Jorge Cortell censored in Spanish University (UPV) for defending P2P networks

(Note: The website of the person involved in this issue has requested this type of broad duplication of his story, and so far it seems plenty worthy of exposure and discussion here on ATS.)





more links on this issue
www.technorati.com...
www.protozoo.com...
ayk.textamerica.com...

I heard about this on Boing Boing today. This is nothing short of an attack on Free Speech and Fair Use in general. I'm am however heartend by the EU's response to this issue by taking proactive measures to involved all sides in crafting new IP Laws. Spain seems like it's still not with the program. P2P is a disruptive technology at it's core, and is no more "dangerous" to the networks as VHS or Beta was in the 80s, infact it created a brand new industry of Video Rental outlets and created lots of new jobs. Just because something has the potential to be used illigally doesn't mean there are substantial non-infringing uses for said technology.

The MPAA, RIAA better start doing some deals with some of these Torrent Tracker sites. One in particular BTEFNET was taken down recently due to a lawsuit, it was a terrific site that I would have PAID money in order to use, but NOOOO. They gotta get thier panies in a bunch and say "NO SOUP FOR YOU!". These stiffs are behind the times, suing fans for creating non-authorized version of Star Wars is also a repungnant practice, the Video Game industry figured out early that giving the Users the power to modify and remix thier games creates FANS and exposes them to new creative talent they can exploit to make more money.

Let's face it, a large portion of the Entertainment Industry is sick and needs to be put down.

The music and movie recording industry's all over the world are so good at publishing gangster and mafia music and movies because their very own bussines models and idea's are 100% mafia.

Its true what this man says about their bussines models being outdated and inefficient.

Over the last 2 to 3 years, it has been the computer industry, as in ISP's and company's like Apple, that have shown how, in this modern computer and internet age, the music and movie industry should do their bussines. But instead of accepting the change, they even attack these company's that are distributing their music and movies in an efficient way, sustaining the industry's revenue.

Heck, even the porn industry has been showing for years how to make good use of the internet to distribute and publish video, audio and images trough the net.

The mafia like practices of the music industry are exactly why there are more and more musicians and movie directors that start their own company's and distribution networks. And its not only less known artists, even people like Bruce Willis have their own company's these days.

If the music and movie industry doesn't stop their foolish strongarming tactics and assaults on their consumer clients, they'll go down hard and painfull, doing alot of damage to their intellectual partners(musicians, stars and producers).

This from BoingBoing.net


"Can the IP Justice League save
Wil Wheaton from super-villain Jack
Valenti? Will they defeat his evil army
of psycho culture pirates!? Whose
side is Avril Lavigne REALLY on??
STAY TUNED!!!"

ipjusticeleague.com...

I can't stop downloading I just can't I feel like if I 'm not downloading I am wasting my bandwith....



How else would I know the joys of Sexy Beach 2? or The Safety Dance?!

Yeah tell me about Lysergic. I get 20 GB up AND down(seperate 40 GB alltogether) from Bell, it feels like such a waste to only use 1 or 2 GB per month if that.

Just ran across this article that makes the case that Piracy can actually boost the ratings of certain niche shows, like Battlestar Gallatica and Dr Who

www.mindjack.com...

Does no one care about this? This is a very important issue that will affect us all in the end. For better or worse the Entertainment industry wants to control what we See, Do and Buy with no regard for Artistic Integrity. These people want to criminalise Open-Source, make Hard Drives controllable and just all around control what we do with our owned property. They actually wanted to make Hard Drives illigal at one point as it has the "potential" for abuse...

You can help by telling Congress to drop the Broadcast Flag which is basically an assault on innovation and our rights.

www.boingboing.net...

Tell Congress to reject the Broadcast Flag
Earlier this month, we completely creamed the motion picture studios over the Broadcast Flag, an effort to criminalize open source and win a veto over the design of electronics and PCs. Now they're floating draft legal language on the Hill that would put the entire technology industry under their thumb, turning their friends at the FCC into device-czars with jurisdiction over any technology that could be used to facilitate "indiscriminate redistribution" of movies over the Internet (monitors, PVRs, analog-to-digital converters, hard drives, etc).

