Us versus Them
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:-Four or five years ago, I ran quotes at the end of each article, ie, The best way out is always through ~ Robert Frost. Or, Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds ~ Albert Einstein.
But my favourite came from Mahatma Gandhi »»»
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Yesterday, Sweden lost The Pirate Bay case was the p2pnet headline to the no-surprises-here news that “Stockholm district court had an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Sweden is still the free and progressive country it was once famous for being”.
It may have been the only headline which didn’t present the decision in Sweden as a win for the corporate entertainment industry.
Instead, the story, “confirmed that like America, [Sweden] is little more than another music and movie industry enforcement, sales and marketing division which puts corporate interests before those of its citizens.”
Well, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, and Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, tried to ignore us. That didn’t work. They mocked us. Didn’t work. Then these ass-hats, as surfer calls them, started suing us. That isn’t working either.
Now we’re at stage four, a la Mahatma Gandhi.
We’re winning.
Worldwide effort to thwart file-sharing.
Quite a while back, Slyck interviewed me and one of the questions was: “Tell us how you feel about the online copyright wars and do you see any end in sight?”
Me: The wars are all in the mind of the entertainment industry. P2p is here to stay and without wishing to be corny, the people have spoken, and loudly. When the various corporate interests finally admit they’re operating in the digital 21st century and not the physical 1970s, things will settle down. As Cherry Lane Digital ceo Jim Griffin said … the labels, ‘cling to their pursuit of this notion of control and calling those who do not comply thieves, and in doing so they leave billions on the table that should be divided fairly amongst creators and rights holders.’ The companies won’t be able to leave those billions floating around for ever. Their contracted artists and shareholders won’t let them. So Yes, there’s an end in sight and when it arrives, we’ll have the labels and cartels saying how they’ve been solidly behind p2p since Day One.
Slyck: The Recording Industry of Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have both coordinated a worldwide effort to thwart file-sharing. The RIAA has maintained this effort for almost two years, while the MPAA has just begun. How would you gauge the success of these efforts, and what effect has it had on the proliferation of P2P and file-sharing?
Me: Success? Absolutely minimal. Effect on proliferation of p2p and file-sharing? Absolutely minimal. A significant number of US and Canadian academic studies, including the recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report, have proved this over and again. And this reality is underscored by statistics from p2p research company Big Champagne. Its data show file sharing continues to rise, and fairly dramatically.
Slyck: What should the MPAA and RIAA do to curb piracy’s prominence?
Me: Given that the MPAA and RIAA are no more than the blunt weapons of the entertainment industry cartels, the first thing they should do is: stop trying to sue their customers into buying. It’ll take a while, but they’ll eventually begin to recover some of the goodwill they’ve squandered. The cartels should then immediately open their entire catalogues to the people they’ve more or less designated as their principal sales fronts, with iTunes and Napster II to the fore. This content should be licensed to distributors (including the current p2p operators) at reasonable prices so people can buy tracks at between 10 and 25 cents per download. The organized criminals – the `pirates’ – depend largely on physical product to ply their illicit trades. They’ll find it a hell of a lot harder to operate when music and movie lovers are buying fairly priced music and movies from adequately stocked download sites. The RIAA and MPAA should also stop spending ridiculous amounts of money publicizing the very thing they’re trying to quell. P2p and the digital media represent tremendous opportunities, not death knells.
Slyck: What would be your ideal solution to balancing the needs of the MPAA/RIAA and that of the average P2P and file-sharing participant (consumer)?
Me: See above, and let’s remember consumers are customers again, and they’re in a spanking new economic territory which has never existed before. They, and not the corporations, have the power of control. It’s called freedom of choice. New technologies always threaten the old, established ones whose owners do everything they can to maintain the status quo. Eventually, though, they cave in, and go with the flow and peace reigns (until it happens all over again ; )
Slyck: Some say the MPAA/RIAA and hard core P2P/file-sharers are so polarized in their positions that it is impossible to ever bring about compromise. In addition, the online copyright wars will probably continue until one, or both, simply dies out. Is this grim perspective a possible reality?
Me: This is the beginning, not the end. And there is no war. What’s taken as strife is just the process of radical change happening. Compromise isn’t necessary.
What can we do? What can we DOOOO ?!
Henry Emrich would be the first to tell you he did a polar switch from being one of the hardest of the hard-core supporters of the idea that people who share are thieves, and that the world owes the corporate movie and music industries a living.
