Homeland Security Works For Disney Now? Announces Shut Down Of Movie Sites At Disney
from the civil-vs.-criminal? dept
Well, here we go. Remember how, a few months back, we noted how odd it was that the Justice Department (which, of course, employs many former RIAA/MPAA/BSA lawyers) was designating a special task force to fight copyright infringement? After all, copyright infringement is mostly a civil issue, between two private parties. For years, however, the entertainment industry has been working hard to convince the government to act as its own private police force, and following a totally one-sided "summit" with Joe Biden (who recently claimed that infringement is no different than doing a smash and grab at Tiffany's), suddenly the feds had a special IP task force... at the same time that it was downgrading the priority of crimes that cause actual harm, such as identity fraud.Now, it looks like law enforcement isn't even trying to hide the fact that they're taking orders from Hollywood. Dark Helmet points us to the news that Homeland Security proudly announced raids on nine different movie sites, which they accuse of infringing on copyrights. But what's most interesting is where the announcements about these raids happened: at Disney. And who else was there on stage? Execs from other studios. Yup, Homeland Security isn't even trying to make the slightest effort to hide the fact that it now works for corporate interests. It will announce legal activity from the companies, which stand to benefit the most from such activity.
Imagine if the FTC announced plans to charge Google with antitrust from Microsoft's offices? With execs from Yahoo and Apple on stage. Wouldn't people cry foul?
Not only that, but the guy in charge of the raids blatantly admits that it's now a homeland security priority to protect movie studio interests:
The head of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], John Morton, says that the number of illegal movie sites is dramatically rising both in the U.S. and abroad, and organized crime is behind some of them. ICE is putting movie piracy front and center in this new initiative, by making its first actions to protect the movie studios' intellectual property.What does customs have to do with a domestic dispute over civil copyright infringement? And why are Homeland Security officials so closely involved with a few Hollywood Studios that they're not just protecting their business models, but also announcing these efforts from the studios' own offices?
I don't know anything about these sites that were shut down. I've never heard of any of them, but they're nine out of hundreds, if not thousands. It won't do anything to actually help Disney or these other studios. Users will quickly shift elsewhere. The content will still get released just as quickly.
The claims that these sites were run by "organized crime" could very well be true, but I'd like to see some actual evidence on that. It's a common refrain from the industry, but no actual proof has been presented. At best they've shown that some DVD counterfeiting operations have some mob ties, but that's not the same thing. Note that in the announcement no actual evidence of organized crime links were provided.
In a separate article, US Attorney Preet Bharara is quoted as saying that the government took these actions because "copyright infringement translates into lost jobs." Never mind the fact that the GAO just pointed out that such claims are highly questionable (especially the ones from the MPAA -- who won't provide their methodology), this raises a really serious question about government interference into private markets. The government's role is not to protect industries from losing jobs. It never has been. Otherwise it would have "raided" car companies for making horse buggies obsolete. Using that as justification has no legal basis whatsoever, and is really a very disturbing claim.
The whole thing appears to be a gross misuse of government resources to protect a few movie studios, which are unwilling to adapt to a changing market place. People should be outraged over such a misuse of government powers, but because these are "pirate" sites, everyone will look the other way.
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Filed Under: copyright, government, homeland security, movies
Companies: disney
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Its actually very encouraging. Being a monopoly they dont know a thing about business, or fighting a battle. All they know is dictating terms to other. Sun Tzu's art of war ( another copy) is a great book it teaches you to not fight on multiple fronts, to not engage multiple enemies, to determine if you can win before fighting, to divide your enemys forces. This quote came to mind today, with the desperation of action coming from the IP types is "On hemmed-in ground, resort to stratagem. On desperate ground, fight."
Everything coming out about ACTA in the past month has seemed to be of failing alliances, of knowing they are about to be hemmed-in by people out side the negotiations.
JMHO ... David
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They don't have to. Just a few will make the point well enough to terrorize the rest of the sheeple into compliance.
History doesn't look good for tyrants and neither does the future.
The tyrants have never had the power they do now.
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That never worked in the past. ie: prohibition, the drug war.
"The tyrants have never had the power they do now."
