The END of Online Piracy

Well I think this is pretty much it...

United States lawmakers have proposed new legislation today that would allow the Department of Justice to take over domain names of websites that promote copyright infringement. The proposed bill would allow for court orders against domestic as well as foreign sites, which could potentially shutter many torrent sites including The Pirate Bay.
torrentfreak.com...

It's called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act and not surprisingly has the full support of the MPAA and RIAA. Earlier this year about 10 movie streaming sites were shut down, with the passing of this bill, all major torrent sites will go down in flames.

On the one hand I do think that online piracy is just that... piracy, stealing. But on the other hand, I place huge blame on the media authorities who refuse to adopt new techniques of doing business that would allow them to utilize these new technologies.

Don't expect you'll be able to just hop on the Pirate Bay and download the latest U2 album before going and out and buying by the end of next year.

This worries me just because of the many legal, public domain files I find on these torrent sites. There is so much good stuff out there that is not copyrighted like out of print books and old documentaries that are not sold or distributed anymore. I doubt any site would draw enough traffic just promoting this legal stuff to be worth it.

reply to post by serbsta

It should be free, if I find it on some site it's not my fault it's there for download as long as I can download it.
It should be restricted, not available, password protected I don't know, but as long as it is click the link and download then I don't see the problem.

Ok, so tell me this?

You have any idea the talent and the time it takes to WRITE A BOOK?

But you show me one town that doesn't have a USED Books Store where you can go in and buy one for a buck or a 'Book Swap' where you exhange books for FREE.
So, don't go on about 'piracy'.

If I can listen to 'Waka Waka' for free at Mc Donalds while buying myself a heartattck? I should be able to listen to it on my computer - minus the plaque and grease!

Meaning - if I go to a site and something is there for free? I'll say thank you and move right along.

peace

reply to post by serbsta


Just because they pass some act in the US does not mean that a country like lets say China will allow them to enforce it on their servers But hey , they can try if they want to

reply to post by serbsta


So what, they think they can just shut down all forms of file sharing sites which are often used for sharing copyrighted content? Ok...that means they need to shut down Megaupload, Rapidshare etc...like that will happen, they will only touch torrent sites, which is completely bias. Torrents are a brilliant way for people to share data, you can't just get rid of a technology because it "can be" used with ill intentions - how many other things would fit that description do you think? A LOT!

reply to post by serbsta

If signed into law

would allow for court orders against domestic as well as foreign sites

would allow the Department of Justice to file a civil
lawsuit against the domain owners.

File it where? With whom?

Does anybody seriously expect someone in another country to respond to a subpeona issued here? If a chinese court announced that you were charged with a crime and demanded that you appear before them...would you go?

Why should pirates?

Come on American people, do the world a favour and get rid of that corrupt government of yours.

reply to post by CHA0S


Perhaps its because P2P is the most common form of file sharing. In the last massive sweep sites like Megaupload and even the Pirate Bay barely survived. Yes, Megaupload, which is not a torrent based site. Once they're down, they're domain will get hit with one of these notices:

www.movies-links.tv...

reply to post by LordBucket


The EU will comply with and even authorize its own version of this law if need be. That's a non-issue really. Just look at the cross country anti-piracy police operation that saw many warez sites shut down just the last month.

I have believed for a long time that there is no such thing as privacy on the internet and I live my internet life by the rule that I do not and will not put anything on it I would not be happy telling the entire world.

I would not be surprised if the internet has been used to monitor people since its inception and acceptance into mainstrem use.

Although I don't agree with piracy and see it as a bad thing, it is the monster that it is because of big corporations ripping people off. The first dvd I ever bought cost me £20 GBP in 1999 today a new dvd is around £18 theres no need for dvd's to be so expensive when they are first put on the shelves.

Same goes for music an album will cost anything up to £15 again when it is new on the shelves. Until we as consumers start refusing to pay these prices then piracy on the internet and the attempt at controling it will contuine to spiral out of control.

reply to post by serbsta

In the last massive sweep sites like Megaupload and even the Pirate Bay barely survived.

Yeah, it seems they managed to take down the Pirate Bay tracker though, which really sucked at the time, a lot of files were lost...I hadn't heard of Megaupload being in jeopardy though, you have a link for that?