EFF has an action-alert you can use to tell your elected law-maker how you feel about this. Just enter your ZIP code and click submit, or better yet, rewrite our form letter to express your outrage in your own words.

A lawmaker who breaks America's televisions and PCs has no business expecting to be re-elected. In fact, such a Congresscritter would be lucky to get away with a mere tarring and feathering.

As a constituent and a proponent of innovation, I am writing to voice my opposition to legislation that revives the FCC's proposed "Broadcast Flag" regulation (47 CFR 73.9002(b)), which was unanimously struck down on May 6th 2005 by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Broadcast Flag cripples any device capable of receiving over-the-air digital broadcasts. It makes digital TV hardware more expensive and less capable, impeding rather than accelerating the digital TV transition. Worse, it gives Hollywood movie studios a permanent veto over how members of the American public use our televisions and and forces American innovators to beg the FCC for permission before adding new features to TV.

The big media companies are threatening an HDTV boycott unless a Broadcast Flag law is passed and implemented this year. This is an empty threat. Viacom made that same threat back in 2002, yet CBS (owned by Viacom), still transmits nearly all of its prime-time shows in HDTV, even without the Broadcast Flag. For that matter, even if broadcasters like CBS aren't willing to provide programming for digital television, there are plenty of innovative new content creators who will.

link

The reason this has gotten so little attention is because its in the RATS forum. I didn't even see it till I re-upped my access to the forum.

The whole recording and entertainment industries are biting the hands that feed them. They must have dropped out from their business courses in college. Its not rocket science or even complex economics to see that suing and making criminals of your customers is a sure way to drive your profits down. Its also suicide to try to hold back and resist new technology.

Have they ever stopped to consider the reason that movie and music sales are down is because they keep pumping out mass produced talentless crap? The last movie I had any intention of shelling out my hard earned cash to see was Lord of the Rings. Everything else I see advertised looks like simple-minded low quality garbage that can only marginally be considered entertainment. Have you listened to music lately? there is such a dearth of talent, that half of the "new releases" are either covers of songs written back when bands actually could make and write their own music, or its unimaginitive, talentless rap and r&b remakes of some old classics. For the last 4 years, I am yet to hear anything new, innovative, interesting, or revolutionary in music. Maybe they should examine their own garbage mills before they go attacking the people who constitute their gravy trains. Fans arent buying because they arent producing anything worth the money.

The entertainment industry has alot of friggin nerve, especially after they ripped off millions with their CD overpricing. CDs were the last revolution in music, and the industry didn't try and block CDs from replacing tapes and records. if anything, they jumped at the chance to rip people off unhindered. Thats probably why they are so opposed to file sharing and higher tech media. Such a system would force them to actually compete and provide fairer prices on their products.

I don't need to be told to contact my law makers. Ever since Napster, have emailed and written both senators for my state, both female and democrat, on every friggin issue from the Iraq war to religous nuts.

The entertainment industry has already lost a customer, me. I boycott them not only because of their attacks on people like me, but also because they have been producing boring, stupid garbage. I have like 15 gigabytes of downloaded music and stuff on my hard drive. And I did not steal it: everything i downloaded was stuff I already had baught on video tape or CD. I did not have a conversion program on my computer, and wanted my favorite music and movies on hard drive as well. i simply downloaded copies of what I had already paid for, and some downloads even spurred me to go out and buy the actual item. Sometimes Id download a great song by a band I liked, but had never heard that paticular tune before, and went out and bought a "hard copy". So downloading music stimulated even me to make purchases. After downloading the complete Aeon Flux series, I ordered the original DVDS, because since it was taken of MTV, I did not get to see it, and downlaoding it made me look even harder to find actual original DVDs of this animated series, which is my personal favorite of all time.

I have doubts about congress ever passing this crap. People seem to forget just how powerful the whole tech industry has become, richer and much more powerful than the crooks in the media corps. Such a law would not only stifle artistic growth, but would also put much hated dampers on the creative powers of our tech gods.

