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Hollywood's Secret War With Google

Posted by Soulskill on from the a-war-they'll-fight-aggressively-to-lose dept.

cpt kangarooski writes: Information has come to light (thanks to the recent Sony hack) that the MPAA and six major studios are pondering the legal actions available to them to compel an entity referred to as 'Goliath,' most likely Google, into taking aggressive anti-piracy action on behalf of the entertainment industry. The MPAA and member studios Universal, Sony, Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney have had lengthy email discussions concerning how to block pirate sites at the ISP level, and how to take action at the state level to work around the failure of SOPA in 2012. Emails also indicate that they are working with Comcast (which owns Universal) on some form of traffic inspection to find copyright infringements as they happen.

18 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. The battle of extremes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Corporate greed vs individual entitlement. Both extremes are wrong and harmful, and proponents will always use the slippery slope fallacy to prevent any kind of middle-ground from being established.

    This battle will never end.

    1. Re:The battle of extremes. by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can see the same thing in the US debates on abortion and gun control. Both sides are afraid of incrimentalism by the other, which compels them to adopt the extremist position in order to prevent that strategy working.

    2. Re:The battle of extremes. by blahplusplus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Corporate greed vs individual entitlement. Both extremes are wrong and harmful

      You're a moron if you believe this...

      The myth of "balance" in capitalist societies:

      http://homepages.law.asu.edu/~...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

      Overthrowing governments

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      http://www.amazon.com/War-Rack...

      "I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." [p. 10]

      "War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23] "The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]

      The 9 trillion dollar bank bailout

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Libor scandal

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

      Rule of law is impossible under capitalism, since the kings of business (he who has the gold makes the rules) get to do whatever they want and the public gets fucked.

      http://williamblum.org/

      So if you want to fight corruption "the traditional way" (electoral politics), you're dead in the water because most people aren't going to give up their deeply felt emotions and aren't very bright. This way of doing things is limited because of the limits of history and the amount of energy it takes to transform the minds of a large population and the fact that the media is co-opted. There are things that can be done but you'd have to be really committed and not a change the world 'faker' like most people are (aka they don't want to risk anything).

      http://therealnews.com/t2/

      You need to know that most people who are voting in electoral politics don't live in reality (that's a sizeable chunk, many millions of people, totally oblivious). The real news is the cure for that. Hang out in places where smart people exist, avoid traditional media mostly and always keep them at arms length.

    3. Re:The battle of extremes. by Uberbah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I guess even people who are supportive of abortion (but not supportive of late term abortions) will defend late term abortions simply because

      Simply because no one gets a dilatation and extraction for shits and giggles.

      because they fear that making them illegal will affect conventional abortion

      It has been the standard operating procedure ever since Roe v Wade: chip away at abortion without passing an Ireland-style ban. Because shit happens when medical decisions are made by religious fanatics rather than doctors.

  2. I can see it coming . . . by mmell · · Score: 5, Funny
    Your search - Sony - did not match any documents.

    Nor did Movie title, or Sony BMG artist. Why is nobody going to see our movies or buy our artists' music?

    1. Re:I can see it coming . . . by realmolo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      YES.

      I hope Google does this.

      "Oh, you're suing us? You want us to be a copyright enforcement agency? Fine. We're not going to index ANY of your stuff. Or the stuff of any of your divisions. Or any of the stuff of any companies you have a controlling interest in. Plus, we're going to block their networks from accessing any of our services. Good luck."

    2. Re:I can see it coming . . . by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hollywood in comparison to the top tier US tech companies is tiny in terms of revenue and profit. If the techs got together and purchased the studios, they could make it go away.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    3. Re:I can see it coming . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I actually think this is the very best move possible. Which will no doubt provide the best result for consumers who should actually have the power in business transactions. The customer is always right, right?

      Interestingly enough I haven't downloaded a movie in a very long time. When I was downloading I actually used to go see more movies, I kind of felt it was my responsibility to provide some income to the industry for taking some, levelling it out by balancing what I accord afford (no more than 1 a month) and what I actually considered was a good movie.

      Now I don't go to see any. I wouldn't have a clue what's out. It is no longer convenient for me to access. And I'm not going to pay for an inferior DRM riddled experience. Full stop.

      The most the industry is getting out of me at the moment is that I have come across a few films of Youtube. These tend to be older movies or foreign movies, and their is huge potential for them to at least earn something through the ads. But I'm not going to pay. Sorry, but the economic climate is not in the common man''s favour. It is no longer the golden years post world war 2, when the average sales man earned only a little bit less than a CEO and could buy a house and support a family on that income. Currently, on a good wage quite above the median, if I save all my money bar minimum expenses for food, rent and petrol I am going to struggle to buy a house by the time I retire - in 35 years. To put this in comparison, my mother managed to buy a house fresh out of university on a single income and was mortgage free 15 years later. With inflation accounted for, we earn very similar amounts.

      I simply can not afford to give companies more.

