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HBO, Netflix, Other Hollywood Companies Join Forces To Fight Piracy (theverge.com)
New submitter stikves writes: It looks like media and technology companies are forming a group to "fight piracy." The Verge reports: "A group of 30 entertainment companies, including power players like Netflix, HBO, and NBCUniversal, have joined forces today in an effort to fight online piracy. The new group is called the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), and the partnership, while somewhat thin on specifics, will allow the content creators involved to pool resources to conduct research and work closely with law enforcement to find and stop pirates from stealing movies and TV shows. The first-of-its-kind alliance is composed of digital media players, networks, and Hollywood outfits, and all recognize how the internet has paved the way to an explosion in quality online content. However, piracy has boomed as a result: ACE says that last year saw 5.4 billion downloads of pirated films and TV shows." I'm not sure how these statistics hold against real revenue loss (or the imaginary one), however this might be a development to watch for.
I canceled cable for this reason. It's morally wrong to finance the fight against freedom on the Internet. And destroying freedom on the Internet is the only way to enforce the their laws.
I pirate stuff I'm wishy washy about. If I really want something, I'll buy it. Usually I end up buying stuff I pirated.
But whatever, no more pirating means a lot less buying. Saves me money!
Less than 1 download per person. If this was a food try before you buy) , that means not everyone took one.
Sounds to me like people are most likely trying to get reasonable service that is not available for sale, rather than pirating.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
... with an utterly brilliant and highly effective system: make shows and films so god damned awful that no one will bother to pirate them
and thats because the social contract has been nullified. The deal was that we give them a temporary monopoly and in return they add to the public domain. Sonny Bono & Mickey Mouse suspended public domain indefinitely, and thus have reneged on their side of the social contract. Why should we continue to uphold our end of the bargain?
This is why no one has any respect for copyright, nobody feels the slightest twinge of guilt bypassing your paywalls & getting your content for free. Perhaps someday you'll be able to get society at large back to the table to discuss a new contract, but i doubt it.
Until then I guess you'll just have to keep suing your customers, thats a sure way to win back their loyalty.
Do they realize, their service is not affordable for the majority of the world? Their shows are staying unknown outside the US.
it's the same good old argument the RIAA has been making all these years... all these "billions" lost is sales that would never have been made to begin with.
O wait......that is already happening
I completely agree. I'll pirate a new movie to watch it. If I had to pay to see the movie, I wouldn't. Actually there was a release this week I was excited about. I paid to go see it, put out non dribble and I'll pay. The 1st theater movie I've paid to see in 3 years.
Track p2p. Track streaming.
Try and offer more series and movies on time for sale or rent in different parts of the world.
Thats the real thats holding back digital renting.
People would like to buy or rent but have to wait while local cinemas and then traditional broadcasters hold shows back for their own use.
A movie or series might not be released. It might be weeks or months late. It might be for digital sale and not for SD and HD rent.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
you forgot the gran ma that went to a theatre with her own food
they had her arrested.....
that's the kind a jackoffs these fu.cks are...until the day comes when they can just take money off your check whethar you watch there crap or not they wont be happy
and even then they will have you arrested for something anything they can dream up
only in copyright does anyone get to be fucking lazy for 150 years
create once sit on your arse for 3 generations
everyone else get to fucking work ya bitch slaves and pay now or else
I guess you're right, there's no harm done.
The seat was going to be empty anyway, and the theater owner wouldn't had made money on it if you didn't freeload. So what's the harm in watching for free?
Yeah I don't see the harm in that scenario. But of course the cinema does have the right to kick you out if they catch you.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Want to stop piracy? Then make all content available everywhere. Don't make me sign up for Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO Now, Hulu, and a half dozen streaming providers just to watch the content I want to see.
If you make it easier to pirate content than to purchase it legally, you're going to lose the battle.
And don't nickel and dime me, don't make me pay $3.99/episode for a show that will cost $20 when all 20 episodes come out on DVD, stuff like that is what make people decide to click on the torrent instead of the "Purchase" link.
Contextual advertising... I live in Toronto, Ontario. At the bottom of this article is an ad that says "Ontario Cable Companies Want This Device Banned Immediately". It's labelled as an "Advertorial for TVFrog". I couldn't make this stuff up.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
does it mean download content considered as piracy and it will be more difficult for us to watch online in the future? I hope i can still watch tv shows without need to buy cable?
