File sharing: ‘Itâs a lot like speeding’
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- “The trouble with shooting your mouth off like this guy is, when people realize everyone really is doing something (and 7 million people is something like 30% of Britain`s Internet users), laws tend to get repealed, not strengthened,” says Raindog469.
His observation comes in a Reader’s Write to the p2pnet post on Dear Lord Mandelson, an open letter published by Cameron Neylon on his Science in the open blog.
“There was another estimate a few months ago saying that 64% of the UK`s Internet users are downloading music illegally,” says Raindog469, going on »»»
“Unless he has his head in the sand and thinks that Internet users are still a tiny minority of the population, any politician is going to realize which way the tide is going, and ride with it.
“In the US, when it was revealed in the 90s that the vast majority of drivers speed regularly, they didn`t institute jail time for exceeding the speed limit, not even after ‘three strikes’. “Instead, the national speed limit was raised by almost 20%.
“Eventually, ruling bodies are going to realize that the content industries have spent decades trying to force new technology into their obsolete business models rather than adapting. Unlike GM or AIG, UMG is not ‘too big to fail’. When politicians finally realize that billions are being wasted bailing water out of that boat without a hull, they`re going to end the protectionism.
“I imagine that`ll happen right around the time that the record labels run out of bribe money,” adds the post.
Speaking of speed limits, “I`ve spent almost two decades employed at a maximum security prison,” says Ruby in a comment post to the p2pnet story which points out, “American taxpayers have once again come through handsomely for Hollywood and Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music” by granting almost $2 million to law enforcement agencies around the country, “to improve their ability to investigate, prosecute and prevent intellectual property infringement”.
“Out of curiosity, I`ve been taking an informal census on file sharing over the past few months,” she says, continuing »»»
What I`ve learned is that pretty much all of my co-workers (even the not so tech oriented ones) file share copyrighted content and that Bittorrent seems to be the predominate method for downloading.
Every single one of them had no idea of the illegalities involved, nor do the majority of them understand how the process of sharing even works. The picture that is forming is that they do it because everyone else does and so just assume it`s all perfectly legal on that basis alone.
It hard to say whether this was surprising to learn or not since that does tend to be typical human behavior when it comes to determining the social acceptability of any potentially immoral act. I`ve actually told a few of them what could happen if caught uploading but they generally just laugh it off as if I`m joking. There is little doubt in my mind that they probably wouldn`t stop even if they did know the potential consequences.
It`s a lot like speeding. People tend to not see any harm in doing that from time to time either even though everyone does know it`s illegal. Lets also not forget the reinforcing effect seen when kids see their parents doing these things. Role models rarely realize just how much influence they have over young minds.
All of this really makes one wonder. If this is how the majority of the public at large see file sharing and it`s not just the tech savvy who are involved in sharing copyrighted works (which anyone who has been frequenting p2pnet for any length of time will agree is indeed the case), then it`s probably a safe bet to say the entertainment industry will eventually lose their battle in the long run.
That is unless they really do plan on taking every man, woman and child on Earth to court and bankrupting them just to get their message across.
“Clearly the entertainment lawyers have their work cut out for them as the message obviously hasn`t come anywhere close to sinking in yet,” Ruby states.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
30% of Britain`s Internet users – 7 million Brits are file sharing criminals !?, September 5, 2009
p2pnet - Open letter to Lord Mandelson, September 5, 2009
come through handsomely – DoJ $1.98M IP enforcement grant, September 4, 2009
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Open letter to Lord Mandelson
September 6th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
“Every single one of them had no idea of the illegalities involved, nor do the majority of them understand how the process of sharing even works.”
Of course they don’t understand how the sharing process works. If they’re like most average users, they probably didn’t even install the software themselves, they probably had their kids do it.
That’s what happened to a guy I know; His son installed a BitTorrent client, showed him how to find torrents via The Pirate Bay, he downloaded one current movie and got an infringement notice from his ISP. It scared him enough that he deleted the movie, deleted the BT program and then called up the number in the notice, apologized and promised never to do it again.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
however, most of us install PeerGuardian and intensify our downloading using bittorrent. I keep at least 20 downloads going at all times. One finishes, I find something else to queue up.
September 6th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Emule (the edonkey p2p network) & bittorrent for me too. I also use direct download sites sometimes.
September 7th, 2009 at 12:04 am
I’ve worked in the entertainment industry for almost 20 years. Mostly I’ve worked in live entertainment but have worked tv series and movies. The technicians and artists pirate each other’s work, it is extremely common. I’ve taught artists and technicians how to use Bittorrent as well as direct downloads (like the free option on Megaupload) I’m not sure why one segment of the industry complains so much when their own people are just as guilty. When do we ever hear of an artist, a producer or a stagehand getting nailed 1.9 Million USD for copyright infringement? Never.
September 7th, 2009 at 3:30 am
“It scared him enough that he deleted the movie, deleted the BT program and then called up the number in the notice, apologized and promised never to do it again.”
What a dork!
I that was me I would call the number alright and advise them not to send me this type of shit again or else!
September 7th, 2009 at 5:05 am
here is another reason for using torrents, and downloads.
i recently moved from from the usa to europe, however being in the middle of the season of several shows i wanted to continue watching them on a regular weekly basis, so i tried hulu, i tried the shows on websites, but kept getting a msg saying i was out of the territoral restrictions of the broadvasts, and of course i dont want to wait the 6 months minimum before they are shown here, so i went on my favorite torrent sites and got the shows so i could keep up with them.
quality movies are coming out of various areas of the world now, like peter jackson from australia with district 9 for example, horror movies from thailand, police shows from china, all kinds of stuff from japan and other asian nations, vampire movies from sweden, movies from england and so on and on and on… and what is hollywoods input, remakes!!!!!!!!!!!! hwood is a dying industry that is clawing for what ever it thinks it can save in any way it can…
September 7th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
@RW the remakes are not even that good! Il Mare was 10x the movie The Lake House ever was. My Sassy Girl was pretty good in Korean, but I can only imagine the Hollywood version. I have the original Dark Water in Japanese, though like My Sassy Girl, I have not been interested in the remake.
So uncreative, Hollywood has to recreate what has already been done, but with bigger budgets, more foul language, more boobs, and more violence. The end result is a nicely decorated turd.
Perhaps if Hollywood could not focus on “What can we steal from foreign countries and call our own?” and was more interested in producing the works created in their own back yard, things wouldn’t be so bad. It’s just like the recording industry, only produce what is proven to sell, forget about the rest, but sue if anyone doesn’t play ball.
With all the remakes, are they ever referenced for copyright? Is there at least some sort of thanks to the original creators of the works/IP that Hollywood proclaims it protects? I’ve never seen any, but has anyone else noticed if Hollywood at least gives credit where credit is due, let alone pay royalties to those original creators in Japan, Korea, etc…??
September 7th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
@Robert @RW
Don’t forget the Hollywood remakes of Japanese Animations, that have destroyed the original story- Fist of the North Star, Speed Racer, Dragon Ball (this was just an insult). Also there is the ever so famous Disney knock-off of Leo:Lord of the Jungle “Lion King” etc…
Now more and more films are finally giving credit to the origins of the story, yet they refuse to stay within the original story line.
Every time I hear a director or actor say “I’ve never read the original story”, it just makes me want to cringe.
Just my two cents