I honestly believe that the tech entertainment revolution cannot be stopped, and the entertainment industry is a cancer patient refusing treatment, and thus, doomed do an ignoble death.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
The whole recording and entertainment industries are biting the hands that feed them. They must have dropped out from their business courses in college. Its not rocket science or even complex economics to see that suing and making criminals of your customers is a sure way to drive your profits down. Its also suicide to try to hold back and resist new technology.

Have they ever stopped to consider the reason that movie and music sales are down is because they keep pumping out mass produced talentless crap? The last movie I had any intention of shelling out my hard earned cash to see was Lord of the Rings. Everything else I see advertised looks like simple-minded low quality garbage that can only marginally be considered entertainment. Have you listened to music lately? there is such a dearth of talent, that half of the "new releases" are either covers of songs written back when bands actually could make and write their own music, or its unimaginitive, talentless rap and r&b remakes of some old classics. For the last 4 years, I am yet to hear anything new, innovative, interesting, or revolutionary in music. Maybe they should examine their own garbage mills before they go attacking the people who constitute their gravy trains. Fans arent buying because they arent producing anything worth the money.

I don't think that the music industry is considering those that download music for free as a customer. I think they are viewed more as someone who walks into a music store and shoplifts CDs. But regardless of your feelings about the music industry, is there a difference?

I think there are a lot of conflicting forces at work here--the monopolistic entertainment industry firms that propagate anti-competitive business practices, limited distribution channels for independent artists, mediocre mass-produced product, and technological advances that easily thwart protections.

The issue is, what about legitimate artists that are creating good work? How do you protect their intellectual property rights?

I think that we all can agree that an individual (or entity) that creates an original work is entitled to profit from their art, music, movies, software, etc. The concept of protecting ownership rights to an original concept is not new--patents were first issued in Europe in the 15th Century. There is no justification for violating these rights now just because technology has afforded us a simple means of doing so.

The argument that the marketplace is flooded with mediocre work just doesn't hold. If music is so awful, why are people wasting bandwith and drivespace on it in the first place? That defies logic. And what about software? Why would anyone spend a few hours downloading crappy software?

The simple explanation is that it is free. And it is human nature. If the back door of the movie theater is open and the ushers aren't around, kids are going to sneak in. Given the choice between paying $500 for software or download it for free on p2p sites like Bittorrent, Limewire and Kazaa, most people would have a hard time choosing the former.

Sure, there are problems with the music and movie industry. Talented artists that don't have mass appeal have little chance of getting picked up and great films that aren't mainstream don't get made--and that's why there is so much crap heaped on us.

But economic forces like supply and demand work and revenues should decline if product quality is poor. Just as an artist has the right to profit from their work--or rather the right to assign an economic value to their product, the marketplace has the right to reject it.

The music industry is in trouble--but if the music was so bad, then they couldn't even give it away for free, right? And what about older artists? People aren't just downloading Nelly and 50 Cent--you can download everything from Led Zep to Nirvana to The Smiths. Should they be penalized because of mediocre new artists?

I don't think that there is a simple solution. I think it starts with enforcing copyright laws. Those that download music, movies, software, and other copyrighted works are no different than shoplifters. Just as mall security turns over video tapes to the police so they can prosecute those who steal, p2p sites should be involved in helping the copyright owners prosecute those who steal their art. I think that sends a strong message and will render radical and oppressive digital protections unnecessary.

And the indignation that illegal file downloaders feign is getting a little tired. Filling up tens of gigs of drive space and they crowing about the lack of quality or industry integrity just doesn't make sense. Some of it sucks, but obviously not all of it...

Music is crap. Alot of the stuff people download is older stuff. Like I did.

And me downloading music Ive already paid for is nothing like shoplifting. I have already paid for the music. I already own those CDs/Tapes/VHS tapes. I am simply copying something I already own to my hard drive. You cant steal something you already paid for.

