Slashdot Mirror
MPAA Seeks $15 Million From The Pirate Bay
praps writes "Having tasted blood with its victory over TorrentSpy, the MPAA is now stepping up its attack on The Pirate Bay. The association is claiming damages of over $15 million, based on The Pirate Bay's distribution of four films and a TV series — Harry Potter, The Pink Panther, Syriana, Walk the Line and the first season of Prison Break. The Swedish court is unlikely to be as generous as the one in California, although the four Pirate Bay founders are already facing charges of being accessories to breaking copyright law."
TorrentSpy, in the meantime, has declined to pay the settlement awarded to the MPAA on Wednesday. In addition to appealing the decision, they have filed for bankruptcy.
TorrentSpy's big problem was the destruction of evidence.
http://www.google.com/search?q=torrentspy+destruction+of+evidence
Once they did that, the Judge essentially said "we can't have a real trial, you're guilty"
No legal precedent was set in the TorrentSpy case, because no legal analysis of any copyright claims happened.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Just to point out:
:) )
We are not "the consumer". We are nerds who participate in friendly discussion on an Internet News Site. That means that we are just a tiny, microscopic fraction of all consumers everywhere (or, in this case, in the US) and, as such, have no power over the rest of the consumers. Thus, preaching like "Vote with your wallets!" HERE will not accomplish anything - we already know this (though most of us probably don't care). The only thing we CAN do is raise awareness - and somehow, I don't see any big protest signs on the streets criticising MAFIAA for their actions.
To sum it up: Why don't we actually DO something about it, not stand idle and repeat the old phrases that every one of us heard a dozen times?
(Reply: The sun. IT BURNS USSSS!
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams [...]."
Exactly. MPAA seems to have based their case on different set of laws. Swedish court will rule according to swedish law (hopefully).
One of the policemen involved with the investigation was on warners payroll, how that didnt turn into a bigger scandal than it has is upsetting to say the least.
MPAA and their associates have put alot of effort into this case, let's hope tpb are equally prepared, should be an interesting showdown.
Really, I don't give a damn either way. Pirate Bay is cocky and arrogant and makes money from other peoples work, and the movie industry is a cynical money grabbing cartel. I tolerate the Pirate bay because I like to get free stuff, and movie industry for the few decent films they actually do produce.
That's a really idealized vision of the system.
Capitalism is a game in which buyers and sellers are oppenents.
Saying "the market decides" means that the power is all in the hands of the buyers: that's when you can say that "the market will make better products appear": better meaning better for the buyer. This is the ideology which justifies capitalism: the people are the buyers, and the law are (supposed to be) made for the people's sake.
But this is just one extreme in the balance of power between the two players; and just finding a good example for it is difficult. The best one is probably gas stations: you know exactly what you are buying, and you can easily check an other one, so the margins are (I guess) pretty low.
But in many cases, the balance weights heavily toward the seller. We all know the reasons: using people's mistakes (lottery, complicated billing), forced buying (bundling, etc), monopoly (or any alliance of sellers against buyers), control of the information, control of the law (lobbying).
All thoses are limitted or forbidden by the law, because they all go against the people's interest. Even marketing, when you think about it, is pretty absurd since it openly tries to make a deal seem better than it really is for buyer.
The only moral justification you can think of to allow marketing is that a company will only have the money to run ads if it is successful; this takes for granted that success is mostly the result of the company's real usefulness to the people.
In short, marketing is only justified if it does not change the relative success of companies!
(Note: you can't justify marketing just by freedom of speech, which is intended for cases when the law should stay neutral in the fight between two parties, as in a trial; there is no reason not to favor the people against the sellers. Except for international competitivity; it's often an easy excuse, but it's a valid point and a wider discussion).
Of course, the other cases (monopoly, bundling) are even harder to justify; but the worse is certainly lobbying. The simple idea that sellers could affect the law is utterly absurd, and lobbying is the best indicator of the power balance. In France -and I guess most countries- it's simply called corruption (which does not mean it doesn't happen).
And by the way: the internet has the potential to take a lot of power away from the sellers. Before Ebay, some companies made profit just by providing the organisation that buyers lacked.
Things can really change; that is, if we don't let them rewrite the laws too much with the power they have left.
1, 2, 3... Fight!
Don't take my posts literally; it's just code to control my botnet.
I think you overstate the percentage of the voting public who give a shit. 99% of people I know have no idea what thepiratebay is, or what it does. I'd guess pretty much all of them would realise the site is breaking a law (or at least encouraging its users to do so) and wouldn't have much sympathy,
Yes, there are a lot of people on slashdot who get very defensive about their right to take copyrighted stuff, but try stopping someone in the street and asking the ten most important things that affect their votes. I'd reckon:
Crime
Income
Taxes
Transport
House Prices
Education
Health
Pensions
Terrorism
Inequality
I reckon the rights of people with broadband to download free rips of Hollywood movies might come in at number 70 or 90, but its sure isn't swinging most peoples vote.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
In Sweden it has actually hit mainstream Politics, and there is a Political Party with legalizing P2p on its agenda.
The current activities of the PirateBay are fully legal in Sweden.
It is my view that although the pile of democratic nations in the world has been growing, when the ability of U.S. voters to influence their government is considered, the U.S. voter is close to the bottom of that pile!
The U.S. has few majority or runoff elections for state or national office. It has no proportional representation elections using multi-member districts at the same level. In fact the federal government has outlawed such elections for U.S. House elections.
Jury nullification, probably the average U.S. citizens strongest influence on government granted by the U.S. Constitution has been gutted by the U.S. Supreme court!
Unlike Sweden, the U.S. no longer has political parties in the traditional sense. Such parties, with enforceable party platforms, have been effectively outlawed. U.S. political parties do not have public agendas, except in both rare and partial instances. ( see below )
I_Voter
Attempts at Party Platforms
The Democrat's 100 Hours Plan
http://tinyurl.com/5kmmu5
The Republican's Contract with America
http://tinyurl.com/5bkkd3
New and incomplete web site
Political Power in the U.S.
http://tinyurl.com/2sdtvk