The Pirate Bay Is Back Online, Properly

New submitter cbiltcliffe writes: About a month ago, we discussed news that the Pirate Bay domain name was back online. This story mentioned a timer, which supposedly showed the time since the police raid. I didn't notice at the time, but a more recent check showed this counter was counting down, not up, with a time set to reach zero at the end of January. Sometime around a week ago, the waving pirate flag video changed to a graphic of an orange phoenix, and a disabled search box showed up. I've been watching the site since, and now, about 12 hours before the timer was to reach zero, the site is back up, complete with searches.

Comments

Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems they have problems with the staff though.
More info here

Re:Problems with the staff

[BronsCon]

Yeah... staff locked out? Seems fishy, almost as though LEOs took over the domain and brought the site back up. Someone brew some tea, I think there's a pot of honey around here somewhere.

Re:Problems with the staff

[Vegan Cyclist]

This doesn't seem to qualify as 'properly', eh?

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, you can't access any sites except for Slashdot to be able to post that you can't access any sites.

Trolls keep getting dumber and dumber.

Re: Problems with the staff

[ihtoit]

there is a Flash exploit that STILL isn't patched, that only requires a user to visit a site with a bit of compromised embedded flash content like a banner ad, and BOOM, owned. You don't even have to click a link, just visit a domain hosting the content on a page.

Think "Autoplay", that's how fucking easy it is.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like someone hasn't heard of a government written 0 day...

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes, people can connect through different means, for example when their phone uses a different ISP than their home WIFI. Ohh wait, I guess people in the USA don't know what that's like.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice excuse, but not buying it. Try again.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

I use no script - nice try NSA haha

Re: Problems with the staff

[ihtoit]

problem with Noscript et al, is the same problem with softwalls like Zonealarm - the content is already downloaded to your computer for the parser to analyse before it's passed to the rendering engine. It's already in your system. Like Zonealarm, it should be considered the LAST line of defence. The first line of defence should be in your router. Have a blacklist, at the very least, of IPs of advertising domains. If your router doesn't offer blacklisting (my shitbox of a Netgear does, I'd be surprised if any more modern router didn't), use an old laptop and run everything through a softwall on that, that then passes through to your network. That's how I used to do it back when I had a cable connection through a Terajet 210 (which is actually just a modem with one ethernet port and fuck all else).

Re: Problems with the staff

[Trax3001BBS]

Well I visited the site on my laptop and now i can't access any websites. I'm not normally one to jump on coincidences, but give it some time before you all visit the page. Let the early birds see if they get viruses.

One doesn't run into viruses much (at all) anymore, but malware. Viruses are ment to cause damage (say format a drive or turn your view upside down), malware doesn't call attention to itself as it would prevent it's collection or access.

You have valid point of one waiting a bit before using the site, other than just browsing.

Re: Problems with the staff

[PopeRatzo]

there is a Flash exploit that STILL isn't patched, that only requires a user to visit a site with a bit of compromised embedded flash content like a banner ad, and BOOM, owned. You don't even have to click a link, just visit a domain hosting the content on a page.

I notice your account was created yesterday. Please let me be the first to welcome to you Slashdot.

Maybe you could tell us a little bit about yourself, by way of introduction. Like maybe your badge number.

Re: Problems with the staff

[ArcadeMan]

Adobe: [cheerfully] Welcome to Adobe, may I help you?
User: Yes.
Adobe: How may I help you?
User: You can start by delete that fucking dumb-ass buzzword checklist off your cash-grabbing scheme! And you can give me a fucking plug-in with fucking vector graphics, fucking bitmap graphics, fucking interactive controls, fucking video playback! A fucking plug-in without security holes!
Adobe: I really don't care for the way you're speaking to me.
User: And I really don't care for the way your company keeps releasing software with huge security holes with fucking backdoors for the fucking NSA. And I really didn't care to fucking wipe my system, re-install fucking Windows and fucking re-install your sfotware to get back with the same problem in my fucking face. I want a fucking secure plug-in RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
Adobe: Did you update Flash to the latest version?
User: No, I did not update Flash to the latest fucking version.
Adobe: Oh boy.
User: Oh boy, what?
Adobe: You're fucked!

Re: Problems with the staff

[ArcadeMan]

Slashdot. Where a simple "edit" button is too much to ask.

Sorry about the typos in my comment above, it won't happne agian.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Nethead]

Sorry about the typos in my comment above, it won't happne agian.

We've all said that.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you for the reference to planes, trains and automobiles

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest FlashBlock, it will interdict in such a manner that the Flash files don't download at all unless you tell them to. Saves plenty of bandwidth, keeps RAM usage down, and prevents drive-by Flash exploits.

Re: Problems with the staff

[FrankSchwab]

You have a weird definition of "virus" and "malware".

In my world, Malware includes everything that gets installed on your machine (surreptitiously or not) that does "bad" things ("mal" = (french) bad, evil). That would include worms, viruses, rootkits, unwanted toolbars, home page redirectors, Stuxnet, Cryptolocker, and just about every other form of third-party computer abuse.
Virus is a subset of malware. /frank

Re: Problems with the staff

[kelemvor4]

Exactly how does one "get viruses" by simply visiting a website? It seems like that would require a massive amount of stupidity and an unsecured browser...

Hairy Potter gives them to you.

Re:Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Visiting the re-born piratebay.se through the Tor browser results in having to enter a CloudFlare captcha. TPB hosted on CloudFlare? Smells like bullshit to me.

Re:Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't really matter since nothing they do is illegal for either side, theirs and the one of people downloading torrent files.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest not putting malware (ie. Flash) on your PC to begin with.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Good morning Rip van Winkle. The year is 2015 and nobody uses Flash any more.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. Most viruses don't purposefully damage anything, that would defeat the purpose of them. Viruses try to slip in and remain undetected so that they can spread to as many files and users as possible. The end goal is to be able to either steal data or to give access to the infected system to the virus author.

A trojan is a piece of malware that either poses as a legit program or piggybacks on legit programs and has the primary purpose of destroying data.

Re:Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? Simply hosting torrents isn't breaking the law.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the ideal solution but my work has some god awful reporting system built in Flash. Now that even YouTube is migrating away from Flash I hope it signals a broader abandonment of it as a platform.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Viruses are meant to spread to other files on same system in hopes one of those files winds up on a floppy going to a fresh system to infect.
Worms are meant to use networking to spread.
Malware is meant to infect and stay hidden so it can deliver the following:
Adware is meant to hide so it can keep showing ads.
Spyware is meant to hide and keep track of you.
Ransomware doesn't hide at all, it tries to scare you into paying for protection.
Rogueware pretends to do something useful but says you need full paid version to do it. Except there is no problem that it can fix.

There's prolly more but I'm done shitting now.

Re: Problems with the staff

[jones_supa]

You can whitelist a site.

Re: Problems with the staff

[jones_supa]

One doesn't run into viruses much (at all) anymore, but malware. Viruses are ment to cause damage (say format a drive or turn your view upside down), malware doesn't call attention to itself as it would prevent it's collection or access.

There is no such rule. Viruses are simply a subcategory of malware. That's of course not to say that viruses wouldn't be quite rare these days -- trojans and worms are much more common.

Re:Problems with the staff

[pixelpusher220]

'torrenting' is most definitely illegal - because you are 'uploading' instead of just downloading via a direct link.

Re: Problems with the staff

[johncandale]

Does it still download if you never install flash?

Re: Problems with the staff

[Zontar The Mindless]

Let me be the first (*this* time round, that is) to say, "You should have used Preview."

Re:Problems with the staff

[Zontar The Mindless]

You sound a bit like the "making available" folks.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly how does one "get viruses" by simply visiting a website? It seems like that would require a massive amount of stupidity and an unsecured browser...

Hairy Potter gives them to you.

"Infectus Systemis!"

Re:Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Makes sense if it is the NSA or GCHQ that is running it...

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people got a job with Internet access?

Re:Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

What does that have anything to do with what the poster said?

Re: Problems with the staff

[dixonpete]

I'd never visit a torrent site in a Windows box. That's what Linux is for.

Re: Problems with the staff

[drinkypoo]

problem with Noscript et al, is the same problem with softwalls like Zonealarm - the content is already downloaded to your computer for the parser to analyse before it's passed to the rendering engine. It's already in your system.

Well, yes and no. The script embedded in the html or whatever is already in your system, but any linked script files hosted on a dodgy domain don't actually get downloaded at all, at least on Firefox. In the past this was impossible on chrome by design, but I'm told it works properly now. The flash and most of the script is never in fact downloaded to your PC at all.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

And the first thing they thought was "I've got to use the internet connection at my workplace to notify the people on Slashdot that I cannot access any sites after visiting The Pirate Bay"?

Yeah, sounds legit...

Re:Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Not me. I disable uploading on my torrent client.

Re: Problems with the staff

[epyT-R]

Sure it's already downloaded, but noscript prevents the exploit javascript from executing in the browser. With softfirewalls like zonealarm, it's blocked before it hits the application but after it's processed by the protocol stack.

Re:Problems with the staff

[aliquis]

Since the TPB crew was sentenced to jail and for damages I'd say it was agreed upon what they did was illegal regardless of what I think of that.

And the downloaders may be in a situation regardless and more so if uploading is part of it.

For you people who divide the two breaches of laws into different categories I don't know where it counts but I also don't really see how it matters as long as you're sentenced.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

This is funny as hell :)

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

For chrome, just do what I do:
about://plugins and disable flash+shockwave, try using your exploits now..

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? The first thing I'd do if my home connection failed would be to connect my phone and tether the 3G connection ...or if I'm too lazy to do that I'd browse the web on phone.

Re: Problems with the staff

[ihtoit]

nobody except Facebook, Google, Yahoo, the BBC, Adobe, Dailymotion, Foxnews, MSNBC, Alipay, Dropbox, Forexfactory, ZDNet, in fact 11.8% of the top 10 million websites on the PLANET use Flash on their main pages.

But I suppose a DARPA funded report means absolutely nothing to you, does it? http://w3techs.com/technologie...

Re: Problems with the staff

[Smauler]

Slashdot does not allow edits for a reason. Editing troll posts 24 hours afterwards makes for very disjointed discussion, and makes other people look stupid.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Smauler]

Not all malware is a virus, just about every virus is malware. Viruses aren't all that useful to people who are trying to steal your bank details, because they're indiscriminate.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Trax3001BBS]

You have a weird definition of "virus" and "malware".

In my world, Malware includes everything that gets installed on your machine (surreptitiously or not) that does "bad" things ("mal" = (french) bad, evil). That would include worms, viruses, rootkits, unwanted toolbars, home page redirectors, Stuxnet, Cryptolocker, and just about every other form of third-party computer abuse.
Virus is a subset of malware. /frank

I've been accessing the Usenet a long time. viruses; when spyware started appearing and worms popular, people were having a problem differentiating between them when posting. long story short Malware became an accepted and all encompassing term.

So yes it's Malware.

In my world, the last virus I can remember is when the U.S. with support from a controller manufacture, sent out a virus that looked for a specific configuration. It was passed on by autorun/autoplay, when it found it's target began damaging Iran's Uranium centrifuges to where they were continually replacing them out http://i62.tinypic.com/2podt7d... - centrifuges

I haven't run an anti-virus program in ages. My firewall alerts me to potential malware, protects important OS areas, or sandbox's any program it's (I'm) not familiar with; and it doesn't scream when it finds a debugger or similar. Almost anything other than a rootkit or buffer overflow can be found with "autoruns"; at least that's how I play the game.

It's detrimental to the malware of today to format hard drives, due to it's intended "mission" most likely to gather data, open a backdoor or allow itself access to IRC for instructions (how Sony was taken down). www.GRC.com has an excellent article on IRC malware posted many years ago, the word malware won't be used (before it's usage).

When I POP'd my E-mail and saw the same subject in most of them I thought uh-oh.
I can't word it any better than to your reply.

FWIW I'm downloading files from Usenet now, I'm always downloading files; it's reliable. I quit posting long ago when the group I frequented went from a help and support (almost always computer related) to a political discussion area. With the name of 24hoursupport.helpdesk it's surprising anybody finds it for what it's become.

Re:Problems with the staff

[countach]

It's got to depend what country you are in. In the US, surely uploading 5% of something would be fair use?

Re: Problems with the staff

[Trax3001BBS]

http://i62.tinypic.com/2podt7d... - centrifuges

Damn wrong link was posted
http://i62.tinypic.com/2n8whj.... is picture of centrifuges (they all look alike.), and inefficient enough that many are required. but still the cheapest way.

Since I'm here, a link as a cite: http://www.jpost.com/Defense/S...

Re: Problems with the staff

[ArcadeMan]

Even a limited 30-seconds window to edit our posts would help.

Re: Problems with the staff

[operagost]

Great. Now they're going to ban Linux as a pirate tool.

Re:Problems with the staff

[Lord Flipper]

This doesn't seem to qualify as 'properly', eh?

No, no it definitely does not seem "properly" back. Over the last couple of days there were tons of torrents posted, attributed to "anonymous." In other words, no linked actual TPB user, nobody actually "logged in while uploading."

I'm waiting for more word, and hopefully, actions, from the old crew...

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, because with the exception of Fox "News", I have used all of those without having Flash installed. They work perfectly fine.

iOS? Nope. Android? Nope. Again, nobody uses Flash.

Re: Problems with the staff

[Anonymous Coward]

The first thing I would do is use my phone connection to figure out why the fuck my home connection crapped out, not post on Slashdot. So yeah, not buying it.

Re: Problems with the staff

[david_thornley]

Preview seems to have a display feature that hides all the typos in the psoting. I never see them until I hit "Submit".

Re: Problems with the staff

[ihtoit]

oh fuck off, I gave you citation and you still insist, in the face of blatant evidence, that you're right?? Get the fuck off my lawn.

Re:Problems with the staff

[aliquis]

Some idiot modded me troll for saying what actually happened and as such actually is the law in Sweden and the case for the staff of TPB?

Countdown

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there going to be a countdown until it's taken back down? FBI.gov maybe?

Re:Countdown

[Anonymous Coward]

Arrrrr, me hardies, Long enough to swoop in, grab the booty and set sail.

Re:Countdown

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be quite a feat, considering the FBI has absolutely no jurisdiction or power over anything outside of the USA.

Re:Countdown

[ihtoit]

tell that to Kim Dotcom.

Re: Countdown

[Anonymous Coward]

The FBI wouldn't destroy their new honeypot. Where's lizard squad at?

Re:Countdown

[Anonymous Coward]

Why? The FBI hasn't been able to do shit to him except to whine to other governments like the little bitches that they are.

The FBI is like a little ankle biter dog that is all bark and no bite.

Re:Countdown

[AK Marc]

And confiscate millions that, even if he isn't convicted or even tried, he will have trouble getting back.

Re:Countdown

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong. The FBI didn't confiscate anything, the New Zealand police did.

Re:Countdown

[AK Marc]

At the request of the FBI. And it wasn't just the NZ police that confiscated things.

Re:Countdown

[Anonymous Coward]

The only thing the New Zealand police provided to the FBI was information and that was later deemed to be an unlawful transaction.

Try again.

Re:Countdown

[AK Marc]

So Kim didn't have assets seized anywhere else in the world?

And the game continues

[TheReaperD]

And the futile game of whack-a-mole continues. I wonder just how long media companies will take to realize that this is futile? My guess is they'll go out of business first.

Re:And the game continues

[bmo]

"And the futile game of whack-a-mole continues."

To make the matter even more confusing, Pirate Bayâ(TM)s downtime spurred the development of various spin-offs, all of which have steady userbases of their own. Isohunt.toâ(TM)s OldPirateBay.org is currently the largest, with millions of visitors per day and the number one spot for the search term Pirate Bay in Google.

Something something "Tarkin." and "If you strike me down I will become more powerful..." Star Wars quotes here.

--
BMO

Re:And the game continues

[ArcadeMan]

They should rename TPB to The Borg. You know, resistance is futile and all that.

Re:And the game continues

[Billly Gates]

What they need to do is make their shit available to Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, etc?

I have a subscription and guess what. They will get paid by these too. Younger generations hate TV and tiers and paying through the nose for broadcasting fees.

I am opposed to TPB and think piracy is wrong on all levels! I like getting paid for my work. But I won't buy your lousy shit but I do subscribe to Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix and run a Roku III on my TV for streaming what I want. Make it available and I may watch it and you will get paid too. Probably more money too as the DishNetwork, Comcast, and other others will rob you blind. I will pay you directly with just 1 middle mad who charges less (the streaming provider).

Roku, Fire TV, and Android setup boxes by 2020 will be close to majority by then. I highly recommend other slashdotters to buy a streaming device. You can save a fortune.

Re:And the game continues

[martin-boundary]

That argument makes little sense. Of course people get paid for their work. The TBP operates in the pipeline _after_ people already got paid. Movies or whatnot don't get made without people getting paid. The carpenters who build sets and models get paid. The costume designers get paid. The extras get paid, the camera people, etc.

It's best to think of piracy as a form of spoilage. The example is harvesting apples. That's a lot of work, and the pickers must get paid, but once the apples are put in storage, some percentage of the apples will spoil. You don't see farmers being ideologically opposed to spoilage, do you? It's not an ideology or an ethical problem. It's a natural part of the lifecycle of apples. There are ways to minimize it, but it gets expensive and often is not worth it.

Media have a lifecycle too. Once enough people got to see them, some people will make copies, using cams or otherwise. With news it's even worse. Once enough people hear about the latest terrorist bombing, they'll paraphrase using their mouths. That's piracy: It's only a matter of numbers, and of probabilities.

Economically in fact, piracy is a good thing just like any form of spoilage. Imagine if you bought 10,000 apples and they never, ever, spoiled? You'd still be eating those apples when you were 80 years old. You'd never have bought another apple in your life. You'd have expensive storage costs over 80 years. The farmer would be out of business already, since after everyone bought a lifetime's worth they wouldn't buy any more. And apple prices would be much higher in a futile bid to compensate.

Same with movies and media. The myth of a piracy free hollywood is a nightmare in disguise. Don't waste your time believing their lies.

Re:And the game continues

[gweihir]

It will go on forever. Just think of comparably stupid things like the "war on drugs". It has been going on since 1920, with nothing to show than massively increased damage, but zero result in consumption. Stupid people stop their fanaticism only when they face overwhelming opposition.

Re:And the game continues

[BronsCon]

The Phuckin' Borg. Already done.

Re:And the game continues

[Billly Gates]

??
Wow just wow.

