Piracy

[The NZA]

...nevermind then.

 

[Mr. Hakujin]

Nick, you should e-mail the producers of Hurt Locker a link to this thread...

 

Problem: Waah. I won a bunch of Oscar's but no one paid to see my overrated film!

Solution: Sue teh Internets!

 

Hurt Locker producer sues 5,000 BitTorerent users

 

Hurt Locker producer Voltage Pictures has filed a widely-anticipated lawsuit against illegal file sharers.

 

The suit, filed in the Columbia District Court, accuses 5,000 BitTorrent

users of copyright violation. It's one of the biggest ever lawsuits against individuals.

 

Even Voltage doesn't know the names of the defendants, who have been identified only by their IP addresses. It plans to subpoena ISPs this week to get the users' names.

 

Once it's identified these people, they'll be sent letters inviting them to cough up $1,500 to settle - and warning them that it'll be ten times as much if they don't pay up and the case goes all the way to court.

 

Hurt Locker was leaked on the internet via BitTorrent about six months before its official US release. Although it was a critical success, winning six Academy Awards, it proved a disappointment in terms of box office takings. The fim grossed less than $17 million - and Voltage sees a connection.

 

"A Defendant's distribution of even one unlawful copy of a motion picture can result in the nearly instantaneous worldwide distribution of that single copy to a limitless number of people," reads the suit.

 

"The Plaintiff now seeks redress for this rampant infringement of their exclusive rights."

 

PS

Someone really should move this thread to Culture & Sociology. Even Philosophy would make more sense than Nintendorks here. Just sayin'

[gunsmithx]

This thread has chagned a bit from when I started it by using an example of video game piracy... which would go in nintendorks.

[The NZA]

chris' right, though...its hard to talk about this strictly in just the gaming sense. if you dont want it moved & expanded, would you be down to splinter some of it off into a larger topic? i too am not sure where it'd go, i wanna say we've already got at least 1 from before in philosophy and another one elsehwere...

[The NZA]

@ haku's Hurt Locker scandal (good call)...it gets worse.

 

A few months ago, U.S. Copyright Group tried to sue over 20,000 people for downloading indie films such as Uwe Boll’s Far Cry. Seeing some modest success with that plan, they arranged to follow it up with a new lawsuit, targeting people who had downloaded The Hurt Locker. The original idea was to use software to track down the IP addresses of people downloaded these films over bittorrent networks. The Group would provide the IP addresses to Internet service providers (e.g. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, etc.) and subpoena them to turn over downloaders’ real names and addresses. These people would then be offered the opportunity to settle for a modest sum of money. Refusal would result in a lawsuit.

 

It’s a classic, time-honored way of ruthlessly extracting money from people that want your product, used by the RIAA back in its golden years. But it turns out, Time Warner Cable isn’t too happy with the plan.

 

According to court filing (written up in detail by Ars Technica), Time Warner Cable (TWC) has better things to do with their time than to match names with IP Addresses. See, it’s not that TWC believes that the lawsuits are a grave breach of privacy; it’s that they are a huge pain in the ass, which TWC can’t afford right now. The company typically receives 567 IP lookup requests per month, mostly for law enforcement reasons. Each IP lookup costs the company about $45, and it only has four full-time staff devoted to taking care of these duties.

You can quickly see why receiving requests for thousands of names names within the span of a month from one company might tax TWC’s resources. TWC writes:

 

Copyright cases involving third-party discovery of Internet service providers have typically related to a plaintiff’s efforts to identify anonymous defendants whose numbers rank in the single or low double digits….By contrast, [u.S. Copyright Group] alone seeks identifying information about 2,049 anonymous defendants, and seeks identifying information about 809 Internet Protocol addresses from TWC.

 

Essentially, it is impossible for TWC to comply with these requests. TWC continued:

 

If the Court compels TWC to answer all of these lookup requests given its current staffing, it would take TWC nearly three months of full-time work by TWC’s Subpoena Compliance group, and TWC would not be able to respond to any other request, emergency or otherwise, from law enforcement during this period…TWC has a six-month retention period for its IP lookup logs, and by the time TWC could turn to law enforcement requests, many of these requests could not be answered.

