World Wide War

[acushla]

The World War Continues...The (Music) Corporations vs The Public.

This time the front lines are in Australia where this ruling was handed down:

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,15936872%5E15343%5E%5Enbv%5E15306-15318,00.html

Do you think these rulings have any real time effect on people who download?

When connected to the web you have access to numerous sites of p2p file sharing...in this case of which the greater majority lie outside of the borders of Australia.

Why do you think the Music Business continues in a battle they know they couldn't possibly win?

[krazyd]

A bit different to p2p... kinda asking for it creating a website "mp3s4free" and linking directly to illegal downloads. :cross-eyed:

IMHO the music business continues in the battle because they are yet to face reality regarding music in the 21st century.
Like any business, record companies like to see increasing annual profits. Even if, as in this case, the profit margins are already enormous. Changing consumer behaviour makes it less and less viable to be able to shove overpriced pieces of plastic down peoples throats, especially when one can legally download the songs one wants from each album for a much more reasonable price from the 'net. So profits, while still increasing for record companies, are increasing more slowly. Thus the outbreak of court battles.

Interesing links:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4831
http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1084492882.html
Edit (after a bit of research):
Ho-lee Crap! There really is no end to record company exec greed/idiocy (http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=261002). There goes the last scrap of respect I had for those people.

[Shadowraven]

Followed all the links here and they were interesting.

They just confirm what I've always said. Music companies are run by a bunch of stupid gits and downloading music doesn't even hurt them. In fact it helps them. They're just too stupid, and greedy, to see that.

[BALTY]

You know Microsoft bitches about pirating too. But if it weren't for that (pir8ing), they wouldn't have expanded on the standard defacto that we have today!
You need to give it away to hook'em deeper. Just like the tobacco companies have known for (like) ever. http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/evilgrin/evilgrin0042.gif

[Protocol]

You know Microsoft bitches about pirating too. But if it weren't for that (pir8ing), they wouldn't have expanded on the standard defacto that we have today!
You need to give it away to hook'em deeper. Just like the tobacco companies have known for (like) ever. http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/evilgrin/evilgrin0042.gif
Yes exactly. A great example of that was Symantec’s policy of releasing their products without any serial or activation required. Right up until 2003, their products were able to be installed without any serial or activation.
Back then, they had a big market share in their class of applications. 2004 saw a change in policy with their products requiring a serial and activation and ever since their popularity has slowly declined.

Please don’t get me into a debate about the quality of their products lol. I am not interested. ;)

[Roj]

Yes exactly. A great example of that was Symantec’s policy of releasing their products without any serial or activation required. Right up until 2003, their products were able to be installed without any serial or activation.
Back then, they had a big market share in their class of applications. 2004 saw a change in policy with their products requiring a serial and activation and ever since their popularity has slowly declined.

Please don’t get me into a debate about the quality of their products lol. I am not interested. ;)
Their products are now chock full of DRM, especially the corporate ones. That "feature" was also poorly implemented, leading to all manner of nasties at both the server and workstation level with SAV 9. We'll see what the imminent SAV 10 holds.

[Shadowraven]

It seems that their products get worse every year. Not to mention slower and more resource intensive.

BTW Roj, I really like the new avatar using the "Shadow" ship. Very cool.

[acushla]

Hollywood fires new salvo in losing battle against peer to peer sharing.

American film sharers face prison sentences
By Rhys Blakely, Times Online

In what it is billing as an epic tale of good versus evil, Hollywood has launched a fresh round of legal cases against internet pirates who share films online.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents America's giant studios, said it had acted on the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling that peer-to-peer swapping networks such as Grokster can be held accountable for illegal online film distribution.

Users of peer-to-peer networks are able to browse millions of audio and video files on the internet. The files can be freely downloaded from the computers of other users, a practice which the film and music industries argue has affected sales badly.

A recent Smith Barney study estimated that the film industry will lose up to $5.4 billion this year due to piracy.

The MPAA is suing people it has accused of piracy. If the MPAA's case is successful, those accused face fines of up to $150,000 under copyright laws and prison sentences of up to ten years for Americans who download movies.

To finish article plus an interesting observation by micro$oft go here:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1717627,00.html

[Shadowraven]

I'd say that that is more than a little ridiculous, but at least it tells us where the U.S. legal systems priorities really lie. People who rob banks, sell drugs, or other such mischief don't receive prison sentences like that. To equate these people as being worse than than the preceeding types a bit much. But it just proves my point that the government here is more concerned about a corporation's perceived rights than the rights of regular people. Maybe we should concentrate on destructive criminals, eh?

[acushla]

I'd say that that is more than a little ridiculous, but at least it tells us where the U.S. legal systems priorities really lie. People who rob banks, sell drugs, or other such mischief don't receive prison sentences like that. To equate these people as being worse than than the preceeding types a bit much. But it just proves my point that the government here is more concerned about a corporation's perceived rights than the rights of regular people. Maybe we should concentrate on destructive criminals, eh?

Never mind robbing banks or selling drugs...how about the rape of a woman? You are absolutlely correct (this time) when you imply that there is a very skewered sense of justice.