Yes, look how successful the war on terrorism is. For every member of Al Quida that dies how many U.S. soldiers die? Give me a break, what power? Non tyrants outnumber tyrants and as such tyrants will likely lose.
How is the government going to recruit enough law enforcement personnel to enforce these laws when most people do not care about these laws? Hiring more police officers will not result in more police officers that care to enforce these laws. and in order to pay police officers for each infringement they catch the amount they would have to pay each officer to hire and convince enough officers to catch any meaningful number of infringers is going to cost a whole lot more than what any of these tyrants make and it still won't work. Police officers make up a very small fraction of the population, they can only do so much per unit time and their labor hours also gets channeled towards other enforcement activities. They would literally have to hire a significant proportion of the population to monitor the rest of the population and give each police officer sufficient incentive to enforce these laws. Good luck.
The fact is that most law enforcement personnel (ie: cops) do not care about piracy, and that's not changing, and so the only people who care to enforce these laws are a very very small minority of law enforcement personnel and they make up an even smaller fraction of the population.
and if there is a civil war that means that there is little to no economy doing meaningful labor to produce goods and services to pay back soldiers with and many citizens would refuse to join the military on principle alone being that they don't believe in a tyrant state. A draft? How well will that work when most of the people you draft into the military are against you? Look at how successful Vietnam war was. It's not that easy, tyrant states often have conflicts within their very own military personnel being that those members often don't agree with each other. A military split could occur and that would be a disaster. You have to look at war from an economics perspective just as well.
These laws are doomed to fail.
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You're going to offer a reward? In order give enough people enough incentive to report a meaningful number infringers the incentive will be economically infeasible. and those who deliver infringing material will create gangs if they have to, with their own rules, that seek to discover and punish anyone that reports anyone else, making the costs of reporting others high (ie: reporters would have to move or hide out).
It could also open the door for all kinds of scams, I'll report you and split the money evenly with you afterwords.
Rewarding citizens for reporting other citizens isn't going to work, it won't even come close to working.
How are they going to enforce these laws? I'm sorry, I just don't see this happening. Some software suits cost $200, some even cost way more (thousands of dollars), there is HUGE incentive to make money off of that, by selling pirated software well below the legal price, when compared to drugs yet the war on drugs is a failure. The war on piracy will be equally as much, if not worse, a failure. Explain, how are they going to enforce this. I want to know the dynamics, be specific. How?
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Selling software to businesses wont work, the software is serialized with databases of used and unused serial numbers.
The only content that actually makes money is movies and music, the stuff street corner vendors do themselves now because the technology has gotten so cheap.
You can go online to freecycle and get a free PC, or garage sale, or a swap meet, and pick up a 2-5 year old PC with DVD burner and monitor for less than 50 bucks now. Throw in the cost off 100 Blank DVD's and used printer you are under $150 USD.
Content and software are pretty much zero profit for organized crime and terrorists.
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and the only thing that would change that would be if the rights holders had a bit of success in their enforcement strategy.
So anti-piracy actions would (if successful - a very big if) benefit organised crime.
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Isnt that a Kick in the pants. Its not us thats supporting terrorism and organized crime, its the Labels and Movie Studios. :)
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In the end, it's a similar practice to street scalping and the need to arrest citizens for just trying to make it through the day.
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Let me also add the war on illegal firearms and the war on illegal weapons in general. Another failed war.
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Sigh
If there wasn't a copyright law then businesses wouldn't have been incentivized to rely on such a bad business model in the first place.
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Just to add...
nowmovies is down...
thepiratecity.org is down...
thisninja.net was completely removed. (Maybe made up...)
Basically I don't see how this was effective when out of some of these, I know of at least a few extra alternatives to watch movies if I want to.
It's just more fear mongering along with added enforcement from boys on high to make it seem as if something is being done to combat infringement.
As it stands, I had thought the 1930s had already happened once. Seems we need a refresher in it.
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Re: Just to add...
Honest injun!
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A lot of people have become very rich fighting that war.
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Re: PORN!
Will be downright entertaining watching the DoJ explain why *those* companies don't deserve protection.
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Re: Re: PORN!
With something along the lines of ...