TWC also alleges that U.S. Copyright Group is responsible for abusing the discovery process in several other ways as well. So what now? TWC wants the subpoena quashed, and Comcast and Cablevision may do the same thing if they can’t work out an arrangement to make the workflow easier. One possibility is that the cable companies may opt turn over only a few names per month. But either way, it looks like U.S. Copyright Group’s plans to get the names of huge swaths of people may not work out as easily as they’d hoped.

 

and holy shit at this d-bag.

 

Slashfilm posted a few quotes from the producer of Hurt Locker. The same producer who got banned from the Oscars for emailing industry insiders.

 

This is the email sent to the Producer

 

I wish to register my disagreement with these tactics, and would like you to know that as a result of these actions I am boycotting your films. The majority of the people you are suing were not seeking to make money from their downloads, and will be financially devastated by a lawsuit or settlement. While it is completely understandable that Voltage Pictures wishes to defend its intellectual property, this is an inhumane way of doing so. Until Voltage Pictures publicly states that it will not pursue lawsuits for downloading its films, I will not view, rent or buy any films produced wholly or in part by your company.

 

This is his response.

 

Hi Nicholas, please feel free to leave your house open every time you go out and please tell your family to do so, please invite people in the streets to come in and take things from you, not to make money out of it by reselling it but just to use it for themselves and help themselves. If you think it’s normal they take my work for free, I’m sure you will give away all your furniture and possessions and your family will do the same. I can also send you my bank account information since apparently you work for free and your family too so since you have so much money you should give it away… I actually like to pay my employees, my family, my bank for their work and like to get paid for my work.

 

I’m glad you’re a moron who believes stealing is right. I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference. Until then, keep being stupid, you’re doing that very well. And please do not download, rent, or pay for my movies, I actually like smart and more important HONEST people to watch my films.

 

ps no, that's not my email.

[Mr. Hakujin]

I love how this prodoucher only wants "smart" people to watch his films. He gets off on calling Nicholas a moron yet he himself apparently doesn't know when to use an adverb instead of an adjective nor does he seem to have a keen grasp on correct use of punctuation. If you're going to rail on someone for being a moron at least proofread your rant prior to replying. Douchebag.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Mr. Hakujin

[alive she cried]

What a fucking douchebag, is Mr. H

[The NZA]

yeah, if official: grammar nazi-H killed this topic (cause that's what was wrong with the producer: adverb usage). nevermind about the scope question; your baby made it 4 pages.

[Mr. Hakujin]

yeah, if official: grammar nazi-H killed this topic (cause that's what was wrong with the producer: adverb usage). nevermind about the scope question; your baby made it 4 pages.

Whatever, you sentence structure turd stained excuse for a man. ASC totally killed it w/ his limpdick strike-through joke. What a lameoid. "If" official!

[alive she cried]

Your* a monster.

 

 

 

 

*

bait for Mr. H, let's see if he takes it

[The NZA]

he can't not. if a teacher sees a chance to correct someone online, its like blood in the water, except instead of a shark, imagine someone with elbow patches and a desperate need to appear relevant...have you ever met jumbie?

[Losifer]

[MetalHeart]

Since this is the most recent thread, I'm putting this here

 

Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown

"It's smash and grab, no different than a guy walking down Fifth Avenue and smashing the window at Tiffany's and reaching in and grabbing what's in the window." -- U.S. VP Joe Biden

 

While they may never be able to truly defeat piracy and drive it from the lurking depths of the internet, copyright protection attack-dog organizations like the RIAA and MPAA have long dreamed of the day when they would no longer have to pay for their own copyright enforcement. Now that dream is on the verge of coming true, thanks to the Obama administration.

 

After countless lobbyist dollars from the music and film industry and a brief "public review", the administration rolled out its vision to fight piracy yesterday afternoon. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden -- whose blunt speech has sometime left him in trouble -- did not mince words.

