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Prosecutor Announces Charges Against Pirate Bay
paulraps writes "Almost a year after a police raid on the Pirate Bay's servers, a Swedish prosecutor has announced that he intends to press charges against the individuals behind the file-sharing giant. They will be prosecuted for various breaches of copyright law, reports The Local. But a Pirate Bay spokesman was defiant, saying, 'I think they feel they have to do it. It would look bad otherwise, since they had 20 to 30 police officers involved in the raid.'"
...to be logged by you.
I hope they have to walk the plank!
If they are going to press charges, why is the pirate bay still up? Shouldn't the first step be to shut it down?
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
Calling it "Pirate Bay" was just asking for lawsuits.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Almost a year after a police raid on the Pirate Bay's servers, a Swedish prosecutor has announced that he intends to press charges against the individuals behind the file-sharing giant.
So if the charges are thrown out because there is no real law in Sweden precluding their activities, could they sue the prosecutor for malicious prosecution, or attempt to get him disbarred (much like the prosecutor in the Duke rape case)?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If they were on there own island, they could have there own police and prosecutor.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
This is what happens when you take to a life of crime on the high seas!
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
So they're going to make the Pirate Bay walk the plank?
Personally I get all my TV shows (simpsons, family guy, south park, and american dad) from them because I can't buy them commercial free in a format I can play under freebsd from anywhere and I don't like waiting for the show to be released on DVD.
I wouldn't feel so hesitant about TPB is they weren't so damn smug about it. It's one thing to do what they do, but all of the gloating really turns me off.
FTA:"Whatever the outcome, we will continue. If we are outlawed in Sweden we will continue elsewhere. There will be no downtime," said Andersson.
Ok, I'm just thinking here, but please bear with me. Lets imagine that thePirateBay does have to "continue elsewhere". And for the sake of argument, lets imagine that "elsewhere" is from a communications satellite.
I know this is ridiculous, but really - perhaps in 10 to 15 years launch costs will drop enough to allow private web servers to be launched. Again, just bear with me please.
Let us further imagine that after launch thePirateBay relinquishes control of this orbiting tracker to the community at large, such that it's owned by no one, but maintained by many.
Who would then be prosecuted? By which countries laws?
Read my Very Short "Stories"
I've used TPD, we all have. However, you really cannot argue that they aren't facilitating the trade of copywritten media. If I build a building and call it "Thieves Depot" and intentionally provide an area for thieves to trade their ill-gotten wares, I'm helping their cause. /what is this NNTP jazz.... //!holy! NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG!
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
Another 3 or 4 groups will form from the leftovers. Happens when a big company goes down. The scapegoat goes to jail, and the ones who remain free start anew. From the ashes of the Pirate Bay I foresee, in the rare event that the lawsuits go far, "The Ninja Village" where stealth and privacy are first.
Give Kashyyyk back to the Wookies
Does Sweden have a system that allows the public to look up political contributions? If so, look at who's given money to this prosecutor or the party of those who appointed him. I can predict what you'll find.
While this case may well end up bad for TPB (unless they can show that the MPAA was involved) it won't stop the next group from starting a TPB-like service. It will take more money than its worth to keep shutting down copyright infringement systems and people who use them.
In the end, DRM does not work, won't work. What the entertainment industries need to do is come up with a better product, better pricing, or both. They are trying to sell content to an audience that has about a 16 second attention span, and they haven't really done anything to deserve that full 16 seconds never mind something to convince people to spend their money in the way that the **AA wants them to. Despite any legislation that might be enacted or in place now, people will keep doing what they are doing. Until the entertainment industry changes their business plan the only thing that they have to look forward to is more court time and cost, more loss of face to the public, ever decreasing revenues.
Whether that is fair or not is now a moot point. It's happening, and all the **AAs of the world seem to be doing is fanning the flames that are lapping at the foundations of their business. There have been a few positive changes so far, but that is far outweighed by the harm they are doing to their own businesses. IWaM(tm) won't ever work, it's a suckers game, not much better for the player than 3 card monty. Sure, TPB might be in for some 'rough seas' in the coming months, but while everyone is busy with that case, more file sharing will continue unabated. Until the entertainment industries learn that they are behaving very foolishly and get on with creating real value products to earn revenue with, they will continue to burn bridges with the public, their customers, and their shareholders.
