


Britain has announced its opposition to the plan












Comments     Threshold


Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By LordSojar on 7/5/2010 2:10:17 PM , Rating: 5
The US has been heading towards this as well, on both sides of the aisle. If you don't think they are, you're delusional. This isn't an EU specific issue, it's a worldwide issue.

Copyright holders are getting more and more power. No one is giving pause to their aging business models and growing power except the customers they are screwing over on a daily basis.

You want this to change? Elect officials who aren't getting handjobs from the RIAA and MPAA, and who aren't financially backed by the the ISPs they so valiantly defend (who rat you out).

The majority of piracy is a product of bad business models; you can only f*ck your customers over for so long. Once they're fed up, they turn to piracy. Don't attack us for turning to alternative methods to acquire your DRM infested, legal gray area abundant goods... fix your stupid business practices and retail/marketing models.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By superPC on 7/5/2010 2:22:42 PM , Rating: 2
Amen to that (fixing online business model). most of piracy would be eliminated if they just eliminated DRM from online distributors and just provide more stuff (video, music, book, what have you) online.

but you have to realize that classic distribution method concern a lot of people. not just the content creator but also the distributor and retail outlet. that's a lot of people that would surely went out of work if company fully distributed content online.

either way it's a catch 22 situation. move fully to online distribution and cut jobs in distributor and brick and mortar retailer or do things like this. either way the big corporation will always profit while people like you and me get screwed over like always.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By HotFoot on 7/5/2010 3:49:47 PM , Rating: 4
Doing things incredibly inefficiently isn't a good way to provide employment. If it takes fewer people to provide the same service, the cost of that service goes down and that leaves the average person with something left over to spend on something else.

This means jobs lost in one area are replaced by jobs in a different area. Meanwhile, the average consumer is able to get more for their money. This is a case of the pie growing larger.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By RW on 7/5/2010 10:01:34 PM , Rating: 3
Do they even think people will buy music like hot cakes ??? Of course no, people will always buy food over buying music, because if you don't eat you die, but if you don't listen to Lady Gaga, Madonna or Britney you sure won't die maybe even live longer btw.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By RW on 7/5/10, Rating: 0
RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By dtm4trix on 7/6/2010 3:39:06 AM , Rating: 4
I agree with you but I can not see the US supreme court upholding this treaty as it steps all over our rights guaranteed under the constitution. And well if it does come to pass I no longer wish to call my self an american as this is some 1984 bullshit and its time for me to go somewhere else.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A

I LOL'd :)





By wiz220 on 7/6/2010 6:36:27 PM , Rating: 2
I would like to agree with you, but sadly, I think the Supreme Court has made it clear where they stand when it comes to citizens versus corporate interests. They recently said that money = free speech in a case that gave corporations the "right" to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns (I know there are stipulations, but, in the end this is what it amounts to).

That, coupled with a decision long ago to give corporate entities the same "rights" as individuals could be the death knell for representative government that works for real living, breathing citizens.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By FaceMaster on 7/6/2010 8:16:44 AM , Rating: 1
most of piracy would be eliminated if they just eliminated DRM

...wasn't DRM made because of piracy in the first place?

By Silver2k7 on 7/6/2010 9:52:59 AM , Rating: 2
yeah its ironic isn't it.. the pirates, that drm is supposed to stop, can enjoy the product without the drm hassles, where the legitimate buyers have to deal with the drm crap.

the world would be better off without drm.. there is one thing that have stoped me from buying music online and that my friends is called drm.. lossless flac files, possibly even higher than cd-quality files and no drm.. and they (whoever sells music) will most likly attract more potential buyers.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By superstition on 7/5/2010 3:18:02 PM , Rating: 2
Read "The BP/Government police state", "New study documents media's servitude to government", and "How many Americans are targeted for assassination?" by Glenn Greenwald.

It's not just "pirates" who should be concerned with the secrecy and corruption.

"Elect officials who aren't..." Good luck with that. Given the recent Supreme Court ruling that not only are corporations "people", but they also have "1st amendment free speech" -- it's going to be next-to-impossible for ordinary citizens to make much of an impact in elections.

By Alexvrb on 7/5/2010 7:32:15 PM , Rating: 1
The Supreme Court ruling you are referring to changes nothing. You should be more worried about the new justices we're getting on the Supreme Court now. You know, the completely inexperienced, incompetent ones that refuse to answer even basic questions regarding whether the federal government has the power to ban foods it deems unhealthy.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A




By damianrobertjones on 7/5/2010 3:46:18 PM , Rating: 2
Sorry, but I cannot agree with what you've said, or at least the last part.

