The popularity of ‘The Pirate Bay’ is really just another symptom of the growing disdain for Corporate avarice. They’re sticking it to the greedy and the people love it. Western governments have to wake up and start serving all the people not just the rich because the proletariat can only be kept at bay for so long.
The TPB case outcome is absurd. By definition these 3 guys have merely started a ‘meeting place’ for people. The fact that (a lot of ) individuals now use this meeting place to swap copyrighted stuff , is by no means any more illegal – or their legal responsibility to police, than a pub owner being responsible for drug deals taking place at its venue. The perps are those doing the deal. They owners of the establishment are not ‘pimps’ living off of these deals. And that that is exactly their point as they are now taking a stand.
The laws, distribution methods and consumer interactions has to go through a renewal and a reinvention. Just as the oligopoly enjoyed by the Hollywood studio systems had to die and be reborn in the 1940s and 50s. The TPB case is now highlighting a similar need to rethink the consumption and ownership of media.
While I don’t condone a mass download of any type, I can see reasons for why people might do it and feeling entitled to download certain media. I have been on TPB to find stuff, but I also own 700 DVDs. I fail to see how a visit to TPB is not merely a contemporary version of borrowing your mates CD or VHS, as long as you delete the file after use. While borrowing a CD is clearly identified to be illegal by few countries – accessing it over the internet is not so clearly defined. Ironically, I could sell my CD to a friend, and then buy it back, and it would be legal. So clearly a redefinition is needed. Throwing these guys in jail because American commercial and political pressure demands it is just stupid. The bigger issue here is to redefine not to punish. Give them jobs in the industry and use their new perspective to build a new media distribution system.
It should be highlighted that many DVD quality files found on sites such as TPB clearly have been made available by people from within the industry
Perhaps they should take a page out of the book of Socrates and invoice the media companies for unpaid distribution and promotion services. That defence didn’t work out so well for Socrates, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have merits in this case, especially with the amount of research around showing positive correlation between downloaders and dollars spent on media content.
Tony
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:29 PMThe popularity of ‘The Pirate Bay’ is really just another symptom of the growing disdain for Corporate avarice. They’re sticking it to the greedy and the people love it.
Western governments have to wake up and start serving all the people not just the rich because the proletariat can only be kept at bay for so long.
Metoo
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 12:56 PMThe TPB case outcome is absurd. By definition these 3 guys have merely started a ‘meeting place’ for people. The fact that (a lot of ) individuals now use this meeting place to swap copyrighted stuff , is by no means any more illegal – or their legal responsibility to police, than a pub owner being responsible for drug deals taking place at its venue. The perps are those doing the deal. They owners of the establishment are not ‘pimps’ living off of these deals. And that that is exactly their point as they are now taking a stand.
The laws, distribution methods and consumer interactions has to go through a renewal and a reinvention. Just as the oligopoly enjoyed by the Hollywood studio systems had to die and be reborn in the 1940s and 50s. The TPB case is now highlighting a similar need to rethink the consumption and ownership of media.
While I don’t condone a mass download of any type, I can see reasons for why people might do it and feeling entitled to download certain media. I have been on TPB to find stuff, but I also own 700 DVDs. I fail to see how a visit to TPB is not merely a contemporary version of borrowing your mates CD or VHS, as long as you delete the file after use. While borrowing a CD is clearly identified to be illegal by few countries – accessing it over the internet is not so clearly defined. Ironically, I could sell my CD to a friend, and then buy it back, and it would be legal. So clearly a redefinition is needed. Throwing these guys in jail because American commercial and political pressure demands it is just stupid. The bigger issue here is to redefine not to punish. Give them jobs in the industry and use their new perspective to build a new media distribution system.
It should be highlighted that many DVD quality files found on sites such as TPB clearly have been made available by people from within the industry
Metoo
Jason
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 1:03 PMPerhaps they should take a page out of the book of Socrates and invoice the media companies for unpaid distribution and promotion services. That defence didn’t work out so well for Socrates, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have merits in this case, especially with the amount of research around showing positive correlation between downloaders and dollars spent on media content.