come to grips with today's technology or face extinction. Whether or not they want to admit it, P2P and sales CAN coexist. Some folks use it as try-before-you-buy (I've done this, quite recently in fact), and the folks who won't buy, are likely not the target consumer anyway.
Personally, I often wait for movies to hit cable or DVD before I watch them (usually cable first and if I like it I buy the DVD), unless it's a movie I want to see in the highest possible resolution, then I'll go to the theater and hope they bothered to focus the projector. I am mainly part of the secondary market - the market that the MPAA fought tooth and nail against when they tried to block home video from becoming reality. I buy lots of DVDs (although admittedly not since the MPAA illegally caused thepiratebay.org to come down for all of three days), probably too many, but I rarely go to the theater because so few new movies are worth the hassle.
As an aside where politics is concerned, rather than just the MPAA's stupidity: Is it IP that will be the final straw and get people to say "enough is enough" and actually get out and VOTE, or run for office, or do whatever else it takes to institute change? Will the reality that Joe Sixpack's Hi-Def television will not display Hi-Def from legitimate content with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray but will display pirated content at full resolution make him realize that it is the politicians he put in power which enabled this sort of bullshit to happen? Don't mess with Joe Sixpack's television, because he gets pissy when the telly goes on the fritz, and I would not want to be the one responsible! It'll be the boston tea party of the new millennium, only it'll be HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs!
Actually, if it is IP which causes major changes for the better, it would be a pretty sad statement of today's society.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I'm starting to see a cannon battle of the US and the Pirate Party and it's bay.
But now The Pirate Party of the United States is emerging what could happen now?
http://www.pirate-party.us/
Funny, I didn't know there was a new GTA game. Someone please post .torrent thx.
*takes of hat and bows*
What the US Government and the **AAs don't understand is that they would only be losing that much money if the "pirates" were to actually buy the products (be it softwares, movies, songs, whatever) otherwise. IMHO, the vast majority of the "pirated" stuff wouldn't be bought in the first place, so they are only losing a small percentage of this. And for those like me who download, check it out and buy it if it's any good, they're not losing money at all. I can't count how many time I downloaded stuff only to be very surprised by the very good quality of the product and finally buy it, something I wouldn't have bought otherwise.
a really great race car driver-- if he justs starts at 13!
sure//!! just because it will help you get ahead or maybe lead to a
future sale does not make it ok
BTW-- that is what educational discounts are for.
adobe photoshop is $299.00
elements, which is 96% of shop, is 69$
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Might as well declare a war on human nature.
Because that is what enforcing music copyright is all about. The single reason why there are music pirates is because music has ALWAYS been free. Since the dawn of time, it has been free. Free to listen to. Free to create. Free to copy (when copying became possible). Free to share.
People have always shared music, and no one has ever thought they were criminals when they did it. ESPECIALLY not the publishing industry in the USA when they flagrantly spent decades ripping off sheet music from Europe, and printing it for local consumption. (Hello China! I'm Pot, are you kettle?)
See, this is the whole ball of wax right here: There's NOTHING WRONG with sharing music. There never has been, and there never will be. Fuck the law - the law is a TOTAL ass in this regard. When did musicians get the idea they should earn 20 Million a year? That's fucked.
Sharing music isn't "copyright infringement". It definitely isn't "piracy". (Piracy involves sailing, murder and grappling hooks). It's just Civil Disobedience. And it's great!
It is only in recent times that music has been deemed to be "property" (LOL - what a concept) and that it can be "stolen" (LOL! "Theft" removes the item from the owner. Ipso facto, sharing is not stealing, and it is not theft.) but the population has NEVER accepted these laws.
In general, copyright laws are acceptable to a population provided they are not affected by the law. Americans have been stupid to allow Congress to repeatedly rape the public domain of the vast majority of material that should be in it right now. Just why this has been allowed to happen, I am not sure. Nor do I really care: I live in New Zealand!
One day, the American public will quite literally, stand up and say "ENOUGH IS E-FUCKING-NOUGH! IF YOU CAN'T MAKE YOUR MONEY IN 7 YEARS - FUCK YOU!".
