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Now Published: Study Showing Pirate Bay Blockade Has No Effect

Posted by timothy on from the what-they-don't-tell-you-about-on-the-e-channel dept.

First time accepted submitter Neelix21 writes "Last week a Dutch court decided that the blockade of the Pirate Bay website was ineffective and disproportionate. The academic study that measured this effect has now been published: 'This paper studies the effectiveness of this approach towards online copyright enforcement, using both a consumer survey and a newly developed non-infringing technology for BitTorrent monitoring. While a small group of respondents download less from illegal sources or claim to have stopped doing so, no impact is found on the percentage of the Dutch population downloading from illegal sources.' The torrent monitoring technique also shows that if you are downloading a public torrent, anyone can find out." Happily, the linked paper is not paywalled.

7 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Non News by tomkost · · Score: 4, Interesting

    it doesn't take a study to know that you can't block these activities. When you have mirrors in multiple countries it's nearly impossible to shut them all down. Even then there can be backups that are not online, so the service can be recovered and restarted easily. But that won't stop the controlling financial interests like R$AA, MP$$ and others from continuing to bang their heads, buy off politicians, and rattle the chains.

    1. Re:Non News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, the real non news is when people believe they are entitled to something, they will continue to find ways to steal it.

      Agreed. I'm sure the RIAA/MIAA, who feel entitled to private profits gained via artificial scarcity and government backed monopolies, will continue to look for other ways to steal from the public.

    2. Re:Non News by geekoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not theft, please stop.
      It is a violation of copyright law. i.e. infringement.

      Nothing was taken from anyone. You are buying into the PR of organization that are well known for abusing the law.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    3. Re:Non News by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Ripping off some lone artist that's self publishing - that's pretty low.

      Ripping off a multinational media company that has used lobbying to extend copyright periods and penalties to ridiculous proportions, and uses to DMCA to take down videos from YouTube that they don't even own the rights to - no sympathy.

    4. Re:Non News by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Informative

      But something was taken. A copy was taken.

      No, something was *created*. A copy was *made*.

      --
      No sig today...
    5. Re:Non News by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      Stealing? Are you a MAFIAA shill, or just someone stupid enough to swallow their "truthy" nonsense? Let me attempt to get you to understand the difference.

      Stealing: You walk into Barnes and Noble and shoplift a copy of my book. I've lost nothing, but B&N have, they're out the cost of that stolen book. If you're caught and convicted, it's a misdemeanor and a few hundred dollars fine.

      Copyright infringement: You buy an ebook version of my novel, and give a copy to your friend, who may have never heard of me, like the book, and buy a different one of my books. I am out nothing; nobody is, except perhaps the "thief" who received the copy, since he may be later out the cost of my other book. If caught, you will be out thousands of dollars, no conviction necessary.

      Do you call rapists "murderers?" Do you call burglars "dope dealers?"

      You MAFIAA whores are using a word about a bad thing, theft, and trying to apply it to a good thing, sharing, to make the good thing look bad. Sorry, shill, to twist Shakespear's words, calling a rose "shit" doesn't make it stink. The evil-doers are liars like you who insist roses stink, not those who would do me the favor of sharing my work and helping get my name out.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
  2. Euphemisms by dcollins117 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is no such thing as an "illegal download". Downloading files is perfectly legal. I have no idea what the term "illegal sources" in TFS means either. No law has been passed saying it is against the law to download from a particular site.

    Whenever I see terms like these being bandied about I know someone is using deliberately vague and manipulative terms in an effort to con me.