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'Bulletproof' safe havens are all the rage for Internet pirates
'Ooh, cool, tons of free stuff!' -- no, I mean, really thought about it.
Organized crime, on the other hand, is serious business. You can think of BitTorrent sites and trackers as organized crime units. In some cases they control the flow of goods from the source all the way to the end user, and sometimes they're just masters of distribution -- either way, it's these organized units that get most of the heat from governments and groups like the RIAA and MPAA. Conventional wisdom has it that it's greater 'value for money' to shut down the big boys rather than go after run-of-the-mill pirates like you and I (hypothetically speaking, of course). In most Western countries it's very easy to shut down pirate groups -- it's just a matter of asking the ISP nicely.
Enter bulletproof servers. Pirate havens. Speakeasies of the 21st century -- whatever you want to call them, they represent a way for pirate groups to operate safely and outside the law. Sweden, thanks to The Pirate Bay, is the most popular example of a 'copyright safe haven'. Until the recent ruling against TPB, Sweden was considered very soft on copyright infringement -- and the moment the judge's gavel came down, I can assure you a lot of other illegal groups moved their servers out of the country.
Now that Sweden has fallen into line with international community and 'gone straight', guess where The Pirate Bay's servers are now located? In CyberBunker, an old nuclear bunker-cum-datacenter located 120 miles from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. How about Demonoid? They started in Serbia, but now they're in the Ukraine. These guys can just keep on hopping around until they get bored and shut up shop. It makes you wonder a little about conventional national borders, eh?
Unsurprisingly, China is also a very popular destination for bulletproof servers. You have to assume that eventually every nation in the world will capitulate and kowtow on the contentious issue of intellectual property, but I don't think it will happen any time soon.
If the television, film and music industries would just make it easy for us -- the whole world! not just select countries! -- to get our hands on reasonably-priced, high-quality media... well, I think we all know what would happen. Piracy would dry up in an instant.
Comments
53
Subscribe to commentsPatrickJan 6th 2010 12:34PM
I agree that piracy is ultimately wrong and believe me when I say I've no right to preach. I agree that if media and software were priced so that they were more accessible piracy wouldn't be as big a deal. However, I gotta say that considering the work that goes into producing/creating and distributing GOOD media and software, $50 to $60 dollars for a much anticipated game, $14 to $20 dollars for a long awaited DVD, or a couple hundred for a secure and stable operating system is pretty reasonable and worth saving for. Again, I'm not preaching because I've no right. Just an observation.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 6th 2010 12:40PM
I don't think anyone's arguing the price of DVDs/CDs/cinemas in the Western world. I mean, yes, they COULD be cheaper, but that's not a valid argument.
Piracy is much more of a problem outside the major media hub (USA). Europe and Asia. Europe because we don't want to wait for film/TV releases, and Asia because of the huge disparity in income.
I have a Malaysian friend that once said: 'Seb, I can buy a game for $50, or feed myself for a month. Guess which one I choose?'
sodapopJan 6th 2010 6:41PM
$1 per song is accessible. $1-3 rentals is accessible. $10-15 to own is accessible. Free video on network sites and Hulu.com is accessible. Free broadcast over the air is accessible.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 6th 2010 7:08PM
Hulu is only acceptable in North America, last I checked... that's the problem :)
BCJan 7th 2010 3:37AM
Sebastian said "If the television, film and music industries would just make it easy for us -- the whole world! not just select countries! -- to get our hands on reasonably-priced, high-quality media... well, I think we all know what would happen. Piracy would dry up in an instant."
People are commenting that media IS reasonably priced in the developed world, but piracy in the developed world has not "dried up". To say that piracy would dry up if only the publishers would let us buy "reasonably-priced, high-quality media" amounts to shifting the blame off the pirates and onto the publishers. I'll agree that reasonable prices seem to be a problem outside the developed world, but the existence of piracy in the first world shows that your statement is false.
Anyway, I think the reason publishers don't set their prices really low in other countries is that they don't want people importing them back into the developed world and selling them at a profit, undermining normal sales.
AmadeusJan 9th 2010 8:10PM
You're wrong. Piracy may be morally shaky, but only in the way Robin Hood was. Look at the salaries of movie stars, pop stars, etc. Their jobs are jokes. Yet somehow they rate salaries in the tens of millions of dollars? Give me a break; they don't deserve that kind of income. "Well they earn what the market has decided they're worth." Stupid. They earn that because the copyright structure in the West has allowed record and movie studios to run a monopoly on AV art. As long as they continue to get these silly multi million dollar salaries, let the downloading continue!
MorganJan 26th 2010 8:13PM
@Amadeus
You say, "Give me a break; they don't deserve that kind of income." So I would imagine you have no need for their product, no? I mean their jobs are jokes, they must not be offering anything of value.
The fact is, they produce what they produce. It doesn't matter what anyone's willing to pay really, it's theirs to price as smartly or stupidly as they choose. You don't get to unilaterally accept or deny that right, and reprice it as you choose.
There is not monopoly. People make movies all the time. They suck, in general. You just want to use envy to make yourself or others feel better about stealing.
It's weak sauce.
