Officials In The Philippines Want To Criminalize Downloading
from the yeah,-that'll-work dept
We're seeing crazier and crazier ideas for copyright laws lately. First, we had politicians in Brazil looking to criminalize ripping a CD and, now, Richard points us to the news that there's an effort underway in the Philippines to make direct downloading of unauthorized works a criminal offense. Apparently, this is being driven by a government agency, in association with an industry "anti-piracy" group (of course). I'm curious if even our usual critics can defend why direct downloading should be a criminal issue, rather than a civil issue? Do you really think putting people in jail for listening to music will get more people to buy your product?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: copyright, criminal copyright, downloading, philippines
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The title of this heading is a bit misleading considering they said it was for "unauthorized downloads". But this can be abused and i do not think it should be a criminal offence.
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Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
But this helps the always increasing police state, so if you look only for some rational justification, you're going to be surprised by brutal tyranny for its own sake.
And now I ask again, presumably rhetorically: are you going to download if might get tossed into jail?
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How are you supposed to know if it is Unauthorized
If there is a site offering content for download, and it looks okay, how are you supposed to know whether it is truly authorized / unauthorized?
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Re: Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
Jail isn't a deterrent, its a punishment. People don't commit crimes while weighing the risk/reward, they go into it planning to never get caught. The strongest deterring factor is personal morality that stops them from considering, or taking a step forward, in the first place.
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Re: Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
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Re: Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
This law is (will be) draconian and should therefore not be followed. Just because something becomes a law doesn't make the law right, just, or ethical. I believe we have a duty as citizens to not follow laws that are unjust, and the government saying "because I said so" is not proper justification. Governments that do that are tyrannical, and history has shown that people don't put up with them for too long.
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Define "direct downloading"
I have my server logs that list ip addresses and when they came to the site. I also can tell if you downloaded the "unauthorized" photo.
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Re: Re: Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
We all agree murder is bad, and would not like ourselves to be murdered. So we, as members of society, agree that murder should be against the law and murderers will face consequences for their actions.
A limited number of extremely rich corporations, who are not people and are not citizens of the country, agree that everyone else should pay them the most number of times possible for the least about of effort (which is also squeezed from the actual creators for insulting amounts), so we, as members of society, agree that these extremely rich corporations should go to hell.
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We should just send them all to an island.
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Re:
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Anti-Piracy
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Re:
where hey can learn how to make a atom bomb and aim it in your direction great idea.
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Re: Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
It has been proven time and time again that jail is an effective deterrent. Obviously it works because we have so few jails and they're practically empty! The poor guards and wardens are bored stiff with nothing to do but play Parcheesi all day.
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Re: Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
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(Yes I'm being sarcastic)
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Re: Your "should" constrains too much: /can be/, so will be.
If I were to do that, I'd be sure to put things in place to stop me being caught, maybe set it up so that annoying neighbour who doesn't know how to secure his equipment properly gets framed? Then when he goes behind bars and I'm scott free, sell some copies offline to people I know who aren't so knowledgable? Sounds like there's lot of profit to be had, so why not?
(disclaimer, the above doesn't reflect my actual viewpoints, just pointing out how ineffective this would be at stopping the real "criminals").
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Re: How are you supposed to know if it is Unauthorized
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Like it, hate it, don't matter. It won't bring me back to the market with the way things are. Think they can justify a law to change that? Good luck.
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Do these people think they have a future?
I'm certain I'm not the only parent out there doing this. How long do the MAFIAA think they can survive in this climate?
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What is irrefutably true is that there is piracy and if the people who pirated actually bought the things they pirated then there would be a lot more money in the world than there is in the world, and if that was the case there would be no recession and everybody would be happy.
Why are Mike and most of the Techdirt regulars so opposed to a world where everyone would be happy?
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jail has been, punishment, reform, deterrent etc... et al.
all have failed, punishment has failed, rehabiliation has failed, look at the recidivism rates
there is no empirical evidence, learn some criminal justice history first
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Re: Re:
Ever look lately at the newspapers? There is a depression (even though the government wants to white wash it) and people don't have the money they once had.
When people are faced with a choice of spending what little money they have, it will be for food, electricity, and fuel. Luxury items such as music doesn't place in the choices at all.
So your viewpoint is irrelevant.
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