But he’s smart and since he is, when he realised he was being taken for a ride by the cartels, he climbed off their bandwagon.
In a Reader’s Write to Ryan’s The Pirate Bay decision means … nothing, Henry says »»»
Everybody needs to read up on something called ‘cointelpro’. It was a CIA operation which involved infiltrating ‘dissident’ organizations to spread what we’d now describe as ‘FUD’ â ‘Fear, uncertainty, and doubt’.
We all know â or at least suspect â that various trolls defending the corporations actions (you know who you are) infest the various p2p-related boards to spew pro-corporate crap and intentionally ‘misunderstand’ our position.
But I’m really coming to the conclusion that the REAL threat comes from supposedly ‘well-meaning’ types … who add nothing to the debate by cynicism and defeatist thinking.
The pattern goes like this:
1. Overstate your opponent’s power at every turn. (‘Ooh, I just KNEW the big evil MAFIAA megacorps were gonna win this one!’ etc. etc.)
2. Downplay your side’s power at every turn (‘What can WE do against a bunch of megacorps and their government goons’, etc etc.)
3. When confronted with evidence that their ‘win’ isn’t as solid or meaningful as portrayed, discount it.
I’m not trying to flame anybody here, but to claim that Big Media is ‘winning’ is a real stretch:
Sure they’ve managed to score a few ‘hits’, even some high-profile stuff, but in the process they:
A. Pissed a whole generation of people off.
B. Turned copyright (and by extension ‘intellectual property’ itself) into a laughing-stock.
C. Demonstrated conclusively that whatever our economic system IS, corporate capitalism is NOT a ‘free’ market, and they don’t want it to be.
Now, let’s look at the few ‘wins’ they’ve managed to score:
Jammie Thomas: overturned at appeal, so now it gets to grind through the system all over again.
That’s out of how many thousands of harassment suits, in the US (the jurisdiction which is MOST favorable to their bullshit), and they’ve only been able to score 1 decisive ‘win’, which was then over-ruled.
Remember when the RIAA types televised a bunch of teenagers during that award show, having the teens download stuff? I’m really starting to think that their NEW tactic is to have ‘sincere’-sounding folks post defeatism like the above simply to demoralize us, and get us to over-estimate the threat.
You’re frustrated and think they’re ‘winning?’ You think p2p advocates/corporate watchdogs/grassroots activists don’t stand a chance because the opposition is ‘too powerful?’
Drop out, now. Because that’s what your defeatist nonsense can ever accomplish.
To put it bluntly, we can’t AFFORD defeatism, because let’s be honest: ALL OUR OPPONENTS HAVE is their cronies in government and a hell of a lot of misinformation. Let’s not give them the satisfaction of cowering, okay?
TPB is still there, the verdict isn’t even anywhere close to final (and this could take years, as Sunde said) to BECOME final.
‘Winning?’ Pffffffgh, yeah sure.
(Just like they ‘won’ on the Napster thing, but had to keep their shitty lobotomize corporate knockoff using the same logo.)
But hey, keep sewing seed of FUD, because we all know the best way to win is through defeatist attitude. 
Right. Keep it up,
The joke is on Dan
Henry’s comments come in response to others in the story from Ryan, an admin at eZee.se over in Sweden.
In it, says Ryan, “I’m no stranger to the lets-stretch-the-truth releases (also known as press releases) from Hollywood.”
He continues »»»
But maybe I’m just a bit irritated by the way the TPB’s fiasco turned out so I just had to write a second post.
In a previous article on p2pnet Dan ‘The Joker’ Glickman said:
“This decision will help to support the continued investment in talent and in new online services, and the creation of new films and television shows for enjoyment by audiences around the world.”
I respond with:
Ummm HOW?
- Appeal in the works: check
- ThePirateBay.org still online: check
- ThePirateBay.org – no downtime planned and no plans of being forcefully taken offline by law: check
- All torrents and tracker still online: check
- No torrents deleted: check
- Accepting new torrents: check
- Dan Glickman still a douche: check
(Most important) Public opinion not been swayed by the decision: check
Will someone *please* explain to me what exactly have they gained by this “win”?
- Is this the final say on this matter?
- What have they taken down?
- How have they curbed ‘piracy’?
- Heck, leave “curbed”, how have they even slowed down piracy with this verdict?
- How have they made it harder to get pirated movies and songs?