Good luck to them, they are going to need it to avoid having to learn the 'did you want large fries with that' sentence.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
If they had named it Liberation Cove or Freedom Files I'm sure their would be none of this nonsense.
Personally, I think FSIAS would have been better...File Sharing Industry Association of Sweden.
when the decision is left down to individual beaurocrats who are then free to go around grandstanding about how much good their doing (as opposed to it being a collective decision by an organisation like in Blighty). Although, on the other hand, it does make it easier to know who to hold responsible for malicious prosecutions. But then on the other hand (yes, I was near Chernobyl) when you get to court you'll know exactly who the prosecutor is and be free to publish (or at least know) their name anyway.
The real reform needed here is the ability to bring private criminal prosecutions against public figures - anyone can pay your fine so long as it's paid, no-one else can do your jail time.
FGD 135
"Calling it "Pirate Bay" was just asking for lawsuits."
I recommend they rename it to LinuxBay.
Could someone please explain how this is offtopic? If the Swedish police are wasting their time with bullshit like this instead of fighting actual crime, isn't that relevant? For example, a comment about how much the MAFIAA lawsuits are costing the taxpayer would be entirely ontopic in any story about MAFIAA lawsuits. This is a comment about how the Swedish powers-that-be are wasting time and money screwing with someone engaging in a legally protected activity, and suggesting a correlation between that jerking off and a rise in actual crime. You don't get much more on topic than that.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Why don't they move the operation to somewhere like the Philippines, where traditional pirating (in the "Argh matey, we'll be boardin' ye vessel now" sort of way) is still rampant. Let's face it... this is one of the countries with huge DVD Pirating business already, and even if there are laws against piracy, those laws are easily ignored when you pay off the right people. And this post suddenly has me looking forward to September 19th... http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Talk_Like_A_Pirate_Da y
... Ninjas are far, far superior. No silly "Bays" or other fixed geographical features in which we'd be ID'd, fixed, and killed. Ninjas are everywhere, and nowhere. Ninjas use USENET, FTP, telnet, and very unpopular P2P protocols. You never know if someone next to you is a Ninja... until it is too late.
Science never settles, never rests.
There are various (at least supposedly) independent authorities you can complain to if you've been wrongfully prosecuted. I have no idea what the success rate of such complaints is, but the option is there.
HAND.
I always enjoy reading stuff like this. They raid the data center of TPB and take all the servers even if they weren't related to the torrent site. This caused a lot of grief and promoting it as a victory against illegal downloading. But really how long was TPB down for? Two or Three days at the most and now they likely have a few backup sites ready to go live if they try to take them down again. Now fast-forward a year from then and they are only now wanting to press charges, give me a break. All they are doing now is going to waste money to say "Hey, look **AA, we are actually doing something about the problem!" but realistically lets call this what it really is, a dog and pony show.
You know, if I were a truly malicious government or industry trade group, I think these guys would just "disappear". Maybe a traffic accident, a domestic squabble, drug overdose. To be ironic, maybe a fire caused by an overloaded surge suppressor in their server room, followed by a halon system that they're unable to escape. I'm just sayin'. If I were really that ruthless, that is.
"Could someone please explain how this is offtopic? If the Swedish police are wasting their time with bullshit like this instead of fighting actual crime, isn't that relevant?"
*raised eyebrow* Actual crime? Wouldn't that be some other person's sacred cow?
They could kill two birds with one stone and pursue raping nerds!
kurzweil_freak
5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student
Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.
It's only a matter of time which comes first for The Pirate Bay
maybe those nerds should stop fucking stealing other peoples work and fucking grow up then?
