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Dutch Pirate Party Dragging BREIN To Court
An anonymous reader writes "Last week the Dutch Pirate Party refused to take down their proxy. Then, avoiding the Pirate Party in court, the entertainment industry organization BREIN obtained an injunction against the party's The Pirate Bay proxy (now a list of alternative proxies). After receiving additional demands from BREIN on Saturday night, including one to censor their generic proxy, the Dutch Pirate Party decided to take them to court, to strike the order and convince the judge of the need for due process and the freedom to inform."
From the press release: "The penalties imposed by the court are 4 times higher than those ordered upon the large commercial ISPs XS4ALL and Ziggo..."
This is how it works in a liberal democracy. The side with the most people wins. Donate now to your favorite free speech or pirate cause, because that money is needed to buy more lobbyists, TV spots and print ads than the opposition.
"The penalties imposed by the court". On whom ? For what ?!
Anything that may hurt the profits of some ridiculously rich individuals can and will be blocked. It's as simple as that. Our freedom ends where their profit starts.
Instead of pioneering new, convenient, usable digital ways to distribute content (like free, ad-supported internet streaming of standard-def content over, say, Youtube or Vimeo), the Entertainment industry seems determined to forcibly shut down any alternative, ad-hoc digital distribution means that has sprung up (like P2P & Torrents). Lets suppose for a moment that the Entertainment Industry manages to shut it all down for good... All of it. Really ALL OF IT. No more ways to get free dl links, free movie streaming, or any other way left to download/view Hollywood content online without paying. Will the industry's sales and profits suddenly go up? Perhaps by a measly few percent (say 2 - 4%), as some of the people who used to get stuff free off the internet now grudgingly head to the entertainment store to buy a DVD or BluRay instead, or buy a few movies/shows on iTunes-like online services. But what about the people who really used to love using Torrents and such? They will very likely stop consuming Hollywood movies/U.S. TV Shows/MPAA-RIAA content altogether. Can you live without consuming this stuff at all? Yes, you very much can. Do you miss out on anything doing this? Only if you are a 14 year old teenager who thinks that to be "hip" or "in the loop", you need to see the latest incarnation of the Hollywood trash all your friends at school are talking about. ---- With its latest actions, the Entertainment Industry has proven once more that it is composed of "9 Parts Business/Industry" and "1 Part Entertainment". It has also proven that it lives decades in the past, business-model wise, and that it simply cannot make effective use of the internet as a means of distribution. The likely result of all this? The generation that grew up with P2P and Torrents will probably hate Hollywood/MPAA/RIAA for the rest of their lives, and likely consume as little Hollywood/U.S. made content as possible. It will probably do this just to hurt the MPAA/RIAA back.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
If only we were able to have an organized party like this in the U.S.
Our only choices are "In the pocket of the MPAA" and "In the pocket of the MPAA"...oh, wait...
Great warrior...hrmph! Wars not make one great.
Anything that may hurt the profits of some ridiculously rich individuals can and will be blocked. It's as simple as that. Our freedom ends where their profit starts.
So, what is the point of a legal system then, or is it simply more of a charade to continue the illusion that we little poor bottom feeders actually still have a say in the matter...
Or the open hostility some of the judiciary has shown in the various Obamacare lawsuits...
As someone that's been watching the members of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court literally come to blows over partisan bickering, I have absolutely no doubt that many of the cases coming before the courts in this country are decided based solely on who the involved parties are or the political ramifications of a decision, regardless of the arguments.
Downloading anything is perfectly legal in the Netherlands. Do not assume the rest of the world is ruled by companies like in the US, despite this news.
Yeah basically that. The rich can hire the expertise and change the rules to stay out of court in the first place.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Yo Dog, I heard you like pointers so I put a pointer in your pointer and.... hey wait that actually works!
Unfortunately we're not allowed to have a green party in the U.S. Nor are we allowed to have a pirate party. You either vote for the party of Big Business and Deficit Spending or you vote for the party of Deficit Spending and Big Business.
Hey, at least it's a democracy!
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause