Film Consortium Urges ISPs To Dump Ineffective "Six Strikes" Policy For Pirates

An anonymous reader writes: The Internet Security Task Force, a group of businesses working to protect content creators and consumers from the negative effects of piracy, has called for an end to the Copyright Alert System, saying the anti-piracy initiative is not only ineffective but actually makes things worse. The group suggest that it be replaced with a new system based on Canada's Copyright Modernization Act. Mark Gill, ISTF chairman and President of member company Millennium films, says "We've always known the Copyright Alert System was ineffective, as it allows people to steal six movies from us before they get an educational leaflet. But now we have the data to prove that it's a sham." The Copyright Alert System (CAS) is set to expire early July.

Comments

Re:Sounds like 6 strikes is terrible

[mark-t]

It is no more wrong to call piracy theft than it is to call it the same if you tap into your neighbor's cable so that you can get cable without paying for it. Either way you are taking something that you have no legally recognized right to take. In the case of cable, it's the broadcasted content itself, and in the case of copyright violation, it's the exclusive right to dictate who may copy the work that the rights holder is supposed to have (ie, copyright literally means "the right to copy"). Since "exclusive" by definition, means that nobody else is doing it, when somebody copies a copyrighted work without permission, they are actually depriving the lawful rights holder of some measure of those rights.

So yes... it is theft. Suggesting that it isn't is just a specious rationalization used by people who don't want to feel guilty about it.

Re:Highly flawed analogy

[mark-t]

Illegal cable connection: one source - the cable company

internet movie pirating: one source - the copyright holder.

Who you get the cable from or where you download the movie from is immaterial with regards to who one is taking something from.