 

He states, "This is theft, clear and simple. It's smash and grab, no different than a guy walking down Fifth Avenue and smashing the window at Tiffany's and reaching in and grabbing what's in the window."

 

The sound-byte comparing downloads to stealing jewels from New York City's finest jeweler quickly lit up the web. Bob Pisano, interim chief executive officer at the Motion Picture Association of America praised the VP, "It is especially critical that the United States has an effective framework for protecting creative content online and enforcing intellectual property rights in the digital environment."

 

According to the Obama administration, the RIAA, and MPAA, the world economy is pretty much doomed if we don't start prosecuting pirates at home and abroad. Without such a crackdown, businesses will go bankrupt the coalition argues. Biden states, "Piracy hurts, it hurts our economy."

 

Interestingly, the statements seem to fly in the face of a recent Government Accountability Office study released to U.S. Congress earlier this year, which concluded that there is virtually no evidence for the claimed million dollar losses by the entertainment industry. That study suggested that piracy could even benefit the economy.

 

Another noteworthy study from three years back notes that virtually every citizen violates intellectual property laws in some way on a daily basis.

 

The White House press release was full of buzz phrases, but short on details. It did however indicate that the U.S. government may increasingly monitor filesharing networks and BitTorrent sites and assist media groups in their prosecution/threat letter efforts. It speaks of improved "law enforcement efforts at the Federal, state and local level."

 

The biggest effort, though, will be devoted to cracking down on piracy websites in the U.S. and overseas. The administration was short on details of how exactly it would convince piracy-loving nations like China to change their ways, but it did say it would try to do so by "being as public as we possibly can" about infringement.

 

The press release states, "As we shine the spotlight on foreign governments that have rogue actors doing illicit business within their borders, it's the government's responsibility to respond."

 

Such efforts have shown mild success. After lots of threats against the Swedish government by the U.S., the European Union nation finally tried admins with the nation's largest torrent site The Pirate Bay last year and found them guilty. The trial was later exposed to be a perversion of the justice system, with the judge who gave the verdict have multiple ties to copyright protection organizations. The verdict -- $3M USD in damages and a year of hard prison time for the admins -- is currently being appealed.

 

The White House's vision is perhaps a prelude to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which will go before Congress later this year. The bill would make P2P or BitTorrent client development a criminal offense if the distributed software was used for infringement. It also implements an interesting provision called "imminent infringement", which allows the government to charge people who they think might be about to infringe with a civil offense (for example if you searched "torrent daft punk"). This is among the first official "thought crime" provisions to be proposed by the U.S. government. The bill also makes it a criminal offense to bypass DRM.

 

Ultimately, it should be interesting to see how American taxpayers react to President Obama's decision to spend their money on efforts to prosecute them and try to choke out piracy at home and abroad, particularly when the current evidence is inconclusive of its effects. One thing's for sure, though. Top politicians on both sides of the aisle are firmly behind the music and movie industry anti-piracy and money-collection efforts. - DailyTech

[The NZA]

this is officially a catch-all topic for piracy, yaayyyyy

 

yeah, good luck with that. until they talk about specifics, this is what you do to appease people throwing moneyhats at you.

[Lycaon]

I don't feel like starting a thread for Talk Like a Pirate Day, and I can't find an existing thread. That bein' the case, I'll hijack this one! Yar!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, ye scurvy bilge rats!

Here's an article about a pirate band (Alestorm) I saw earlier today (with a sample of one of their songs):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112935571&sc=fb&cc=fp

 

English to pirate translator:

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/translator.html

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2010 by Lycaon

[The NZA]

Tripwire CEO[/b]']

when we were shopping our first game Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 around to traditional brick-and-mortar publishers, we were shocked at how terrible their proposals were. We were getting pitched offers like, "We'll give you a 15 percent royalty rate, take the IP rights to your game, and slap a $1.5 million administrative fee on top of your recoupment costs." And deals like this were being offered for a game we funded ourselves!

