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Disclosure: I worked in the "anti-piracy" industry for 6 years at one point. It should be renamed the Big Content Fluffing Contingent, but that position is itse

by zeruch 5y ago

Disclosure: I worked in the "anti-piracy" industry for 6 years at one point. It should be renamed the Big Content Fluffing Contingent, but that position is itself revealing on my part. It's all just anti-competitive and bullying trash-baggery from an industry stuck in the 1940s for business practices (read: Mafia accountancy) with a 1980s business mandate (read: "greed is good" when its us, but for anyone else is bad). They dedicate huge sums to lobby whomever will do their bidding (e.g. over history, folks like Sonny Bono, Claire McCaskill, etc) and demand total, stupid fealty, because the execs in Big Content really are like d-list extras from an episode of Entourage (or the Tom Cruise character from Tropic Thunder). They have no understanding of tech, and don't care, because they feel all of reality can be warped to their vision via contractual enforcement and litigation threats. It's a human centipede of stupid.

ElFitz 5y ago
That’s exactly how it seems from the outside. I can’t tell if it’s funny or worrying.
- zeruch 5y ago
  "I can’t tell if it’s funny or worrying." Honestly, both. In most industries, you have a lot of decent, normal folks and a handful of lunatic ball-dents flailing about. Big Content is the opposite, almost all leadership is nuttier than a freight train full of trail mix, and conduct themselves like goddamn sociopaths from an episode of CSI. Things I recall being asked for in meetings with these firms: 1. was it possible to DDos Google (because they were the course of all piracy)? They didn't ask in so many words, but it was effectively what they asked for. Whether the realized the legality of it at the beginning of the meeting, they were disabused of that as an option, promptly. 2. How could we take down the company hat "hosted all the bittorrent"? etc 3. Screaming fits on the phone I wouldn't expect from a teething infant let a lone a grown-ass adult. 4. Execs claiming they hired someone on staff for their cup size (into roles they had no qualification for) 5. Regular meltdowns over actual fair use content (reviews, critiques, etc), when after being told it would likely be overturned after we sent a DMCA, demanded it anyway, then screamed when it was in fact overturned on appeal, and blamed us for not somehow making subverting IP law a feature of our business. It's a cretinous turd parade. ...all...bloody...nuts.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
That's horrifying. What are we supposed to do? Can they be defeated? Do technology companies have enough lobbying power to put a stop to these never ending "anti-piracy measures"? Do they want to?

by zeruch 5y ago

ElFitz 5y ago

That’s exactly how it seems from the outside. I can’t tell if it’s funny or worrying.

zeruch 5y ago
"I can’t tell if it’s funny or worrying." Honestly, both. In most industries, you have a lot of decent, normal folks and a handful of lunatic ball-dents flailing about. Big Content is the opposite, almost all leadership is nuttier than a freight train full of trail mix, and conduct themselves like goddamn sociopaths from an episode of CSI. Things I recall being asked for in meetings with these firms: 1. was it possible to DDos Google (because they were the course of all piracy)? They didn't ask in so many words, but it was effectively what they asked for. Whether the realized the legality of it at the beginning of the meeting, they were disabused of that as an option, promptly. 2. How could we take down the company hat "hosted all the bittorrent"? etc 3. Screaming fits on the phone I wouldn't expect from a teething infant let a lone a grown-ass adult. 4. Execs claiming they hired someone on staff for their cup size (into roles they had no qualification for) 5. Regular meltdowns over actual fair use content (reviews, critiques, etc), when after being told it would likely be overturned after we sent a DMCA, demanded it anyway, then screamed when it was in fact overturned on appeal, and blamed us for not somehow making subverting IP law a feature of our business. It's a cretinous turd parade. ...all...bloody...nuts.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

That's horrifying. What are we supposed to do? Can they be defeated? Do technology companies have enough lobbying power to put a stop to these never ending "anti-piracy measures"? Do they want to?