So you're an **AA, but you *aren't* going to sue my grandmother for copyright infringement? *confused*
Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression that Slashdot, and the majority of its readers, are on the side of the Pirate Bay. I know Digg is--it's full of high school age readers who do nothing but download music and games all day while bashing the RIAA to justify it. But why do so many Slashdotters seem to be in favor of ripping off artists, programmers, writers, directors, and so forth? All I ever see in response are lame critiques of copyright law (especially since the GPL relies on copyright law) or more bashing of the RIAA ("The RIAA made me do it!").
Am I alone in actually paying the programmers, musicians, and directors for their work? Or am I outnumbered by the freeloaders who contribute nothing back to the artistic community, furthering its descent into homogenization and sequel-itis as studios are forced to rely on tried-and-tested money-makers because piracy makes risky investments not worth the cost? Haven't you guys made the connection as to why popular music today sounds the same, movies are sequels or generic snoozefests, and software is the same repackaged sports game from EA or expansion pack for the B-level game you already bought last year?
"Sufferin' succotash."
It doesn't give me much confidence in TPB that they actually believe the reason they're getting charged now is because 20 or 30 police were involved in the raid. Raids are just a part of work for police and it's not that uncommon for them to loose their objective and come up empty handed. So 20 or 30 police couldn't matter less, the reason the The Pirate Bay is getting charged, is well they're The Pirate Bay!
... and named Chuck Norris as their lead defense attorney? Man, that would be wicked pissa.
Whilst I certainly understand why you say that, it's sad that that is something that is said.
I'm not particularly old, I'm 24, but even in my lifetime, in the last few years since I've started taking notice of the world I've seen free speech on the internet as something that's slipped away at a worrying speed.
To get to the point, naming a site like "The Pirate Bay" doesn't necessarily infer that they're guilty of any crime. If I were to make a site with a tongue in cheek name "The gun murderers hideout" which could contain information about various guns and such should I be arrested for killing someone with a gun? The argument holds with TPB, just because they're providing materials that can potentially aid infringement doesn't mean they're necessarily guilty of a crime.
Perhaps what I find the most worrying about this change in people's view is that I wonder if perhaps the MPAA/RIAA have achieved more than we'd like to believe, with their attacks on piracy, coupled with many media outlets being incapable of correctly reporting on the issue people are beginning to give ground to the corporations who are slowly taking away our right to free speech.
For a good example of the media's misreporting see The Register's coverage of the HDDVD fiasco - they even make the mistake of suggesting it's all about piracy, it's a sad state of affairs when a site that previously understood the problem now unfortunately is part of the problem.
There is some hope however as the HDDVD key situation has proved, there's still plenty of people out there willing to fight the good fight, coupled with the RIAA's increasing amount of failures in court we're slowly pushing back.
Of course not! Clearly, the police should dedicate 100% of their manpower towards stopping rape, and completely ignore all other forms of crime until the rape rate drops to zero :P
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
OK A couple facts, Napster was the biggest file sharing system for music for years before it's downfall, The Pirate bay is one of the biggest torrent sites out there.
Let's see what happened after Napster, oh yeah music stopped being shared.
Except on Gnutella.
And Grokster.
And Kazaa.
And Edonkey, and Limewire, and Bearshare.
Oh and on the IRC channels where it was before and after napster, and private FTPs, and some program I remember using in college, and others.
Oh and Bittorrent. No one needed Bittorrent for music before Napster but now it's a major program for it.
Essentially when they destroyed Napster they didn't stop the file sharing they just fractured it to the point where all the shards of File sharing was split up and created 10 times the problem.
It's just an example as these lawsuit doesn't matter for us. The owners of Pirate bay will care, but in the end the destruction of that site will only create new tools and sites for everyone to use to share their warez. The MPAA needs to find substitutes for this, even Pirate bay has said that if they are sued they'll move to a country that will allow them to exist with out being accused of wrong doing. The only ones not getting this is the corporations who think litigation not innovation is the answer.
TPB deserves this. They aren't some kind of 'underground people power human rights website dedicated to reasonable reform to copyright law and for restrictions on DRM'. If they were, they would have information on their political stance on their front page, with a note to respect the authors of any copyrighted works, some guidelines on how to lobby govt for reform to the law, and well argued points on why DRM is an unworkable solution. They could link to numerous statsistical studies on music buying trends, and list prominent supporters of copyright and IP reform. They could also provide detailed information on what content was affiliated with the RIAA etc, and maybe links to show what content was made by small, indie producers vs large profitable corporate producers, encouraging people to use the site in a reasonable way.
Thats not the pirate bay. The pirate bay is quite clearly just a search engine to get stuff for free, and used to leverage its huge traffic to sell advertising on, and make money for the owners. They do not have a moral leg to stand on. If it turned out that TPB was in fact run by the real mafia, I bet most slashdot posters would try to rationalise that as being ok too.
I hope the leeching scumbags who run the place get severe jail time.
Just a note--"rape charges are rapidly increasing" implies that the police actually are pursuing the rapists. An unpursued rapist does not get charged. Charges are filed after the rapist is pursued. Accordingly, this would mean that the police are just doing more--they're both increasing their work on rapes and on nerds. (in all fairness it could mean that there are more charges because there are more rapes. The article isn't clear as to how the increased rate of rape charges compares to the rate of rapes) I was just noting that more rape charges definitely does not imply the police got lazy and decided to go after nerds instead of rapists--that was just your misunderstanding of what it means for rape charges to increase.
Of course, if there was no law violated by TPB, then this seizure wasn't proper - and the prosecutor would be responsible for the value of the seized equipment, lost wages, etc. So he's looking at a very big downside and the only way out is to make his prior actions fit the legal guidelines.
Even if TPB ultimately walks away from this prosecutor (as seems likely), by forcing the issue now he can postpone the inevitable day when he'll be required to reimburse those he's damaged. Much like SCO; by dragging a losing war out, you can avoid punishment.
I don't know if you've noticed, but server computers tend to stay in one place and rapists tend not to.
Besides, rape charges increasing may mean that the police are doing a better job tracking them down.
well at least he was man enough to own up to it (job security??)..most of us would say its a feature not a bug.
I could make the same comment about the flaming, gaping assholes that run the international media companies. Tell them to stop trying to steal the public domain, stop trying to lock our culture and our history away from us, stop spending so much time bent over their desks taking it up the ass from their stockholders, stop fucking with us, stop bribing our lawmakers ... and for fuck's sake fucking grow up. And while you're at it, poison that little rat bastard Mickey before he does any more damage to our legal system. These people are more dangerous to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than the Russian mafia, and need to be reined in. If it takes the efforts of a few nerds to bring some balance back into the equation, so be it, because otherwise we're probably going to have to shoot them.
... they got it. Don't expect me to shed a single tear for any of those little pricks. They've been leeching off the genius of our most creative minds for ages, and if (and that's a big "if", Hollywood accounting being what it is) they're getting reamed now it's no more than they deserve.
So, you can take the side of the big copyright holders, if you wish, but keep in mind that most of this is their fault in the first place. They asked for it, and when the Internet finally came along
Respect needs to go both ways in this case, or nothing will change. And as long as they're throwing lawsuits and DRM around, I will not respect them.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I could classify you as a "lawful good" person who always abide by the law but unfortunately doesn't see beyond "lawful / unlawful".
The RIAA and MPAA have become somewhat an evil empire where they only care about money. They rip off the artists they hire because they're a monopoly. If an artist doesn't want to sell his soul to the RIAA and produce / sell his own music, he'll be forgotten into oblivion.
Why? Because he gets no publicity, no tours, no airtime on the radio, no nothing. Simply because he didn't want to accept to get only 0.2 cents per CD sold.
It's something called the Status quo. Regarding myself, I am against the RIAA for various reasons:
1) They're the devil incarnate for their monopolic practices
2) They don't let us record our music CD's into MP3
3) They have pushed the congress to make anything that helps 2) Illegal
4) They abuse their economic power to force OTHER COUNTRIES to adopt their twisted view of the law
5) They don't give a **** about our property when they install rootkits in our computers
6) HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THAT THEY'RE SUING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE FOR THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS EACH?
