'Bulletproof' safe havens are all the rage for Internet pirates

The entertainment industry failed to keep up with the times in which they exist. They got blindsided, and desperately scrambled to recover.
Piracy is caused by greed on both sides of the fence. Streaming media may dull the appeal of doning the digital eye patch a little, but the simple fact is, if people want something enough, they will aquire it by any means necessary.

I agree pircy is a problem, but even though the laws consider it such, I think people should be able to convert their cd music to mp3, and convert their vhs to dvd, or blue-ray downgrade to dvd, or any other format so long as they stay within the control of the original license owner. That is one area I think copyright needs to go bye bye. Remember, copyright is supposed to protect the expression of thought, nothing else. A movie's expression of thought does not change much at all compared to vhs to blue-ray. Maybe when you get into 3d, but that is for the courts to decide. But what we know for sure is the expression does not change from cd to mp3 or book to ebook.

When it comes to length of copyright I think 120+ years is a little over doing it. Originally when copyright was around it was only for a few weeks. Just enough time for bards to perform and make some money off of it, and then every bard was able to use it. If used right copyright can be used to make something permanently copyrighted so the public can never use it to create their own world with their most loved characters or worlds.

When snow leopard came out my family and I decided to pre-order the family pack from Apple. It was available no where in store anywhere close to me and after a week after its release waiting to arrive...we turned to thepiratebay. Piracy is more convenient and publisher arent helping the situation.

I wont be buying OSX 10.7 anyway

Well....


I think that was one of the most rational, polite, and effective comment sections I have ever read. You even managed to impress me enough to comment (doesn't happen often). Kudos.

I will admit to bias on the issue (I am proudly Objectivist and anti-crazy-copyright-enforcement), but the way I see piracy as it is now is as a manifestation of the shrinking world.

As more and more people are able to access more and more data quickly and easily, a desire grows for even more, faster, cheaper, etc. This desire is met by pirates. When people decide it is easier for them to go to Piratebay and download the sequel to their favorite game, rather than go to a store or attempt to find a legitimate paid-download, they get hooked. This is not because they are greedy or lazy (at least, not for most people), it is because human nature drives toward the more efficient path. Not having to pay for something is more efficient. That doesn't make it right, but it is reality.

The solution is not more vague, draconian copyright laws, but more open, accessible media. It is much more likely that the previously mentioned equilibrium will be reached not because of pirates getting bored or media companies giving up, but by the upcoming technology burst. The beginning is already here, with 3g networks, Sixth Sense technology, and augmented reality. In many nations (I know Japan for sure) bank information is easily accessible via phone SIM cards that can be swiped or pay online.

When all of these technologies come together (soon, I hope) most media will be easily accessible, with minimum effort required on the part of the consumer. Most people don't mind iTunes style song purchasing, and if that form of sale were used universally, a lot of piracy would disappear. No more paying $12 for a CD when you just want one song, and prices would probably drop as a result of reduced physical cost. There will be growing pains for other parts of the economy, but it is likely that many grunt level retail jobs will be gone soon anyway.

I apologize for future-guessing, and I know there are probably holes in my logic, but it is hard to accurately compensate for every variable on the planet. For all we know, there will be a mass-extinction event in 2012 and the point will be moot (unlikely).

I will not argue the merits of piracy or the appropriate price of media. However, i feel i must point out a factual inaccuracy in this otherwise great article. Internet piracy, despite popular belief, is not in fact the same as theft. The law does not actually consider it a crime. It is a tort or civil wrong doing. The only reason why people like TPB have been awarded prison sentences was that the court ruled that they profited from their website. Endusers, however, may not be criminally charged with 'file-sharing'. I realize that this may be a minuscule point, but a misconception that is made all too often. Of course the media company's will keep perpetuation this myth, but it is simply not true.

What really bugs me about all this is the fact the viable solutions are already deployed, but for some strange reason doesn't seem to be widely accepted by artists and directors.
I mean, we got (at least here in Sweden, as mentioned by previous posters) Spotify, which is an excellent music streaming service. We also have Voddler, which is basically a Spotify for movies, it is however pretty crappy, but guess what. Spotify wasn't that good during beta either.
As for games, I'm pretty sure the best working concept is the one of League of Legends; game is free and content can be unlocked either by tedious grinding, or paying up.
The issue is, that not everyone accept these. Metallica can't be found on Spotify, and Modern Warfare 2 can't be downloaded for free and compensated by paying for in-game unlockables.

Piracy may be wrong, but how do you argue that charging upwards of 1000% profit margins on a cd, dvd or video game as not?

I think Lawrence Lessig's book "Free culture" should be of interest to many here. It debates many of the issues you take up here, as well as explaining in layman terms how the copyright law has evolved into the modern version.

For those interested in the debate on culture and piracy/sharing it will give a good insight into the case on both sides.

It is freely available both as text and audio and can be found several places on the web:
Audio version: http://www.archive.org/details/free-culture-audiobook

I read most of the comments and down voted most of them! I don't get where douches come off all high and mighty! if I wasn't gonna buy it, then I the creator should want me to get it for free to at least check it out and bring in new buyers/fans. I DL 360 games that otherwise would never get purchased if I had more than enough money to pay for them.

Basically, why pay for it when you can get it for free w/ no consequence.

I'm not gonna pay a prostitute if some chick is diggin me and wants to get it on! I'm not you guys! Basically work smart not hard!

I like what the one guy said pay 60 for a game or 60 for the light bill and groceries!

I agree with you comments on recently priced high quality media. But I have a few points I'd like to make about the post. First, its not stealing like the piracy name implies. No ones loosing the content, they're just copying it. Also, in the long run in particularly the music industry, piracy is helpful. It allows more people to listen to music and therefor allows artists to make more money without the need for the old record company distribution system, and consequential percentage taken from the artists potential profit. Artists make mush more money off of a concert ticket than a CD, so why not skip the CD. Give the music to the audience digitally and reap the benefits of increased concert sales. This comment may seem a little rambling, but I do have a point. Like drug dealers, if you take one down, another will take over his area. Fighting these websites is like the war on drugs, pointless Taking down these websites will not stop piracy and you are entirely correct that they should make more appealing alternatives to piracy. The future of entertainment sales is live entertainment. And hard drive companies are making a killing with the increase in piracy.