p2p news / p2pnet: The unbelievable has become reality in Britain. There, the entertainment and software cartels have in effect been given full police powers.

For years the movie, music and software industries have been getting away with using scarce, taxpayer-funded police and other enforcement personnel as unpaid industry cops.

This has come about through an amazing PR triumph under which copyright infringement, a purely civil matter with no more than commercial implications, has been dressed up and made to look like major crime on a level with murder and robbery.

Wholly owned cartel ‘trade’ units such as the BPI have had to content themselves with merely ‘assisting’ in the ‘busts’ they’ve initiated. But now, unbelievably, “A police unit dedicated to combating movie piracy and those responsible for the manufacture and distribution of pirated films has launched in London,” says the BBC.

“In partnership with the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact), the new unit will pursue individuals and groups profiting from the sale of fake DVDs.”

And the British public will be paying for it.

FACT is a UK organization used by the entertainment industry to present copyright infringement as black crime. It, “represents major British and US film companies, as well as media distributors and companies within the TV industry,” says the story.

In the summer of 2004, FACT tried to link file sharing with Organised Crime, Triads and terrorists saying, “90% of all pirate pre-release DVDs seized by FACT this year were copies of movies filmed with a camcorder from the back of the cinema.”

FACT hasn’t yet turned its attention to Sony, which has just started an advertising blitz for its ultra-small, easily concealed, high-definition camcorder.

“By targeting the financial gains at the heart of film piracy, the Metropolitan Police unit hopes to prevent the funding of criminal activities in other areas,” says the BBC.

“This will assist Fact’s capacity to address and confront the threats from organised networks which are making significant profits from film piracy,” said a FACT mouthpiece.

The new unit, which will initially operate for a one-year period, will work alongside Fact collating intelligence on crime trends and activities in film piracy.

However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Together with the BPI (British Phonographic Institute), FACT last year suborned Britain’s Department for Works and Pensions.

“DWP anti-fraud investigators combined forces with the police and Trading Standards to swoop on wheeler dealers at markets and car boot sales in the North East, East of England and Yorkshire flogging the likes of ‘Troy’, ‘Spiderman 2’ and ‘Shrek 2’,” said the DWP at the time.

The cartels are trading in 20th century physical product in the digital 21st century.

Crooks use the usually over-priced CDs and DVDs, pumped out in their millions by the cartels, as templates for counterfeits and copies which are sold on the streets and blackmarkets around the world.

As StreamCast Networks ceo Mike Weiss said recently, “Ultimately, Old Media will embrace P2P ( the Technology) and the results will provide lower distribution costs (say goodbye to UPS trucks, CD returns by retailers, CD pressing plants, record store personnel, etc), more efficiency (in the A&R Dept) and reduced bandwidth costs for digital distribution (i.e. Warner in Germany).

“The offset in costs for the record labels increases profit margins and exposes rabid fans to more music. P2P Technology will also provide a more level playing field for indie artists by lowering their cost to market.

“P2P can certainly fuel an entirely new golden age of creative expression-with the cream rising to the top.”

It’ll also allow the already seriously over-burdened police to get back to legitimate concerns such as protecting the public from genuine, instead of trumped up, crime.

Also See:
BBC – Police unit targets film piracy, February 23, 2006
link file sharing – Hollywood attacks UK file sharers, July 13, 2004
easily concealed – Sony’s newest camcorder, February 22, 2006
suborned – UK’s DWP in copyright raids, August 4, 2005
embrace P2P – Big Music and p2p, February 21, 2006

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 at 9:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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