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UK Court: MPAA Not Entitled To Profits From Piracy

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-so-fast dept.

jfruh writes "The MPAA and other entertainment industry groups have been locked for years in a legal struggle against Newzbin2, a Usenet-indexing site. Since Newzbin2 profited from making it easier for users to find pirated movies online, the MPAA contends they can sue to take those profits on behalf of members who produced that content in the first place. But a British court has rejected that argument."

3 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Er... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wouldn't collecting the profits from pirate copies translates into making those copies legit?

  2. Asphalt Manufacturers Too! by Bob9113 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since Newzbin2 profited from making it easier for users to find pirated movies online, the MPAA contends they can sue to take those profits on behalf of members who produced that content in the first place.

    This is a bit like saying that asphalt manufacturers profit from making it easier for getaway drivers to whisk bank robbers away from the scene of the crime.

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  3. Re:My point exactly! by julesh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been comparing so-called piracy to historic real estate squatting, rather than comparing it to stealing or thievery as has become the propaganda of Big Content. When a court compares it to real estate trespass, it's recognizing the same disingenuous manipulation of Big Content's propaganda.

    Exactly. Now we just need a law saying that if we infringe on copyright for 10 years without the owner doing anything to intervene, the copyright becomes ours... not only does it make the comparison to tresspassing/squatting even more accurate and obvious, it's also a useful solution to the orphan works problem.