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Filmmakers Take Dutch State To Court Over Lost Piracy Revenue (torrentfreak.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: A coalition of Dutch film and TV producers is following through on their threat to file a lawsuit against the local Government. The filmmakers hold the authorities responsible for the country's high piracy rates. They claim the government tolerated and even encouraged unauthorized downloading for years and want to see compensation as a result. Last year the Dutch Government denied these allegations, noting that the filmmakers could go after downloaders directly if they want to recoup their losses. However, they are not backing down. On Tuesday a group of film and TV show companies issued a summons announcing their legal action, NRC reports. Through the court they hope to hold the Government liable, and if that's the case, a separate damages procedure will likely follow.
Be prepared for lawsuits from oil companies because the government encouraged hybrid vehicles, decreasing Exxon's earnings potential.
This should be laughed out of court.
To avoid such expensive lawsuits, the government should revoke the copyright monopolies they have granted these organizations. Then they won't have to worry about anyone infringing on them.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
Somehow I don't think 'piracy' is impacting their bottom line so much as outdated advertising models, and the general publics' rejection of it are affecting it.
Anti-piracy copyright holders need to take a lesson from Canada. The music industry there convinced the government that piracy was pervasive and destroying their industry, and that a tax should be levied on all blank CDs to compensate them for their losses under the theory that people were burning pirated music onto blank CDs. The government agreed, and instituted the tax.
Later when the music companies tried to sue individuals for copyright violation, the courts decided that since The People had already compensated the music industry for their losses via the CD tax, there was no need for any more lawsuits.
Double-dipping may be normal for the music and movie industry (when's the last time one of them offered you a discount for upgrading your DVD collection to Blu-Ray, or CD to streamed, even though you ostensibly already bought a license when you bought the first one?). But it's not normal for the rest of the world, and the courts will slap them down if they try to impose their perverted view of how things should work onto the real world.
Lost revenue from the Dutch film industry is roughly zero. As if somebody actually watches that tripe... Most of it only gets produced because of heavy subsidising by the government in the first place; maybe they should ask for that money back.
Oh, and we already pay a tax to compensate for piracy. Let's give that money back as well.
I have a nice Dutch word for them: "kansloos".
If enjoying an artists work without paying for it is equivalent to theft, then I am the biggest thief because I rarely give money to performance artists on the street.
Strange how none of them have accused me of theft and tried to sue me
What is in the EU directive are a minimum set of requirements for copyright laws, but NO ACTUAL LAW, the governments have to supply it, worked to whatever they desire within the guidelines given.
And rescinding copyrights for abuse is 100% within those guidelines.
Why would anyone pay for pirated content?
Because often times, it's better than the original content: no unskippable ads, no unskippable piracy warnings (lol), and no DRM/malware.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
I don't hate the Dutch but for some reason they seem to really, really like hardcoding subtitles in pirated movies and that's fairly unpleasant.
lucm, indeed.
Many moons ago, the music + movie industries managed to convince the Dutch government to get legislation passed that put a levy on any blank CD/DVD media which increased their costs, which was collected and paid to the movie + music cartels to get reimbursement for 'missed revenues' due to unauthorized copying. (Which is rather annoying when you only use discs for personal use with your own content)
An somewhat unintended side-effect of that was that it more or less legalized downloading and copying for personal use as well, since the content industry already received the levy for the discs. When they later tried suing people for unauthorized downloading/copying, they had a very hard time getting anything to stick because "we already paid for it".
Now they are claiming that the Dutch government's slow response to the 'problem' is costing them a bazillion dollars, and want to hold them liable for missed revenues.
The root of the problem is that the music + movie industries are having buyers remorse for the initial legislation they forced through.
If your business model fails, sue governments for not creating a protected space for your business.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
And as soon as they actually sold the "pirated" material in the country, I could actually see that argument.
But the main reason for the widespread "piracy", aside of the obvious "The Netherlands is an old seafaring nation so of course they have a pirate heritage to defend" joke, is that you, dear media industry, fail to offer what people want. Believe me, we want to buy your stuff. You're not selling. Why are we supposed to wait half a year or even longer before we're allowed to see what you have broadcast in the US or UK? And a friend of mine who is into Anime could easily triple the length of this post with the hoops he's supposed to jump through to get half of his favorite shows at all, or at least within less than a decade after they have been out in Japan.
Sell me what I want or step aside to let those that do step in!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I know how my government would react after losing that lawsuit.
"Obviously we didn't do enough to protect your interests, so we have to step up our efforts. To fund this, there will be a new tax on content. And of course the money you now get for CD sales will go into that funds, too. In return we will protect you. Promised. And don't be surprised if that new tax is somehow on par with whatever we paid you.
Only that you'll pay that tax annually."
Don't fuck with governments, they have a way to get back at you.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.