Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

[12thMan]

GOP leader McConnell asks Senate Dems to shelve anti-piracy bill - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

[NC_Skins]

[NC_Skins]

Piratebay.org responds to SOPA. It's a good read, and a ironic one concerning the film industry.

http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/sopa.txt

INTERNETS, 18th of January 2012.
PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Over a century ago Thomas Edison got the patent for a device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for
the ear". He called it the Kinetoscope. He was not only amongst the first to record video, he was also the first person
to own the copyright to a motion picture.

Because of Edisons patents for the motion pictures it was close to financially impossible to create motion pictures
in the North american east coast. The movie studios therefor relocated to California, and founded what we today call
Hollywood. The reason was mostly because there was no patent.
There was also no copyright to speak of, so the studios could copy old stories and make movies out of them - like
Fantasia, one of Disneys biggest hits ever.

So, the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they
circumvented immaterial rights. They copied (or put in their terminology: "stole") other peoples creative works,
without paying for it. They did it in order to make a huge profit. Today, they're all successful and most of the
studios are on the Fortune 500 list of the richest companies in the world. Congratulations - it's all based on being
able to re-use other peoples creative works. And today they hold the rights to what other people create.
If you want to get something released, you have to abide to their rules. The ones they created after circumventing
other peoples rules.

The reason they are always complainting about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did. We circumvented the
rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient. We allow
people to have direct communication between eachother, circumventing the profitable middle man, that in some cases take
over 107% of the profits (yes, you pay to work for them).
It's all based on the fact that we're competition.
We've proven that their existance in their current form is no longer needed. We're just better than they are.

And the funny part is that our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech.
We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws
should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations.

The Pirate Bay is truly an international community. The team is spread all over the globe - but we've stayed out of the
USA. We have Swedish roots and a swedish friend said this:
The word SOPA means "trash" in Swedish. The word PIPA means "a pipe" in Swedish. This is of course not a coincidence.
They want to make the internet inte a one way pipe, with them at the top, shoving trash through the pipe down to the
rest of us obedient consumers.
The public opinion on this matter is clear. Ask anyone on the street and you'll learn that noone wants to be fed with
trash. Why the US government want the american people to be fed with trash is beyond our imagination but we hope that
you will stop them, before we all drown.

SOPA can't do anything to stop TPB. Worst case we'll change top level domain from our current .org to one of the
hundreds of other names that we already also use. In countries where TPB is blocked, China and Saudi Arabia springs to
mind, they block hundreds of our domain names. And did it work? Not really.
To fix the "problem of piracy" one should go to the source of the problem. The entertainment industry say they're
creating "culture" but what they really do is stuff like selling overpriced plushy dolls and making 11 year old girls
become anorexic. Either from working in the factories that creates the dolls for basically no salary or by watching
movies and tv shows that make them think that they're fat.

In the great Sid Meiers computer game Civilization you can build Wonders of the world. One of the most powerful ones
is Hollywood. With that you control all culture and media in the world. Rupert Murdoch was happy with MySpace and had
no problems with their own piracy until it failed. Now he's complainting that Google is the biggest source of piracy
in the world - because he's jealous. He wants to retain his mind control over people and clearly you'd get a more
honest view of things on Wikipedia and Google than on Fox News.

Some facts (years, dates) are probably wrong in this press release. The reason is that we can't access this information
when Wikipedia is blacked out. Because of pressure from our failing competitors. We're sorry for that.

THE PIRATE BAY, (K)2012

[Dirtbag59]

Good for the Pirate Bay. It's funny to think how much of a hypocrite everyone in this whole ordeal is. Murdoch speaks out against piracy yet was more then happy to phone hack the British Royal Family among countless others. Hollywood claims to be loosing money yet can still afford to pay actors like Johnny Depp $40 million to star in a movie.

It seems that no matter what outdated establishments will cry kicking and screaming anytime someone threatens them. Hollywood cried out against people bringing camcorders to movies yet some odd years later they publish articles teaching educators how to set up a camcorder in front of a flat screen to record shows for educational purposes.

The bottom line is this. People are still willing to pay. Itunes, Netflix, Hulu, CrunchyRoll are all examples. If you really are loosing money, which is doubtful, it's because you refuse to give up on your outdated business models in hopes of controlling that which you no longer have control over.

[MTK]

^word

Adapt or die

[Dirtbag59]

Here's the result of the blackout.

[Dirtbag59]

Next time someone tells you that movies are loosing money to piracy cite X-Men: Wolverine Orgins. One of the first movies to be leaked on torrent sites in high quality before the theatrical release.
Budget: $150 Million
Box Office: $373,062,864

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 37% approval on 246 reviews

#TrueStory

[NC_Skins]

[SirClintonPortis]

With regards to "video piracy", it seems like the folks most worried about it have not really given much thought to consumer behavior with regards to video,which is different than their behavior in other products, such as software(where anti-piracy has a much stronger claim, imo, but not without caveats), and who and how much does the act of piracy really affect their industry.