I will remember not to pay you and see how you like it and make up some rationalization you already got paid. Who needs your 401k you already got paid greedy socialist etc.

Sorry that is stealing and no if the contract was they get paid for the life of the product you can't not have it unless you pay too. You are a thief plain and simple and I know I sound assholish and a troll here on Slashdot but we work in software and expect to keep getting paid for our work. You can not expect to start a company make a software product and then I use it for free saying you already got paid and make up an excuse you charged too much.

How would you feel? You would want to sue me and mess me up if I did that and provided financial harm right? How is this any different? It is licensed and not sold. As long as people are willing to pay I see nothing wrong as this is capitalism 101.

And how does piracy help Hollywood? Since you refuse to pay them anyway you will never go see a band in concert or got to a movie anyway.

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds to me like a perversion of the broken window fallacy.

Re:And the game continues

[phantomfive]

Economically in fact, piracy is a good thing just like any form of spoilage. Imagine if you bought 10,000 apples and they never, ever, spoiled? You'd still be eating those apples when you were 80 years old. You'd never have bought another apple in your life. You'd have expensive storage costs over 80 years.

Are you seriously trying to argue that it's a good thing apples go rotten? And that's why piracy is good?

Re:And the game continues

[AK Marc]

I will remember not to pay you and see how you like it and make up some rationalization you already got paid.

Every person involved was already paid. The Grip and such got paid cash on the day they worked. Stealing it after hurts nobody who "worked" on it. Pay me cash for my work, then steal it after I'm paid. That won't hurt me.

Re:And the game continues

[Zontar The Mindless]

You have some problems with this "sequence of events" thing, eh? Let me spell it out for you:

The people who actually did the work have long since been paid.

The only people "losing" anything are the ones trying to charge rent... forever and ever, amen .

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not whack a mole. It is more like cutting starfish in half. Each half then sprouts new tentacles.

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

Yesterday's news is today's fish paper. Similar with old movies. The so called 'long tail' of old movies has extremely little value compared to new movies.

Re:And the game continues

[jones_supa]

That argument makes little sense. Of course people get paid for their work. The TBP operates in the pipeline _after_ people already got paid.

Mmmmno. It's still an investment they make. The equation does not work without paying customers. Either they are in loss at the release and need to recoup the production costs with sales. Or, they want to acquire enough money with sales to make investing into the next product feasible.

Re:And the game continues

[itzly]

Every person involved was already paid

Except for the studio, who financed all of this.

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

That is the plan.

They'll go out kicking and screaming like the greedy fucks they are. But they will be damned if they don't do the most damage they can do as they sink.
They will ruin multiple industries if possible.

Fuck the media industry reps. The media industry itself is what needs to realize they don't need these companies now.

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

And the writers,actors, director and all the other people that get royalties.

Re:And the game continues

[houghi]

Talk about a bad example. farmers complain ALL THE TIME about apples getting spoiled. They are lting around and are not being sold and thus getting spoiled. Yet they STILL want the money for it (so in THAT way they are the same as the MAFIAA).
Replace apples by corn and perhaps you see where I am coming from.
Seriously, I know farmers personally. They will comp;ain about rotten apples, ripe apples, good weather and bad. A great crop is not good and a lousy crop is not good (although sometimes better finanically then a great crop).

Perhaps compare it with cribbing. One person does all the work and gets an A for efford. The other person also gets an A without the effort. Nothing has been taken from the first person. He still has his A and the knowledge to get that A.
Where it gets realy intresting is when you are looking for a job.
The MAFIAA says that your chance of getting a job is less, because somebody now has 'your' A and could get the job.

People that pirate say that this is not the case, because the A is not the only thing. They will very soon see that the person does not know anything and lose his job anyway this giving the first person the job.

However what also is true is that the value of the A becomes less, as more people walk around with fake an A and that (said the MAFIAA) is the reason you need to catch as many cheaters as possible.

This is all very interesting. OTOH the music industry is not broke because of tape recorders. The movie theaters are not broke because of VHS.

Re:And the game continues

[AthanasiusKircher]

Let me preface this (as i always have to do here) by saying that the current copyright system is broken, the stupid copyright extensions that businesses have pushed through are ridiculous, material should go into the public domain much sooner (the original U.S. 1790 Copyright Act's idea of 14 years seemed plenty), etc.

But just because we recognize that copyright is fundamentally broken and business models may need to change does NOT mean we should mod up any completely nonsensical pro-piracy argument that anyone writes here.

And that's what this is -- a "+5 Insightful" comment that fails basic logic.

That argument makes little sense. Of course people get paid for their work. The TBP operates in the pipeline _after_ people already got paid. Movies or whatnot don't get made without people getting paid. The carpenters who build sets and models get paid. The costume designers get paid. The extras get paid, the camera people, etc.

WHO PAYS THESE PEOPLE? and WHY?

Seriously. Are you (and the mods who bumped this up) so completely ignorant of basic business practices that you don't understand the concept of laying out capital with the expectation of future return?

Let's say you go to work to write some code, say, and people pay your salary. After you're done writing that code, does everyone at the business throw a giant party and say, "Huzzah! We're all paid! We don't need no stinkin' customers to buy anything! Yeah!"

No.

What happens with most business models is that at some stage someone (usually with more resources than your average worker) has to lay out money in advance and go into "debt" on a particular project. Why do they do this? Because they need to pay people who generally can't afford to sit around and wait to get paid until the project is done (i.e., most workers).

It's best to think of piracy as a form of spoilage. The example is harvesting apples. That's a lot of work, and the pickers must get paid, but once the apples are put in storage, some percentage of the apples will spoil.

What the heck are you talking about? When exactly do the people who paid the pickers get paid?? When they sell the apples. After the apples are picked, everyone can't just declare "Huzzah! Everyone has been paid! Let's all go home!"

The people who have NOT been paid yet are the people who funded the whole enterprise in the first place. And guess what? If those people don't make a profit, they stop growing apples. They close up shop. Those pickers who were "already paid" lose their jobs.

Look, any comparison to copyright/intellectual property is already flawed. But in some ways, it works like most businesses -- somebody (usually "investors" or "the boss" or whoever) puts out money in advance with the expectation that they get a return. If they don't get a return, they stop funding businesses like that.