Recently the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department of Homeland Security raided and took down several pirate movie sites. I see this as a trend that is going to continue. A trend that will continue without you, with none your Intellectual Property rights being supported in any way. This will lead to the demise of your industry as the federal government supports the rights of the morally just, and ignores organizations such as yours that are leading to the moral downfall of our great nation.
blah blah blah .... more religious righteous crap goes here ...
Throw in a chart showing how it will only take 2-3 years for them to fail (to light a fire under their asses) if they dont force the federal government to support their IP rights.
I wonder what they would do?
Big Ole GRIN ... David
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Backpack full drugs or backpack full of pirated dvd's?
Organized crime gangs and terrorists must jumping for joy and laughing at our government..
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No, we live in a socialist society where the government guarantees your job.
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Corporate Welfare
Only if you're a rich banker, CEO or some other top executive for some big corporation.
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Re: Corporate Welfare
Still, it's odd that, somehow, downloading a crappy video of a Disney movie can be equated with any form of national security.
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Most of "the mainstream media" business models are copyright based. As such, they usually won't report negatively on any kind of "copyright enforcement" story. They're a really sorry lot who would support Satan himself if he was pro-copyright (which I imagine he probably is).
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That is the big problem with this, with approx 50% of the population of the US infringing. They can't go after everyone thats infringing. They only thing they can do is use it to educate people by making examples (creating fear).
They haven't learned from their own history, fear, intimidation, and attempts to educate people out of doing what they do naturally doesnt work. The prime example is the lawsuits filed by RIAA. They did nothing but create a ton of negative publicity and new software for infringement.
This is a big Tax supported publicity campaign that is not going to work, and more likely going to cause an acceleration of their financial failures.
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Our founders said it all. Along time ago....
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive. - Thomas Jefferson
A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. - James Madison
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. - John Adams
History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly - Benjamin Franklin
If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify. - Alexander Hamilton
Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism. - George Washington
Four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soapbox, ballot box, jury box, ammo box - use in that order.
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Sarah Palin?
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Re: Sarah Palin?
"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both."
seems to *perfectly* describe Palin to me.
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Seems to be about 0 difference between the two on this one.
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Unfortunately, this is no longer "civil copyright infringement." Since passing the ART Act, camcording movies is now a criminal act (three years in jail for first-time offenders, plus penalties for criminal copyright infringement).
I have no idea why customs was involved, though. I'm guessing the movies they "pirated" were recorded overseas?
One interesting point: at least one of those sites (filespump.com) does not itself offer anything to download. All content is uploaded to third-party file lockers (e.g. uploading.com) by users; the site itself is just a search engine.
...Also, not to be a grammar Nazi, but you should really watch your "its/it's" typos. Also, it's "industries," not "industry's." Sorry to be an ass, but this stuff bugs me.
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I try to watch 'em, but miss 'em some times. As does my editor. Thankfully, we've got everyone here to act as secondary editors. Sorry... fixed.
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Great.
Sadly, none of this matters until Glenn Beck says so.
Geez, is there anywhere on this planet that's not corrupted, greedy, or ignorant?
Anyone a ticket to the moon?
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Point is the distinction is effectively meaningless. This is a civil issue.
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I am not sure what you mean by this being a civil issue. Some form of criminal sanctions have been embodied in US law since the Copyright Act was amended in 1897.
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So how many illegal immigrants were being brought in by website?
How many American dollars were leaving the country for America due to the websites on American soil?
Who got paid to make Elliot Ness the triggerman for the MPAA? At least when Clinton took bribes from the Chinese we were getting indirect trade tariff relief from china.
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Said it before
"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to the public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."
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Re: Said it before
Robert A. Heinlein, Life-Line (1939)
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Piracy not just about big studios
Piracy advocates say content creators (filmmakers, musicians, authors) need to think of new ways to distribute and earn income off their work. Funny thing is, when it comes to specifics, they have no answers.
Tell all the folks who work as grips, PAs, caterers, etc that movie piracy is ok. Look behind the curtain and you will see that it damages everyone, not just the fat cats in the studio offices.
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Re: Piracy not just about big studios
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Re: Piracy not just about big studios
Furthermore, there are case studies of indies who may give up one movie but are getting recognition. With that recognition comes more interest in the next movie, that will usually generate more revenue.