 

gun - using your already-bloated topic as a starting point & continuing our offline conversation: i posit that this business model is not only criminal (ethically moreso), but far more harmful to the industry than piracy. your move, sir!

[gunsmithx]

Sure explain what this has to to do with piracy(how is not paying them for their game helping them?) and how is it criminal?

and by criminal I mean what laws does this break? it's retarded but I don't think it's illegal to say, I'll do this if you give me that.(no sympthany if they excepted that btw, that would be dumb.)

 

BTW I do agree with ethically wrong and I hope they dont' except any deal like this, self publish on steam.

 

This should really be it's own topic, thats what gaf has taught me.

Edited January 28, 2011 by gunsmithx

[The NZA]

it breaks my classic law of catchin' an ass whupping. they might as well offer to send goons to the dude's place to handle kneecap duty.

 

and yeah, they did just that, made a lotta $ on steam. im saying the shitty business model many publishers have with devs, as well as with retailers, is more harmful to the industry than piracy. again, piracy is a factor, but we can infer all day about to what extent pirated games = loss of potential revenue, and id still say situations like this & the business model they create are why so many studios are one flop away from closing up shop, as we've seen way too much lately.

 

you're right though, ill split this off into its own topic at some point, i just thought it was funny to put it here since this was kinda all over the place anyway.

[gunsmithx]

it breaks my classic law of catchin' an ass whupping. they might as well offer to send goons to the dude's place to handle kneecap duty.

 

and yeah, they did just that, made a lotta $ on steam. im saying the shitty business model many publishers have with devs, as well as with retailers, is more harmful to the industry than piracy. again, piracy is a factor, but we can infer all day about to what extent pirated games = loss of potential revenue, and id still say situations like this & the business model they create are why so many studios are one flop away from closing up shop, as we've seen way too much lately.

 

you're right though, ill split this off into its own topic at some point, i just thought it was funny to put it here since this was kinda all over the place anyway.

 

Thats not really a good anolgoly(yes I know it's misspelled) They didn't force them to sign it as the goons who have come to break my knees would have made me do. They offered a contract favorble to themselves(and one which I think is stuipd and retarded) and not to the dev and the dev turned them down. the pub was dumb not just cause of the terms but they lost the chance to make money and further their image.

 

There are a couple of reasons this shit happens. 1. it's not fucking cheap to make video games and hasn't been in a while(at least on consoles and for AAA titles) money has to come from somewhere and people get fucking desperte. 2. Many people might be great designers and coders but alot of them are piss poor at bissness. it's been a huge issues for a long time and many did not set out to learn and really look at what they were doing or signing, thats on them. 3. Alot of pubs have gotten bured trying to get the next big thing or by devs that have fucked up, thats on both sides as honestly project mangment sucks for the most part and there's a huge adversial realtionship between the 2 and everyone thinks the other is out to get them.

 

On a another note, what pubs are supposed to be good to work with? We always hear about the bad ones but never the good ones. and yeah split this off, I would but I don't have mod powers here....

[The NZA]

had to share.

[gunsmithx]

is this cause that crazy guy tried to compare it to the holocaust?

 

BTW what he said wasn't all wrong he just choose the absolute worst thing you could pick as a comparison(well I guess baby eating would be worse but also stupid.)

 

Me I say it's like the empire blowing up aldarraan!

[The NZA]

yes it is, and yes he was wrong (demonization of actual customers from pubs occurs too, no one should listen to either occurrence), yes you're both crazy.

[gunsmithx]

note I said not all wrong, not all right,

[Thelogan]

[The NZA]

Just The Facts:

 

- No matter how you cut it, The Pirate Bay is ultimately just a collection of thieves.

 

- However, its chief rival is the RIAA: An even larger and more vicious collection of thieves.

Which makes TPB the lesser of two evils - kind of like Robin Hood.

 

- Except instead of money, they're giving pornography and pirated episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice to the poor.

 

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