Say you're building a commercial building. You hire an architect, engineers, and a number of construction workers of various kinds. They all "get paid" at the end of the week or at the end of the job. Various people may outlay money in such a project in advance other than you -- the construction company owner, for example, might bid on the job. He still needs to pay his workers usually weekly or biweekly, but his construction company may not get paid until the job is complete. Then he can balance the books.

Similarly, you -- the guy who had the idea of building the building or invested in it -- put out a lot of money up front. When do you get paid? Perhaps it takes 10 years of rent payments from future tenants to get your money back. But after those 10 years, you earn a profit for the rest of the life of the building.

All of those costs are built-in. Those construction workers, etc. are all paid by someone else who is waiting for a return on his money.

Re:And the game continues

[Znork]

While I would like to agree with you, and while you're responding to an argument that makes no sense, I think you need to work on those arguments a bit.

First, comparing artificially scarce goods to any kind of real scarce goods is something you should avoid doing at all. Arguments like spoilage aren't particularly relevant, and spoilage is usually (throughout the history of mankind) fought as much as possible. With the advent of preserves and freezing we can do a lot, but you still don't see the world overflowing with century old preserves; instead, variety increases and everyone can afford more fruit. Preventing spoilage means scarcity decreases.

With media it's the other way around. The more you prevent 'spoilage' in the form of piracy, the more scarcity you get. Fewer people can afford what they wish, and artificially scarce goods aren't as fungible as apples.

A more valid comparison would be to compare it to a non-scarce physical commodity like air; theoretically an industry could be constructed by forbidding everyone to breathe without a measuring mask. We could hand money paid for every breath to owners of oxygen producing woodland or other means of production. That would create a huge industry wherein people would feel the right to get paid, yet it's quite obvious that such an artificial scarcity would probably be harmful to humanity as a whole. Much like copyright can be considered harmful and arguments can be made that incremental improvements of art would be as productive even in its absence, although focus might be somewhat different.

And yes, economically piracy is a good thing, but not because of the somewhat flawed broken window fallacy, but because it is responsible for a large pareto improvement (the economic value of the gain made by those who obtain the product who would otherwise not have bought the product (ie, zero-loss for the producer)). Basically it reduces the deadweight loss damage caused by monopoly pricing and restores a modicum of competition when competition is illegal.

About the ethics; I consider monopoly rights inherently unethical and any upstanding citizen should ignore them if they can. There are a multitude of ways that we could promote work in the production of arts that would result in higher rates of production, better pay to (most, and in particularly to the specifically deserving, ie, artists and creators rather than lawyers or financiers) involved parties and without the damaging artificial scarcity.

Re:And the game continues

[AthanasiusKircher]

Every person involved was already paid. The Grip and such got paid cash on the day they worked. Stealing it after hurts nobody who "worked" on it.

To this, I offer the following parable:

There once was a man who wanted to open a series of restaurants. He hired an architect, interior designers, and a team of construction contractors to build the first restaurant. After a year of planning and building, the restaurant was finished.

The man went on Slashdot and then did read posts by AK Marc and martin-boundary and others, who told him that "every person involved was already paid."

So the man decided not to open his restaurant. Burglars came and stole the food. Squatters came and took up residence in the building. But the man was unconcerned, since "every person involved was already paid."

At the end of the year, the man went to his accountant. Lo, his accountant was not pleased. "Why didst thou spend thy money upon this restaurant?" saith the accountant.

The man saith unto his accountant, "'Every person involved was already paid.' AK Marc and martin-boundary hath told me so. Thus I decided customers were not necessary and figured the project was finished."

But the account then pointed out that the man had not been paid. And lo, the man was sore aggrieved. Thenceforth, he built no more restaurants, and construction business dried up in town. His architect and his designers and his construction workers lost their jobs and never were paid again.

But, as the Slashdot posters had said:

Stealing it after hurts nobody who "worked" on it.

But the workers were quite confused, since they lost their jobs.

Here endeth the lesson.

(P.S. In case this is too unclear to the dense posters and mods who rated such comments highly -- yes, for a particular movie project, the people who "worked" on it were already paid. But the corporations and investors who paid all of them were depending on future profits to make back their initial capital outlay. If they don't receive enough profits, they will stop funding future projects, and "the grip and such" will likely not get as much work. You may or may not think this is a bad idea -- and I'm NOT defending the current copyright system by any means -- but pretending that "every person involved was already paid" and there will be no future impact on their lives is just ridiculous.)

Re:And the game continues

[aliquis]

BS. Leftish stupidity.

Every heard of loans? Investments?

Wasted enough words already.

Re:And the game continues

[BasilBrush]

Despite the ridiculous state of American law, a studio (company) is not a person.

Re:And the game continues

[BasilBrush]

If the pirates wouldn't have paid to see the movie anyway, for example they are too poor to pay, then that piracy is no loss to the studio whatsoever. And that certainly is the case for a sizable number of pirates.

Of course there are other people who would have paid, but don't pay if they can get a pirate version. Those people do represent a loss to the studio owners.

The split between the two is unknown.

Re:And the game continues

[BasilBrush]

Prohibition on alcohol didn't go on forever, and neither will the war on drugs. The war on cannabis is already fading in America.

Overwhelming opposition just comes down to politicians believing they will get 1 more vote for decriminalising than criminalising. (Plus the lack of corporate bribes to maintain the prohibition.) Such is democracy.

Re: And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

What you say is true in a capitalistic society. My guess is that the AC might live in another realm where completed work for the "government" needs no further payment.

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

The last DVD I paid for was Afro Samurai. The disc was cracked when I opened the case. The retailer refused to replace it. I called WB (or whomever it was) and they told me to buy a new one. They want it both ways. It's a tangible good when it benefits them, it's a license when it benefits them.

I really don't mind investors wanting to make money, but the sheer greed of it all is the turnoff. Piracy is people getting fed up with the greed. Strange how my local dollar theatre stays in business without having to gouge on tickets.

Re:And the game continues

[Dashiva Dan]

Perhaps I'm having trouble recognising a serious problem when faced with one, but with the current state of wages being: Hollywood Reporter Wages Article I'm not seeing what this piracy problem is all about.
I don't see anyone in Hollywood making minimum wage or less..... especially not losing money because of piracy... Something as simple as a bad poster design is going to be worse for their profits than all those nasty pirates...
Meanwhile, seems everyone who is complaining about how bad piracy is is making a minimum wage with a few zeros (or more) appended to it, and is bitterly disappointed that they aren't making just a few percent more. The industry is positively thriving. Hard to care.