I would say they should focus on providing the same quality as pirated material on all markets at the same time.
They can never provide better quality, since what they provide will be copied. But make sure all customers with good enough connections can stream/download as high quality as possible, for a fair price.
Don't geo block. The ones who get blocked will get it some other way.
No need for big investments in DRM. What can be seen & heard can and will be replicated. Accept that. You're just making it annoying for legitimate customers, while the pirates enjoy DRM free versions from torrent sites.
MPAA and RIAA logic has more money being lost than what is actually available.
If they somehow magically managed to stop copying, it wouldn't make them more money. instead people would flock more to youtube and indies that are literally giving their stuff for free.
nevermind that riaa is already giving their stuff for free on youtube themselves.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Are they all building ships now?
Aaargh!
Like just about every other "alliance" of large corporations, they give themselves some bullshit name to window dress the fact that they are looking to screw people over one way or another.
In another day and age, back before crony-capitalism passed the tipping-point and jumped the shark, they had another name for a group of leading corporations in an industry working together to control a market, set prices, and lobby for laws.
A "cartel".
But, that was before the money and resources the corporations offered those in power made them realize that "cartels" are really "alliances" in many cases and are now a good thing.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Is it only me thinking they should go for (ACME) Alliance for Creativity and Media Entertainment :P
Again, they need to make it more convenient to get the content you are interested in in the way you like than getting it pirated. You shouldn't have to sign up for multiple services and pay wether you use them or not and be forced to use multiple apps to see the content. If we could conveniently watch all the content we want for a reasonable price then I think few would get the content by other means.
... because they were a strong proponent of DRM... and unlike DRM on disks they can always update it to stop me from using my right to make a DRM free copy.
guessing the one plan they won't come up with? Offer good content at an affordable price, in a timely and accessible manner.
Copyright is not intended to withhold content from people, yet that is what it often boils down to. For example, I cannot even get most of what I watch where I live (shows in original, non-dubbed form, I will not watch dubbed trash) from any sources approved by the content owners. Now I can either not watch their products at all or download them from the net somewhere (which happens to be legal here). But if there was a reasonable online offering by the content owners, I would of course use that, far simpler and easier. Yest, there is not. Do these people do not understand they have to make an offer in order to sell anything?
Note that "reasonable" includes: Original language, plays on any device and in particular on Linux (i.e. no Digital Restriction Management), good quality, can skip as I chose, no ads, can re-download any time I chose.
The root-cause for "piracy" is that the content owners are apparently unable or unwilling to make a reasonable offer. Hence nobody feels bad bypassing them. Or in other words: They are doing it to themselves.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
What is does is that nobody takes them seriously anymore, after all they are spreading blatant lies. Dealing honestly with potential customers looks differently.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
You can call it "stealing", but it will be an obvious lie. That is probably one of the reasons nobody really cares about their complaints: They start the discussion off in bad faith with a big fat lie. Disrespect your potential customers and they will disrespect you.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Re 'tasteless, gray but eerily pleasant sausage."
Most of that is due to the new funding mix.
As nations other than the USA fund movies made in the USA, political and faith issues start to reshape US scripts.
If the US upsets a faith, cult or Communist party, funding stops.
Once a script is corrected, funding flows again.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
" back before crony-capitalism passed the tipping-point and jumped the shark"
Ahh yes "That's not really real free market capitalism" argument. Sorry to tell you there crony capitalism doesn't exist because that's the way capitalism has always worked, the historical evidence is overwhelming. That rule of law can not exist within capitalism. Everytime copyright came up for review to protect the publics right it was expanded over 200 years long before you were even born.
Our brains are much worse at reality and thinking than thought. See the manufacturing consent videos when you get the time.
Science on reasoning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ
Protectionism for the rich and big business by state intervention, radical market interference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHj2GaPuEhY#t=349
Testing theories of representative government
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Education as ignorance
Energy subsidies
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2015/NEW070215A.htm
Interference in other states when the rich/corporations dont get their way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxp_wgFWQo&feature=youtu.be&list=PLKR2GeygdHomOZeVKx3P0fqH58T3VghOj&t=724
How do you steal shit? Do you take it directly from the bowl or get in from the treatment plant in bulk? Its just not a crime I've heard of before, although nothing surprises me anymore. What do they do with the shit once they've stolen it? Is there a good market? So many questions!
What is this "explosion in quality online content" of which you speak?
Do you mean re-makes of old stuff, endless sequels and prequals, and more films where Tom Cruise is a super-ninja-spy who takes down the entire world single handedly? If so, I think maybe you're mistaken.
There are some nice things around (House of Cards, Black Sails, and maybe Lord of the Rings), but I must be missing this 'explosion', even though we have Netflix, Amazon and Freesat.
Seriously. The printing press made it possible to easily copy music and sell it. People would go to a concert, listend to the new music and wrote it down. They then printed it out and where able to sell it, so others could play it as soon as the same day.
Oh wait, it goes back even further
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
You have no claim on content you haven't paid for
So let me pay for it. How do I go about paying for a lawful stream of the film Song of the South?
This is not a sustainable business model for producing new content, though.
Then crowdfund the creation of new works instead of restricting their distribution.
Netflix is the best think that happened in the fight against piracy, because it is convenient and affordable.
Among my group of friends, torrents/DDL were the way we got movies. We did it without even thinking. DVDs were too expensive and cumbersome, BluRays even more so. And with TV you don't really get to choose when and what you watch, also ads.
Some of us even paid for a seedbox or some premium account on a DDL or streaming site. So money wasn't the problem.
Then came Netflix. And now, most of my friends have a subscription and the torrent hunt ritual ended.
How to fight even better? Make things even more convenient. Make content available on all platforms, in all countries. Even if it means a small extra fee, people are ready to pay.
Now, we have a bunch of companies in the movie business going together, including Netflix, and instead of using that unique opportunity to make things better for consumers and turn them away from piracy, they pursue their repressive tactics that never worked.
Netflix has already done more to fight piracy than anyone else in the industry. They have shown that the way to fight piracy is by providing a competitive product that is priced reasonably and makes consuming content incredibly easy and convenient. It's sad to see them going down this path instead of continuing to push forward where they have made such a huge impact in the past. The biggest hurdle to Netflix are they very content creators it is now partnering with—disgusting media production companies that try to restrict the distribution of their content *regionally*. The world is global, and until this comes to an end, piracy will reign supreme. Let me pay a reasonable rate for the content I want, and make it available at exactly the same time as it is to everyone else in the world, and I won't need to pirate a thing! Why is this concept so difficult for these industry executives to comprehend?
make shows and films so god damned awful that no one will bother to pirate them
Exactly; Hollywood's been doing a great job of this for at least 10 years now. When I want to watch any movies, it's only stuff that's over 10 years old, and usually from the 70s and 80s, with some in the 90s, 60s, 40s, and a few things before that, and some stuff in the early 2000s. After about 2008, Hollywood movies went straight down the toilet.
The argument is very appropriate. If the government levies a fine against someone for having embezzled money that was used to buy expensive clothing and electronics, the government doesn't limit it's fine collection to proceeds from selling the person's tech-toys and clothing -- they go after their bank account(s), retirement funds, their home and levy their paycheck -- none of which, one might argue, is associated with the embezzled funds.
Same for balancing social contracts -- you don't go after the 30-year old movies, where you only will get payback over a long time and if you have a large library, you go after the properties that will provide more immediate payback.
The large corps aren't going to "play fair", since they have millions of times the money to fight you, buy their congress critters, justices and laws. Who wrote the laws to break up net neutrality and allow providers to charge as they wish? Comcast(NBC Universal). How many citizens can write laws to give to their owned-congress critters and have them signed?
The whole legal system is constantly being recreated to create new types of ownership for corporations with new laws to backup the newly created properties. Think of the whole "Intellectual Property" w/respect to songs and other performances. Recording technology enabled creation of a whole new genre of "Property" -- but are the benefits spread throughout society, or are they concentrated in a small fraction of society at the expense of the rest?
You can't begin to even out the inequalities by thinking you must adhere to fairness. Fairness (along w/religion and morals) is what they teach the masses to make them easier to manipulate.