In the realm of video consumers, you have the buyers, "would buy but won't pay (until the price drops a huge amount and the disc is out of print)", the renters, the "would rent but won't pay", and the the "never will try" . Which group(s) are the most of the downloaders coming from and how does their download affect the industry? When someone downloads a movie or tv show, were they going to shell out money in the first place? If yes, were they going to rent first or would they have bought it outright? The movie industry seems to have labelled virtually everyone as BUYERS trying to avoid purchasing an optical disk or going to the movie theatre. In this case, the downloaded file replaces the optical disk/trip to the movie theatre and enjoys multiple rewatches. But what if most downloaders are actually renters or "guys who wouldn't rent but evaluate"?(this is a hypothetical question) In that case, they are not skimping out on the paying for the optical disk or movie theatre trip, but rather the fee charged by services such as Blockbuster, Netflix, etc.

One thing that will happen for sure is that watching a movie has a transformative effect on the viewer. He'll either toss it or he'll like it. In the latter scenario, the buyer will want to buy or he'll be "keep and rewatch" the downloaded file. The question of whether the "transformed liker" is more likely to go and buy the "real deal" products or if they'll just sit on their ass and just rewatch the file.

So, the two big unknowns about the video downloader is 1. whether he's a buyer, a renter, or a "would rent but won't pay" guy and 2. what does he do after watching the video. Question 1 would help idenfitfy which companies actually might be affected and Question 2 would help answer just how much of an effect video piracy in its current form has on various companies.

I'm not closed to the idea piracy might hurt companies, but they'll have to prove it is the case first and that this is not a case of the corporate animal trying to amass market power(economics definition) for itself.

Oh, and for those who have "ethical issues" with pirates, note that utilitarian ethics usually reigns supreme in corporate culture. In layman's terms, the consequences are all that matters(Make spending power=good. Lose spending power=bad. Laws are just a means to achieve that end). The fat cats would screw their workers for chump change if possible. In video, the alleged piracy effects affects the money controllers(the top executives) first, the ones they're trying to garner sympathy for(workers, even the directors) second.

Note: This post is mainly an attempt to form description of the situation regarding "VIDEO PIRACY".

[NC_Skins]

Anonymous Just Deleted CBS.com and Took Down Universal

[NC_Skins]

This guy is a piece of shit no doubt.

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought | Techdirt


Former Senator Chris Dodd.

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,"

They think the American people are so stupid, they openly admit to buying our politician's votes.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by NC_Skins

This guy is a piece of shit no doubt.

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought | Techdirt


They think the American people are so stupid, they openly admit to buying our politician's votes.

I've actually started to wonder if Dodd is pro-piracy. The stuff he says like calling the blackout "an abuse of power" seems like the kind of stuff you say when you're purposely trying to loose a fight. Now this?

Furthermore as a follow up to your story
Petition Asks White House to Probe MPAA's Chris Dodd Over Warning | Reuters

[SirClintonPortis]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

I've actually started to wonder if Dodd is pro-piracy. The stuff he says like calling the blackout "an abuse of power" seems like the kind of stuff you say when you're purposely trying to loose a fight. Now this?

Furthermore as a follow up to your story
Petition Asks White House to Probe MPAA's Chris Dodd Over Warning | Reuters

The MPAA loves to produce gems like the following. Something in their culture must be fostering stuff like THIS:

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."[6]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems that the MPAA has some assumptions about consumer behavior:
1. Consumers would always buy their products brand spanking new before doing anything else, such as renting or buying from resellers.
2. Consumers do not have a budget constraint.
3. Everyone already knows about the most obscure of movies, hence extra publicity is unnecessary.
4. Consumers are risk-loving or risk-neutral. When it comes to film, when a flop is purchased, the consumer will just buy something different with no change to their behavior.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

The MPAA loves to produce gems like the following. Something in their culture must be fostering stuff like THIS:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems that the MPAA has some assumptions about consumer behavior:
1. Consumers would always buy their products brand spanking new before doing anything else, such as renting or buying from resellers.
2. Consumers do not have a budget constraint.
3. Everyone already knows about the most obscure of movies, hence extra publicity is unnecessary.
4. Consumers are risk-loving or risk-neutral. When it comes to film, when a flop is purchased, the consumer will just buy something different with no change to their behavior.

I don't know weather to love them for being so stupid and out of touch, or fear them for the exact same reasons.

On a sidenote if anyone can take a moment to sign the petition. 14,500+ signatures in around 2 days.
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Investigate Chris Dodd and the MPAA for bribery after he publicly admited to bribing politicans to pass legislation.

[SirClintonPortis]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

I don't know weather to love them for being so stupid and out of touch, or fear them for the exact same reasons.

On a sidenote if anyone can take a moment to sign the petition. 14,500+ signatures in around 2 days.
WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Investigate Chris Dodd and the MPAA for bribery after he publicly admited to bribing politicans to pass legislation.

Dumb they are, but power they have. Dumb and powerful are to be feared...unless it benefits you.