Pirates...

[JimboUK]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/19/acs-law-solicitor-filesharing-claims

 

Hmm this didn't turn out too well, I imagine after this lawyers will be a little more careful.

[Aurielius]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/19/acs-law-solicitor-filesharing-claims

 

Hmm this didn't turn out too well, I imagine after this lawyers will be a little more careful.

Read the article, he sounds what we call ambulance chasers (hustler lawyers) I wonder what would happen if a reputable firm did the work?

[JimboUK]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/19/acs-law-solicitor-filesharing-claims

 

Hmm this didn't turn out too well, I imagine after this lawyers will be a little more careful.

Read the article, he sounds what we call ambulance chasers (hustler lawyers) I wonder what would happen if a reputable firm did the work?

 

Lord only knows, the copyright laws and their enforcement are an absolute shambles here. A judge said an IP address is not enough to prove guilt which makes any enforcement a hell of a lot harder, this sort of stupidity from the authorities doesn't help either.

[marharth]

I would say a good percentage of people with a minecraft account pirated it first and decided it would be a lot better with online features.

Seriously? Where do you get that idea? There is a free-to-play classic version right on his main page. If you play that, you will get a good feel for what it is like...minus the creatures and crafting.

The free to play classic is nothing like the full game lol...

 

The free to play is just 3D legos.

 

Read through minecraft topics, many people have admitted to pirating the game and then buying it.

[evilneko]

Lord only knows, the copyright laws and their enforcement are an absolute shambles here. A judge said an IP address is not enough to prove guilt which makes any enforcement a hell of a lot harder, this sort of stupidity from the authorities doesn't help either.

 

I'm not a lawyer in either the US or the UK but it seems to me the prosecution in that case just simply couldn't find an applicable law to convict the guy with. "Conspiracy to Defraud" was obviously very, very hard for the jury to swallow in that case (seeing as they didn't swallow it) and no doubt the prosecution knew its case was weak going in. They took a gamble and lost--big time.

 

According to previous stories about the case, the UK apparently has no law about "facilitating" infringement -- which is sort of understandable due to the need to make exceptions (such as "Common Carrier" status in the US) but nonetheless there are models to base such things on (such as... US "Common Carrier" status...) so that's something Parliament might want to address I think.

 

This lack of a law respecting facilitating infringement pokes a few holes in what I was going to say about ISPs not wanting to become download police. In the US, no ISP wants to do this as it'd put them on the hook for the illegal activities of their users. They would no longer be common carriers if they started such monitoring. Since the UK doesn't have a facilitating law I'm not sure how they'd end up becoming responsible, but of course I'm not a lawyer in either country so what do I know right?

 

I don't buy the cynical "they'd lose half their customers" line. The vast majority of users know jack about how to go about pirating things over the internet, and it's streaming video, not piracy, that accounts for the lion's share of bandwidth used. You know -- Youtube, Hulu, etc.

[ginnyfizz]

Well, that argument about having to cut off half their customers was something the British ISP's expressed their concern about. I was actually shocked at some of the types of people who I know personally who are admitted pirates, so knowing jack all about how to pirate doesn't seem to be stopping them...

[deu58]

I find most pirates in the first world countries to be rather odd really. Why pirate when you have access to so much quality software with updates and support? Here in Asia it is a different story. Most people do not have the money and even if they do the software is not readily available. Like here in the Philippines where the average income is 200 USD a month how many folks do you think are pre ordering Skyrim? But rest assured they will be playing it in all the inter net cafes when the pirate copies become available which will probably be about 20 minutes after the first retail disk hits the shelves. I lived in Cebu for several years and that is the second largest city in the country. I had forgotten my front page disk back in the states where I keep a storage locker. I looked high and low for a legit disk and found nada. Lots of pirates but no official disk. So people here buy Pirate.

 

I do not think it is the Asian/African pirates that hurt the industry. They really do not have nor have they ever had much of a market here anyway. There is only one chain outfit that I know of here where I can buy legit PC games. If they do not have what I am looking for I am SOL. Either order it from the net or wait till I return to the states. I can not find anywhere to buy any kind of non game software at least under one roof. The local computer stores may have a copy of office or some such thing but it is usually outdated. I buy a new computer here and they ask me what do I want for OS? Genuine or uhhm the other one. Even new computers here are mostly low end. Lots of people still on windows 95 and yes it is pirate. You want a high end gaming rig it is all special ordered and they put it together for you. There may be somewhere in Manila where you can get stuff but I have not found it yet. Manila is big place. But most everything available is low end junk with pirate soft ware. Just how it is here and the rest of the world is not going to throw away their computers because people in the west do not like it and do not think people in poorer countries deserve to play games or use office programs because they cannot afford Legit soft ware.

[DeTomaso]

What we'd like to possess and what we actually can afford are often two very different animals. The fact that I can't afford a private Learjet doesn't necessarily mean that I'd be allowed to capture one, right?

[HellsMaster]

I am not sure there is a proper law to be reported at. Only thing you can report at is the actual company who will then procede to whatever they wish.

Now, out of the 2 evils, i'd say let them be. I mean if people would be doing something about internet related evils, go for hackers instead. Those are the ones you want out of the picture. They mostly do more harm then your local CD Pirate and actually cause harm to people by stealing personal information.

The plank doesn't work anymore :pirate:

[urbex]

Oh look, another piracy thread.

I know it's about prosecution, not piracy in general, but it's already swayed off topic so here we go.

 

Piracy as a whole will never die. The scene will always be releasing cracks and there will always be idiots on the TPB downloading games and hurting developers.

You can justify it however you like. Too expensive/Intrusive DRM/No available demo/I wasn't going to buy it so it's not a lost sale/ etc. At the end of the day pirates gonna pirate.

 

The only argument that holds much water is feasibility. On a private site like WhatCD you can download from a selection of music larger than itunes, with maxed out speeds in any format imaginable with that good feeling in your heart that you're hurting the RIAA and record labels.

Edited May 21, 2011 by urbex