Copyright and Piracy - 'Geek to Sleek'

I discussed in an earlier post how, although it has been threatened for ages, the European Parliament has finally given the go ahead for member states to start cutting persistent file-sharers off from their Internet connections. In recent news, Paramount has sent a damning letter to the FCC outlining its stance on online piracy and explaining why it is not just the computer literate who are downloading copyrighted content on the web any longer.

In the letter, the film distributor notes that it has evidence that following the worldwide release of Star Trek the movie was illegally downloaded by some 5 million IP addresses, each taking their files from one of six camcordered copies of the film.

It seems fair to say piracy has advanced expotentially
The letter also states that: "Just five years ago, one had to be computer literate and exceedingly patient to pirate movies. Today, literally anyone with an internet connection can do it. "Clunky websites are being replaced by legitimate looking and legitimate feeling pirate movie websites, a perception enhanced by the presence of premium advertisers and subscription fees processed by major financial institutions. It is clear that piracy has advanced from geek to sleek."

Paramount highlights legal flexibility issues
Paramount isn't just pointing the finger at known copyright flouters (Mininova.org, Rapidshare.com and Megaupload.com) but also the big search engines as well, such as Google and Bing. Getting its information from Alexa.com, Paramount points out that currently a third of all sites in the internet's top 100 play host or link to pirated content.

However, in other news, in a somewhat cynical table-turning exercise, a German anti-piracy body seems to be encouraging illegal downloading of music and other media in an effort to strong-arm money out of lawbreakers. DigiRights Solutions (DRS) from Darmstadt has circulated a presentation to potential clients explaining how they might make more money by pursuing illegal filesharers than from regular, legal sales.

Considering the options
Clearly, the approach is reliant on simple mathematics – the number of legal sales compared to the amount of threatening letters DRS can send out for a client in any given period. The company says it can currently go after 5,000 illegal downloaders a month so, given the discrepancy between the two monetary values being weighed here, it could find itself with a lot more cash-hungry clients before long.

In the world that we live in, reliant upon media of all kinds, where will copyright and piracy take us, and just how far are key parties willing to go in their dubious efforts to cut down on illegal file sharing?

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- daveyy.

Tags: copyright, file-sharing, geek, piracy, sleek

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gary Bing on November 2, 2009 at 1:49pm: Pirate movies suck just as much as video and photos from my cell. Bottom line. Cheepos get what they "pay" for and deserve. And Johney Depp is overvalued as well.

Permalink Reply by David King on November 2, 2009 at 1:54pm: Not always, but in most cases you are right. I just find it illogical what they plan on doing, I can see the reason for doing it, but the practice of it would just not work.

Permalink Reply by Blue Scott on November 4, 2009 at 8:36am: Why pay for something when you can get it for free? That's why I pirate. Sure, I show support for the artist by seeing it in theaters first, or with music I donate a bit to small time artists.
Piracy is all about getting what you want for free. America!

Permalink Reply by John Casper on November 5, 2009 at 4:29pm: Yep, I buy albums all the time from small, local artists. But I don't give 2 cents for the big artists. They make enough to live 10 lives, but waste it in a day. I won't fuel them. I've got several pirated games, because I don't like Steam's utter BS, but I bought legal copies of them as well. Heck, my ISP has shut my internet down multiple times for it. But I prove that they're just communistic f**ks by emailing them proof that I do own the games or movies. Piracy - It's not illegal if you don't get caught or if you have a legit copy as well. :-)

Permalink Reply by John Casper on November 4, 2009 at 4:24am: This fight will resume forever until either piracy is obliterated or movies are no longer made (it will still however continue). I use piracy on almost a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, most of the time it's for movies I already have on DVD or VHS, or music that's otherwise unavailable at a store. But in the grand scheme of things, these actors and film corporations still make billions per month, and still bitch and moan they missed out on a million bucks while us consumers struggle to bring in enough to live comfortably. So where can you draw the line and say it's inappropriate? Who's to say I can't have a virtual copy to watch as I please without having the disk? I live with a 2 yr old and a 3 yr old, so I all but have to lock my DVDs up in Fort Knox to have them last for more than a week. It's quite a convenience having them on PC. Is it right to arrest me for trying to preserve something I bought with my hard earned money? Heck, if I made a movie and made 100,000$ I'd post it up on a website for free. But then again I am an open source free lovin' guy..

Permalink Reply by Johannes S. on November 4, 2009 at 6:19am: I use, sometimes, pirated software. I sometimes listen to pirated music. I (almost daily) watch television shows that I have illegally downloaded. I rarely watch any films and I usually buy them.

Why?
The content JUST ISN'T AVAILABLE.

If you live in the United States or the United Kingdom, or, in some cases, even in Australia, you are most likely fine. But, if you don't, then there's ABSOLUTELY no way of getting the content. Well, not instantly, at least.

I'd have to wait a YEAR until the latest episode of House gets here. I'd have to wait ~~TWO~~ THREE YEARS until the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy gets here. I'd have to wait at least 6 months until the latest episode of Top Gear would be here.
And when it gets here, it is spoiled by the narrowscreen (4:3) format and hardcoded subtitles and the annoying red-and-white "3" logo in the top-right corner. It's JUST NOT A PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCE.

It's the same thing with CDs and DVDs. When a CD finally reaches here (and I can't buy it online since there ISN'T A STORE), it's always some sort of local re-release with worse audio and ads inside the jewel case. Or sometimes there isn't a jewel case at all and the disc is in a paper box.
With DVDs there are the ads and, again, the narrowscreen format. I wrote a blog post about DVDs some time ago.

The only legal way for me to obtain music is Spotify. And... oh wait, f**k, I have to be in the UK or some other countries to get the full experience. Oh, f**k. I do use Spotify with a UK proxy. It's the same way I use the BBC iPlayer.

I don't use P2P, well, only when it's the last resort: For example, I downloaded an episode of Grey's Anatomy via torrent yesterday. I generally don't like torrenting and prefer HTTP(S) servers and direct downloads.

I would honestly love to buy content, and now, for some time, I can. How? I bought a £15 iTunes Store gift card when I visited the UK. I wish I had bought more than just one though...

Permalink Reply by David King on November 4, 2009 at 12:30pm: I completely couldn't agree more, and even when content is available it is really expensive. To be quite honest there is nothing they can do about this problem, piracy will always be there despite whatever they do to try and stop it.

Permalink Reply by Justen on November 4, 2009 at 8:11am: Good luck with that, kiddos. We'll see in a couple years how it works out, but I'm guessing: piracy is still on the rise, movie studios are still on the whine, and the court is still on the take. The rest of the world? Still not giving a damn one way or other.

Permalink Reply by Kat on November 6, 2009 at 2:40am: *sigh*

What could have been an excellent discussion now has to be halted. Some people apparently don't give a rat's patootie that they are breaking the law - along with this site's terms of use. Keep bragging on Geeks about how you steal things, and you'll find yourselves banned. We do not tolerate discussion of illegal activity.

Sadly - discussion closed.