There's no reason why anything should be protected beyond 7 years.
How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
fuck'em
just because I got stuff on my hard drive doesn't mean it's illegal.
which is it big media? a content license, or a content product?
one thing is certain, "I'm going to have to buy the white album again."
if they want to make downloading subject to criminal law, let them treat it like a crime.
they have to catch me in the act of illegaly downloading content. if not, they have to assume I own the content I have.
and, they have to use legal law enforcement channels to do so. Instead of using contracted blackhats and suing anonymous defendents.
these are companies who are subject to the market.
the market has shifted. they should adapt accordingly or die a market death.
They're using their grammar skills there.
saying that "people who drive on the left side of the road are driving illegally." It's true in the U.S... but not everywhere.
It's not even true in all cases in the US. One-way streets spring immediately to mind.
At any rate, you're right to criticize the reporting; in fact the article would be grounds for both a civil lawsuit and a motion to dismiss the case. By omitting the term "alleged," the paper has criminalized the defendant and tainted potential jurors. Of course, they're not based in Sweden, so it may be difficult to argue damages, and more trouble than it's worth, but such reporting is reckless and violates the principle of objective journalism. It's impossible to remove all bias, of course, but wanton disregard for basic principles of journalism is a plague on the industry today.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
you don't... you all drive at snail 55 mph pace on the highway, hence, no need to pass ;D
... you all drive at snail 55 mph pace on the highway. . .
Ahhhhhhhh! That explains all the speeding tickets I get in Vermont.
KFG
and so am i
Many around the globe complain about US pop culture. Then many around the globe steal US pop culture (and yes THEIR laws may allow that). Then many around the globe complain when the companies try to protect themselves. Funny thing is is that many of the companies aren't even US companies (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal etc.). It's becoming clear that the self centered perspective of the media companies is matched by many of it's critics.
...I'd just like to point out that every employer who ever failed to hire me owes me back wages. $500/hr, backdated to my 18th birthday, ought to cover it.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Copyrights aren't to protect "cultural heritage", they're meant to give authors/artists/musicians etc an incentive to create works, as they will have a monopoly over the distribution rights for a limited time, and then be open to the public. The key part here is limited time, which Congress keeps extending every time Mickey Mouse verges on going into the public domain. IMO, these extensions violate both the letter and spirit of the Constitution, and should have been smacked down two or three exensions ago.
Much piracy happens because the media is there and it's easy to get. If all methods of copyright infringment ceased to exist, these industires would not see anything close to $250 billion a year. And in any case, as failure to gain is not a loss, the amount of money lost to piracy is zero. You can't lose what you never had in the first place.
And I wouldn't have gone for the "facism" angle. I would instead have pointed out that the government is supposed to be looking out for the welfare of the people, not corporations.
...movie goers, music listeners and video gamers lose as much as $250 trillion and countless hours per year to Media Companies, who produce crap like copies of 'The DaVinci Code,' Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game.
The article is very pro-**AA. The lawyers are lying through their teeth. The upset people in Sweeden? They aren't pirates, they are civil libertarians. You see, the article "MAGICALLY" failed to mention that bittorrent files (what sites such as The Pirate Bay) hold, ARE NOT, NOT, N.O.T. THE PROPERTY OF THE MPAA OR RIAA! If you have ever looked at a torrent file, they are usually quite small, usually 10 to 50 kilobytes in size. You could easily print the ascii of these files on a single sheet of paper. 'A whole movie on a sheet of paper!' you exclaim? It makes my point, I reply, torrent files don't contain anything copyrighted, they only contain locations of where files can be found (and checksum information for the named file). It's like saying, the roll of film is 233 feet long, and because you said it, you 'stole the movie' because you stated its length. Further, you might argue that only people bent on stealing use peer-to-peer... LIES! There are hundreds of thousands of files that are perfectly legal to download on these sites (with licences attached, and filed in world courts, including the US, with stamps and signatures by judges stating that they are legal). I've seen several stupid articles like this. They never tell the whole story. The actual truth always gets buried. The MPAA, RIAA and now the US government disgust me. If this goes to court (and I sincerely hope it does), I would simply ask the judge to have those asserting that the torrent files contain information that is owned by someone else (movie, song, whatever), to 'play me the song', or 'play me the movie'. Show me. I want to see the movie or song from the torrent file. No internet connection is obviously required. Just play me the movie or song from the torrent file. Put up or shut up I would demand from the accusers. Those crowing loudly now, would shut up very quickly, and at least in my country, pay my legal costs, plus possibly suffer damages assessed by the courts, plus, I would likely sue for millions more based on the judges ruling (and would likely get it).
Is it that we hate these concepts just that much? Or could it be that we just love war. I wonder, in the arabic language newspapers, does garbage like this get translated as Jihad?
Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
*looks at the Da Vinci Code box office*
:-(
:-/
Oooh, it cost $200 million to make, and just made $650 million in worldwide profits so far.
I feel so sorry for them.
You guys must stop downloading that movie right now!
You aid crippling the movie industry! Just look at where we are today!
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
In case any "red blooded Americans" haven't paid attention, it's a note for note plaegarism of "God Save the Queen". Does that mean England can legally sue?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
And the US government does not hesitate to put pressure on foreign governments. See for instance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DADVSI
(To be fair, the said foreign governments have their own domestic lobbies too.)
how about that - oh wait
In Soviet America, we stick ONE finger up to the game developer.
Cheers.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
The United States does not offer specific dictates on how other nations handle their border controls, said Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Victoria Espinel, "but they need to have an effective intellectual property system for protecting our rights holders abroad."
For those of you who don't understand why others would be antagonistic to the US, read this stuff and actually think about it.
Lobbying for treaties and specific implementations might be annoying, but it isn't hatred inducing. Laying down requirements for the rest of the world is another thing entirely. Who the fuck do these people think they are?
Since the war on drugs has made drugs cheap, pure and ubiquitous ...
One correction: pretended war on drugs ... thanks to what the saying "what does not kill you makes you stronger" kicks-in.
I think that real war of people agains politics will kill politics quite effectively in very short time. Same as real war on drugs would have killed drugs and real war on terror would kill terrorists.
Because we can't consider war on drugs being serious when for example even some US soldiers deployed to fight drugs are smugling drugs themselves. Or when some politicians get bribed by narco-mafia (because why would they bribe them if drugs were legal or nobody wanted those drugs?).
Of course real fight against drugs or terror is most probably not fought with guns and bombs but then, politicians braging about fightng this or that without guns would look ... well ... boring, less entertaining, ... :|
It looks like to me a lot of people just want fun (majority also with drugs) with a little bit of suffering (terror) mixed in. So the politicians (as any good vendor) just deliver to the peole what they want while trying to profit from that as much as bearable (bearable to those fun+terror loving customers).
What a nice world we're living in. :)
hany
Dear Mr. Bush, you can do whatever you want in your own country, your voters will tell you what they think of you in the next elections. But the rest of the world is none of your business, please keep out.
IP is properly "Intangibles with Privileges"
man you're good at screwing your country
If people were actually forced to pay full price for music and software, I believe we'd actually have better music and software, but not for the reasons outlined by the BSA and the RIAA.
/.ers complaining that the GIMP isn't as polished or intuitive. They'd be simply grateful it existed, and perhaps more people would contribute. Similarly people might start buying cheaper independent music, actually helping new original music to be heard more.
If people were truly forced to pay $1500 for a copy of photoshop, one wouldn't see a lot of
It:s OK to lose $250 billion a year because of mney flowing out of the country due to outsourscing... but for pirating moves, that must be stopped at all costs. makes total sense.
I had to just say that was an interesting name. This issue of piracy being enforced by governments, especially our very powerful one (USA) is disturbing because it's an area the government need not interfere with. Piracy is supposed to happen when you design hardware and software that's open to it. The governments must just let it happen. The people who need to enforce it, these publishers and content companies that is, should have no legal authority to do so and must use technology and voluntary compliance alone. Piracy is not stealing. Piracy is a special digital loophole that can be solved with DRM and non-legal means. Dare I say, it can be severly curbed by FUCKING offering the service we want in the first place like the music downloads that took a decade to come online and now movies in HD will take so damn long to be distributed when they could be, and they will be pirates instead. It's not a crime to take advantage of a market opportunity like that. The companies can see this coming but want to put people in jail because they're better business people than themselves.
