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Studios Sue Oz ISP Over Allowing Piracy
Da Massive writes "Leading Hollywood film studios Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Disney Enterprises are suing Australia's second largest ISP, iiNet, saying it's complicit in the infringement of their copyrighted material. According to a statement of claim, 'the ISP knows that there are a large number of customers who are engaging in continuing infringements of copyright by using BitTorrent file sharing technology.'"
This is the age old debate where possession of a tool is equalled to necessarily having the criminal intent to use it to commit acts you know are ilegal. Next up - watch hardware stores get sued for selling hammers that can be used by thugs and crooks to mug people by hitting them over the head. When will shoe stores get sued for selling boots and shoes that are painful to the person receiving kicks in the ass?
They think something is not legal. The opposing party does not agree, so they take it to the court.
This seems to me exactly the situation where you'd want people to use the courts. Australia's a democracy. Everybody has the right to complain, and they may be right when they complain. Even Disney.
Call again when you have a verdict. Then you have actual information to report.
Why don't do this to all the ISP's in Sweden?
2.6 Million Swedes apparently pirate software, music and movies every day. That's almost 1/3rd of the populace.
They make huge profits from this but in no way are they trying to hinder the use of p2p, well some try to filter it but that doesn't help very much.
It's not the ISP's job to force its users to use its product legally, take any product that can be used to commit a crime, is the provider or the user at fault?
At least they're not suing a 17 year old with a broadband connection for a change. Maybe the ISP will have enough money that they can actually make a proper fight of this. That might mean we can finally have the argument aired carefully enough the general public can hear both sides.
I agree with what somebody else said about hammers, but I don't think most people yet understand that argument. It will be great for the debate when more people do.
We'd pay to see stuff at the cinema, and own it on DVD / Blu-Ray if they'd just stop suing everybody they can find and put the money into funding good script writers and directors.
I seriously worry about how the American media industry does business nowerdays.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
"This seems to me exactly the situation where you'd want people to use the courts. Australia's a democracy. Everybody has the right to complain, and they may be right when they complain. Even Disney."
What does being a democracy have to do with taking things to court?
If you wanted to talk about a democracy, you'd say that Disney (et al) would propose a law and allow every person to vote on the merits of that law.
But trying to get a ruling from a Judge instead of working with the legislature strikes me as *undemocratic*.
So, for car drug transports we can sue the government for building the roads they use?
Remember that SONY (grrrr) produces lots of Films./Music through its plethora of subsidiaries but also makes CD & DVD writers.
Now that I come to think of it, don't they also sell a BluRay drive capable of writing content?
They (the RIAA/MPAA/etc) lawyers are being very careful but sooner or later they are going to come a cropper. It looks like they are targetting the carriers outside of the USA who don't have 'common carrier' immunity. All they are going to do is make more and more people pissed off at everything that comes out of the USA.
They can sue me(if they like) for using Bit torrent because in a few days Fedora 10 will be released and I will be seeding it once it is out in the wild but they ain't gonna win.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
The problem is, you purchased the disks, and knew they where protected.
Speak with your wallet. It's all corporate understands.
No, if they put copy protection on the CD/DVD, then you cannot circumvent it, it's illegal. Don't like it, don't purchase that companies games.
Simple, really. A company has the RIGHT to put out a product they want to. They also have the right to protect that product in as much as they legally can.
Just because you don't like the delivery mechanism is no shame on them, it's more shame on you for bitching about it, instead of actually doing something about it (like taking the games back, sending a copy of the return receipt to EA, organizing a thousand other people to do the same).
That's how you organize something, not sit on the internet bitching about it and writing nocd cracks for your personal game library. Game companies don't UNDERSTAND that, cuz they can't SEE the direct results of it. Vote with thine wallet, and things get put in a LOT bigger perspective for shareholders.
--Toll_Free
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Right. But then try selling that disc that you purchased... and now you can't. Because you didn't buy a disc. You bought a "license" to use the game.
But try excersizing that license if your disc breaks. You can't, because it wasn't a "license," it was a copy of a game you purchased.
But you couldn't back it up? Oh, yes, because the corporation is just being legally dilligent. That must be it.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
Excuse me?
apt based distros can use apt-p2p.
Debian:
http://www.debian.org/CD/torrent-cd/
RedHat's Fedora:
http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
Ubuntu:
http://torrent.ubuntu.com:6969/
Slackware:
http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/41880700/Slackware?tab=summary
I suppose my legal use of Bittorrent isn't an anomaly after all.
