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MPAA is Awarded $110 Million In TorrentSpy Case
An anonymous reader writes "The MPAA was awarded a staggering judgment in its case against the BitTorrent indexing site TorrentSpy. According to Slyck.com, a judge in California rendered a $110 million victory for the MPAA, and a permanent injunction against TorrentSpy."
The movie companies lost money due to torrentspy's activities, but what is the basis for such a monstrous monetary judgement? Magic eight ball? Numbers out of a hat? How on earth did the movie companies prove this level of loss? Gotta love hollywood accounting, astounding how movies can make nothing and everything at the same time.
Just because isoHunt is in Canada, we can't expect the MPAA not to try and cross the border. I mean, the RIAA has been bad enough about operating in states in the U.S. - why should we expect the MPAA not to do the same?
...there's another site doing the exact same thing, located in a different country.
Attempting to fight these sites is entirely ineffective, and won't even scare the populace like suing individuals does. As for the $110 million, well... good luck? I wouldn't bet on getting more than 1%.
If your theory is different from practice, then your theory is wrong.
When you're operating as close to the edge of the law as they were, you need to be extremely careful about what you do. A simple statement of "We are not responsible" isn't sufficient if, by your actions, you demonstrate that you are encouraging illegal behavior.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
That's the real question
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Or it's another half day of the war in Iraq...
The days of Ragnar Benson have almost faded away into memory.
The companies that used to publish "action books" have almost completely abandoned that genre. Does that make borders a criminal? You don't have to make something a "crime" to get rid of it. Read up on the Paladin Press / Hit Man incident.
Can you imagine the firestorm if a company started publishing Paladin Press-style books today? In our post-9/11 world? Ha!
"The fight for freedom has only just begun." - Geert Wilders
No not fool, because now they have a judgement on record that is stupidly broad in the favour in defining 'infringement'.
They've made INDEXING files illegal, please note they got nailed despite setting up services that let copyright holders take down stuff they owned.
The Legal team over at google is looking at this and going 'oh fuck no'.
The judge in this case, obviously, didn't have time to read this:
http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2008/02/default-judgment-denied-in-atlantic-v.html
Chances of the judgement being overturned on appeal: 100%.
Sig this!
Nice but rather empty victory. Of course the MPAA is going to take little home from this except the realization that under current law there is little they can do that effectively enforces copyright. I imagine that any half-bright executive in the movie industry will quickly come to the conclusion that there are only two avenues open to improve copyright enforcement.
1. DRM
2. Congress
Expect to see both. Heavier use of elaborate schemes like those used for Blu-Ray recordings and downloadable media. Branding the owner's ID into the media so copies are traceable. Real use of certificates to manage keys, mandating only online playback.
More stringent use of legal remedies, and criminalization of copyright infringement. WIPO treaties allowing international cooperation in pursuing violators. Tying government aid to enforcement initiatives.
Enjoy it while the fun lasts.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
And as for the software programmer who posted earlier? Just because you write a program doesn't mean you should get paid for 100+ years(or whatever the copyright is right now). There are plenty of ways to make money WITHOUT needing the government to support your business model with ever more draconian and intrusive laws. You can do work for hire,you can be paid to add features or do maintenance and support,etc. There are ways to make money out of the new business economy-it just takes work and smarts. But too many businesses with really big checkbooks would rather buy our laws rather than have to actually compete and innovate. Which is why IMHO we'll end up another third world fascist state while the rest of the world passes us by. But that is my 02c,YMMV
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Your whole rant was redundant. No one, even you, would throw your business and your key to lifelong wealth, in the toilet, simply on moral ground. I call it the "Jerry Springer Syndrome". It is easy to make fun of those on the stage until you are one of them
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
So they just absorbed any liability I have for infringement for using their site. If 4 people rob me, and steal $100, can I get verdicts against *each* of them for $100?
Watch the video of our "offer".
Bush turned this from a humanitarian offer to help into part of his "exporting freedom" routine. He wants to have our Navy set up there. He mentions political change.
With what we've been up to lately, can you blame these people for saying no? I can't.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Even if it is not turned over on appeal, it is not like they are even going to collect 1% of that money in the forseeable future.
What I wonder is what happens in a situation like this? If a person has $50,000 in assets and makes $20,000 a year, and they get, say, a $10,000,000 judgement rendered against them, how the hell is it paid for? Debtor's jail doesn't exist anymore, does it?
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Meh, Burma... Israel is where it's at. 3 Billion a year or so ought to do it.
$30,000 per infringement? Do our Congressmen honestly think this is reasonable?
"Buy our product or we'll sue you!".
I thought the whole point of setting up Israel after WWII was to bring about the rapture.
- displace an entire people
- foment decades of unrest, misery, and death
- attempt to force the hand of god
sounds like something we'd do on a weekend, really.
((btw, I think you meant 'wahrgeld', weregild sounds like something that becomes gold-plated during the full moon which, admittedly, is a cool concept))
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.
-- Ambrose Bierce (Also, quoted in a Civ4 soundbite by Leonard Nimoy)
"His name was James Damore."
I believe that there were several different tests done by "Reader's Digest" and various other magazines. One was to drop a cellphone(or in others, a wallet, etc) in a public location, and see whom collects it and if they try to return it.
Several people kept the phone. Some, when approached, vehemently denied acquiring it (though they were on camera doing so). Many of those who acted this way were at the least middle-class citizens, and in a good portion of the cases semi-upper-class or even rather rich citizens.
The poorer people, on the other hand, actually put forth the effort to returning the phone/wallet/etc. The RD crew would ask why they didn't keep it. I remember that the refrain from the poorer citizens was pretty much the same: "I may be poor, but I'm honest, I want my children to be honest, and even having no money I still have my self-respect."
Sometimes poor leads to desperation, and terrible things happen. But in groups, being poor often seems to lead to a policy of community-support, and watching out for your fellows.
If I become rich, I think I'd have a joy in life by visiting "poor" places, and engaging in random acts of generosity. Unfortunately, that mentality means I'll probably never become rich, unless I win the lottery or something to that effect.
Does this verdict have any relevance to the ISOHUNT.com search engine?
Or is this a non-related case? I would really hate to lose isohunt, since it's such a useful resource.
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
Except that every single word and every single image on every single webpage is copyrighted by whoever originally created that material.
This post I just wrote right now is *exactly* as copyrighted as any Hollywood movie or RIAA song. There's absolutely no difference linking to posts or webpages versus linking to copyrighted movie files. Therefore, Google links are exactly as infringing as any torrent links. I think a lot of people might be very interested in suing for the vast sums the MPAA and RIAA are suing for on an individual basis.
On the basis of this ruling, Google could be bankrupted from a small percentage of the population copying the MPAA lawsuit formula.
Actual damages are immaterial, as statutory damages are set at $150,000 maximum per violation.
How nice of Google to be doing all that work and making all that money so that they can pay the little man content creators.
Get your lawsuit in early, cause it's not likely Google will have enough money to go around to pay more than a couple percent of everybody for linking to their copyrighted content.
"From DNA to P2P, we are all Copycats now. Go Go Copycat Power! Copycat Powers activate! Form of, a Copycat." --monxrtr