Dan TJan 6th 2010 12:54PM
I disagree. I think that even with a $20 game, $5 DVD, or a $1 CD you would still find a large number of people trying to acquire them for free. Sure, you might have more people actually paying for them but it's not going to solve the problem.
How about including a non-media item that you can only get through purchasing...like a t-shirt (maybe insert special signed ones), mouse pad or shot glass featuring your favorite band? The point is to include something that can't be duplicated so it would still be in demand.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 6th 2010 12:56PM
Hehe, you just described the entire allure of live music... it's not something you can put in a can and sell :)
Most people want to pay for things they like. There will always be those that don't (or can't), but in some cases they're simply not ALLOWED to buy it due to lack of distribution channels, or a price that's totally out of line with the country's purchasing power.
BhagwadJan 6th 2010 3:03PM
If I were living and earning in the US, $1 a CD is reasonable. But in India for example, $1 is worth more. So unless it's sold for the equivalent of $1 in India (Around Rs. 5 or 11 cents real time value), piracy will continue.
ImNot PerfectEitherJan 6th 2010 10:22PM
Well said. Does no one in the media industry remember Infocom and their always-clever box of goodies that came with every game? And they weren't just copy protection gizmos like encoder discs, they were often things you'd want to use *outside* the game. I still have my DON'T PANIC button and wear it out to every gig our band plays :)
PC-VIPJan 6th 2010 12:55PM
TOTALLY correct.
I remember a conversation I had with a client a few months ago. She was opening up a business that needed to include media downloads, and when I asked her if she was concerned about being linked to her customers' piracy habits she didn't hesitate for a moment before telling me that there was no way "her people" could be bother to steal something that costs 99 cents.
Now in fairness her people were snooty rich people. But there's a point where everyone will be honest, and while I don't knew where that "is", I do know that the techniques to stop piracy being used to date are not working and nothing new is being introduced.
This'll be fun to watch play out . . .
Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP Computer Support, Business Change Coaching and Virtual Assistant Services
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP on Twitter
ddoingit1Jan 6th 2010 1:35PM
The sharing, and Embedding, is growing, at such a high rate, the need for stealing, is gone out the window, share and share a like, to perform justice for the economic value we have brought to our industries, is the wave, to a new day, in this lossing market. http://david-bing.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/ddoingit1
mud__manJan 6th 2010 2:57PM
Well I recently wanted to download a TV series from itunes, its about 3-4 years old (a season 1) and it was £19.99, yet I can buy three seasons from amazon (as physical discs) for only £10 more, or get the lot for free illegally.
Now it makes no sense to me that the only place I can download it from legally charges such a crazy price! No wonder people would rather illegaly download it instead!
CarneyJan 6th 2010 3:24PM
"If the television, film and music industries would just make it easy for us -- the whole world, not just select countries -- to get our hands on reasonably-priced, high-quality media... well, I think we all know what would happen. Piracy would dry up in an instant."
WRONG. iTunes provided this. Heck, its competition did, too. What's a hundred bucks a year or so for unlimited access to millions of songs, as much as your player can hold? Last I checked, piracy is flourishing, and NOT just in countries that don't have official iTunes versions, but right here in the USA.
Piracy is caused by laziness, greed, lack of integrity, and lack of respect for others. Whining about the price of media is a dishonest excuse.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 6th 2010 5:59PM
I'd be curious to find out if piracy (of music) is higher or lower in the US since iTunes' growing success.
I think it's hard to measure as bandwidth and general connectivity rises.
sodapopJan 6th 2010 11:34PM
@Sebastian Anthony - problem is that we can't accurate count piracy (which makes us doubt the legitimacy of RIAA lawsuits). But I'm not sure if piracy rates being higher or lower in the US will tell us if the legal means are indeed accessible. Too many factors influence the numbers. I would be surpised if income level had meaningful influence, as well.
I think cultural norms are the biggest influence. My guess is that socialist countries and socialist economies pirate at a higher rate because they, like American children, think everything should be free and no one should have to work to have the for things they desire. Socialists have an extreme sense of uncompensated entitlement.
kojo87Jan 7th 2010 2:19AM
really? whining about the price of media is a dishonest excuse? im sorry but charging $35 for a Blu-Ray movie that already made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office is not right. the profit made off CDs and DVDs are too much.
iTunes gives 70 cents of every song to the label while the artist can receive as little as 12 cents per song. i don't feel one bit guilty about screwing people like Lil Wayne or Lady Gaga out of 12 cents a song. not that i would buy their albums anyway.
LeonJan 6th 2010 3:56PM
Hi,
Just though i wanted to throw in my two cents here.
I live in sweden, prety *beeep* faar up north, and one of the reasons why i (have to) approve of piracy, is that its simply (sometimes) the only way of getting what you are looking for.. I was looking for a serie a while back, no where to buy it online, no where to buy it in any stores.. but one look at piratebay and you could get it right there, sometimes piracy is the only way to get something.
So, the question that i wonder about..
How about copyright owners stop crying and complaining, and start inventing methods where people can get their material for a good price and a good speed.
Another reason for piracy, sometimes is just much *beep* easier to just download something, than have to go down to a store, buy a DVD that you will see once, and never use again..
Thats my 2 cents.
L.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 6th 2010 5:59PM
I think you just agreed with everything I said... so you get a thumbs up from me!