Other than the pro-filesharers, I’ve seen a lot of comments from “industry people” on this blog (you can usually make them out as the dimwitted posts, you know who you are) so please, I ask any one of you dimwi oops, people, to kindly enlighten us parrot-on-shoulder-peg-legged pirates how your “HQ” can make such ridiculous if not downright ludicrous statements and think people won’t see it for the BS it is.
In short, the defeat in Sweden isn’t a defeat.
It’s just another stage in the process.
And remember: the one statistic the “devastated” labels and studio never call up when they’re claiming they’re being ruined by file sharing is the one arising because millions of people now routinely boycott corporate ‘product’.
And their numbers grow every time someone new opens an online account.
You can also bet the house that Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, and Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music know almost to the penny how much their ridiculous war against the people who keep them alive has cost, and is costing, them —- or, I should say, is costing their shareholders.
Gandhi also said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Jon Newton – p2pnet
April, 2009
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April 18th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Great post, I really enjoyed reading that. Thanks
April 18th, 2009 at 10:59 am
> Dan Glickman still a douche: check
LOL!
April 18th, 2009 at 11:40 am
nice to see censorship here jon
April 18th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
^^ Please try to cut your (often incomprehensible) posts in the same story down by a few — and stay on topic.
Cheers!
April 18th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
In response to our government having not protected innocent people who were sued, I found that following Gandhi to be useful.
When someone who was innocent was sued by directv or the RIAA, the court complaint against them had to be made up. Then
this fraudulent court complaint is used to take money away from the innocent. Our system of justice has permitted corporations
to profit off of lawsuits they knew to be false. As a consequence, the victim of such a fraud is left unprotected and by themselves,
can ill afford to defend against a billion dollar company. The next time I am a Juror, I will ignore Justice. The next time I am a witness,
I will ignore justice. To do so may be wrong, but for justice to have ignored a victim of crime is far worse. Nothing else
I know of will motivate a prosecutor who has ignored victims of fraudulent lawsuits then to ignore that prosecutor. It is like Gandhi
laying in the street when British soldiers came to fight. Ignoring justice to restore justice is a great form of passive resistance.
April 18th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Thoreau declared that, if the government requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
April 18th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
^^ Jury nullification I have to agree.
Well these corporations lost my business a while ago but to address the question of “What have they taken down?”
Just from my small file sharing experience Ive seen them take down Napster, Kazaa (and similar p2p attacks at k-lite, morpheus, limewire), Lokitorrent (plastered their propaganda on the front page so everyone would know the MPAA was responsible), Demonoid (threatening attempt), TPB (attempt), isoHunt (threatening attempts). All were(are) extremely powerful/useful and could have easily been used to turn even more profit for the aforementioned corporate scum. Yet….
The hydra lives on.
In the meantime, I’ll support the artists who ask for donations not the ones who try to take down websites or support lobby groups as they descend on govts worldwide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJGQ_tTmYgI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSQhR6a_uUw
April 18th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
“The hydra lives on”
But it’s down to only four heads. And it’s brain-damaged.
Cheers!
April 18th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
@R.W above:
When I said: “What have they taken down?â
I meant by this ruling, this case, not history on the whole.
The way they are shouting from the rooftops someone would think TPB website is down….
visited a couple of times today so I can tell you with absolute certainty: Its not. ALL the other places to get pirated content (including Google) are functioning perfectly as well.
While its a nice flowery piece to wave around, the fact is, the verdict has really achieved nothing online or _in the real world_.
Cheers!
/Ryan
April 18th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
“The verdict achieved nothing”.
Not in substantive terms against piracy, no.
But they’re gonna milk this non-event for every dollop of publicity and misinformation.
I mean, look at the reaction on torrentfreak/zeropaid/boycott-riaa.com: huge amounts of irate “oh god how can this happen” type of nonsense, conveninently ignoring the fact that as far as legally-binding decisions go, NOTHING happened, and nothing will happen until after the appeals process is finished.
That’s the problem: they’ve got a significant proportion of the p2p/copyfight/pirate “scene” stirred up and reacting like something happened. This is pretty much the only site where we’re halfway calm about it. Why is that?
Like I said, I may be being cynical, but I really think a significant proportion of the “outrage” over this thing is manufactured by IFPI/RIAA themselves. It’s not like they’ve been doing all that well in terms of cases:
Spain just about legalized “non-commercial” filesharing, so they have to do this hamfisted bullshit about trying to brand what that guy did as a “commercial” activity because the site had ads. That’s a sign of pure desperation, there.
