Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown

Originally posted by jdills1196
It doesn't matter wither you support piracy or not, what matters is this new law is way too overboard. Piracy cannot be stopped this way, it would just be innocent people being put in jail.

ahh as I state this planet is nothing more than a prison planet. The good get punished and evil does what it wants. You guys can thank EA for inroducing the DRM. It was all because of SPORE. Not the crackers fault for making spore such an easy game to crack.

HACK the PLANET!!!

Copyright infringement is BS anyway. Big companies don't want you to steal their stuff, but it is okay for them to steal yours. pfftt

reply to post by Judohawk


Some DRM's only allow you to install the game up to 3 times and after that you have to buy it again. Greed is so bad these days.

reply to post by an0maly33


Hey, off topic so apols in advance to the OP (great thread btw), but does anyone else think an0maly33's avatar looks like how a bitter and hard drugs effected Dougie Howser M.D. would look around now?

I do download tv shows, but I also pay for full tv services, so I see it similar to me recording the show if I had a DVR, not actual piracy.

It's just more convenient for me to download on the computer as I can then burn to DVD, which I can't do with a DVR.

Personally, I don't think I should have to buy a whole season of a show on DVD when I already pay for cable. I pay the cable company, who then pays the broadcasters, who pay the studios for their shows, who pay the actors and studio crews to produce the show. I don't feel that my downloading TV shows while paying for cable is going to hurt the income level of anyone involved in the making of that show. If I wasn't paying for cable, I would consider this sort of downloading theft.

I can also download tv shows not yet available in my home country - if the studios can't get their crap together to get their tv shows available worldwide when they are first released, then that's their problem.

I think certainly musicians make most of their money from concerts these days, where you would have to buy a ticket to attend. At these concerts, they also make money from sales of T-shirts and other logod clothing, as well as through endorsement deals with corporations and tour sponsors.

I think the days of artists making money through record sales is definitely long gone. Several artists have released records ONLY to the internet, knowing that they don't profit from record sales, but DO profit from high levels of exposure that the internet can provide them.

In the net news alright.
DRM threw me
but wiki cleared that up
en.wikipedia.org...

OK so check this out:
licorice-pizza.blogspot.com...

a music download ... allowed???

If only they could equally do something that would criminalize some of the illegal activities that rich people do. These same corporations aren't anymore ethical than the pirates.

Even buying videogames, you can actually do it really cheap if you resell after playing, something I never considered when I was younger. But you only lose probably 5-10 bucks per game. You guys probably haven't heard much about it but the newest thing in the gaming industry is charging people who buy used games a 10 dollar access fee to use their servers for online games. And also digital download seems like it's getting popular....you can't resell those. It just gets tiring when they want destroy seemingly every way gamers can try to save money....even when trying to save money legally.

Soon they probably will come up with a way that makes lending a game/movie to a friend illegal.

What I always find most amazing about threads on Piracy topics is the lengths dishonest people will go through mentally to try and justify the fact they are thieves. I'd bet if the tables were turned and somebody was stealing from them, they would not like it.

The amount of money involved makes no difference. A thief is a thief. A dishonest person is a dishonest person.

The fact a person would steal a game is even more ludicrous. Games are so important people will steal to get them! How sad is that. And some of them are adults? Doubly sick.

There simply is no difference between stealing over the Internet, or being a shop lifter or a burglar. Theft is theft. Thieves are thieves. Stealing a car, stealing a game, stealing a song; it's all the same.

I find the responses under the article enlightening as to who this matters to.

I do however agree that the idea of enforcing against people for just looking to be wrong minded. As to the Pirates out there; call the whaaabulance on the way to jail. Who cares what thieves think. I keep a shotgun under my bed and a revolver in my office drawer just for thieves.

Reading that this was petitioned by lobbyists tells me pretty much all that we need to know.

Yes, stealing is WRONG. I don't care how much a corporation or record company makes. 'Hate the rich' is too often misguided in our society. So I can acknowledge that illegal downloads as a form of theft.

BUT...

It REALLY makes me sick to see the government constantly crack down on things in favor of the big wigs of the corporate world especially when approached by lobbyists. Also, especially when we have SO MANY other important issues going on that we REALLY need to deal with right now... more so than the government focusing on who is downloading music.

reply to post by ghaleon12


It sounds to me like games are becoming like drugs? Is that true?

It's hard for me to grasp that. It does explain why we never see children outside playing and exercising anymore.

The only real solution to any of this is to eliminate insane costs associated with media. The problem is that its unconstitutional for a government to say what a company can or cant charge for its media. The only way any of this will be resolved is if the companies themselves stop being greedy.

We are all aware development and production isn't easy. But its not worth $1200 for slightly refreshed software or $15 for a mediocre music album. If CD's were $6-10 a pop the problem probably wouldn't exist.

OOPS DOUBLE POST. MODS PLEASE DELETE.

[edit on 6/24/2010 by AndrewTB]

reply to post by AshleyD


The real problem I see here is children being so often involved. Once a child learns to steal, they won't stop at just songs and games.

How often do we see the same thing in the workplace. When I was in Construction in my youth, I'd see otherwise decent people stealing hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of tools and supplies. One project I worked in Wyoming they had over a million dollars worth of tools stolen and they were forced to search us when we left work every day. People got mad at the company. I got mad at the thieves. I think my logic was correct.

What this is really about is hating successful people or successful companies, simply for being successful. The world is not like ATS. Most businesses are ran by honest people who got rich the hard way. Hating success is insane. Our national mindset is just plain wrong. Our schools teach the children to be good little corporate or government employees, when they should be teaching them to start a business and how to succeed themselves. Do we really want to be like Greece? Is that a desirable thing? Permanently attached to a government teat.