You say that VOD/DVD is the only way to make money. The thing is... It's not. You're taking the short sighted view of believing that the forest is the two trees in front of you.
The question that the indies should be asking is this: How can I get my voice out? How can I be heard over the AAA title that's supposed to be coming out? How can I utilize the technology in this day and age to reach a new audience?
What is inhibiting this voice? How can I avoid the mistakes that they have done?
Bittorrent is a great tool. Kazaa, Limewire, Grokster, are again, tools. Just like PDFCreator and C++ are tools.
It is up to the individual artist to use those tools to create. If Pioneer One can come out exclusively for Bittorrent and look very nice in the process then perhaps we should stop looking for a scape goat.
It's time for the content creators to (Zombieland reference) "Nut up, or shut up"
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Re: Piracy not just about big studios
It only hurts them if they don't adapt. VOD/DVD is *not* the only way. It's only the only way if you don't bother investigating many other options.
And the reason not to "protect" them is because protectionism harms the economy and hinders innovation. Smart indie filmmakers have figured out how to do quite well while embracing file sharing. Why ignore them?
Piracy advocates say content creators (filmmakers, musicians, authors) need to think of new ways to distribute and earn income off their work. Funny thing is, when it comes to specifics, they have no answers.
We've discussed lots of specifics and pointed to examples of filmmakers making quite a bit of money while embracing piracy -- both in and outside the major studio system.
Tell all the folks who work as grips, PAs, caterers, etc that movie piracy is ok. Look behind the curtain and you will see that it damages everyone, not just the fat cats in the studio offices.
It's not file sharing that's the problem, but the failure of movie makers to adapt.
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Re: Piracy not just about big studios
What don't you blame or ask the big media companies and theater chains, they have a complete monopoly. They seem not to care about quality or expression, they always care about the short term.
"Piracy advocates say content creators (filmmakers, musicians, authors) need to think of new ways to distribute and earn income off their work. Funny thing is, when it comes to specifics, they have no answers."
Neither do you, and at least these so called "Piracy advocates" are trying and looking for new ways of generating income and most of all interest in their mediums.
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Re: Re: Piracy not just about big studios
Exactly, the government grants monopoly power over public airwaves and cableco infrastructure and those who control these monopolies almost only play content owned by a very small hand full of entities (ie: the RIAA and MPAA). It' simply not fair to independents and the rest of the world and that's the true reason why it's harder for them to succeed or get the necessary recognition to succeed.
Not to mention the fact that it's harder for them to get their music played in restaurants because then some third party parasite will sue the restaurant for no good reason and most small restaurants don't want to have to pay these unnecessary third parties additional fees or have to spend the money necessary to fight lawsuits. The monopolists, and their lobbying efforts, are what costs independents their jobs and ruin the economy for everyone else.
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Re: Piracy not just about big studios
This is an illusion. Without piracy these films would probably have made even less money.
What has happened is that the filmmakers have noticed that free copies of their films are being passed around and said to themselves "if I had been paid for all of those I would have made some money". However the truth is that if payment had been enforced the main effect would have been to discourage the distribution.
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I will tell them, just let me know which ones. The ones in Hollywood who lost jobs to NYC because of better tax savings for studios or the ones in North Carolina that took away jobs from NYC because of no union headaches and tax savings? I think you must mean the ones in Vancouver that has taken a whole bunch work for all the above?(Dam Canadians!)
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more proof your country is doomed
People in canada will not tolerate such abuses of freedom.
NOR will other countries and its why your ACTA treaty is now doomed.
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Re: more proof your country is doomed
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Re: Re: more proof your country is doomed
ACTA fails in the EU as internet access is a right, and three strikes violates it.
In the US due process will break three strikes and the monitoring part of it.
Wiretap laws in the US will also break part of ACTA.
In the US there are 3 or 4 clauses of amendments of the constitution that are violated by ACTA.
In EU they recently had a legal judgement that says putting a "You are a theif tax" on DVDs and recordable media is illegal or against EU??? laws.