Or how bout the cammers who get a token fine, and no other repercussions?
Or Stateside, the RIAA having their only “win” thrown out, so they have to do it all over again?
They’re losing bad. TPB is still up, the trial was NEVER even AGAINST TPB itself, only about four guys, and would have been appealed even if TPB had “won” on Friday, anyway.
So the real leverage for the RIAA is in terms of the disinformation/propaganda department.
Now what I wonder, like I said before, is how much coverage there’ll be when the case really IS decided (after the appeals):
I can tell you now, that there won’t be any street-parties, vigils, or suchlike. TPB will still be there, people will still be happily downloading away, other cases will be grinding forward in the ever-so-slow fashion we’ve come to expect, and the real verdict won’t even make the blogs.
I really hope the upsurge in Pirate-party membership translates into something substantive, but I have my doubts: the fact that somebody used the term “freetard” on here, in comments which were otherwise sympathetic to our concerns is disquieting in the extreme, because it makes me think that maybe WE believe the RIAA’S propaganda line, ourselves.
Any thoughts?
Another question that’s been bugging me recently:
So are we boycotting, or do “pirates” buy more stuff?
Seems to be a few different answers there.
I’m just really puzzled by that. I mean, if the pro-p2p studies ARE true, then a significant proportion of us are still “feeding the beast” that continues to attack and destroy anything outside of it’s “business model.”
I mean, don’t get me wrong: if at least SOME p2p users didn’t also continue to buy corporate “product”, the corps would just declare us all to be “freetards” anyway. So, I’m really confused.
1. How much of the FUD and panic going around is really genuine, and how much of it is orchestrated?
2. Are p2pers boycotting, or not?
3. Will the Pirate-party actuall show substantive improvement (will people actually bother to take a stand politically, or is the growth in membership just blathering?)
Somebody tell me, because I really can’t figure this out. It’s obvious that THEY can’t win, but if we’re not careful, we could win it FOR them, if that makes any sense…..
April 19th, 2009 at 12:12 am
“Not in substantive terms against piracy, no.”
Exactly.
“But theyâre gonna milk this non-event for every dollop of publicity and misinformation.”
In this way we really cannot compete with them, they are spin doctors and BS slingers of the highest order, something that can only be achieved by selling your soul to the devil… which kind of puts us out of the picture.
Even had they “lost” they would have made sure it was a media bonanza:
Sweden harbours pirates, lawless country, no respect for IP, when will Sweden come into the modern age, Respect Treaty, poor artists, no chance for coming up artists, billions in loss, impunity blah de blah de blah de blah.
Get some “artists” to come out and say “Shame Sweden, we… blah blah”
There was going to be a spin either way, so lets forget it and sit back and watch while the cogs of “justice” grind ever so slowly ahead, by the time we get a conclusive answer to this… everyone will be anonymously sharing
and the MAFIAA will look back at these times and realize just how easy they had it.
As for the rest of your mail mate, some other time…
enjoy your weekend!
Cheers! /Ryan
April 19th, 2009 at 12:13 am
oops, i meant “comment”… not “mail”…
April 19th, 2009 at 2:03 am
You too, dude.
April 19th, 2009 at 2:42 am
I haven’t “invested” in more than 20 music CDs total in last 10 years or in over 25 DVD movies total in the last 8 years. Not because I’ve been downloading everything I want or need, but, because most of the music product the corporate scum-bucket media giants have been putting out is digital-voice-enhanced garbage, and, most of the motion picture product from same is the same CGI, special effects dominated garbage using the same story lines. Besides I have most of what I want in the over 1,500 music CDâs and over 500 movie/music DVDâs that I currently own.
Recent “new” music is so uncreative (except for a small spattering of jazz, folk, classical, and down temp lounge space music) that I couldn’t listen to it even if these corporate criminals paid me to. How much Britney Spears, Clay Aiken, any rapper, any R&B, any pop act, any country act, etc. can one stand today?
How many times can you watch the same cartoonish special effects of cars, buildings, or highways blowing up? How many times can you watch the same plot lines used in movie after movie? How many times can you watch a “comedy” movie that is not funny?
Now donât come down on me about the above. Itâs meant as generalizations. I do realize that there are the occasional gems like the movie âSlum Dog Millionaireâ or the music CD âShe & Him: Volume Oneâ that surface to the top of the art-for-sale bin every now and then. And Iâll buy them, but, as far as consuming mass quantities of whatâs out there in the âFor Saleâ atomic dust bins of these corporate peddlers like I used to 10 to 20 years agoâforget it. Those days are over forever.