I **cough** acquire media from various sources but for some reason, over the last year, have decided to 'buy' the music and games that I want. Sure, I know where the movies are, for free, plus the music, but I'd prefer to give something back. (Even if the original artist gets a tiny amount)

I know people that simply get every movie they want each weekend and have no intention of buying, ever. I know a person who sits next to me that owns over 17,000+ albums and gets them as he wants to increase his album number.

I use steam to get most of my games and DRM, so far, hasn't caused my gaming pc one problem (I would prefer no DRM but I have a CHOICE)

If you want something, then you should damn well pay for it, full stop.

There is NO excuse for piracy and this is from someone that has... sampled.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By BZDTemp on 7/5/2010 4:15:01 PM , Rating: 3

I agree however that does not mean I agree with how many of the right holders are handling the issue. I can see how many people are so offended by their tactics that they fell justified to obtain pirate copies in pure spite.

Here are some of the issues I have with how most of the industry has chosen to conduct them self:

- Calling taking a copy "stealing" and trying to say it is like stealing a car, a TV and so on. To me that is simply stupid.

- Making insane claims on how much damage piracy does. Firstly one pirate copy does not equal one lost sale and secondly their loss is not the number of copies not sold multiplied by the retail price of said items. If loss was equal retail price then shops having a sale would be "stealing" money from the right holders.

- The many obstructions consumers must live with due to "pirate protection" of which some are really not to stop pirating but to enable price control between regions of the world. Many "protections with what is fair use and adds costs. Be it HDCP, audio CD's that are not really Audio-CD's, regional coding and so on. Another example would be movie DVD's on which you must view whatever messages and sometimes even trailers before you get to the content you bought.

- The whole notion that so little of what I pay in a shop goes to the artist which created the product I bought.

- There is only so many times a person will buy the same product. Of course music sales would decline after the boom created by people re-buying their LP's as CD's.

- And finally the fact that the industry uses piracy, real and imaginary, as an excuse for their business decline. In any other industries a changing world something which is dealt with. The companies making model air plane kits are loosing sales because there are more ways of entertainment to choose from. But the music and movie industry choose to blame piracy for everything rather than acknowledging many spend less on movies and music because they choose to spend money on other things.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A
By fotoguy on 7/5/2010 5:56:49 PM , Rating: 2


Your second point on the damage piracy does is only half baked. The first part of the one to one is a reasonable statement, but your evidential last sentence doesn't really support the first in that a sale is an agreed upon, voluntary reduction of profit by the store. Making a copy is not agreed upon.

Your other statements are all in themselves correct, but their correctness does not give you rights to make unauthorized copies.

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A


Take - to remove something, especially without permission.


RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A




RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A


RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A



RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A

It is better to keep your mouth shut....

RE: Let's not forget the goold ol' US of A


Thanks for making Twain's proverb a factual truth.

You have not stolen it.





By derricker on 7/5/2010 7:24:18 PM , Rating: 2

This is waaaaay beyond piracy, it's called fascism, they are just using piracy as the new "commie" agent to enforce fascism in our laws, what will be next? jail for all that speak against government sanctioned pandemics? Taking the Swine Flu vaccine at gun point??

We really need to start looking at the bigger picture, this, coming from someone, who has...sampled.

By Silver2k7 on 7/6/2010 10:10:32 AM , Rating: 2
"There is NO excuse for piracy and this is from someone that has... sampled."

Well if you have sampled, then you should know the few reasons that do exist ??

Like say music [hard to find things] f.ex. Demos/Promos/Live Shows or just limited editions and things that are not not sold any longer..

Lets say tv-shows you could probably tivo those or whatever, but its also nice to get 1 file without any commercials and stuff in there.. Im guessing Itunes could do this, but im also guessing that they have DRM in the files.

Then there is a few, not avalible at all for purchasing a legit copy, do you order from some russian bootleger or download online then ??

If Kung Fu The Legend Continues would have been availble on legit DVD's I would have ordered it when I ordered 'Kung Fu'..
Anyway there is only crappy VHS rips out there.. so someone thinks that downloading a thing you watched as a kid, and wich makes you zero profit other than watching the show again, in poor quality mind you, should be a criminal act that they can dish out heavy fines or jailtime for, lets hope whoever it comes down to to let this law pass or not, is atleast a little sane!!