Reason #23256363 as to why the world hates America.
Sad thing is though, being in England, I know Mr Blair wont just bow down to Bush over this type of thing but he'll actively go for it AND give Bush a blow job in the process.
Just wish we had some MPs/People with balls like Sweden has to stand up to this kind of thing when it happens here to make sure the MPs without balls can't get away with their US cocksucking.
If we turn it around in along another axis, we see dumping abroad and cultural protectionism at home
The US is upset that people are making copies of movies and they aren't getting paid; people are pirating so much US media because there's so much of it and so little that's indigenous; the lack of indigenous production is in large part the result of the US 'cultural export' practices: for example, dumping TV shows and movies in places like the 3rd world.
"You want Miami Vice? Or do you want some shitty local cable production? What's that gonna cost you - $100k? I"ll give you Miami Vice for $10k!"
(Break even in Region 1; make a profit in Region 2; the other regions are gravy: you don't get much, but you secure the markets from local competition.)
This tactic is similar to the one the Japanese used to secure the market for their TVs: over-charge for them domestically, which allows you to dump them under cost everywhere else.
US cultural protectionism at home: is that early 90s(?) ban on Canadian musicians still in place in the US?
The US was concerned about being over-run by Canadian musicians. No new Canadian bands touring the US. I suppose they were taking jobs away from good, red-blooded American boys and girls.
If the US corporation (administration) is concerned about protecting it's cultural industries from Canada, you can imagine the level of fear they must have about people all over the world using today's digital media to express themselves - as individuals, businesses (like Al Jazera, for example), and nations. People might choose *not* to watch 'Miami Vice' after all. This kind of situation could erupt into independent thought, democracy, environmentalism, labour laws, and other impediments to trade.
Better start dumping 'Lost' - quick.
$250 billion per year to Internet pirates
I am also losing $350680348 fantastillion every year because my plan for world domination failed at step 1 (get out of bed before 11).
Could the US government please join me as well in the quest for recovering these losses?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Bush standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier stationned near the scandinavian countries, with a banner that reads "Mission Accomplished"
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
totally off topic, but I haven't laughed as hard in a while as I did at your sig. thanks!
Christians call this the Doctrine of Original Sin.
Thus, does that mean its illegal in every country, or just 'corrupt' countries.
Is smoking pot IMMORAL? no because its legal.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I think this is good in that it will stimulate teh P2P darknet to become more distributed and embrace encryption.
We've got to get together and do something about the term "Intellectual Property". There is absolutely nothing intellectual about 99% of the shit that members of the RIAA and MPAA produce. The next RIAA asshole who refers to a Britney Spears or Kelly Clarkson albumen as "Intellectual Property" is getting punched in the mother fucking face.
I start to hate the US a little bit more every day. I used to love the US. I don't live in the US, but I went to university there. What has happened to western society? What evil has come upon the once great land?
Meh.
If it's a war they want, it's a war they'll get! I used to download movies and such on occasion to check out if they are going to be worth my while seeing, renting or buying. I really like the convenience of it. I have purchased MANY more music CDs since mp3s became so easily obtainable... all because I get to preview what the music will be, making all my music buying decisions be perfect because I know exactly what I'm getting. With all these attacks on file sharers, I think I will start making it my policy to ONLY download illegal media from the Internet. Why should I support industries that are just in it completely to make a buck and not caring about what's important to their customer? I hope all other will join me, and download everything illegally! Lets put the big media corps out of business! No more hollywood trash! The REAL artists with the REAL skills will continue to make their product and distribute it. Suck it, hollywood!
Meh.
Somebody check my math, but it seems they are claiming that a full 2% of the 2005 Gross Domestic Product ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ GDP_(nominal) ) of the U.S. was lost because of piracy. Common! That is complete BS. I don't care how big the entertainment industry is, piracy is NOT as big a problem as they are claiming.
Don't get me wrong, I don't particularly believe that it is "okay" to "pirate" content, but I would be more sympathetic to the industry's problems if they weren't doing their best to screw over consumers and line their pockets with booty. Who's the real pirate here? I mean hollywood actors/actresses get paid millions to pretend. Their job is to pretend! I mean, get real. Why does society value their services so much?
In Shakespeare's day, actors were looked down upon as scum and the theater was a lowly place to be found. I don't think they should be considered "scum", but why are today's performers "American Idols", gods walking the earth. It's time we put them in their places. Boycott the entertainment industry.
If the pirate wasn't going to buy the product in the first place, then it isn't a loss of revenue. It's a digital file, not a shelf item. It's still stealing, but it's not a loss for the company.
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
Law begets crime.
-Lao Tze (Tao Teh Ching)
I'm stationed in Iraq right now and I've often wondered if the RIAA has any idea of the scale of piracy here. We can get (admittedly, crappy theatre copies) DVD's of movies that have just been released. In addition, we get pirated DVD's of all sorts of movies for anything between $1 - $5. Once a movie reaches the PX (Post eXchange), we can expect a pirated copy from "HajiVision" (yes, this might seem politically incorrect to some of you, but bear with me - this is what we call it here, and some of our Iraqi Interpreters themselves refer to other Iraqis as "Hajis") in a day or to. Oh yeah, and let me mention the Boxed Sets of all sorts of TV shows from the US. Anything from Friends to Simpsons to House to Battlestar Galactica - you name it, they have it. A lot of these are made by enterprising Iraqis who either make copies of pirated videos they get from China or one of the SE Asian countries. Others download DVD rips from the web and then burn their own copies.
/sarcasm
The RIAA probably has no clue. Or maybe they do, and can't do anything about it. Then again, maybe if they said something like "The insurgents make money off pirated DVD's! Piracy is helping terrorism!" maybe Piracy can become a part of OIF.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Tsk tsk... going against the stashdot collective will get you modded down.
Its interesting how the whole downloading thing is being recast as a U.S.-vs-freedom thing.
And I do wonder about people who bitch about America and consume its pop culture at the same time. Even if their laws say they are not breaking the law, it is interesting.
Sure, after the RIAA has retroactively changed the fair use copyrights to the song to be good for 200 years or so. At the rate these guys have been changing what belongs to the "public domain", that ought to be in about ten years or so. . . . (Remember, somebody actually owns the rights to the "Happy Birthday to You" song. . . )
With bullshit numbers like these, I think that's exactly what someone should do -- get a big-ass tax audit rolling all over their sorry butts. I mean hell, if nebulous things like goodwill can show up on a balance sheet and be part of financial accounting and tax basis, shouldn't these garbage RIAA/MPAA "lost sales" also be taken into consideration by the IRS? I'm sure we could shoehorn that in somehow. Anyone up on corporate accounting care to take a stab at it?
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
An authoritative source puts the U.S. military budget at ~4% of the GDP. So... the entertainment industry is [claiming that they are] loosing an ammount that is close to half of what the United States Military-Industrial Complex eats up, every year -- due to illegal downloads and file sharing.
They're outta' their friggin' skulls.
I read this after and am not sure I made any point at all, but I had fun ranting.
In my esteemed opinion based on figures I have laboriously compiled from observing the quality of the offerings on the 3 for $20 rack (quality way up) vs the new release / top 20 - or 1 for $22.99 - rack (quality way down) at the local HMV, I estimate that I'm getting ripped off. I can think of one (maybe two) CDs that I am actually interested in purchasing in the next month.