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think you understand how Hollywood accounting works.

The people who own the "loss making" studios also own the companies those studios subcontract to. Everyone is getting paid, but some are artificial losses because it's beneficial to do so from a tax point of view because some countries and states offer tax breaks for funding movie projects. Others allow offset

Where exactly is the evidence of studios failing to continue to fund further films? The cost of films keeps going up, and records are still being broken. I see no evidence of a decline of availability of money in the industry given that ever more money is being poured into the creation of films.

Re:And the game continues

[gweihir]

Well, yes. Not "forever" in the literal sense, just far, far too long. And bet on them finding some other stupid restrictions when older stupid ones go away.

Re:And the game continues

[operagost]

Today I learned that farmers are whiny bitches.

Re:And the game continues

[Anonymous Coward]

There once was a man who wanted to open a series of restaurants. He hired an architect, interior designers, and a team of construction contractors to build the first restaurant. ... Burglars came and stole the food. Squatters came and took up residence in the building. ... His architect and his designers and his construction workers lost their jobs and never were paid again ...but the workers were quite confused, since they lost their jobs.

Except when the man lies on his taxes, underpays or hires illegals, abuses his employees saying we made no money... ASK WHY this man has a pile o money on the first place, usually climbing on the backs of the less powerful and forcing them to accept THE DEAL of low wages to live as close to poverty as the law(which his lobbyist wrote) allows.

Most every emplorer I've had said "woe is me, no raises, opps he got a bonus, and surprise your getting laid off," so cry me a fucking river.

Re:And the game continues

[Cinnamon Beige]

Where exactly is the evidence of studios failing to continue to fund further films? The cost of films keeps going up, and records are still being broken. I see no evidence of a decline of availability of money in the industry given that ever more money is being poured into the creation of films.

Have a list. Give a time period to narrow things down, but this covers the studios that failed so badly to continue to fund further films that they flat-out disappeared. This list isn't complete for the qualifications you give, however. Some, such as RKO, had valuable enough remains that they continue to exist but no longer fund further films.

SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid

[lesincompetent]

How do we know it's legit?
i.e. not a honeypot or some kind of trick...

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid

[wbr1]

They are torrents.. not thesilkroad. if you are concerned use your neighbors wifi or a decent proxy.

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid

[Anonymous Coward]

just now I was thinking the same thing...

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid

[Marginal Coward]

How do we know it's legit?

Hey, it's The Pirate Bay - what's not to be legit?

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid

[kimvette]

Is it legitimately illegitimate?

Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid

[BasilBrush]

Use Tor, and only download non-executables.

(A decent OS will stop you from running an executable that's spoofing as a media file. If common sense fails you.)

Nice nice....

[Kekke]

Now all the officials who where involved in that raid, can start searching again via PB.
No need to use those thousands of others torrent search sites that are available.

Good for them.
I hope they feel like winners now.

I support the pirate bay and glad to see them back

[Trax3001BBS]

But like to share a recent event

I got my first Notice of Copyright Infringement not one but 8, one file which consist of 8 episodes.
Hell it's even on youtube.

On behalf of Vobile as an agent for Discovery Communications, LLC
2880 Lakeside Drive, Suite 360
Santa Clara, CA 95054
agent@discovery.copyright-notice.com

Evidentiary Information:
Protocol: BitTorrent
Infringed Work: How the Universe Works
Infringing FileName: How.The.Universe.Works.Season.1[Complete][2010]HDTV-up=
endi
Infringing FileSize: 352 MB
Infringer's IP Address: nope
Infringer's Port: not that it matters

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Trax3001BBS]

Infringing FileName: How.The.Universe.Works.Season.1[Complete][2010]HDTV-up=
endi

I should add the series is available to watch on discovery.com and I did try to watch it there first. At night to put me to sleep, it's Mike Rowe's narration, knocks me right out.

But there is the same video AD played every 5mins or less, while it's being viewed, that I just can't take it anymore.

The Pr0n must flow...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Pr0n must flow...

US IP address

[Anonymous Coward]

Domain returns to 104.28.4.42 CloudFlare, Inc. (AS13335). I wouldn't trust that...

Re:US IP address

[Anonymous Coward]

So you don't know what Cloud Flare is.

Re:US IP address

[Trax3001BBS]

Domain returns to 104.28.4.42 CloudFlare, Inc. (AS13335). I wouldn't trust that...

104.28.4.42
https://www.robtex.com/en/advi...

AS13335
https://www.robtex.com/as/as13...

Re:US IP address

[Bite The Pillow]

I can only hope that the search warrant specifies all machines by IP address, or some other technical error so that all those 100 hostnames that point to the same address have their servers confiscated.

And I can also only hope that some LEO isn't communicating with another LEO, and it really was a honeypot that got everyone's servers hosed.

Rich tech people will throw piles of money and strange things will happen. I so hope this happens. Also, you're an idiot if you so much as click on that site.

Re:US IP address

[jones_supa]

Well, not knowing what something is, is a fair argument to not trust it.

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Anonymous Coward]

Then buy it or complain to them and don't watch. At least Discovery isn't all entertainment*, I'd say they deserve some money for making informative series.

*I don't watch them so maybe not?

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Trax3001BBS]

Then buy it or complain to them and don't watch. At least Discovery isn't all entertainment*, I'd say they deserve some money for making informative series.

*I don't watch them so maybe not?

I LOL'd - I have the 2 DVD series next to me at this time. Checked it out from the library.

still blocked by Virgin Media

[ihtoit]

this is pissing me off. Might go back to my Three wireless, it was only 7MBit down and 150ms+ ping, but it fucking worked.

Re:still blocked by Virgin Media

[Anonymous Coward]

they have phased out unlimited data...

Re:still blocked by Virgin Media

[ihtoit]

you're right. Three's new ToU and Fair Use policy sets a monthly cap of 1,000GB/month, which equates to you saturating your perfect conditions 3G connection 24/7. By that logic, in everyday use it is IMPOSSIBLE to exceed this cap. I've never managed it, and I've burned phones out (not to mention at least two mobile relays).

http://www.three.co.uk/Privacy...

If you can't be arsed clicking:

"Terms & Conditions.
> All-you-can-eat explained

All-you-can-eat data.
If you have All-you-can-eat data units as part of your package or with an Add-on, there are no hidden ‘fair use policies’ within the UK. If you’re in a Feel At Home destination, you can use up to 25,600 data units (which converts into 25 GB of data as 1 data unit converts automatically on use into 1MB of data) each month. All-you-can-eat data units should give you all the access to the internet you would normally need, without worrying about hefty bills. It’s worth noting that even if you used your phone for every minute of every day you’d only use, subject to TrafficSense, around 1,000 GB each month. That’s why we’ve set a usage cap at 1,000 GB, in order to identify commercial use of the service, for example, which is not permitted under the Terms for Three Services.

All-you-can-eat texts and minutes.
There’s no hidden “fair use policies” with our All-you-can-eat text units or voice units allowances either when in the UK – we just ask that you use this allowance in accordance with our Terms for Three Services – that is, for personal use only, and not for any illegal, commercial or improper purposes. In addition to these All-you-can-eat UK allowances, you also get 5,000 text units and 3,000 voice units to use respectively each month, when in a Feel At Home destination, which convert respectively into 5,000 text messages back to the UK and 3,000 minutes of calls to UK landline and mobile numbers."

FYI, Feel At Home is a worldwide roaming allowance, available on all price plans.

Re:still blocked by Virgin Media

[ihtoit]

oh, forgot to add, just in case your calculator's broken, 1000GB/mo is about 33GB/day.

Re:still blocked by Virgin Media

[Anonymous Coward]

Or a bit more than half of what I upload each day...

Re:still blocked by Virgin Media

[ihtoit]

bear in mind I'm talking about a cellular connection here, not FTTC or TCW.

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the point of your post?

Are you trying to show that people should be wary of using TPB?
I doubt that's a new idea to anyone here on slashdot.

Where are the legal challenges and responses?

[deltaromeo]

Where has the page that shows all the takedown notices and legal challenges (and their responses) gone?

Re:Where are the legal challenges and responses?

[cbiltcliffe]

Good question. The link for that showed up at the same time as the search box, but it was disabled in the same way. I didn't notice that it had disappeared when the site actually went live again.

Domain not seized

[manu0601]

It is weird the domain name was not seized by the FBI when they did the raid on the servers.

Re:Domain not seized

[jandrese]

It's outside the FBI's jurisdiction. piratebay.se They did have a lot of their previous domains seized however.

Re: I support the pirate bay and glad to see them

[Frosty Piss]

"Library"? What's that?

CIRCLE GETS THE SQUARE!

[Anonymous Coward]

Did that EVER make sense?

The staff quit!

[nanospook]

Maybe it's a honeypot now (yohoooo NSA!, Hollywood!, Lawyers!)

Re: The staff quit!

[Anonymous Coward]

Definitely a honeypot. Set bots to DDOS.

Tic Tac Dough and Hollywood Squares

[tepples]

Of course it did. In the classic game shows Tic Tac Dough and Hollywood Squares, two contestants whose emblems are "circle" and "X" are fighting to place their respective emblems in a grid of 3x3 squares. So how many episodes of these series are available through torrents?

Re:Tic Tac Dough and Hollywood Squares

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to see torrents available at the asylum. Nurse Ratchett looks the other way?

Kick Ass

[future assassin]

I started to use Kick Ass and much nice over Piratebay. Best part is you get to see the comments numbers on the main list.

One thing I did discover lately though is a lot of shows 2+ years old have no seeds. Wonder if usenet server could be used as a seed even if a single see to shows don't dissapear into oblivion.

Re:Kick Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

this does seem to be the est one.

Re:Kick Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

I find sometimes that even a completely dead torrent manages to get around 1 ~ 20 peers, sometimes a full seed via DHT. Thanks to trackers going dead.

Re:Open Source

[Anonymous Coward]

^What he said.

Re: I support the pirate bay and glad to see them

[Anonymous Coward]

Google/piratebay 1.0

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Anonymous Coward]

So why aren't you using that to watch?

Re: I support the pirate bay and glad to see them

[aliquis]

Like TPB except rather than the content crea^Wjust kidding the publishers, distributors and retail chain profiting everyone else loses.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re: I support the pirate bay and glad to see them

[Kethinov]

This, apparently, is the library.

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[BronsCon]

I'm reading that is he didn't have it when he wrote the first comment, went to the library, checked it out, and now he does have it. Simple logic; I'm guessing he'll resume watching on that medium.

Not even close

[Khyber]

Thanks, slashdot, for an ad-ridden piece of shit link.

Welp, no more slashdot for me. They can't even keep their own stories secure.

Someone wake me when the slashdot advertisers go fuck off elsewhere.

Re:Not even close

[jones_supa]

What I find disappointing is that I have begun to see ads despite the "Ads Disabled" checkbox being ticked.

Re:Not even close

[cbiltcliffe]

Original submitter, here.
Are you talking about ads on TPB site, or within the /. story page?
TPB is actually one of the big reasons I first started blocking ad servers at my router. If I was searching for something with the HTPC that the kids HAD TO WATCH NOW, to see if it was available, I didn't want them seeing the various dating and sex site ads that were pretty much all you'd see on TPB.
So, I blocked some of the most notorious ad networks at the DNS level on my router, which solved that problem, and a whole lot of ads on other sites, too. Those overly loud auto play video ads for various pointless crap that show up in forums and such, I never see. Those were done in my second round of blocking after TPB stuff. Every once in a while I go through my squid proxy logs and see what other ad and tracking networks are showing up, and disable them. Best thing is, if I buy a new computer, it's automatically protected, without AdBlock/FlashBlock/CrapBlock/etc being installed.

I guess what I'm trying to say it is, if there are ads on TPB, then I didn't see them before submitting. And if there are ads on the /. story page, well.....I don't see them, either.
Sorry if the story caused you any trouble that was my fault.

Re:Not even close

[Khyber]

Well, you're forgiven since I have the common sense to segregate everything down to Ring 0 for security, but next time, do practice some due diligence - run your shit through an unprotected VM to see if it fucks things up before you subject other people to it. I've been doing that since I joined /., and pretty much anyone with any common sense with regards to today's technology should be doing the same, given every other site's lack of control on their ads. Do it on both sides - the site you're submitting from and the site you're submitting to.

