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I'm always intrigued by the lack of vision shown by organisations like BREIN. Blocking an IP address will not block an idea deeply embedded in the mindset of al

I'm always intrigued by the lack of vision shown by organisations like BREIN. Blocking an IP address will not block an idea deeply embedded in the mindset of almost whole generations. It is, after all, "common knowledge" distribution has shifted, and pirates use this at every turn to justify their actions. >A copy is not theft, it is a copy, final. >The money I didn't spend on this movie was already earmarked for another purpose; nothing changed. There's a social aspect, too. >All my friends are pirating, if I do not, I fall behind; there is no choice. Like an empire or a dynasty, the entertainment business is simply too entrenched; disconnected from the real world, to realise they are the ones at fault. It's not a question of ethics (we made it, we earned it, abide by our wishes), it's a matter of majority opinion. It's refreshing to see this result, I just hope it sprung from correct reasoning, blocking any form of information should be done under the harshest of scrutinies, which means not just for the sake of attempting the sate a billion-dollar industry. Used to be a time, when capitalism meant keeping with the times or succumbing to it. This sometimes feels eerily reminiscent of what I was taught about Soviet Russia: keeping their factories and businesses going at all costs, because the 5-year-plan was more important than progress. USSR did not need billions of buckets, we do not need billions of optical disks.

blauwbilgorgel 13y ago
The vision of BREIN is not build on killing piracy, it is to secure funding. BREIN gets most of its funding from Hollywood. It is a commercial institution: If they generate lots of anti-piracy press they get more, or easier-to-get funds, if they are not visible they get less, or harder-to-get funds. BREIN does not necessarily have to kill piracy to secure its funding. It just needs to raise a stink. If they killed piracy they would also kill themselves. The blocking of TBP and all known proxy IP's was a huge stink. Persistent pirates will find it easy to circumvent this. They may even abandon public tracker torrents and flock to Usenet. I think the goal is to make the life of the common pirate more difficult. Many moms and pops only knew how to download a movie from TPB. Once they saw the "The court ordered us to block this page" they stopped watching movies or went back to ordering DVDs. Just a few weeks ago BREIN send its threatening letters to amateur subtitle sites and their uploaders (for unlicensed derivative works). Piracy on the whole will not be hampered when pirates can't download the Dutch subtitles to an English movie. Just a few kids, deaf people and older folk who have trouble understanding English, or the few anime lovers who can't fully speak Japanese. So what _have_ they accomplished with this? A big stink. A nice report to give to those that fund them. Shown that they are willing to align themselves with Hollywood's agenda (I bet the idea to start going after subtitle sites originally came from there). Shown that they are deserving of (more) funds. If we all agree that facilitating copyright infringement is against the law, then blocking sites that exist to facilitate copyright infringement does not seem too harsh or close to censorship to me. If you want to avoid sites being closed for being against the law, then lobby to change/overhaul copyright law.
bowlofpetunias 13y ago
>All my friends are pirating, if I do not, I fall behind; there is no choice. This is probably the strongest incentive for piracy in a country like the Netherlands: if you don't, you cannot join in the next day watercooler/schoolyard talk about the latest episode of show X, let alone your global virtual friends on various forums and communities. Stopping people from consuming your product without scarcity must be the most insane business model ever. At least the communist failure to deliver was a side-effect, not a deliberate strategy. However, let's not pretend the entrenched entertainment industry is the only one making this mistake. Tech start-ups often fail to realize that they are launching in a global market from day one.

blauwbilgorgel 13y ago

The vision of BREIN is not build on killing piracy, it is to secure funding. BREIN gets most of its funding from Hollywood. It is a commercial institution: If they generate lots of anti-piracy press they get more, or easier-to-get funds, if they are not visible they get less, or harder-to-get funds. BREIN does not necessarily have to kill piracy to secure its funding. It just needs to raise a stink. If they killed piracy they would also kill themselves. The blocking of TBP and all known proxy IP's was a huge stink. Persistent pirates will find it easy to circumvent this. They may even abandon public tracker torrents and flock to Usenet. I think the goal is to make the life of the common pirate more difficult. Many moms and pops only knew how to download a movie from TPB. Once they saw the "The court ordered us to block this page" they stopped watching movies or went back to ordering DVDs. Just a few weeks ago BREIN send its threatening letters to amateur subtitle sites and their uploaders (for unlicensed derivative works). Piracy on the whole will not be hampered when pirates can't download the Dutch subtitles to an English movie. Just a few kids, deaf people and older folk who have trouble understanding English, or the few anime lovers who can't fully speak Japanese. So what _have_ they accomplished with this? A big stink. A nice report to give to those that fund them. Shown that they are willing to align themselves with Hollywood's agenda (I bet the idea to start going after subtitle sites originally came from there). Shown that they are deserving of (more) funds. If we all agree that facilitating copyright infringement is against the law, then blocking sites that exist to facilitate copyright infringement does not seem too harsh or close to censorship to me. If you want to avoid sites being closed for being against the law, then lobby to change/overhaul copyright law.

bowlofpetunias 13y ago

>All my friends are pirating, if I do not, I fall behind; there is no choice. This is probably the strongest incentive for piracy in a country like the Netherlands: if you don't, you cannot join in the next day watercooler/schoolyard talk about the latest episode of show X, let alone your global virtual friends on various forums and communities. Stopping people from consuming your product without scarcity must be the most insane business model ever. At least the communist failure to deliver was a side-effect, not a deliberate strategy. However, let's not pretend the entrenched entertainment industry is the only one making this mistake. Tech start-ups often fail to realize that they are launching in a global market from day one.