Pirate Bay Sued, As Expected
from the significant-blow,-right? dept
As was widely expected, Swedish prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the guys who run The Pirate Bay. It's still unclear how creating a search engine that doesn't actually store or handle any unauthorized material breaks the law, but I guess we'll find out how that works during the trial. If anything, though, this will probably work just like every similar file sharing lawsuit, where the end result is merely that more people know about it and more people use it (or move on to use the "next" version that comes out). Also, as some are pointing out, the indictment only includes a very small number of files. It really took one and a half years to come up with such a small list?
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Filed Under: copyright, lawsuit, pirate bay, sweden
Companies: pirate bay
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Perhaps you can't sue
I know a whole group of people that think they are smarter than the laws. I get to visit them on alternating Tuesday's.
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Re: Perhaps you can't sue
Long live TPB, as it will no doubt continue to live and propser long after this nonsense trial is over.
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Re: Perhaps you can't sue
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Pirate Bay FTW! ! !
Desperate move from desperate people.
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Pointed Out
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hey, it gets better
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Re:
Umm, yeah... hold on.. yes... BECAUSE ITS ALREADY BEEN DONE.
Have you been living in Rosie O'Donnell's fat flaps these last 2 years?
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Sad
The whole situation is sad, kinda like watching an extinction take place. One day these relics from the past will be no more, and they won't be able to throw lobbying dollars around to get their way. I'm counting the days...
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But in this case, and I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I can't in all consciencesness condemn them suing the Pirate Bay! Search engine or not, whether they host the files or not, it makes it all too easy to get your hands on anything, even HD content is freely available! Let's face it, pirated software and content belongs in the small underground community, and passed on to others through friends. Pirate Bay is too huge to be underground, and even the least technology savvy people I know use it! That means that anyone with a connection can find anything they are looking for!
Its good to be able to get stuff for free, especially if you want to review it first before making a commitment in buying it(should you choose to), but when you can literally find anything in one place, with no deterioration in quality, why would you ever pay a cent for anything anymore? If it continues, we won't have anymore content to pirate! I would like to keep it underground, hidden, so only the most tech savvy people and the most determined and broke ass people (like me) can reach it! But everyone else who can afford to pay should pay!
Yes it is a very arrogant and self-serving statement, but that's how it was in the heyday of the Internet, now pirating is so mainstream its causing significant damage, and threatening to destroy Net Neutrality, which I cherish above anything else!
There is another way:
If you want to watch a movie for example in standard resolution, you can pirate it, but if you want to get HD content, then you should pay. I have dabbled in pirated material, but when I want to get a movie that I enjoy and feel its worth it to get in HD, I go out and rent/buy the DVD/Blu-Ray, because then its worth it. All the other crap where I would go "I want the last 2 hours of my life back", I would pirate.
Just my 2 cents!
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Re: Etch
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Heck, we should all just go back to stone tablets and let the lawyers win
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Re: Etch
There are more things that can be bought and sold besides infinitely-replicateble content. Even if all content were freely available, there would be non-copyable products and services which could provide revenue.
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"Aiding and Abetting"
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Napster precedent?
Wasn't that the basis on which Napster was shut down? After all, its central server didn't host any content either, it was just a directory. Yet that didn't stop the lawyers.
Also there were other search engines (mp3.yahoo.com comes to mind) that were shut down on the same basis.
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Re: Napster precedent?
That was in the US. The laws are different in Sweden.
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So what about public libraries?
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Re: So what about public libraries?
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Interesting, but...
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Re: Interesting, but...
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fail
File sharing isn't illegal there, so there are no grounds for this case.
A nice little time waster, just to show that they can attempt to sue people or not commiting a crime.
Everyone, go and read the legal threats on The Pirate Bay. They'll walk away clean from this one, and I for one can't blame them.
Keep TPB alive!!!!
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Re: fail
The action will fail, as TBP is hosted in Sweeden and as such Sweedish laws apply. File sharing isn't illegal there, so there are no grounds for this case.
I think file sharing is illegal there, but that doesn't matter. TPB doesn't engage in filesharing. It's merely pointing out those that do, which IS legal under Sweden's (much saner) laws. See their 'legal threats' section for more about this.*
That said, the very small number of titles mentioned make me wonder if the cops haven't caught one or more of them with a couple ripped DVDs, or something similar.
*For those of you who think that this should be criminal, imagine if reporting that a certain house in your neighborhood is a crack den made you an accessory to drug distribution.