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Trax3001BBS]

What is the point of your post?

Are you trying to show that people should be wary of using TPB?
I doubt that's a new idea to anyone here on slashdot.

No, not at all, thepiratebay serves a purpose.

I can't put into print what I really want to say, so can't fully answer you.

HONEYPOT

[Anonymous Coward]

HONEYPOT
HONEYPOT
HONEYPOT
HONEYPOT
HONEYPOT
HONEYPOT

Ya, if this doesn't turn out to be a big set up by law enforcement I don't know what is. A year from now you are going to be seeing a huge case brought against pirates in one giant swoop.

Just take the quotes from the pirate bay founders. They publicly stated (recently if I remember correctly) that the pirate bay was a 10 year experiment. The last raid came right near the ten year mark and hey stated that they were uncertain if it would ever come back. Until a public statement is made by a founding member that this is the real deal, I'd avoid it altogether.

Presumed guilty?

[Andy Smith]

The "new" pirate bay site is blocked here in the UK, which makes me question what kind of process the police have to go through to get sites blocked. Can a site be blocked simply because it shares the name of a site that's already blocked? Because it has a similar domain name?

Also, if Barrett Brown can be jailed for linking to allegedly illegal material, can you, I, or Slashdot's owners be jailed for linking to an allegedly illegal torrent site?

Re:Presumed guilty?

[BasilBrush]

In the UK it's the ISPs that have the legal duty to block pirate sites, under a recent law. And thepiratebay.se is still blacklisted from before it was raided.

Invasion Iowa

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, as a Shatner fan I was excited to see Invasion Iowa listed in DVD quality. Alas, I've been waiting for over a year (with DHT enabled) at 77% and I only see peers coming and going, never seeds...

except the investors, who paid everybody up front

[beanpoppa]

And are expecting to make that money back, along with profit after the movie is released. And if they don't make their money back after the movie is released, they won't finance future projects, and this grips, editors, and audio engineers will find themselves unable to find future work.

most movies don't make back their initial investment in first release. It's DVD, rental, and other broadcasting rights sales where they make much of their return.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[wertigon]

"most movies don't make back their initial investment in first release."

Correction. Most Hollywood movies that have spent hundreds of millions of dollars don't make back their investment. Solution: Cut down production costs.

Actors demanding 40M bucks for their role? Yeah, that will fade, sooner or later.

Look, it's market economics 101. If your product/service/whatever don't make enough money it is time to trim the fat. Why should hollywood business be any different?

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Anonymous Coward]

So because you don't like how it's being distributed, it's OK to get it however you please?

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[Anonymous Coward]

It is also the case that much of this money spent is to subsidiaries and other wholly or partially owned businesses who are in the mix to bleed off profit from such films. You see the money you "don't make" on a film as direct profit is not eligible to be paid out in many of the various contracts that specify splitting said profits.

There is a reason that films that make an insane amount of money pay out almost nothing to people that have royalty agreements etc.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[BasilBrush]

Never have had any sympathy for investors making less money, never will have any sympathy.

doesn't work with OSX - not proper

[jsepeta]

it's not properly running if it requires to run Windows. when you click search it downloads VLC installer .exe file and won't actually search. VLC is already installed and running on my macbook pro, which of course doesn't run EXE files and won't be recognized by their dumb site.

Re:doesn't work with OSX - not proper

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever you're clicking sounds like an ad. I'll happily report no such ridiculous behavior from my Slackware 14.0 machine running Firefox with adblock plus.

And yes, this would hardly be the first time a sneaky ad popped up on the pirate bay solely to trick users of the site. If you're browsing without blocking ads, expect malware or at least to get scammed. Thinking you're safe just because you use OS X would be pretty foolish at this point, and I can personally let you know I've cleaned malware off of Macs resulting from just the kind of thing you're encountering.

Back on track 2 b the #1

[Anonymous Coward]

Eat it!

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[Billly Gates]

Never have had any sympathy for investors making less money, never will have any sympathy.

Funny I thought you might of had a 401k, savings, and some investments not? What about your mother if she is still around?

Never have sympathy for yourself and your mother. They are the shareholders. Not some smartass prick driving a Bently on Wall Street but us.

ItÃs not back online

[Anonymous Coward]

ItÃs not running... I have just tried accessing it and it is still offline.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[AK Marc]

So everyone who worked on that movie will get 100% paid for it, and only the non-working investors will be out any money, and they are guaranteed by law a no-risk investment. Got it. Must protect profits for billionaires, not workers.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[BasilBrush]

You live with a mindset that anything that serves you personally is good and anything that doesn't is bad. A greedy right wing viewpoint. Don't expect others to think the same way.

I don't have a problem with savers getting interest, nor investors getting a moderate return. But I repeat I don't have any sympathy with investors who are making less money, and I never will.

Re:I support the pirate bay and glad to see them b

[Trax3001BBS]

So because you don't like how it's being distributed, it's OK to get it however you please?

Arrr.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[Anonymous Coward]

WOW, I never expected a PROFIT on my 401k, had to liquidate it during the crash anyway. It was just a tax saving move for me and a raise avoidance move for my employer, but as a small fry I was happy to walk away with anything. Expecting something for nothing is a chumps game, you are not the investors, you are the chumps.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[david_thornley]

Movies are expensive to make. Somebody's got to front the money so lots of people get paid. In this case, it's the investors. Not all movies will make enough money to pay off the investors, which means that, to keep investing, they need a substantial return on some movies to average to a reasonable return that will keep them investing in movies. If they're limited to a moderate return when a movie pays off big, then they're going to have an overall negative return (or at least lots less than moderate), and invest in no more movies.

I'm a left-winger, mentioning this to preempt ideological mudthrowing, but I do know something about how the economy works. Since I want "them" to keep making movies I like, I logically have to support the idea that investors should be able to win big.

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[Stuarticus]

Why are movies so expensive to make? The cost seems almost unbelievable and almost never bears any relation to the quality of the film (above a certain threshold) what does that tell you?

Re:except the investors, who paid everybody up fro

[AK Marc]

Especially since so many fam-film remakes are almost the same quality of the original (unless they are deliberately not so, campy-style).