In the EU there is case addressing monitoring people online working its way through the courts. This one is predicted to make it illegal in the EU to monitor what people are doing online.
yes the courts will dismantle ACTA in the end. Its going to be a fun ride.
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Re: more proof your country is doomed
Have you also heard of C-32? My suggestion is the make sure that does not pass or else you will be US Jr.
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Re: more proof your country is doomed
There's this certain illusion with respect to CanCon that says that all the entertainment industry stuff somehow ends up on TV and radio and suchlike.
Of course, that's false and always has been. Just tell that to the movie crews and television crews crawling all over the Lower Mainland of British Columbia most of whom are funded by Americans or the Brits. So the investment is already there.
Recording studios litter places like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal and are open to all regardless of CanCon. In fact, if they relied on Canadians they'd go bust, in all likelihood.
As for ACTA itself, someone below mentions that it violates some provisions of the US Constitution and will likely be shot full of holes in the courts.
I'd also say that it violates sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Canadian Constitution, the BNA Act, precidence and even Magna Carta, come to that.
ACTA may survive a minority Commons and may get through the Senate in some form or other but I certainly can't see it surviving in present form in the courts.
Of course, if Harper wants to make it a matter of confidence then let's go! We need a winter election to break up the doldrums anyway and it's a nice stimulus measure. ;-)
Happy Canada Day, all!
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Joseph Goebbels lives on at DHS
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you guys are victims of mtv or something, because you are too concerned about a given image than the underlying issues.
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Tom Sydnor provides a quite thought provoking comment on this subject. See: PFF blog
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Anyone who suggest Tom Sydnor's work is "thought provoking" is smoking something illegal.
His response on the GAO thing was particularly hilarious, in that it basically amounted to "but... but... but... the GAO wasn't actually supposed to look at these numbers! The report was supposed to be about something else!" It was the mental equivalent of "how dare they look behind the curtain!"
You do realize that Sydnor is basically the laughing stock of DC copyright policy circles, right? I've never seen so many eyes roll as the times I've seen him open his mouth at policy events.
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Mr. Sydnor does provide a thought provoking message by taking the argument and applying it in another context to point out some of the holes in the original logic.
Yes, he does lob some volleys at techdirt, but such gratuitous lobs are not relevant to the point he is making.
And, no, I am not smoking something illegal (at least until the anti-smoking "mafia" succeeds in having a ban placed on smoking a cigar in a private residence).
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Oh I read it. It made me laugh. You did notice that I gave a critique of the actual content which was pretty laughable. The thing is, since Sydnor's ridiculous attack on Lessig, where he blatantly took nearly every quote out of context, he's lost pretty much all credibility, even among those who are ideologically aligned with him.
It's reached the point where everyone knows you can't take him seriously, and that's not shooting the messenger. It's providing important context.
Mr. Sydnor does provide a thought provoking message by taking the argument and applying it in another context to point out some of the holes in the original logic.
We have a very different view of what counts as logic and what counts as blatant distortions. But, that does not come as a surprise give our previous discussions.
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Fine line between crime and enforcement
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Government Business
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http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/pops/2010/pop17.10-Punk%27d_GAO.pdf
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Re:
http://blog.pff.org/archives/2010/06/why_copyright-industry_cost-of-piracy_analyses_are.html
It does raise some interesting points, but even I could debunk them, and I'm not a lawyer. But the basic premise of the whole article is just wrong.
The main thrust of his argument is the fact that the GAO was asked "conduct a study to determine how the federal government could better protect manufacturers by quantification of the impacts of... counterfeit goods on... the overall economy of the United States." (Emphasis mine.)
He then claims this means the "GAO was never asked to report on whether we can precisely quantify the 'net economic effects' of counterfeiting."
Say what?
By the time he described the EFF, Public Knowledge, and the CEA as "the usual defenders of deliberate, for-profit piracy," it was already obvious that he is a rabid lapdog for content creators, a foaming mouthpiece for copyright expansion.
Mike's description of Snydor as a "laughing stock" seems appropriate.
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Holy crap...
It's like somehow he put himself six feet under to ignore everything the GAO reported because it would throw away all of his beliefs.
I couldn't even get past the bolded text it read so badly of rhetoric!
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pirated movies
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Did you know?
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