And BTW, this is by no means the END of piracy.

These laws will not affect only the pirates though!

All these laws are designed for one thing only: to get the rich richer. They have already made it extremely difficult for anyone to start/continue their own business. The goal is for them to cut out the underground, to cut out independance. They want us all to be their slaves so they get all the wealth.

I have seen so many successful independant/underground companies go under in the past few years, due to new laws being passed or because of government/bearucrat corruption, resulting in good people losing their livelihoods. its absolutely #ing ridiculous and outright evil.

Ughh I wouldn't say it is the END of it as your post suggest. Maybe the end of an already outdated method. Remember the feds are always one step behind. But stealing music is illegal. Even though the artist may only make 10 cents off an album and the rest goes to the record label, publishing company, producer etc it's still stealing. It also diminishes their credibility as far as "albums sold" goes because no one really knows.

I believe it is time for copyright reform. The laws were made in the 70s (I believe) and are not up to date with the current times. Millions of people break them as well.

I think there should be payments like; 20,50,100 or 200 dollars a year for a certain amount of downloads or something like that. 99 cents a song is still too expensive and 10-20 dollars a CD is too expensive as well.

I think this is something that we will see a lot of changes happening in the near future. (The music industry).

Keep in mind with the ridiculous amounts of music being "stolen" the economy has been significantly hit.

Not saying I haven't, but the next time you steal music think to yourself that you are contributing to the slump the global economy is currently in.

It's a tough topic, I would suggest calling/writing a local politician & telling them you want copyright reform!

reply to post by CHA0S


Yup, here's the link:

As part of an initiative to crack down on Internet piracy and counterfeiting, the US Government recently took action against sites making available movies and TV shows. Arrests did not feature in the action, but controversially the authorities seized site domain names instead. TorrentFreak has learned that both The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload domains were also on the target list.

...

‘Operation In Our Sites‘ culminated in the apparent shutting down of 9 sites – TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net – although not in the conventional manner.
torrentfreak.com...

It's not only torrent sites that they are cracking down on. This law will encompass all methods.

It's the end of piracy in the sense that it will force it to go underground if it wants to survive. Once it goes underground the numbers of those who participate within it will diminish heavily to the point where it is not noticeable. Once the numbers are really low the underground scene can be easily dismantled.

reply to post by jpmail


I really have to laugh
First of all: You don't need DVDs or music, right? Consider them, as what they're: A luxury. If you can't afford to buy them, it's your own fault. Look for a better job where you get more money, so you can buy them or just don't buy it. You don't music or movies to survive, right?
It's just so crazy and egoistical that some people think they deserve everything for free or should only pay an absolute minimum because they have a #ty job, have to pay for other stuff and don't have money left..

Second: Where the [snip] do you buy your music? I searched on Amazon.co.uk and NEW CD releases go for 8,95 Pound. In Germany new releases are between 14,95 and 17,95€ which is not that much. In the late 90's you paid about 32,99 DM for a new CD. In the 70's you paid around 22 DM for a new LP which comes to about 28€ today if you count inflation. So CDs today are very cheap and you even get more music than for more money 40 years ago when LPs usually gave you 30-40 minutes of music, today you get 50-80 minutes.
Same goes for DVD's, especially since Blu-Ray is the latest hype, DVDs are really cheap, you can get new movie for about 9,99€. I waited and got Gran Torino two months after the release for 5,95€ on Amazon.
I remember in the early 90's they sold VHS tapes with 1 or 2 episodes of an TV-Show. I remember they wanted 19,95 DM for an Episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Today you can get the complete first season with about 15 episodes for 19,99€. Two months ago i just payed 9,99€ for the fourth Season of Knight Rider...
Yeah, everything is so [snip] expensive these days

Just look around, buy it online and you will save lots and lots of money.
Amazon even has that nifty Marketplace where some peoples sell new and used media for insanely low prices. Sure, the new cd may arrive 2 weeks later because it was sent from somewhere in Singapur or the USA, but if you can save 10€ you accept the waiting time.

