Hollywood Seeks Piracy Informers

from the need-a-little-cash? dept

On the whole, while I think the entertainment industry is making a huge mistake in going after file traders, I've been surprised that they've seemed less concerned with the "real" piracy problem - of people actually selling counterfeit music and movies burnt to CDs and DVDs. It turns out that now the movie industry has set aside a pile of cash to pay off informers about where these pirate factories are. Since so much of the hard goods piracy industry is now run by organized crime, they basically don't think the local police are trustworthy enough to crack down. So, they're resorting to bribing people to turn in their employers. Nothing too surprising here, but I'm wondering how long it will take Hollywood to shift that policy to downloading as well. Need some extra cash? Why not turn in your college roommate for downloading the latest hit movie last night?
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