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Senator Applauds Pirate Bay Trial, Chides Canada
eldavojohn writes "Republican Senator Orrin Hatch spoke Tuesday at the World Copyright Summit in Washington DC and hailed the Pirate Bay guilty verdict as an important victory. He expressed severe disappointment in Canada for showing up on our watch list for piracy next to China and Russia. Senator Hatch also said, 'In fact, one study reports that each year, copyright piracy from motion pictures, sound recordings, business and entertainment software, and video games costs the US economy $58 billion in total output, costs American workers 373,375 jobs and $16.3 billion in earnings, and costs federal, state, and local governments $2.6 billion in tax revenue. During this time of economic turmoil, we must ensure that all copyrighted works, both here and abroad, are protected from online theft and traditional physical piracy. After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors.' GamePolitics notes that for his 2006 campaign, Hatch was rented for $7,000 by the RIAA and also got on his knees for $12,640 from the MPAA."
start defending this idiot.
If someone download a movie, game or song doesn't mean they would have paid for it if they couldn't. So those loss calculations are wrong
I can't believe he admitted it. "After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors."
Next thing you know he'll say, "And if they won't buy our opium, we will sail our ironclads right into their harbours and open up their markets, whether they like it or not."
Lets face it,
If as a society you are pissing off a modern US Republican, you have to be doing something right.
That's an incredible saving. That money can be used to fix broken windows everywhere.
Where exactly did he get his numbers? I wonder?
Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
Yeah, i love how in business can you count "money we never got or even came close to seeing" as a "loss."
This one time, i was in a convenience store, and i saw someone else had won a million dollars in a lottery. I didn't have an extra dollar on me for a lottery ticket at the time, since the public transit token machine ate one of my dollars. Ergo, PUBLIC TRANSIT COST ME A MILLION DOLLARS!!11!1
oh wait, that 'extra' dollar would have gone to something useful with value to me... not a lottery ticket.
/facepalm
That which does not kill us makes us... st
I'm sure glad that he is a senator then. I would love to see how he would feel if he was convicted in a trial and it turned out that the Judge was a high ranking member of the puppeteers of the prosecutor. Talk about trying to stack the deck. I know lets make sure the Judge is on our side and already believes us, that will make it much easier to make sure the outcome is the one we want.
We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Some things the Senator needs to understand:
1/ Other countries are INDEPENDENT and the United States has no authority to dictate to them.
2/ Industry funded studies designed to "prove" their viewpoint cannot be trusted.
3/ Copyright under the U.S. Constitution was not intended to be eternal. It was supposed to be for a limited time and I suspect that "limited" was meant in compared to the human life span not compared to eternity.
3/ The DMCA is bad law and should be repealed rather than encouraging others to implement the same
It is estimated that the US printing industry lost Eleventy Billion Dollars in book sales last year from all those freeloading bastards reading at their local public library, which also contributed to heavy losses in the paper manufacturing industry....
Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property; A Corporation is the legal fiction that property is a person.
This has been thoroughly debunked by Professor Michael Geist a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he hold the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law.
Why move to Canada whenever Sweden is going to have some pirates in office soon and has a public generally anti-copyright.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
...oh, wait. This Orrin Hatch, who.voted for the DMCA along with the rest of the Gopasaurs. Both parties suck on IP issues.
Okay, maybe I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree, but if Americans aren't spending money on mp3s and downloaded movies, aren't they instead spending that money elsewhere? We have one of the lowest savings rates in the world, so it's not like the money is disappearing into our savings accounts. Therefore, downloading content on the internet should theoretically cost the economy $0 and $0 jobs, or at least considerably less than the figures quoted in the article, and instead create new jobs in other sectors rather than lining the pockets of movie execs. Then again, this whole philosophy is moot if nobodyâ(TM)s following the Pirates Code of Honor and buying content that is actually good.
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
The crux of the problem with "the pirate bay convictions" is that they aren't being properly tried under local law. The fact that they had their stuff seized and then returned to them should have been indication enough that the problem isn't with the pirate bay's activities, but with the local laws. Their present conviction is quite wrongful.
Hatch rather reminds me of my ex-wife who believed that anything that made her angry must be against the law and so was inclined to call the police to resolve it. Hatch, of course, is one of the bought and paid for politicians and I simply can't believe anyone is taking him seriously any more... well okay, I can believe it simply because the general masses still don't get what is wrong with current copyright law and process... and definitely don't get that different countries have different ideals and standards of law.
I would have been an interesting turn of things if the U.S.S.R. was able to peddle its influence to have other nations change their laws the way the U.S. does. And outside of the U.S. I am fairly certain that the practice is both unappreciated and unwelcome. It is probably one of the larger reasons the U.S. is presently disliked in the world.
...but it's a drop in the bucket in a senate election. So while I am just as annoyed at Senator Hatch as the next geek, I think accusing him of being bought is probably tactically stupid. First, because it's probably not true. Second, because there's probably another reason he holds this particular position. And third, because he probably actually believes what he's saying.
There are two ways to get him to stop being such a powerful advocate for copyright interests. One is to get him replaced. The other is to get him to change his mind. Getting him replaced is going to be really, really hard. But by all means, go for it. Only I really doubt the average Utahn is going to vote him out on the basis of his position on copyright, even if they disagree with him. So that's a really big job.
The other possibility is that you could get him to come around to seeing how much economic damage the RIAA and MPAA positions are doing to our economy. I think that's pretty hard too. But maybe not impossible. But one thing that is impossible is that you will get him to even listen to you if you start talking about how he's blowing the MPAA to get campaign contributions. The electoral system works the way it works. I want it to change as much as you do. But it's not going to change because you make nasty accusations. It's going to change because you work for it, or not at all.
If someone is losing money, it is not because someone else is stealing it. It is because the product is not competitive. If an album is not selling, it is not because of piracy, it is because it is not competitive. Either enough money has not been spent on marketing, or it is priced too high, or it is too hard to get. How many of us pay more to get milk from the corner store. How many of us would pay that same high price at the big grocery stores. Recorded music still has value, just not the value it did. I am sure Mr. Hatch is confused to why a audio tape manufacturers are not making as much as they did, and probably wanted to a bailout to help them. Under his logic, I could build a fishing pole, sell it for a while, then make it more expensive or reduce the quality, then claim that pirates have stolen my design and I need the feds help.
Although economics is not a zero sum game, one person does sometimes get rich at the expense of another, or at least that is the perception. The music industry is currently in an uproar that it cannot extort more money from the radio stations. Sure the music industry provides the raw materials, but it is the radio station that adds value. What I would like to see an end to compulsory licensing. They could use a bid based system, you know, we will play you album on the station only if you charge this much and no more. Oh, you want the money you used to get, won't happen. Not in a capitalist market.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
We've lost 1 million jobs each month due to our corporate and government corruption (same damn thing if you ask me).
We cant be a nation of film makers and muscians. Its not going to float this sinking economy. The real problem is greed, corruption, outsourcing, our law makers bending over backwards for those that would sell out America at every opportunity.
Downloading a shitty movie here and there that still makes 200 million in profit, is not costing us that much.
There are far bigger problems, and i find it hysterical that Oren Hatch (who is part of the problem) is acting as if some how the pirate bay is more significant than health care or the economy.
Perhaps more people are pirating stuff because they can no longer afford to LIVE in the country Oren Hatch supposedly represents. Thanks Oren you fucking tool.
Every one of these politicians live like kings in these "tough economic times"
Give me a break. Fuck off and DO SOMETHING FOR THE PEOPLE FOR ONCE!!!!!!
You're absolutely right that it doesn't mean they would have paid for it. A lot of pirates might not even be able to pay for it. However, the availability of piracy as an option skews the whole thing wildly. We don't know what people would do if piracy weren't an option. It very well might be possible that the sales of games and movies might be significantly higher. Again, we won't know because people can just copy anything they don't feel like buying or budgeting for.
blame darpa... they invented the interwebs of piracy
So it's all Al Gore's fault?
Take it a step farther, and think of how much money the record industry could make if they could just impose an arbitrary tax on all people! There are, what, 300 million people in the US? Assume each person really should be buying 10 albums a year (whether they want them or not) at $20 per CD, and the RIAA can pull down $60 billion a year. Think of how good that would be for the economy!
I mean, if we're going to absolve the industry from having to provide a service that people want to pay for, then we may as well go in whole hog.
There is, but little-to-none of it takes the form of kickbacks to US Senators, which is why he's all up in arms.
Here are some thoughts about what the summary says:
After all, US copyright-based industries continue to be one of America's largest and fastest-growing economic sectors
Let's assume that if it's large, it's important. I guess that if something is important to you, the downfall of anything that opposes it is good. But even at the expense of sane legal systems in other countries? Maybe Orin Hatch should take a word from a party fellow, GWB, about ensuring democracy and Rule of Law in other countries ;-)
costs the US economy $58 billion in total output, costs American workers 373,375 jobs and $16.3 billion in earnings, and costs federal, state, and local governments $2.6 billion in tax revenue.
Let's see... the 16.3 billion dollars freed up by not having to be spent on music, I guess people just park them in their bank accounts---right? Or maybe people spend the money elsewhere, so that other people earn the same money (through jobs) and pay taxes off of them.
This seems awfully hard to measure. I'm sure those who came up with the numbers did their due diligence and did this hard measurement, so that the $16.3e9 figure is the difference between money saved on music and money spent on other stuff.
But I could be hopelessly naive ;-)
Uhh? you mean like the Canadian copyright levy on blank audio recording media ?
Requiem for the American Dream