Let me explain further to you where I’m coming from on this RIAA/MPAA issue–many millions of people the world over are musically positioned similar to me in that they’ve already invested in almost all the music CD’s they are ever going to buy. I own over 700 classical music CD’s containing all the necessary performances of all the necessary works by all the necessary composers. I finished buying them all in 1992. I don’t ever need to buy another artist’s rendition of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 (unless the performer is so over the top as to be unbelievable). I own over 250 important milestone jazz CD’s by THE main artists of the genre–Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, McCoy Tyner, Oscar Peterson, Jimmy Smith, Chick Corea, Marcus Roberts, Ramsey Lewis, Charles Mingus, Pat Metheny, (this list is by no means exhaustive, and, no, there will never ever be anyone better than them ever!) etc. I don’t need anything else. I alsoown over 500 other CD’s that are unclassifiable, but, nonetheless just as important.
The same can be said of my movie/music DVD collection. I have â2001-A Space Odysseyâ, âThe Grapes of Wrathâ, âCasablancaâ, âCitizen Kaneâ, âGodfatherâ, âAmadeusâ, âThe Last Emperorâ, âSchindlerâs Listâ, âSaving Private Ryanâ, âAll About Eveâ, âRaging Bullâ, âStar Warsâ, âButch Cassidy & The Sundance Kidâ, âThe Pianoâ, âAnnie Hallâ, âNotoriousâ, âTaxi Driverâ, âEasy Riderâ, âTrue Gritâ, âThe Graduateâ, âBullittâ, âBarefoot In The Parkâ, âOn The Water Frontâ, âApocalypse Nowâ, âRockyâ, âWest Side Storyâ, âLast Tango In Parisâ, âDoctor Zhivagoâ, âLawrence Of Arabiaâ, âA Raisin In The Sunâ, âChariots Of Fireâ, âBen-Hurâ, âPlanet Of The Apesâ, etc., etc., etcâ¦
In the final analysis, guess what is going to happen to my collection? Iâm going to pass it down to my kids, and they to their kids, etc.. I know, I know, the CDs and DVDs will eventually wear out. Well, thatâs why I bought a computerâto make back up copies.
And that is the number one fundamental real, secret issue the RIAA and the MPAA is having against the computer-using general world population that they only see as dollar signs. Itâs not against file sharers because when a file sharer likes something they downloaded they more often than not go out and buy the retail version. Even the RIAA and MPAA could not be that dumb. Theyâve known for years that downloading leads to greater sales of their crap at the retail level. So what is it then? Why do they want to slay the goose that lays the golden eggs?
Simply, the RIAA and MPAA donât want you and me to have fair use rights. However, because I have heavily invested in technology for backup purposes, I should have the right to make back up copies of everything I own as long as itâs for my and my families personal use.
But they donât want you to even have that right so they pursue small down loaders in hopes of chilling fair use copying. It doesnât matter if you have no plans to resale your backups or to upload them. The genie is already out of the bag and they donât see it or even want to acknowledge it. Digital 1s and 0s can be copied perfectly forever. They want to sell the same goddamned digital items I bought from them years ago to my sons and daughters and their sons and daughters at highly inflated prices ad infinitum.
They donât want you and I to pass our music and movie collection on. They donât have the intellectual and creative capacity to attract enough worthy successors to even parallel a small fraction of the genius of an Oscar Peterson let alone the hundreds of geniuses in my collection.
Well guess what? Even on the analog level of the past 500 years I guess they should have closed libraries down. They should have had book/LP/Tape police watching for and stopping people from loaning their copyrighted books/LPs/Tapes to friends, neighbors, and relatives. They should have stopped radio stations from broadcasting the playing of copyrighted music.
They should have stopped Sony, Memorex, and TDK from making blank recordable cassette tapes from the 1970âs on. Wait, isnât Sony a part of the RIAA and MPAA? Donât they also make DVD recorders and blank recordable DVD media?
The above paragraphs alone should be more than enough to defeat any court challenge against P2P down loaders by the RIAA and MPAA. It hasnât, therefore, our court and political systems are corrupt.
April 19th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
@Haven’t Bought A CD In 10 Yrs
well spoken, I had not thought of that point of inherited archiving. Very impressive point.
April 19th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
yeah, I see it now jon lol