

  (Source: Tropiganda)











Judge Arnold
[Image Source: 11 South Square]

The British Justice authored a book titled Performers' Rights.





The Pirate Bay






Ironically, there is some validity to those accusations.



Sources: High Court of Justice Chancery Division, The Pirate Bay

Comments     Threshold


RE: I should be arrested...
By superunknown98 on 2/22/2012 8:58:57 AM , Rating: 1
This whole, prosecuting site owners that have links to infringing material reminds me of strippers. You can't make the stripper the criminal when some disorderly guy/lady inappropriately gropes him/her on stage. The downloaders need to take responsibility for their actions.

RE: I should be arrested...
By icemansims on 2/22/2012 10:26:27 AM , Rating: 3
The uploaders need to take responsibility for their actions.

There, fixed it for you.

RE: I should be arrested...
By Solandri on 2/22/2012 1:07:26 PM , Rating: 3
No, despite attempts by the *AA to redefine what's going on, the uploaders aren't the problem. There are lots of things you can do with copyrighted content without actually owning it or buying it. You can make parodies of it. You can excerpt clips from it to make a review of the movie you saw in the theater. You can resample small parts of it to incorporate into your own song/movie. A teacher can show it in the classroom for educational purposes. And (though it hasn't yet been tested in court) I grabbed the songs from a CD I owned which had been scratched beyond playability.

If you ban uploading, you ban all these legitimate uses of file sharing as well. The problem isn't with uploading. It's with people downloading stuff to use for illegitimate purposes. The *AA is just trying to recharacterize it as an uploading problem since they don't like Fair Use, and getting rid of uploading not only stops illegal downloading, it also stops Fair Use.

RE: I should be arrested...
By adiposity on 2/22/2012 5:23:16 PM , Rating: 2
I think you have it backwards. Downloaders are not the problem, either. Let's ignore for a minute the fact that downloaders often are simultaneously uploaders with current protocols.

The downloaders are simply accessing content that is made available to them. As a lay person, it may even be difficult to discern what video files are legally available and which are illegal streams. Are we going to make the person trying to watch a video the criminal, when these videos are often available for free, legally?

It is true that, for the industry, the problem is the downloader who chooses to download rather than purchase, license, or watch ads. But this is only a percentage of downloaders, the actual number being unknown. And it should be subtracted from those who download, want a better experience, and then purchase in the future. However, this is all beside the point.

If the goal is to stop downloaders, the obvious problem is those who provide the file initially (the uploaders). The saying "the cat's out of the bag" illustrates why it is ridiculous to make the downloaders the problem. Any type of illegal activity, whether it is drug use, weapon use, or information dissemination, must focus on the source, not the final recipients.

Yes, the industry isn't happy about the downloading. But the goal is to stop those who make it possible.