I say: Pass the laws, destroy piracy. There's just no need to pirate movies or music, there's no need to download a movie that still runs in the cinemas. People should just wake up and look for good prices instead of bitching and moaning, just because you're too stupid and still buy your stuff in an expensive store

Originally posted by Curiousisall
This worries me just because of the many legal, public domain files I find on these torrent sites. There is so much good stuff out there that is not copyrighted like out of print books and old documentaries that are not sold or distributed anymore. I doubt any site would draw enough traffic just promoting this legal stuff to be worth it.

I would have to agree, i get a lot of old military manuals, gun plans and other ether non copyrighted or with lost authors.
(authors never registered there name or pen name so there is no way for them to prove they are the author)

Though i have seen military manuals that have had a new cover and authors page put on them and the person tried to claim they had a copyright on it then.

I don't think this is really going to make any difference to the amount of copyrighted material being shared on the internet over all, it may make a small dent for a time but then a new model for file sharing will come about and it will start all over again.

Sharing on p2p apps like napster emule etc was popular for years until they were replaced by bit torrent and before that people shared things on bbs systems and the like.

The next progression I can see coming in this is totaly decentralize totally anonymous file sharing, this does exist all ready but is still at the stage of being a bit to complex and slow for the average user.

The law / governments are always a few hundred steps behind whats actually going on in this area, usually any copyright protection that companies try to push onto the public is circumnavigated within two days by a twelve year old school boy from Sweden or the like

Originally posted by serbsta
The EU will comply with and even authorize its own version of this law if need be. That's a non-issue really. Just look at the cross country anti-piracy police operation that saw many warez sites shut down just the last month.

Yes the EU might comply with this , but Uganda , Mozambique, Turkey or any other country that does not care for EU/Us laws will not comply , and I am pretty sure there are a lot of those countries . I am also quite sure establishing a server in one of those countries will not be to hard and will not require you to show up in person there . Everything will be done online and in minutes

I do not advocate piracy (even thou I happen to download a song here and there sometimes) but I love it when absurds like that come out of the US , because this shows that they really think they are running the world

Unless everybody will have a net pass with full name and address , and unless every bit of traffic in the whole world will be monitored and controlled , there will always be countries/people that will not comply with some order in some country , and nothing can be done about this

Also this will not force piracy into the underground more than it is now , people that want to pirate stuff will pirate stuff , the only thing that will change is the domain address , and somebody else will get rich on this (providing the servers). Just like with "unsafe substances that are illegal" , if somebody wants to find them , there is really no problem with that.

This kinda reminds me of the Mid-90's movie, "Hackers." No matter what stupid laws our lame-duck government tries to pass, they will never stop the free flow of data. They are asking for the hurt from every possible point on the globe. Of course, while it seems childish to make a big stink over not being able to download programs, music, books, and games for free, this sets a precedent for other information on the internet. What if they decided to take away things like Wikipedia, or YouTube, or other forms of information? This is sending a strong message to the underground (now mainstream) pirating community that the US Government wants to go to war with them (sounds familiar, eh?). I honestly use these bittorrent websites to sample different kinds of music by independent artists, many of whom distribute music across these sites in a way of free self-promotion. I know I have bought at least 20 albums from independent artists after sampling their stuff on a bittorrent website.

Of course this bring up another point entirely.

How big should our government get? How much control should lobbyists get over our lawmakers? Obviously the two major ones in this case are the music and entertainment industry. How much say should they have as far as making laws that only helps them and pushes out the independent artists (who use a lot of these websites to distribute music, as I have already mentioned)?

Out of 100 things I download, I'll usually buy up to 65-75% of what I'm listening to/playing/etc. In this "thrifty" economy, why pay for something that you're not going to like? I end up deleting what I don't like or what I don't listen to. While this isn't the case with a lot of pirates, this is the case for me. I try it before I buy it.


And to the poster who mentioned that the American people should stand up and change our government:

We're trying. It's harder than it seems.




Peace be with you.

-truthseeker

Well they tried a similar sort of thing with ACTA, and as far as I'm aware it never passed in America. I know it didn't in the UK/Europe.

Also, just look at what happened to MPAA/aiplex last week. I can see more attacks like that in the future if it gets passed