Anti-piracy bill

[rpm]

Anti-piracy bill

US President George W Bush signed a bill on Monday which toughens penalties for copyright infringement, music and movie piracy and creates a high-level position of intellectual property czar.

 

[Drunkard #1]

As usual the unverifiable figure of $250 billion crops up. As usual the author doesn't mention his source. We need more freedom IRO intellectual property, not more unenforceable legislation.

 

[rwenzori]

As usual the unverifiable figure of $250 billion crops up. As usual the author doesn't mention his source. We need more freedom IRO intellectual property, not more unenforceable legislation.

$250 billion is roughly SA's annual GDP, as I found out in another thread!

I am very much for more freedom in respect of IP. In fact I would kill for it, LOL!

The first world imposition of current international IP laws is merely another way to extort wealth from developing nations.

 

[w1z4rd]

And the lies become law. Classic humans.

 

[<moLe>]

americans surely must be an insecure bunch of pricks, only way people can progress to our full potential is in an environment where information is freely distributed and freely available. Sure I love capitalism but believe in the freedom of information, and say if someone copies your design and make a better product than u did then good for them, and then the pace at which technology progress will be way way faster dont u think? hmm..may be wrong but is it that imposible for the big boys to maybe work co-op with GPL like patents? Seems as though China is getting it right

 

[fz1]

* fz1 quickly stops all his torrent downloads... Laughs, and then resumes them.

I say it all the time (maybe not on this forum though): give me (as someone not physically located in the US) a way to legally purchase music, TV shows and movies online which is as convenient as Bittorrent (and reasonably priced) and I WILL pay. But no. You have to enforce your antiquated concepts of geography specific copyright and distribution, regions, etc. The entertainment industry needs to move on. It's a small world thanks to the Internet. Embrace it to distribute your content online globally at a reasonable price and watch the money roll in and wipe the crocodile tears caused by illegal downloading off your face.

 

[mercurial]

Their country needs the money, that's why they're passing this bill!

 

[PeterCH]

americans surely must be an insecure bunch of pricks, only way people can progress to our full potential is in an environment where information is freely distributed and freely available. Sure I love capitalism but believe in the freedom of information, and say if someone copies your design and make a better product than u did then good for them, and then the pace at which technology progress will be way way faster dont u think? hmm..may be wrong but is it that imposible for the big boys to maybe work co-op with GPL like patents? Seems as though China is getting it right

So you're saying when China actually starts churning out useful software, music and film they will allow for unrestricted, free sharing of their
works?

Wonderful, can't wait.

 

[LazyLion]

*sigh*...

.. and so it continues... They will NEVER get rid of piracy!

THE ONLY EFFECTIVE WAY TO BEAT PIRACY IS PRICE AND DISTRIBUTION!

This will just drive people more underground, build greater privacy and encryption into file sharing methods and p**s people off even more so that they pirate more out of revenge than desire.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.... when will they learn?

 

[Nod]

Great article on piracy from ArsTechnica.

What, then, of that $200 to $250 billion range? Often, it's attributed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and indeed, the Bureau routinely cites those numbers. According to FBI spokesperson Catherine Milhoan, the figure "was derived through our coordination with industry, trade associations, rights holders, and other law enforcement agencies" at a 2002 anti-piracy confab. But neither the Bureau nor the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, which assembled the inter-agency powwow, could find any record of how that number was computed.

Ars eagerly hunted down that issue and found a short article on counterfeiting, in which the reader is informed that "counterfeit merchandise" is "a $200 billion enterprise worldwide and growing faster than many of the industries it's preying on." No further source is given.

Very good read. Also looks at the job losses attributed to piracy.

 

[.Froot.]

There are two sides to the story of piracy and job/money losses....

 

[Abe]

I would like people to start supporting competitors like Linux and OpenOffice rather then pirate the MS stuff. The same goes for music. Buy from places like Amie street if you can.

 

[ld13]

I say it all the time (maybe not on this forum though): give me (as someone not physically located in the US) a way to legally purchase music, TV shows and movies online which is as convenient as Bittorrent (and reasonably priced) ...

... and does not cost me R70/GB to download in the first place...

+1!

 

[Crowley]

Not going to jump on the piracy is ev0l bandwagon again, you know it is and you fool yourself if you think what you are doing is justified.

I would just like to give some points to think about on this post.

americans surely must be an insecure bunch of pricks, only way people can progress to our full potential is in an environment where information is freely distributed and freely available.

Information that involves mp3's and movies?

Sure I love capitalism but believe in the freedom of information, and say if someone copies your design and make a better product than u did then good for them, and then the pace at which technology progress will be way way faster dont u think?

So you write some software program and take a loan from the bank to employ people to help finish it and distribute it. You employ 20 other people who rely on you for their bread and butter every month and 3 days later somebody takes you IP and betters it. You are stuck with a bank loan, 20 people to feed and software that nobody wants.

Great idea.

hmm..may be wrong but is it that imposible for the big boys to maybe work co-op with GPL like patents? Seems as though China is getting it right

I know Bill Gates is teh devol etc etc but Microsoft employs 1000's of people worldwide. How long do you think they will be able to survive if nobody buys their software?

 

[LazyLion]

Not going to jump on the piracy is ev0l bandwagon again, you know it is and you fool yourself if you think what you are doing is justified.

I would just like to give some points to think about on this post.

Information that involves mp3's and movies?

So you write some software program and take a loan from the bank to employ people to help finish it and distribute it. You employ 20 other people who rely on you for their bread and butter every month and 3 days later somebody takes you IP and betters it. You are stuck with a bank loan, 20 people to feed and software that nobody wants.

Great idea.

I know Bill Gates is teh devol etc etc but Microsoft employs 1000's of people worldwide. How long do you think they will be able to survive if nobody buys their software?

How do you think Open Source Developers survive? And those who give their software away free? They must eat code and drink bandwidth.

Open your eyes... there is a whole world out there.

 

[PeterCH]

How do you think Open Source Developers survive? And those who give their software away free? They must eat code and drink bandwidth.

Open your eyes... there is a whole world out there.

You're confusing two issues. Open source and Closed source.
Commercial closed source software should be patented and
the person who invested in its writing should be protected
or at least his earnings should be. On the other hand if a company
wants to go the Open Source, GPL route, good for them.

At present most FOSS is cr@p. Sure there are gems, but most is unusable.

 

[Nod]

At present most FOSS is cr@p. Sure there are gems, but most is unusable.

I would like to hear some examples. Please.

You could always better an application if it doesn't fit your needs 100%.

 

[PeterCH]

I would like people to start supporting competitors like Linux and OpenOffice rather then pirate the MS stuff. The same goes for music. Buy from places like Amie street if you can.

Maybe with software its different but with music and entertainment, its impossible to do what you say. After all, you can't help what you like.
I don't know of any people who DL music for the sake of DL music,
rather most people DL music to listen to it (and they listen to what they
enjoy).

 

[Crowley]

How do you think Open Source Developers survive? And those who give their software away free? They must eat code and drink bandwidth.

Open your eyes... there is a whole world out there.

Yeah, must be. I mean opensauce is the be all and end all of freedom right?

A whole world, you must be kidding me.

I used to work for a software house that struggled to survive because of piracy. You lose your job, car and house because a bunch of losers copy your software because they think it should be free and we'll talk again.

 

[Nod]

Yeah, must be. I mean opensauce is the be all and end all of freedom right?

A whole world, you must be kidding me.

I used to work for a software house that struggled to survive because of piracy. You lose your job, car and house because a bunch of losers copy your software because they think it should be free and we'll talk again.

Why do you blame FOSS for your companies downfall? If pirates got your source code, they should have looked at their security. If I copy a binary, I still don't have the source. The source can only come from within your company.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but please don't confuse corporate espionage with FOSS.