I'm heading off topic here, but am I?

Try to remember this:

I you think it can't happen, try to open a wave-in mixer on your laptop. That should remind you of how far the power reaches.

reply to post by Blaine91555


Apparently you don't understand what theft is if you equate file sharing with it.

Remember children, there is a difference between theft, gross commercial copyright infringement, file sharing, and piracy. Refer to this chart to understand their fundamental differences.

Originally posted by Blaine91555
reply to post by ghaleon12

 

It sounds to me like games are becoming like drugs? Is that true?

It's hard for me to grasp that. It does explain why we never see children outside playing and exercising anymore.

It's interesting that you should say that. Modern video games are actually designed specifically to trigger addictive patterns in players. If you've ever seen somebody gamble away their life savings, you've seen one of those patterns yourself.

This link is to a comedy website, but the article itself is actually informative. Check it out:

www.cracked.com...



Anyways, my take on the matter is that if you take something you didn't pay for, you have committed theft. HOWEVER, the issue at hand here isn't whether piracy is right or wrong. The issue is whether or not the government and the RIAA/MPAA are right or wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right.

In this country, (The United States,) we have a document whose authority is higher than the law. That document is the Constitution. It states that we are not to be the victims of illegal searches. It has been interpreted to mean that we are also protected from wiretapping, and rightly so. If the Constitution has been interpreted to mean that a warrant is needed to search my home or tap my phone line, then why on earth should I stand for it if the government is searching my computer (as has been proposed in other bills) or spying on my Internet searches (which is the case in this bill) without one?

The issue isn't whether I'm breaking the law or not (I'm not,) the issue is whether or not my rights would be violated by this bill if it became law (They would be.)

What's even worse is that the MPAA and RIAA want the authority to violate these rights all by themselves. They want to be able to drop in on anyone's Internet activity at any time and see what they're doing. They want to be able to pop into any computer in the world without a warrant, without reasonable cause, without due process of any kind, and search for "illegally pirated content," and on top of that, they want final say in what counts as illegally pirated content.

In other words: They don't want to have to prove in court when they've been stolen from. They are seeking the power to point fingers at anyone, anywhere, and declare a copyright violation. They want this finger pointing to mean that the accused is immediately guilty in the eyes of the government, once again with due process and the Constitution be damned.

This paves the way for them to do something far beyond the scope of enforcing copyrights. If they had their way, they would have the power to literally point at anyone they choose, demand money from that person, and then be legally entitled to it without a trial and without the person even being truly guilty in the first place.

And that's scary. The same sort of thing happens in organized crime. It's called a "Protection Racket," where somebody just comes in and says you owe them money, and you owe it because they have the power to destroy you. The MPAA and RIAA are trying to set up a legalized Protection Racket, which the whole world (or at least the United States citizens) would be the victims of.

And that, frankly, is far more evil and sinister than downloading a song.

When the RIAA and MPAA stop attempting to violate my rights, then maybe I will give a crap about the thieves that are violating theirs!

Originally posted by ghaleon12


Soon they probably will come up with a way that makes lending a game/movie to a friend illegal.

They tried and it failed. Microsoft sued people for giving their old windows away to friends and it failed in court. Same could be said about Autodesk as well.

And since someone will cry that there is no difference, lets look at what words mean legally and by the dictionary.

Theft: A criminal act in which property belonging to another is taken without that person's consent.

legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com...

Property: property n. anything that is owned by a person or entity. Property is divided into two types: "real property" which is any interest in land, real estate, growing plants or the improvements on it, and "personal property" (sometimes called "personalty") which is everything else. "Common property" is ownership by more than one person of the same possession. "Community property" is a form of joint ownership between husband and wife recognized in several states. "Separate property" is property owned by one spouse only in a community property state, or a married woman's sole ownership in some states. "Public property," refers to ownership by a governmental body such as the federal, state, county or city governments or their agencies (e.g. school or redevelopment districts). The government, and, in particular, the courts are obligated to protect property rights and to help clarify ownership.

Property refers to physical matter. Something you can handle, that you can own. Such as a house, or land, or a car.

But what is music, movie, games and other forms of data?

Not only is it immaterial, but it's limitless. There is an infinite supply of it. The only physical matter is the disk it is on and the box it is in. If someone, say, goes into a store, who owns that disk and that box for commercial means, and takes that disk, that is theft. If someone downloads the data, that isn't theft. You can't take something that there is infinite amount of. It is against the principles of a free market and basic economic. There is limitless supply.

What this amounts to is the plan to make information cost money. Information should never cost money when it's access is instantaneous and limitless.

reply to post by mattifikation


if MPAA/RIAA ever had that power, then you will see me start or make an attempt to start a revolt in this country. It would be like it is okay for them to do that, but not okay for the Maffia to do that. It doesn't make any sense.



[edit on 24-6-2010 by dragnet53]

So I ask you guys and gals a question.

For example: If I bought the book Lord of the Rings, then I went and watched all three at the cinema, I go home and download the torrents of the same movies and book.

Am I infringing?

I believe I already paid the royalties. Twice actually. Once for the book, and again with the movies. I have paid the copyright, I dont have to pay and pay and pay again. According to their laws we would have to pay everytime we view the movie or read the book. You cannot lend out your DVDs or books to ANYONE as that is also copyright infringement.

[edit on 24-6-2010 by Le Colonel] spelling and stuff

[edit on 24-6-2010 by Le Colonel]

reply to post by SpectreDC


Nice try. A thief is a thief. I don't like thieves.

Your chart is childish and lacking a fundamental. File sharing is giving an illegal (illegal being the key here) copy of somebodies intellectual property to someone so they don't have to buy it themselves.

Like I said. A thief is a thief.