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Hollywood Sees Illegal Streaming Devices as 'Piracy 3.0' (torrentfreak.com)

After hunting down torrent sites for more than a decade, Hollywood now has a more complex piracy threat to deal with. From a report: Piracy remains a major threat for the movie industry, MPA Stan McCoy said yesterday during a panel session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Much like Hollywood, copyright infringers are innovators who constantly change their "business models" and means of obtaining content. Where torrents were dominant a few years ago, illegal streaming devices are now the main threat, with McCoy describing their rise as Piracy 3.0. "Piracy is not a static challenge. The pirates are great innovators in their own right. So even as we innovate in trying to pursue these issues, and pursue novel ways of fighting piracy, the pirates are out there coming up with new business models of their own," McCoy said. "If you think of old-fashioned peer-to-peer piracy as 1.0, and then online illegal streaming websites as 2.0, in the audio-visual sector, in particular, we now face challenge number 3.0, which is what I'll call the challenge of illegal streaming devices."

17 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. shitty content by epyT-R · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Shitty content is the main threat these days. High prices too.

    1. Re:shitty content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Conversely, they'd be much more profitable if they didn't waste so much money on useless DRM and fighting piracy.

      Then perhaps they could reinvest those profits in quality programming.

    2. Re:shitty content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      High prices too.

      Probably to offset the pirates

      The whole debate (or rather, the mostly one-sided whining, paid "studies" full of "scientific fact" not supported by any other study, and lobbying for yet more laws and rights for the rights holding mafia) is full of this sort of assumption, when practical evidence shows otherwise.

      Such as this Kenian film maker who didn't even try to sell his film in his dirt poor country for the prices the hollywood idiots demand world-wide, only to see the expensive DVDs undercut by widespread and easy availability of much cheaper copies. Instead he picked a price point his fellow countrymen were willing and able to pay. Thus he ensured he got paid at least something for the originals sold, instead of nothing at all.

      Of course, "the west" is full of disposable income so the rights holding mafia has much more room to demand "their money!" and not consider what the customer might actually want.

      It's just like the complaint also heard from the same direction that unless piracy was eradicated entirely there'd be no possible way to make money ever for the poor starving rights holders. That's like claiming no supermarket could possibly ever make any profit at all unless first all theft was eradicated. I'm sure supermarket managers would love that latter bit but they know full well that it's not realistic and that theft is something to keep a lid on but otherwise just another cost of doing business. They typically don't go around hating the customer away, either, demanding they only buy approved products in approved ways on approved days. They'll sell anything they think will sell for a price their customers will pay, and they'll sell it any way their customers want on any day of the week. In that way rights holders can learn a thing or two from regular retail.

      Shitty content is the main threat these days.

      If the content is so shitty, why do people pirate?

      Perhaps because there's nothing better to be had. This isn't quite surprising since hollywood has this habit of massively overvaluing itself.

      Relatedly, why would anyone still go to the theatre if all they get is shitty content? Because good quality content is a nice bonus but the object is an enjoyable evening out, and if all you get is shitty content then you go with that.

      Anyway, this whining of being robbed blind by pirates when in fact they are robbing the population blind by in effect holding their culture for ransom, is a recurring theme with the rights holding mafia, and goes back to at least the pianola already. So there's absolutely nothing new going on here. It's not even "piracy 3.0", it's more like "rights holding mafia whining session #5832375982739".

    3. Re:shitty content by magarity · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If the content is so shitty, why do people pirate?

      Quality combined with price will define demand. Low quality does not mean no demand, just slap a low price on it. See the 99 cent DVD bin at the supermarket.

  2. FTFY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unlike Hollywood, copyright infringers are innovators who constantly change their "business models"

  3. half-true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    'Much like Hollywood, copyright infringers are innovators who constantly change their "business models"'

    The pirates are innovative and change their business models.

    Hollywood?
    Not so much.....

  4. What the hell... by MachineShedFred · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just what the hell is an "illegal streaming device" ? Are there manufacturers out there making illegal devices that people are using? If so, how are these getting imported without the FTC stepping in?

    Or is this just another case of Hollywood idiocy using terms they barely understand to talk about a technology they absolutely don't understand and want to squeeze back into the metaphorical toothpaste tube instead of embracing?

    Is this some hyperbolic way of saying that my PLEX server is somehow illegal, because apparently format-shifting isn't allowed anymore under fair-use rules in their minds? Was the Betamax decision reversed when nobody was looking?

    --
    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    1. Re:What the hell... by darkain · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The devices themselves are not illegal. They're referring to the abundant amount of Android set top boxes available on Amazon and eBay. The thing with these though is that they come pre-loaded with Kodi, plus plugins for Kodi for easy access to illegal streaming services. This is just another example of a tool which can be used for either side being slandered just because it COULD be used for illegal activities. I, however, have one of these boxes and love it. I use it to stream from a root-top mounted digital OTA TV receiver that streams the TV channels over LAN. I get nearly perfect reception on 56 TV stations now, vs questionable reception from about 20 before. Without the Android box, I wound't have a way to watch this legit content otherwise!