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artists with passion make content (period)
i'm not sorry to say that people who profit from the hard work of others deserve the "righteous punishment" inflicted on the greedy. i mean, qui bono? who is really making the money here, and who are the lawyers "protecting"?
they are defending the right of some cadre of established media-barons to continue making money from doing--essentially--no work.
i hope that this sharing community continues to grow and expand into other forms of sharing, world-wide, and it seems to me that The Pirate Party in Sweden is looking to represent the growing number of people who just want to share content, user-generated or copyrighted (which is just a euphemism for "corporate-filtered, user-gen content").
money can be made in reasonable amounts still. enough to support a basic, if not reasonably cushy, lifestyle by doing live performances, interviews, and non-digital products (paintings, mixed media, sculptures, etc.)
i would argue that if you are in it for the money, you shouldn't be in entertainment or the arts. this is a great deal of the content available through torrents.
and besides, since when has a person been able make a creative work, and--if successful--have literally THOUSANDS of fans AROUND THE WORLD!!?? isn't that enough? i mean, who are we "protecting" by enforcing copyrights? certainly not me, and probably not you either
i am an actor in chicago and new york, and throughout the midwest.
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Re: artists with passion make content (period)
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Doesnt google do the same thing?
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(i hope that made sense)
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Its not illegal AT ALL ANYWHERE
As long as you own the musical CD to begin with, you can download it as many times as you like from anywhere. And it will never ever be illegal in any manner.
So, them offering torrents to help people get music really doesn't mean anything bad. All they would have to do is put up something on their homepage saying that as long as you are using it, you are only downloading the stuff you own a physical copy of.
How do you think GameCopyWorld.com is still up? They have been online forever. Never once attacked. They have an agreement thing you click on that says you own the game you are getting No-CDs to. I know it is slightly different because they don't offer links to full files. But technically neither does TPB or any torrent search site. They are just torrents. Not the files. The files are all somewhere else.
I am just curious as to why nobody ever mentions that it is in no way illegal to download something you already own. So why is it in any way illegal to share it just for the people who own a physical copy, but don't have a means to get it onto their own PC? Sure some of the people who download it from you won't actually own it, but you don't have the means to check everybody who gets it for a physical copy.
And post #29, it did make sense. You are saying they should be compensated for their time that was wasted by idiots.
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@Killer_Tofu
I still think it's a tenuous line of argument, but there y'go.
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So ..
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WTF
Yes, as opposed to the virtuous non-money making goals of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries.
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Re #36
It can be found at:
www.Youtube.com
On this site millions of people from around the world have posted their creative works be it mini videos to simple rants, for free.
And guess what, they expect nothing from it.
At the very least they invested their time.
Go check it out, it easily defeats your argument presented in post #36.
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Re: Re #36
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Re: Re: Re #36
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Your Argument vs the big picture Corey
There are many other ways to earn money.
Trying to take an infinite good and artifically make it scarce just won't work.
Basic economics 101 wins every time.
If you read Mike's post (or any other of many previous ones), he offers alternative ways to make money.
Why the businesses haven't started taking his advice I don't know. Except that they are stubborn. Which is why they are in decline.
So, you can rant that they still need money. And they will get it. You aren't wrong there. But the idea that they will forever get it the way they do now is wrong.
There are alternative means. They just have to open their eyes.
And some already have, although people moving to the new business models seems more prevalent in the music industry than it does the movie industry so far.
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Re: Your Argument vs the big picture Corey
Also, it's not basic economics 101 when theft is involved. The market would be people not purchasing something because the price is to high and instead purchasing a similar product from a competitor or going without - not simply stealing it because they can.
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Re: Re: Your Argument vs the big picture Corey
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Re: Re: Re: Your Argument vs the big picture Corey
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Oh, and more thing
Plenty of commenters feel that most movies made these days are crap.
And some of the coolest movies I have seen came from independant areas. Like some of the movies seen at the Sundance Film Festival.
Most of those I would consider junk too, but some are awesome.
And they have immensely smaller budgets.
So money can't be said to be the end all be all about how good a movie will be either.
That also is part of the problem with Hollywood in general at the moment.
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Corey
I shouldn't have to point this out.
It has been beaten to death five times over throughout the past year alone.
It is copyright infringement.
Calling it theft weakens your argument, no matter how right or wrong your argument really is.
In the case of history books. Sure, give away the eBook for free. And then offer an incentive with it to buy the hard cover actual book.
This specific model might not work in every case, but Mike has suggested quite a few alternative models. It is guarenteed that one of them can work.
Radiohead released their CD for free with what they stated was an incentive to get people to like the music so that they would actually go out and buy the CD. Sales were through the roof ...
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Dishing out such a ridiculous amount of money for shitty music/movies is just not something many can afford. ALSO, as far as music, huge bands like Metallica..... Am I supposed to cry because his millionaire yuppie ass has to wait a few weeks to get his gold trim for his luxury liner? btw, why is it that they would rather tour with other "big names" than help out and up-n-comers from the scene they came from?
Back to the point, though, the bands make more money off ticket sales from live shows and other revenues. The main people making money off CDs are corporate executives, of the sort who have been ruining the business. (MTV, anyone?)
Filesharing helps smaller bands get added exposure, who otherwise might not be heard by many, due to shitty trends by radios and mainstream outlets. (sounding like Nickelback is the 'thing' now) Those bands might see better attendance at shows due to added exposure.
People losing money on CDs are the ones who NEED to lose that money anyway. Fuck the indu$try. The indu$try has "robbed" music fans for way too long. Grassroots movement. ftw
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