100M : The Pirate Bay is blocked

Originally Posted by martyh

All the products in question i.e films ,music etc are intended for public consumption .The owners of such property give people rights to that product in exchange for money so the semantics are very important ,it is not theft ,it cannot be theft ,it may be ,under certain circumstances copyright infringement ,but definately not theft .The distinction is important and the very reason why we have copyright laws

So because it's not theft in the eyes of the law it is OK to take and use without paying for the product?Is that what you are saying?Because I'm very confused as to what you are saying.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by kwikbreaks

I personally don't use torrents, never have, never will. That's not some moral stand - I just think they are far far better ways of acquiring content (for better read faster and for want of a better word safer).

I don't use Torrents they are insecure and are to damaging to the network with there seeding system. I have far better options for downloading and they are far more secure.

[_wtf_]

The Avengers had the most successful first weekend in US movie history with over $207 million. It broke the record set by Harry Potter last year by more than $30 million. It must be getting awful hard for the MPAA to keep a straight face when they force ISP's to block TPB because it's killing the movie industry, even the UK figures are quite amazing.

Originally Posted by _wtf_

The Avengers had the most successful first weekend in US movie history with over $207. It broke the record set by Harry Potter last year by more than $30 million. It must be getting awful hard for the MPAA to keep a straight face when they force ISP's to block TPB because it's killing the movie industry when even the UK figures are quite amazing.

Are you saying that it is alright to pirate such a film because the producers make lots of money from people watching it?

Originally Posted by Maggy J

So because it's not theft in the eyes of the law it is OK to take and use without paying for the product?Is that what you are saying?Because I'm very confused as to what you are saying.

No Maggie ,i am pointing out that it is not theft and the semantics are very important for obvious reasons .

[_wtf_]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Are you saying that it is alright to pirate such a film because the producers make lots of money from people watching it?

Nope. What I am saying that civil liberties that have taken hundreds of years to achieve should not be thrown out the window because of an industry that gets laws passed by clearly distorting and misrepresenting the facts to the legislators and the governments.

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Are you saying that it is alright to pirate such a film because the producers make lots of money from people watching it?

Nobodies saying that Maggie ,WTF is just highliting the stupidity of film and music companies in constantly pleading poverty because the pirates have stolen their money and using that as an excuse to get governments involved in a civil matter .

[kwikbreaks]

Originally Posted by basicfags

tue 8th lunchtime, tpb still accessible via bt broadband.

.. and via VM broadband using any one of dozens if not hundreds if not thousands of proxies - some general and some set up specifically for the purpose. In all a totally pointless exercise that costs ISP (and so their customers) money and achieves nothing other than publicity for TPB and ridicule for the copyright holders, ISPs, and far more importantly the law of the land. We really could do without these demonstrations of how antiquated and out of touch our legislators are with technology.

Originally Posted by _wtf_

The Avengers had the most successful first weekend in US movie history with over $207 million. It broke the record set by Harry Potter last year by more than $30 million. It must be getting awful hard for the MPAA to keep a straight face when they force ISP's to block TPB because it's killing the movie industry, even the UK figures are quite amazing.

Got to love it when people use an exceptional circumstance as a general guideline.....

If all movies made the sort of money that the Harry Potter series or Avengers Assemble made, the producers would have a weaker fiscal case (but not ethical, imho, but that doesn't seem to bother many people) - however, as we all know, this is not the case (John Carter, Catwoman, Cutthroat Island, and Final Fantasy for example....).

Also, what people seem to forget is that most programmes are funded by sales to broadcasters, and the broadcasters are funded (usually) by the advertising revenue they raise when people watch these programmes on TV, so if the programmes are downloaded, and then not watched on television, the ratings go down, the advertisers pull out, the series gets canned - so, in essence, keep up the downloading and have less TV series (except *shudder* Reality TV series, which are cheap to produce).

However, in the end, it is an, imho, ethical decision - for a long time I wrote business software (IBM Mid-range, payroll, accounts, logistics, etc); if someone had just decided to copy that and use it without our permission, I, and hundreds of others, would have been out of a job, and I have carried that viewpoint over to the present day - if I want something, I pay for it (unless the producer/copyright owner states that I can have it for free).

At the end of the day, we are talking about media (TV, music, films, etc) - not basic sustenance issues like shelter, food, water, warmth.

The over explosion of freetarding has given corporations and governments the stick with which to beat the internet with - thanks a lot, guys, for this application of the law of unintended consequences. As Robert A Heinlein stated, "TANSTAAFL" - everntually, someone has to pay.

YMMV.

---------- Post added at 13:24 ---------- Previous post was at 13:23 ----------

Originally Posted by _wtf_

Nope. What I am saying that civil liberties that have taken hundreds of years to achieve should not be thrown out the window because of an industry that gets laws passed by clearly distorting and misrepresenting the facts to the legislators and the governments.

And of course, the people doing the illegal downloading have no responsibility whatsoever.......

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Are you saying that it is alright to pirate such a film because the producers make lots of money from people watching it?

Maggy it works both ways.

You asking a queston with an obvious answer.

However is it ok to massage figures to get dodgy laws passed, eg. claiming every download is a lost sale, meaning someone on the dole who has downloaded £1000 woth of content in a week would have obviously otherwise brought that £1000 of content out of their dole?

Its not ok to download something that you have no legal right to. However its also not ok to blatantly lie to get laws passed and even in some cases put own content on torrents for the purpose of them claiming for damages of the people downloading it. Having a business plan to basically profit of copyright infringement.

I also think its wrong to enforce copyright on something that has no commercial value anymore or at the very least isnt been actively sold.

So its wrong both sides of the fence.

[smallclone]

What sort of punishment is there for downloading a film via piratebay? Not sharing or distributing. Just downlaoding and watching?

Originally Posted by smallclone

What sort of punishment is there for downloading a film via piratebay? Not sharing or distributing. Just downlaoding and watching?

none

[smallclone]

Originally Posted by martyh

none

? I thought it was illegal?

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I also think its wrong to enforce copyright on something that has no commercial value anymore or at the very least isnt been actively sold.

So its wrong both sides of the fence.

Copyright is about more than the commercial value of the work. It's about the right of the owner to decide if, and how, their work is used. I don't think it's tenable to claim that copyright should lapse when something ceases to have commercial value (not least because it would be very difficult to determine whether something might gain commercial value again in the future - things do go in and out of fashion).

There are dirty tricks being perpetrated by the big rights owners in the pursuit of 'lost sales' but the correct response is for the courts to take a more nuanced view of the actual financial loss incurred due to file sharing.

[kwikbreaks]

Originally Posted by smallclone

What sort of punishment is there for downloading a film via piratebay? Not sharing or distributing. Just downlaoding and watching?

If you admit it then lots of stick from holier-than-thou types on forums.