Patent and Copyright Wars Gone Wild

snydeq writes "While Apple and Samsung fight over patents and prototypes, other copyright trolls are waging an X-rated battle on innocent users, as lawyers representing some adult movie companies are sending letters accusing users of illegally downloading their movies and saying that, for a price, they can make the charges go away. 'Cases like this, usually involving pornographic content, are very common,' Mitch Stoltz, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation said. At least 250,000 individuals have been named in group lawsuits over the last few years. There's a very common belief that if someone pirates your Wi-Fi connection or uses your computer without your permission, you are responsible for illegal downloads of copyrighted material. That's not true, says Stoltz; the law is quite clear. However, the lawyers who bring those cases use that misperception to convince innocent people that they had better pay up. Since $3,500 is just a fraction of the money it would take to fight a case in court, most people simply settle."

Comments

Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Fuck You.

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck You.

It's easy to blame those who (ab)use the system. But they're not the real problem. The real underlying problem is the system itself. If the system is bad in design, there will always be those who abuse it and take advantage of it. Can't really blame them, now can you?

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[platypussrex]

I screwed up and read TFA. What a waste of electronic ink. Talk about lack of substance, analysis, or depth. I feel dumber afterwards than I did before I read it. This is probably a real topic, but you'd never know if from that article.

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

Why, yes. Yes we can.

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[drooling-dog]

Absolutely we can. The "system" didn't appear out of nowhere from pure intentions. It was designed, bought and paid for by the very interests that are now abusing it for profit. It's how politics works now.

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[fredprado]

Unfortunately only in very specific cases. Nowadays there are considerably more cases where extortion is legal than cases where it is not.

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[psiclops]

If the system is bad in design, there will always be those who abuse it and take advantage of it. Can't really blame them, now can you?

yes you can. they're being dicks on purpose. that's their fault.

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

It's even easier to blame the knife and not the murderer.

Re:Dear Proprietarians and Patent Trolls

[mcgrew]

However, I do wish more people that were unhappy with those in power would go and vote and write in "no one" or some such nonsense. It wont have a bearing on who is elected - just like staying home - but it will at least let those that are elected and those that lost know that you are unhappy and not just lazy.

I usually vote either Green or Libbie. Some say the vote is wasted, but some of your friends and relatives smoke pot, and both major parties are against legalization. Why would you vote for a candidate who wants your loved ones imprisoned?

Since I live in Illinois, a vote for Romney or Obama will in truth be wasted, because it's pretty clear that Obama will win Illinois by a landslide. A vote for a green or a libbie is the only rational choice here. Since neither will win it doesn't matter what nutball they nominate; it's the same as voting "no one" or "mickey mouse".

Plus, there's the embarrassment factor

[Sparx139]

I mean, really, who wants to be named on court documents for allegedly pirating porn?

Re:Plus, there's the embarrassment factor

[Anonymous Coward]

You know this may finally be just the impetus that we need to come out into the open....

I too am a pervert.

That felt good to get off my chest :)

It's funny, lately I had a friend confess to me he was in deep shit with his girlfriend over an alleged "porn addiction" because he got caught surfing porn. I told him every man is addicted to porn. There is no such thing as "porn addiction", the truth is, there is masturbation addiction. As long as you are not chaffing, or getting pulled over, or distracted by sounds of people in the park, or unable to keep a job, you are just fine.

Women... you are full of shit. All of you are reading your versions of porn right now. It's called Fifty Shades of Wet Vagina.

We don't have anything to hide guys. Don't let these assclown lawyers bully you into submission. Stand up! Be Proud!

I MASTURBATE TO PORN ON THE INTERNET!

Where's our fucking parade?

submitted anonymously because I don't want anybody to see I wrote this.. especially the you-know-who

Only on Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

Patent and Copyright law cannot seriously be discussed in the same space. Anyone who tries is woefully ignorant of the subjects at hand. A discussion that happens on that level can never bear anything worth the time of the reader except in a purely emotional way that is worthless in the real world.

you blame both

[circletimessquare]

a bad system doesn't excuse bad actors

you fix the system AND you punish the bad actors

and will also oftentimes find that the bad system continues to exist the way it does precisely because of efforts by the bad actors. such as professional groups and business consortia giving money to politicians