In my personal opinion, anyone who buys RIAA-sponsored CD's is doing evil. I would rip a CD of my favorite group and deposit 1 dollar to the artists, which is much more than they get from the RIAA per disk. But guess what, that's why there are LEGAL DOWNLOAD SERVICES. Unfortunately, the revenues of these also go to the RIAA and not to the groups directly.
I wouldn't have bothered to correct this, except it's the third time I've seen this idiotic mistake on Slashdot in two days.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Or fragment the operation such that not enough of it exists in any single country to be sued in that country. Only when the distributed pieces are put back together is a valid tracker emitted.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
No, they should also prosecure murder, manslaughter and all the other crimes where people are harmed. Personally, I think sentient beings come before money and companies. But then, that's me...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"The FBI defines terrorism as "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."
That's very interesting; let's break it down:
1. "Unlawful use of force" - Like the raids
2. "Against persons or property" - see 1
3. "intimidate or coerce a government" - That sounds like what happened to the Swedish government
4. - and a segment of their civilian population
5. "in furtherance of political or social objectives." - 5 out of 5, Johnny. Tell 'em what they win.
There's a radio station in SW England, "Pirate FM".
Yes, they have a licence to broadcast.
-- Soruk
The MAFIAA doesn't get it, it seems. Shutting down trackers is like killing ants with a magnifying glass. Yes, it works. Yes, it kills them. But it takes time and it doesn't accomplish jack. You kill one and 10 spring up and replace them.
They're blowing a lot of resources, a lot of time and a lot of energy into trying to uphold an outdated business model instead of adapting to the needs of the time. You can't turn back the wheel of time. You can't stuff the Genie back into his bottle. The internet is here, and it's here to stay. What do you want to do? Sue everyone who has access to the internet? I predict that sooner or later one of those sued snaps, grabs a gun and cleans out an RIAA building, ground floor to top.
And I predict that there would even be a lot of support all over the world for this act of "terrorism".
The real terror is done by the MAFIAA. Terrorism, by its very definition, is exertion of force against an unsuspecting victim with the goal to instill fear and terror in other potential victims, to make them comply with the goals of the terrorists.
And that, by any kind of interpretation, fits exactly onto the practices of the MAFIAA.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Sweden has a way worse problem with immigrants and them taking advantage of Swedes.
There were some stories about how immigrants from other countries were bringing in organized gangs and very violent crimes, to which the Swedes have not seen this type of violence in a long time. Very violent robberies are up and especially when they started robbing the money vans where all the money is transferred around; search it up and you will notice they have buffed up their security cars to full armor now basically.
Anyways the nerds are asking for it by constantly snuffing their nose at everybodies decision because they think the internet is this free world of candyland; the free ride is over you leechers.
If rape charges are going up, that's actually an indication that the Swedish police *are* taking action against serious crime, not the opposite as you seem to be suggesting.
So have many others.
Sure. They should pursue and prosecute and eliminate all crimes where people are harmed. Then, when the fighting slowly dies down about wether all the medical doctors should be freed, because circumcision doesn't really 'hurt' so there's no victim, a small amount of attention can be paid to all the companies, whose entire offices and production facilities have been looted and the contents shipped to China for cash.
Brilliant scenario, huh?
The servers that I own stay in one place because they're frickin' HEAVY.
I would find it amusing to have a bunch of overweight police officers grunting and struggling as they tried to get my SparcServer 1000 out the front door.
There's a certain irony in pointing to an article aimed at American English when correcting a common language mistakes.
American English is a language developed entirely on common mistakes being turned into legitimate language by rewriting the dictionary and rules of the British English language.
There's little point correcting a common yet non-serious mistake because the fact that it is indeed common means people understand the intention of the language used regardless of it's correctness. People don't make these mistakes just to spite or upset people like you, they make it because it's a natural mistake for them to make. Popular acceptance of changes to a language like this are what we in the more open-minded, non grammar-nazi world call progress. If it weren't for such progress then we would all be talking an awful lot differently than we are today.
.. if I met the artist in person, yes, I wouldn't hesitate to pay them for their work. But, that's not how "the business" works. Say you want an album or DVD movie. You go to the store and pay them an insane amount. They, in turn, pay their vendor, who pays their vendor, who pays the company that produced the album, who pays the company who created the physical product. Keep in mind all of these companies have employees and lawyers that they have to pay. Then, when there isn't much left, the actual artist gets paid. It's the same with DVD movies.. I saw one recently that I wanted but the price tag was $50.00 US, so I rented it instead for $2.00 US. If media companies would stop throwing expensive advertisements all over the place, then maybe the price of the actual media would come down and more people would be willing to pay for it rather than pirate it.
What am I thinking? That would require common sense.
"majority of its readers, are on the side of the Pirate Bay"
And why shouldn't we? The industry is harassing a entity in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY for doing things that ARE LEGAL there. No different then us supporting someone's freespeech here who is being harassed by, lets say Australia. ( another recent story here )
Or do you suppprt some corporate entity enforcing their perverse ideas onto people somewhere else, and acting like they are some sort of twisted law enforcement arm?
And if you truly believe that copyright piracy really makes a dent in the obscene profits they make by shaking down and intimidating the artists, then you got your facts a bit backwards and are buying into the falsehoods being spread by the industry.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Ah, but you see, the police are a step ahead of you.
Which ethnic group is, per capita, most likely to commit the crimes of both rape and pillaging?
Pirates!
"Very few Slashdotters, as far as I can tell, actually endorse piracy outright."
Many of us do.
Oh, and dont just blame the US, other countries are doing the same thing in the opposite direction, about copyright and what is considered valid freespeech, or even the 2nd amendment. its all about the WTO and the 'new common world order' concept. Least common denominator.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"The simple fact is that the current music/movie industry has become too bloated to produce anything really good, baring a few exceptions (and by few I mean probably about 5-10 per month, which is a tiny percentage). The gaming industry is starting to get there too sadly enough."
Well I guess that explains why there's only 5-10 new torrents a month then.
"Can I borrow that? It's just that I have this problem with crows raiding my garden, and I hear a giant strawman will scare them off."
Unfortunately for you statistics and just plain 'ol observation ruins that.* I await your witty reply.
*Plus "so many" is pretty indefinate.
Good god. The nerd isn't a priority. The nerd is a damned nuisance with an ego the size of the planet. The geek who can't quite grasp the idea that life hasn't dealt him a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.
Um, the problem isn't so much with "key bones". The problem is how those "key bones" are being adressed. Copyright infringement isn't going to help correct those "key bones" and in fact is going to make them worse. Also a very simple fact that gets glossed over and over every time we have these discussions is that copyright infringement isn't confined to RIAA/MPAA/Steam/book publishers/slash villan of the week. It's happenning to eveything that's created. From small publishers who's output is a handful of titles to the creators of websites. Copyright infringement is at pandemic proportions because of the entitlement mentality and the simple fact that no one respects each other any more. And more importently we, the current generation are setting a poor example for our children, and handing them the mess we're making. Let alone destroying any trust one can have in us. I for one see no reason to give the keys to my future to a group who can't be trusted when my back's turned, let alone when I'm in the same room with them. Keep making all the excuses. It really doesn't matter. Actions will always speak louder than words, even when those words insult our intelligence and call us fools.
You know what? I'm getting tired of your bullshit. I tried to respond nicely, yet you have to comeback and be an asshole. Fuck you, bitch. We're all getting tired of this homeless act. Go suck a dick or get a job, jackass.
All your bays are belong to us...
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Simple. In Vietnam, one of our goals was to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians, so that they would not go communist. Unfortunately, we thought or pretended that we could do this with conventional dumb bombs, napalm, and Agent Orange: we used tactics that backfired, both in the country we were fighting in and at much of the home front.
One of our goals in Iraq was to win the hearts and minds of that country, or at least maintain their friendliness, so that we could have the new Iraq as an ally. Again, we used tactics that backfired, such as bombing one of their sacred cities and running prison camps that defy the Geneva Conventions; once again, they backfired both in Iraq and at much of the home front.