And of course, the number of people who download music in relation to the number of people who are music consumers is very small. Not everyone has a computer, and not everyone has an internet connection, and then not everyone has an internet conenction fast enough and strong enough to download music. So again, the number of music downloaders and music consumers is still pretty small.

Also, when people download music they find neat that they have not heard before, they are more than likely to go out and buy it. Not every computer has a CD burner, for starters, and many people wish to be able to take the music wherver they go. There is also the appeal of actually owning an album. People often like to have large album collections, or make special effort to buy special editions of a certain album. Album art and other aspects are reasons to actually buy music in hard form.

And its interesting to note there are ALOT of musoicians who support file sharing. They do not see it as a violation of intellectual property rights, they see it as a chance to get more play and circulation. When people like a band, they will go out and see them in concert. Another source of income for the band. So file sharing isn't the big robbery scheme the greedy media monopoly tries to paint it as. It offers more circulation of music to different audiences, and lets face it, si the wave of the future.

When tapes came out, did record sales plumet and the industry go broke? No. But by their logic it should have. With tapes, people could easily record songs off the radio or make copies of a friend's cassette. Yet strangely, music sales didnt die, did they, even though you could easily copy, record, or pirate music! So much for that arguement.

And I say that much of music produced is crap and losing its appeal. One can judge this by the fact that concert and venue attendance by fans has gone down quite a bit. There are no where near as many events and shows that are sold out or nearly sold out as their used to. the Seattle weekly had an article about it a few months ago. Entertainment has simply become less entertaining than it used to be.

And of course, modifying technology like the corporate pigs want is not only an invasion into aspects of life they have no business invading, but its also going to hurt the tech industry.

And alienating so many people and resisting change and progress is going to make Hollyweird and their music mongering buddies irrlelevant. You cant stop progress, it will stop you.

lmgnyc, you've bought the industry PR line hook and sinker. They are using the same tactics to kill P2P that they tried and failed to use against VCR's. The point is they are a sick and ailing business with viewship falling for decades. TV ratings are down a Third since thier height in 1985, Music Peeked in 1995 and started falling precipitously. The tactics they are using are mafialife in every respect, the moment you start labelling fans "thought thieves" or "Culture Pirates" is the moment when Rhetoric takes over and Facts, Figures and Trends gets ignored by the industry bean counters. They see a threat they need to kill and thier solutions have ranged from a 1.50 per GB Harddrive tax to making uncontrolled Hard Drives illigal.

I have already stated I am willing to PAY for the right to download TV shows when I want to. They are ineffient and power-hungry dinosaurs that need to be put down. Funny how Piracy is actually helping some industries like the Video Game industry for one. I don't see EA going out and suing it's customers for downloading and distributing thier games, as they know if the customer wants ALL the features said game has then they are gonna HAVE to buy it.

We are used to getting our art pretty much for free on TV and Radio, and now that the Net is adequete for distributing such content you say we can't do it now? Gimme a break, the INDUSTRY is the one who promoted such a culture in the first place, and now people are used to it and DONT want to change. I pay an Internet service for access to the net. Most of that bandwidth is wasted bandwidth which I use to download stuff(both Illigal and Legal when available) why doesn't the Accossiations get together with ISP's and work out a deal. The internet is the first Hyper-Broadcast medium, that is a Medium which is more effiecient then regular Broadcast. They are ignoring the upside potential which is another reason why these companies are not considered good Investments. I laugh at anyone who owns shares in any of these companies

And of course, modifying technology like the corporate pigs want is not only an invasion into aspects of life they have no business invading, but its also going to hurt the tech industry.

Not if teh Tech industry has anything to say about it, They are bigger and richer now then the entertainment industries

[edit on 21-5-2005 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by sardion2000

Not if teh Tech industry has anything to say about it, They are bigger and richer now then the entertainment industries

[edit on 21-5-2005 by sardion2000]

Very true. Times have changed. Never underestimate the power of thousands of nerd billionaires united against the waning glory of a bunch of cokehead burnout execs who arent getting all the hot chicks they used to.