      And all the while I watch a multimillionaire (Taylor Swift) complaining that she is not getting paid enough by Spotify. That's all fine and dandy, except she should be glad people are willing to give her any more at all. She is already rich beyond peoples wildest dreams, famous and basking in that glory. Now I wouldn't listen to that kind of music any way. My music tastes have always been so obscure that the Music industry has never even been able to provide for me. 15 years ago I had to download, because there were none of the modern internet services, there were no CDs in the stores for the bands I liked either, because most of them weren't American.

      Through my life time I have already given the recording industry combined thousands of dollars in CD purchases however, just recently I through out my ageing CD collection of well over 200 CDs, all purchased for between $15 and $30 between 1995 and 2005. And I came to the sudden realisation that music has no value to me at all. - not through Mp3s - through the rubbish.

      Now if you have read everything I have posted so far, you will have probably gauged that in my personal situation I am relatively concerned about my finances. And for this reason I do have some sympathy for the industries as a whole, I am fully aware that there are some people, such as technicians and all the other various roles you see in the ending credits of a movie who might be struggling. I think this is sad, because the actors still get paid exorbitant amounts. Especially considering the fact that an actor is essentially a professional liar.

      So my message to the people in charge of these companies is, the best hope you've got of earning anything from me is providing it for free. There are other things I want in life which matter more to me. And I can do with out quite happily. A good book gives me far more joy, over a longer time, for a similar price.

      Go figure.

  3. Re:Shocking! by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Informative

    The liberal Hollywood elite sold out to megacorp bean counters a long time ago. Now the studios are nothing more than subsidaries of large global conglomerates.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  4. Meanwhile Congress just passed SOPA in secret by anarkhos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why isn't this front page news everywhere?

    General Info and Links:
    Full text of the bill can be found here.
    https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/4681
    White House petition:
    https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/protect-our-privacy-and-please-veto-hr-4681-aka-intelligence-authorization-act-fiscal-year-2015/lln5hN5c
    Justin Amash's Facebook Post:
    https://www.facebook.com/repjustinamash/posts/812569822115759
    Locate your reps:
    http://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup
    This is especially important. Find your congressman and let him know you hate this
    How your reps voted:
    http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll271.xml

    --
    >80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
    >life
    1. Re:Meanwhile Congress just passed SOPA in secret by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is not SOPA 2. It's pretty bad, but it's entirely unlike SOPA. See the discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8740339

      I know that it's a time-consuming thing to do, but it's very important to read legislation before accepting media reports about it. Because journalists are often as lazy as Congresscritters, the news is often wrong about everything but the title of a particular piece of legislation.

  5. Re:Shocking! by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think you're confusing the actors and directors with the studios. Those groups have very often been very liberal, but the studio heads care only about money, and they will cozy up with anyone they think has it, and attack anyone who dares threaten it. If real fascists took over the United States tomorrow, Hollywood would quite happily begin producing films supporting that ideology. Essentially, the heads of the big studios are soulless accountants and lawyers.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  6. There's always by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Altavista

  7. SOPA ; net neutrality by s1d3track3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and I thought net neutrality was about throttling.... I didn't realize how much money was opposing net neutrality and the actual reasons.
    Comcast (Universal) doesn't need SOPA if the can win the net neutrality battle.

  8. Poor souls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just want to take a moment, at this sympathetic time of year, to say that I really feel for the poor souls who are (or should I say were) responsible for security at Sony. We've all got issues, but those folks must be in a dark place now. For what it's worth I blame the execs who skimped on the IT security budget.

  9. Re:Shocking! by Noah+Haders · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If real fascists took over the United States tomorrow, Hollywood would quite happily begin producing films supporting that ideology.

    you mean like the TV show "24" or the CoD series or Pacific Rim or The Butler or Fantastic Mr Bush.

  10. Google is not an ISP - it's Cox by jtara · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's no secret here. Perhaps some old memos used codewords, though.

    Pretty sure it is Cox, which has refused to go along with draconian measures that are not required by law.

    We have Cox service here in San Diego (at least parts). It's one reason I will not live north of Interstate 8, which is Comcast territory. The difference is night and day.

    Comcast pulls all this anti-consumer BS and under-delivers on services.

    Cox doesn't put up with it and goes to bat for their customers on privacy. They also over-deliver on services. (I have always got higher than advertised Internet speeds. I currently get 120mbit/sec down/20mbps up on a 100/10 plan, and they just doubled the bandwidth from 50/5 to 100/10.)

    Both Comcast and Cox are expensive. You can't have everything.

  11. Re:Shocking! by LessThanObvious · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not sure of the specifics on "24", but many cop drama's like "Criminal Minds" dumb down the viewers perception of their rights. They always seem to be able to instantly find any information about anyone through online means including by hacking and there is absolutely zero discussion of a warrant or any approval. It's just OK because they are trying to catch the super evil bad guy. If your perception of the constitution, your rights and the limitations on police power where based on television, you likely wouldn't have a clue what they are actually supposed to be allowed to do. From the few episodes of "24" I've seen I believe the same issues exist there.