Ah, but when they do that, the public goes all up in arms against that too, because they go after children, or the elderly, or handicapped.
They sue the uploaders not for the money but to scare people into thinking its not worth it. They know they'll never stop every file-sharer, they just want people to think the rewards arent worth the risk. They are engaged in a publicity war. Thats why they keep quoting those made-up figures about all the billions lost to piracy, making links between piracy & terrorism and anything else that helps their cause.
One big problem with this is that their method of catching people (joining p2p networks and logging IP addresses) is full of problems. Its barely proof of anything and any progress they've made has been by bullshitting the judges in court. Their investigators are inept at best (breaking laws in some areas) and they are getting a lot of false positives because of this. To my knowledge they've had one victory in court and it looks like that is going to get overturned soon.
Also... dont forget, they are being sued by a number of bands & artists themselves for not sharing the money they made from all the filesharing lawsuits so far.
Perhaps they're suing an Australian ISP because they know that it won't fly here in the U.S., and they're hoping if they win enough overseas cases against ISPs that it'll significantly influence future actions again American ISPs? I know we would all like to believe that the MPAA and RIAA are all knee-jerk, but it stands to reason.
Oh boy,here we go again. This is why I have to repost this every time there is anything to do with the *.A.As put on here. Don't worry brother,the brainwashing can be reversed. You see CustomDesigned,copyrights are a contract,understand? A contract between you,The citizen,and those who wish a copyright. In return for a richer public domain,which belongs to you,me,our kids and grandkids,we give them a LIMITED term of copyright,so that they will make more that we will eventually get in our glorious public domain. See how that is SUPPOSED to work?
But you see CustomDesigned,that isn't what we have anymore. We no longer have that because evil multinational corporations robbed you by performing the illegal act of bribery upon your politicians and stole your public domain from you,and me,and our kids,etc. So you see,it is kind of hard to steal from the guy who is stealing from you. You can scream "Vote" all you want,but it won't work because you can't write multi million dollar checks like they can. So you can vote all you want and it doesn't change a thing. You see civil disobedience was made for just these kinds of unjust laws written by evil men. What is civil disobedience you say? Why it is just this,refusing to obey unjust laws. Because right now the copyright system all over the world is anything BUT just.
But what is that CustomDesigned,you think that copyrights are fair? All,well then I have a sentence for you.I believe this sentence has the power to unconver the lie and I have yet to hear even the most ass kissing corporate shill defend it. Are you ready? here goes: Steamboat Willie is still under copyright. You see old Walt has been dead now for half a century,longer than most of us has been alive,and yet his FIRST work,one that was created when cars needed to be started by a crank and antibiotics wasn't even invented yet,is still under copyright. You see,once copyrights extend beyond most human lifetimes they become unlimited. They become a way for a few cartels to lock up our culture and repackage it and resell it for all eternity. That,my friend,is some evil shit.
So scream "copyright violating scumbags!" all you want,the simple fact is we are ALL being royally buttraped by the big media conglomerates every day of our lives. Just look at the movies from the '30s that they repackage and sell you every year. The actors,musicians,directors,etc are all long dead,yet the giant multinational still gets to charge you for work they had nothing what so ever to do with. I'm sorry but that is some seriously evil shit.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
You might want to keep up with current events. Saving a buck is just one of the reasons to violate copyright. DRM is getting to the one of the big ones, maybe even the biggest one. For example, if you buy movies, you can't play them on the most recent MacBooks. When content providers use DRM, piracy is the only way to make stuff Just Work.
When the choice is between "I can watch the movie" and "I can't watch the movie" then the issue of which choice involves payment and which one doesn't, is a distant second priority.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Of course.. they're not going after Telstra, the No.1 telco in the country because that would be a Title Fight, as opposed to the David & Goliath battle they've waged here. There IS a simple way to fix this. Require IP holders to sue for ALL breaches of their IP content that they become aware of, otherwise they lose their hold on that IP. That means they HAVE TO sue the senators son for mp3s he's downloaded. They HAVE TO sue the No1 Telco for copyright infringements, not just the No2 ISP. In the end the MAFIAA will be suing so many different people that the people will demand a rewrite of the IP laws. The only way that this can come to a head is to prevent the MAFIAA from selectively picking their targets as example cases.
*Movie studio execs strategy meeting*
"We have a problem, people are copying our movies without paying, and litigating individual cases is such a bother"
"I know, lets sue The Internet!!"
*standing ovation*