So what do you think of when you hear copyright infringement?
I’m sure most of you think immediately to people downloading movies illegally over the internet. As well as music, tv shows and other media. I believe that most of you have done this, or have borrowed a DVD from a mate that wasn’t just quite right, at the VERY least.
The argument that downloading movies from the internet at least can be largely dismissed by the fact that box office earnings where up before the Global Financial Clusterfuck. The reason for this is simple, movies pirated before they release to DVD/Blu-Ray are shite. They’ve got people walking through them, the sound is often tinny and horrible, etc etc. I for one would much prefer to go to the movies and enjoy it than sit at home and for free get a shitty copy that will just make me want the last 2 hours of my life back.
As for music well, the issue here is that the recording industry still does not recognize the internet as a good way of getting their media out there. They aren’t REALLY paying attention to the internet and developing solutions that suit the end customer. They aren’t interested in realistic prices that reflect the fact that the cost of selling a set of MP3s is FAR less expensive than releasing to CD. The recording industry is VERY much to blame for piracy.
Finally, we come to my favourite medium, TV Shows. The fact here is that people simply don’t often have the money (with the exception of hard core fans) to pay upwards of 70 bucks for a season of a TV Show. The creators already got paid when it was on TV, and, much like movies, many people still tune in because they want to see their show first. I can only summise that TV show creators don’t really care less about the people who actually want to watch their show more than once. Otherwise maybe they’d make the damn things affordable.
But, the fact that I turn to more often than all of these is, many of the people pirating these mediums would NEVER pay for them anyway. They cannot afford them, it doesn’t fit into their lifestyle. If they hear a really good album, or see a really good movie, they’ll pay. Otherwise, why should they. People claim it hurts the recording industry, blah blah blah, well most of the people weren’t even going to buy the stuff at it’s current cost anyway.
So protip to the RIAA, charge reasonable prices, and provide the mediums we want, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll make a fortune and people will stop pirating!
TPB Down… And sold???
As I sit down to have a look around my RSS feeds tonight I'm struck by one headline. First in one feed then in another. A short look around the intertubes confirms, TPB appears to have been sold to Swedish gaming company Global Gaming Factory X. Amazing that a name that is synonymous with illegal file sharing and copyright violation is set to be capitalised upon by a legitimate private business, and whats more, this business wants to make TPB legit.
I'd check the TPB blog for further info but the site appears to be non responsive for now at least. All that can be said about this so far is that it's getting immediate attention from a few corners of the interwebs and I'm sure the mainstream media will pick up on what should be an interesting story.
For now at least, http://www.finanztreff.de/kurse_einzelkurs_charts,i,666994,zeit,8.html, watch the GGFX investors dance like a Texas man who just struck oil!!!
Sources
- http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-sold-to-software-company-goes-legal-090630/
- http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/06/30/its-no-lie-pirate-bay-purchased-by-gaming-giant-closing-track/
And more!!
Film companies sue iiNet
Well it looks like the film industry is going to make an attempt in the courts at punishing an ISP for allowing users to download pirated material.
The action against iiNet was filed in the Federal Court today by Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Disney and the Seven Network.
The problem with this is that there's no way for ISP's to determine if a user is downloading illegal content. Most piracy currently occurs using the bit torrent protocol which in many configurations is now encrypted blocking intermediaries from being able to see exactly what is being transferred. Bit Torrent is being used increasingly for many legal applications including the sharing of Unix distributions and also for the sharing of game demo's.
Even without encryption the way in which bit torrent shares information in small chunks that may be taken from any part of a file mean that it would be very difficult for isp's to identify which file is being downloaded and even if they target an individual user the amount of time and resources that would have to be set aside is absurd.
So the movie companies want ISP's to either block p2p protocols, which can't realistically be done because there are so many ways around blocking, not to mention the fact that this would shut down alot of legal file transfers as well.
It would be like if a prohibition was brought in just because there are underage drinkers in Australia, yet that is never mentioned as an option because it is unfair and unrealistic. So if the movie companies aren't asking for bit torrent to be shut down they must be asking for ISP's to monitor every users connection, filter out incoming torrent data, match that to EVERY copyrighted film in existence, and then if it matches to investigate further to ensure the matching is correct.
It's not an ISP's job to monitor what it's users are doing. Just like Connex wouldn't be responsible if I caught a train into the city and robbed a bank. They facilitated it but they had no control of what was ultimately done in the end.
The movie industry monitors the bit torrent network by setting up fake seeds and then recording IP address's when illegal content is downloaded. Then they report that to the users ISP who may or may not pass the warning on. But realistically all they can do is pass it on.
Back to the robbery analagy, if I was to rob a bank, should I then be denied access to Connex services in an attempt to stop me commiting further crimes. No, of course not, thats obsurd, you call the police and the police arrest me. But that is just what is being suggested that ISP's do here. Cut you off because you have used their service to commit a crime. Fair? What do you think?
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