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
Which ethnic group is, per capita, most likely to commit the crimes of both rape and pillaging?
Pirates!
Pirates have nothing on Vikings in this context as is made clear by the Ancient Swedish Epic "Invaders"
Actually you're wrong, or at least not completely correct. Look up "infer" in most dictionaries and you'll find additional meanings, one of which is generally stated as "to hint; imply; suggest". It's generally agreed that 'imply' is most correct when involving a personal subject, e.g., "he implied"; 'infer' is perfectly fine when involving a non-personal subject, as "the book inferred", "the statement inferred", "the naming of a web site inferred".
I try really hard not to be this pedantic in day-to-day life, but when you refer to something as an "idiotic mistake" and you haven't checked your facts, well, you deserve it. You idiot.
Hosting the stuff isn't the same as linking to sites that do. Let's say I go to your blog and I know you have one. I post a comment with a link it in. That link points to the download of an MP3. Are you liable for the link? Am I? I have no real way to know that the song wasn't released by the artist. It's not like the videos where a notice pops up says, "Don't copy this or the FBI will come kick in your door." Furthermore, despite their protestations, the RIAA and MPAA could give a fart less about the musicians, artists, directors, actors, programmers, etc. They are widely renowned for cheating said groups of people out even the minuscule payments that they're due.
.001%, I don't feel the slightest shame in ripping off the MPAA and RIAA. Out of your $16.99 for a CD, the artists might, if he's lucky, see 1 or 2 cents. The cost for producing it is on the order of about 10 cents per disk. That leaves $16.78 as profit for the RIAA.
If you had any idea how the movie and record industries worked, you'd boycott them. I've refused for years to continue to fund the cartels that abuse, cheat, and then abandon the very artists that they're supposed to promote and protect. If I could send a check to Robert DeNiro or Trent Reznor directly, I'd gladly pay them for their work. When the MPAA and RIAA take something like 99.999% of all the sales of every CD and DVD, while the artists get that
I hold out hope that more people will join me. That more artists will publish their MP3's so that I can pay them directly to download what I want - not what some record company exec thinks I should like. That more people will boycott them until we break the back of this beast that has terrorized those that it claims to serve. The only way to kill this hydra is to cut of it's food supply - money - and let it starve to death. The RIAA and MPAA are upset because they have become largely irrelevant. They no longer serve any useful function to anyone and its only a matter of time until they go the way of the dodo. Too stupid to adapt and too useless to live.
2 cents,
Queen B.
HDGary secures my bank
Mmm.. Nun porn!
I hate the RIAA/MPAA as much as the next person interested in sane IP, but is it too much to ask, please quit with the inane "Yay! Go pirates! Go copyright infringers! Go!".
There seems to be an easy to spell out way to put the RIAA/MPAA out of business, and that is, REFUSE TO BUY / DOWNLOAD / USE THEIR PRODUCTS. If they get no money, they can't hire lawyers. They can't bribe politicians. In short, they cease to be loudmouthed assholes that matter and just become loudmouthed assholes without a job. The key here is to stop using RIAA/MPAA products.
Unfortunately, I hear too much of, "Yeah! I'm all about hurting the RIAA! They're thugs! Evil incarnate! I'd do anything to see them go down! Right after I download the latest [RIAA-sponsored music]! And perpetuate their popularity and hype... which is exactly what keeps the RIAA/MPAA in business..."
Most of the comments seem to indicate that 90%+ of the entertainment media out there is trash, right? Unoriginal, recycled bullshit? So put your attention and your money where your mouth is. Ditch all of your commercial songs on your iPod. Listen to indie or unsigned music. Because just like Google feeds on pageviews, the RIAA/MPAA companies feed on hype and mindshare. The rampant copyright infringement isn't hurting the RIAA/MPAA one bit from a financial standpoint. (And we all know where the heart of a multinational corp is... the pocketbook.) What it does is reinforce their impression that what they're "guarding" is VALUABLE, and what they need to do in order to increase revenue is to try to get some blackmail, er... enforcement so y'all will go buy it for $1.00 on their sponsored downloading service. (Gee... I wonder where Microsoft got their idea for their "Non-WGA, buy a discounted genuine license today!" model.)
If no one was actually downloading the latest shit-on-a-platter from Justin Timberlake or [name your regurgitated mass-market artist here], do you think the schmucks at the RIAA/MPAA would even care about teh intarWeb?
Just a thought.
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
But why do so many Slashdotters seem to be in favor of ripping off artists, programmers, writers, directors, and so forth?
They are not in favor of "ripping off", they are in favor of reforming copyright, because the current system is a rip-off of the public. Public domain and fair use are our rights, and they are being trampled upon.
Haven't you guys made the connection as to why popular music today sounds the same, movies are sequels or generic snoozefests, and software is the same repackaged sports game from EA or expansion pack for the B-level game you already bought last year?
So, you are saying that Hollywood makes sequels because piracy puts their profits at risk and therefore they aren't willing to invest more money in innovative and interesting productions. Well, if that were true, then the sequels would be cheap while the occasional interesting production would be hugely expensive. But we find the opposite pattern.
No, the reason we get sequels, derivative stuff, and "generic snoozefests" is because they are financially low risk. Profit has never been a good motivator for good art. There's a reason why "commercial" has a bad ring when attached to "art" or "music". So, basically, you're full of shit.
If we wanted good music and good art, the solution would be to have an extensive system of private and public sponsorship of artists and make their output freely and widely available. That's the way great art and music has been created historically. But, of course, no matter what you do, most art, movies, and music are going to be bad anyway: art isn't widgets, and you need to pay a lot of artists to get the occasional one that produces something that turns out to be good in the long run.
Or will they say "because we've been a bunch of arseholes suing people on the first bit of evidence we find they might have been atking content illicitly, 50% of the populace have stopped buying our product"?
"shouldn't you be out chasing murderers?"
OK. So you don't want to hear about copyright law or corrupt distribution cartels. Tell ya what, why don't you just give us a list of all the resposonse for which you have prepared pat answers, and we'll try and feed you straight lines that make you look good.
The problem here is that the media industry made its money on distribution. The record companies in particular made their money by distributing. If they paid artists or promoted new talent, that was just to make sure they had something to distribute. It wasn't what people paid for. People paid to get their hands on the vinyl, and everyone thought it was a good deal.
The trouble is that the combination of the Internet and digtal media changes the economics of distribution. So the cartels are trying to re-invent themselves as content creators and rights holders. And the public aren't buying it.
So if everyone stopped downloading tomorrow, the studios would go "Phew, thank goodness that's over. Hey, Morrie! Cancel Scooby Doo 32 and commission something new and original!". because, you know,I just can't see it myself. As far as I can tell, business are risk-verse right across the board at the moment. I think that's a red herring, thank you.
Getting back to the main point - why support The Pirate Bay? Because I don't that propping a failing business model with government monopolies is a sound economic strategy.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
Going now on eBay. Swedish Prosecutor. Will convict for Cash. You are bidding against the MPAA. (Also on Flikr: Nice to see Swedish Prosecutor down on his knees kissing American Ass!)
Well, whether they ship those offices and factories themselves or whether someone else does it actually not a really big difference to most people...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Although I am not in favor of piracy, torrent sites allow me to download old content or content that is not available in the market or in my country. The right thing to do is not to close down torrent sites, but to encourage them to offer legal content only.
Dad? You never told me you read slashdot?
Correct, but thats 'elsewhere', where the laws are different. In Sweden its legal to link, regardless of content. ( which it should be, or you get dangerously close to censorship ). Also sometimes its just not worth the effort to fight ( it does cost money, even if you win ), so many roll over on the first contact, regardless of legality beacuse they cant afford to fight.
And of course the *AAs can pay ( err lobby ) to change the laws to be more favorable to them. Thats what they are trying to do now in order to criminalize it at any level, so they can stop expending resources to go after people and rely on the government's resources to do it for them.
My personal feelings about the matter are not even coming in to play here.
---- Booth was a patriot ----