    2. Re:What the hell... by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Illegal streaming device" = "any box Hollywood doesn't control" - this includes YouTube to a certain extent until Google played ball. From a more prophetic standpoint I think the various devices are turning into de-facto cable boxes and I think Hollywood is looking into making their content available only to exclusive devices - let alone services as they do now. (Although it'll probably end up looking like the DVD consortium where only approved device makers that agree to monopolistic conditions get licensed to stream content) Besides, your format-shifting causes children to starve because you're not paying your fair share to the artists who labor long and hard to bring you quality entertainment. Same thing when you skip over ads you thief! (The making and authorized distribution of this comment supported over 15,000 jobs)

  5. A song for a meal... by Zurkeyon3733 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Thats how it used to be... You entertained, and were well fed and regularly boarded. Now, we adorn you with gold and diamonds, and allow you rob us blind for every song, every movie, and every music video. Every second off the night and day. All while greater Men and Women do the actual WORK of society. Many of whom do jobs FAR more important than the task of entertaining the masses. (Maintaining a power reactor, monitoring the environment, servicing a commercial airplane...) Though these people all make FAR LESS than you all do. Though we continually hear you all whine and complain about how poor you all are... Its pathetic. Seriously. To the point that I have boycotted the movies entirely, and have not purchased any music in about 20 years. As I am certain others have. Get a Grip Hollywood... You cannot fly around in a private jet that drinks $10,000 an hour in fuel, and tell us all to be more frugal, friendly to the envirnment and not to clip your overpriced "auto-tune fabricated", over/under acted, CRAP from the interwebs... Yours Truly, the People who Feed and Clothed you for the past 3500+ years...

    1. Re:A song for a meal... by DiscountBorg(TM) · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It wasn't intended to. Actors get paid way too much. For every actor there can be a team in the thousands working on the film for several years, so take out the actor's wages and material costs and do the math. The vast majority of people who work in entertainment make average to below average wages, frequently work ridiculous hours, and for every one of them there's a hundred more who go broke trying.

      --
      "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw
  6. as usual, piracy fears are nonsense. by rogoshen1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You know, if these hollywood types were to be believed; the feds should encourage people to pirate CP, since that would put them out of business.

    But really the average pirate fits into a few categories

    1. they weren't going to buy it anyways. revenue lost: 0.
    2. they want to buy it, but you refuse to sell to them. revenue lost.
    3. they did buy it, but you make it more convenient to use a pirated copy (unskippable bullshit menus, insistence on optical media) revenue lost: 0 (unless you truly expect people to buy it more than once?)
    4. they would buy it, but it's priced too high. revenue lost: debateable. it's just as much the industries fault for not pricing their product appropriately. But easier to blame the pirates.

    Piracy makes for an excellent boogeyman, since anytime revenue numbers don't meet expectations they can blame pirates. Anytime congress needs to be pestered to get more favorable laws and such for your industry, pirates can be blamed.

    side note: piracy is not the right word, nor is theft. if i download something from TPB, i'm not *stealing* from anyone. I'm not depriving anyone of their copy of said item.

    Side note 2: how much innovation has been the direct result of 'piracy' over the years? How many times have we heard of some start up that started out using less than legit software, only to become billion dollar companies (and then immediately turn around join the BSA or similar?)

  7. Solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Offer a compelling product that allow people to watch stuff online, easily and quickly, at a reasonable price.
    Piracy is a distribution problem. You try can fight it all you want, if you're not providing a platform that's good and available in more than just 1 country (USA), you're asking for it.

  8. How did they arrive at 3.0? by DiscountBorg(TM) · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sorry to rain on the buzzword parade,but I'm pretty sure version 1.0 was copying sheet music and forging paintings, and 2.0 was copying cassette and VCR tapes. If I've missed a step there please feel free to fill me in.

    --
    "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw
  9. Re:Capitalism 101 by sims+2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Please explain why you can have a subscription that allows you to watch over 1000 tv shows for under $15/mo but a single season of a tv show may cost $25+ a single movie may cost $20 and I've yet to find a service that allows the rental of tv shows.

    How about this you can buy shows by the episode for $1 but you can rent them for $0.25 an episode. Still higher than you would like but way more reasonable for something you will very likely never watch again.

    --
    Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
  10. Re: boo hoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The movie industry shouldn't have to change their business model just because people have decided it's okay to steal things they want and not pay for them.

    The sustained assault against the public domain and ridiculous extensions to copyright are stealing from the public. I'll worry about their feelings about thieves once they stop stealing en masse. Just because you decided to put something out doesn't give you the right to eternally control what is done or not done with it. Copyright is a time-limited public burden made to incentivise people to make new works, not to have control in perpetuity over them. The current "time limitation" is an utter mockery of the intentions of the Constitution; I can guarantee you that "time limited" does not mean "extended 20 years every 20 years until Disney decides to fold." I think a lot of people have entirely forgotten that, or never knew it in the first place, since their screeching about "stealing movies," though of course that aspect of it is entirely intentional.

    Technically, considering OSS (which you are almost certainly using whether you realize it or not), and the rapidly increasing capabilities of automated music and video production, it's arguable that even that role is coming to a close, since people can and do put out content for free. They certainly didn't avoid making them before copyright even existed, or when copyright was much, much shorter. Heck, some of our most well-known cultural contributions fall into this category. But thanks to this bullshit the days of anything entering the public domain are over, and as such anything they don't profit off will die, and they will control those things they do profit off of forever, if things go their way, all the while pushing for more restrictions and invasive measures to control computers to do their bidding for copyright enforcement and attempting to slowly force everyone into a permanent "rent-per-view' model..

    At this point, considering the massive amounts of damage done by the media corporations, piracy is arguably an act of justified civil disobedience. I am aware that you and people like you will rationalize this as "an excuse for stealing," but that's to be expected of people who either do not think of the larger ramifications of this, or have some vested interest in perpetuating control of content, and ultimately control over computers and people in general.

  11. Re: POSTS ARE BEING CENSORED by Cryacin · · Score: 3, Funny

    You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag, you wouldn't steal your best friend's kidney. Piracy is organ theft! Don't do it!

    --
    Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck