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MPAA Seeks Stronger Actions To Fight Streaming Video Piracy (streamingmedia.com)
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is stepping into the online video piracy debate and calling for criminal charges against violators, as well as strong coordination between a broad range of online service providers. From a report: The association's recommendations came in response to a call from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) call for comments regarding internet policy concerns. On July 17, the MPAA issued a 40-page document advocating a modernization of online policies in response to rampant illicit activity. While a range of commercial offerings help studios and sports leagues battle online piracy, anyone who has a friend with a Kodi box knows that unrestricted access to popular shows and movies is only a few taps away. The MPAA notes that 6.5 million homes in North America are equipped with a Kodi box, and the North American piracy ecosystem generates $840 million per year.
Why should the MPAA do this when they can get one of their wholly owned subsidiaries (eg, the US Government) to do it for them?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Have gnu, will travel.
that the industry could use to stream an archive of all old and new movies and shows to a persons home through the internet for a nice affordable price. Maybe one day someone will invent it.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I support the idea of being able to shut down these add-on's that are solely used for piracy but I worry that it opens the door to other things that are used for piracy but have legitimate uses as well.
But what is solely used for piracy? I know a lot of people who have Plex servers filled with stuff they actually own and ripped and share their servers with friends. I know a lot of people with Plex servers that they obtained everything on it and share it with their friends. I also own lots of movies that are on my friend's server, but I don't feel like finding the disc for them (probably still in a moving box) so I stream it from said server...does that mean that I'm pirating it? If I had a Kodi box and did the same thing, would that mean I pirated it? I have yet to find a piece of tech that is solely used for piracy.
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
The MPAA has money to send a 40-page writeup when comments are being solicited.
What organization can we donate to that will make 40-page writeups in the OPPOSITE direction when comments are being solicited? And advocate for reducing overaggressive enforcement, loosening the stranglehold on the public domain, and promote expansion of fair use, and insisting some piracy be accepted as long as companies can still make a fair profit AND alternate solutions (when there is a real problem to be solved --- other than companies earnestly trying to squeeze out 5% more profit or something by promiting fascist regulations and enforcement) and less severe penalties against individuals?
If us individual consumers and americans aren't represented in these kinds of solicitations for comments, then what will happen is only the MPAA will have the ears of our representatives, and they'll get one-sided laws passed whatever they want.
Don't forget that it has been proven time and time again through studies and practical application (Incompetech being just one example) that any artist with actual talent and quality product(s) will benefit more from utilizing piracy than warring against it.
Some using piracy as a marketing tool, some eve put their stuff on torrents and make the news among the pirate scene for it which translates into a loyal consumerbase of people who chip in money too (and a loyal base is always better than generic sales since it translates to guaranteed revenue), and even the fact that the majority of pirates also have the biggest Steam libraries due to the fact that they tend to respect quality product more than the average consumer due to the quantity of products they go through thanks to piracy to weed out the shit from the gold.
The industry, whether gaming or music or movie, are over-saturated.
So over-saturated that it's impossible to give even a 1/10th of each of those industry's artists the chance to be sampled if we had to pay for each and every one.
The over-saturation argument is probably the main and biggest argument going for piracy, especially now that even demos and samples are being corrupted and turned into scam methods for trying products.
We've known these things for decades now:
1) Downloading is not "piracy". Piracy is a specific crime related to making and distributing copies, generally for personal gain. Somebody who sells copies of someone else's personal DVD and sells them is a pirate. An uploader might be considered a "pirate", but a downloader is not, because a downloader is not distributing. **
2) Downloading is a copyright violation, not a crime. In scope, it is akin to making a personal copy of a videotape.
3) In most cases, downloading is done when there would not have been an original sale (e.g., movie ticket or DVD) anyway. So the copyright owner didn't "lose" anything.
4) Even if there hypothetically might have been a sale, copyright violation is not "theft". See # 3. It is a completely different area of law.
5) And even if there would have been a sale, all the copyright owner "loses" is the potential profit, which is a tiny fraction of the retail price.
6) Penalties for copyright violation are already unreasonably harsh.
Certainly, apply criminal charges for piracy... as long as, in such prosecutions, the MPAA proves, beyond doubt, rather than simply a preponderance of evidence (as required under criminal law) that each download or stream represents an actual lost sale to an MPAA member, rather than just a presumption of a lost sale
And (2): The punishment should be proportional to the crime. What's the punishment if I steal a DVD from a store? It should be less than that because I didn't actually deprive anybody of anything.
No sig today...