Skadi--"When tapes came out, did record sales plumet and the industry go broke? No. But by their logic it should have. With tapes, people could easily record songs off the radio or make copies of a friend's cassette. Yet strangely, music sales didnt die, did they, even though you could easily copy, record, or pirate music!"
ng
When I was a kid, getting a boom box was the coolest thing a kid could have. I recorded songs off the radio all the time. I was too broke to buy every cool song that I liked. Hell, I even recorded over store bought tapes that were lame. Are we to believe that recording a song off the radio was wrong or immoral? It wasn't as though I stole a physical tape from a store. When the product is not a physical product, how can it be stealing intellectual property? 25 years later, I can afford the music. I can buy the cd, but, I dont care about the other songs, I just want what I want.

I have to ask, exactly how much of a royalty from that $.99/ song does the artist get? Maybe, if the particular artist sold music directly, then MAYBE I would consider paying. Being a pirate at heart, I may not. lol

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

Originally posted by sardion2000

Not if teh Tech industry has anything to say about it, They are bigger and richer now then the entertainment industries

[edit on 21-5-2005 by sardion2000]

Very true. Times have changed. Never underestimate the power of thousands of nerd billionaires united against the waning glory of a bunch of cokehead burnout execs who arent getting all the hot chicks they used to.

Not to mention the millions of Nerds these rich nerds employ(minus Bill Gates he equated Open-Source to Communism and he is right except he did so in a negative "Red-Scare" way that made him look foolish, Open Source is a pure communist program eg The Community all contributed to it for the greater good and not just for profit(well some of them did it to pad thier resume's but I can't fault them for that))

Just ran across this story in Wired talking about how indie bands that are getting pushed out of MTV due to this reality show craze are now getting to know Bittorrent as thier own personal broadcast medium.

www.wired.com...

"The lie that you can't compete with free, that peer to peer will be the death of the music industry, that it will be a disincentive to create, has been disproven every time a band takes advantage of the real power of this technology," he said.

What on earth is P2P or peer to peer if you will?

Originally posted by Ghaele
What on earth is P2P or peer to peer if you will?

It's a hyper-efficient method of distributing data files over the net, it is mostly being used for Piracy atm, but then again so were VCR's and Casettes.

They are trying to kill the technology as it is very disruptive to the status-quo, and to these guys/gals in the Entertainment Industry it's the devil incarnate.

I have a feeling they are going to call it quits soon and start to try to adapt, its the only way to deal with it.

like most things in life, adaptability is essential for survival

People that steal property are crooks - plain and simple and if the shoe fits, wear it. The guy got shaken down for it - he should have kept his mouth shut and not told everyone and their mother in high places that he was going to spout off on the subject.

If many of the posters here actually had enough creativity to actually produce something and get paid for it they would be screaming supporters of IP laws as well. If you don't work in a creative industry you have no perspective on this - you just think is big brother law busting your fun, when in fact p2p stuff does actually impact peoples livelihood....

Actually my Father is part of the Song Writers association and is all for it as are alot of undiscovered artists out there. I guess we should ban all storage medium then eh cuz that's what the industry wants, no matter that there is ALOT of money to be made. Shortsightedness kills industries, if the industry killed VCR's and Casettes in the 80s where would they be today hmm?

Just face it, old media is dying off and new media is taking over, there is no way to stop it completely short of the criminalisation of Computers and the Internet as they are today.

If you actually read into this issue you would realize the only people who are feeling the "pinch" are those on the top 100 moneymakers list, but then again they've been feeling the pinch since 1995, way before P2P was a household name, so that arguement doesn't hold any water.

Adaptation is the key to survival.

Protectionism just prolongs the pain.

when in fact p2p stuff does actually impact peoples livelihood....

Yeah the middle men and CEO's. The Artists who embrase P2P have been selling out concerts all over the place, how do you explain that? The artists also make more money that way as well, as it is common knowledge that they get very little per CD that is purchased.

[edit on 25-5-2005 by sardion2000]