Add to that the quality on the new release DVD rack (or even in the movie theatres!) vs the quality used rack at the video store down the street and the analagous 3 for $20 rack at the HMV, and I'm left grasping for meaning. Harry Potter 4 new for $27.99, used for $12.99, or observe Harry Potter 2 on the 3 for $20 where I could pick up a couple excellent Segal (a weakness of mine) flicks at the same time? What's your choice? Saw II for $21.99 [amazon.ca] or Die Hard or The Abyss for $6.50? What's that quality-to-dollar ratio look like there to you? They're making money off The Abyss or they wouldn't still be producing, shipping and selling for that price, so what gives? $21.99 for Saw II makes buying a crappy movie even more unappealing than seeing it in the theatre (which I won't and which I didn't)
I estimate that the oft-referred to 'consumers' (my favourite part of this word is that they're talking about us and what we will do to our faces, and themselves as well because they're bloody well comsumers too) have lost $250 billion to over-priced plastic discs with crap etched on them.
The first truth is that they haven't lost anything because they haven't gained anything. The second truth is that higher priced low-quality is certainly not going to sell more. The third truth is that this sounds about as mature as the government worker wanting a raise but lobbying against higher taxes. Everyone wants a good product for a good price. I'm not buying anything because there's nothing to buy! Conversely, I'm not downloading anything either. How long before the used rack at the BBV becomes a target for "lost revenue?"
"sorry there chucky, yer gonna have to sell that used dvd back to me so I can make sure it meets our quality standards before we can sell it back into the public. Yes that's right, the quality inspection will add a small nominal fee to the disc before you can put it back on the shelf."
as an interesting side-point, how many people do you know that have downloaded terabytes of nonsense, but have actually viewed / listened to about 10% of it while they continue to download at the same rate? Hoarders aren't losing the(ma)FIAA any money, they're just wasting bandwidth and drive space.
Power corrupts. Absolute power is pretty cool.
.Until your victims finally get tired of your crap and drag you off to see Madame Guillotine.
. .
I don't know why people think that it can't happen here (here, in my case, meaning the United States). Sure it'll be a bloodbath but if the choice becomes living in misery under endless tyranny vs taking as many of the bastards down with you as you can, well, people can only be pushed so far.
In Soviet America, we stick ONE finger up to the game developer.
i'm pretty sure that he meant one finger on each hand.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Once you invoke the idea of a war, you create conflict and people that identify with either side of the debate will step up to the plate and make that war a reality.
You can only win by understanding and having compassion for both sides of the issue, and working together, not against each other.
In this particular case, the us government and media companies reality is out of step with the ideals of society. People sharing content, regardless of who it belongs to doesn't != stealing. If you put something into the world, dont expect people to follow your rules about how that content is going to be distributed, you need to trust people and give up a certain level of control over your work if you want to be a peace with all parties involved.
Now people that copy works just to make a profit from someone else's creation without their permission it is another matter.
I wonder what it says about Mr. Gonzales that he considers distribution of kiddie porn to be no worse than recording a TV show.
Funny thing is is that many of the companies aren't even US companies (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal etc.).
No doubt they'll claim to be "American" when they want the US Government to do something, but try any means possible to avoid paying taxes to the US Government.
The US is upset that people are making copies of movies and they aren't getting paid; people are pirating so much US media because there's so much of it and so little that's indigenous; the lack of indigenous production is in large part the result of the US 'cultural export' practices: for example, dumping TV shows and movies in places like the 3rd world.
:)
How many of these are filmed only in the US, with everyone involved in the production being a US Citizen in any case
US cultural protectionism at home: is that early 90s(?) ban on Canadian musicians still in place in the US? The US was concerned about being over-run by Canadian musicians. No new Canadian bands touring the US. I suppose they were taking jobs away from good, red-blooded American boys and girls.
It dosn't say a lot for US musical talent considering that the US has around 9 times the population of Canada. So in order to be "over-run" the US would need to be producing talented musicians at least 1/20th the rate of Canada.
America is rotten country. The cooperations have taken control of the police, the army the whole country is perfect example of what capistism brings in the end.
The will of cooperations is motto for america, but never the will of the people. GOD curse america.
I love how the whole world is turning againist america, south american's don't like them, the middle east, nor do the europeans, nor the chinese.
Haha - I used to get mod points every 3 days almost. Then I criticized a bill promoting Homosexual education in California and have been in Cyberia ever since. This a very funky place on the whole - spooky even.