Remember: Actors And 'Pirates' Can Be The Same People
from the it's-not-an-either-or dept
Ron Rezendes points us to a story about how a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member is pleading guilty to a single count of criminal copyright infringement for uploading screener copies of some movies that he only had access to because he was a SAG member. I still think it's a little silly that this is a criminal complaint rather than a civil complaint, but that's an issue with the law itself. What strikes me as a more important point concerning this story is the simple fact that it's a SAG actor doing the leaking. This is a lot more common than people realize. The MPAA keeps insisting that there are "evil pirates" out there trying to harm actors and others in the industry. But what that ignores is that time and time again studies have shown that a large percentage of these leaks come from actors or others in the industry. Insider leaks are a key source of such content. This doesn't make it right, or legal, or anything like that. I'm merely pointing out the whole "us vs. them" mentality pushed by the MPAA is inaccurate and misleading. Very often the "them" the MPAA wants to blame are the very people they claim they're trying to help.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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Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Reminder: both being stealing, are illegal. Just one of the strange quirks of law.
Similarly, a person can be both president of a bank, say, and an embezzler. Many offices and acts aren't mutually exclusive.
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Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
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Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
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Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
And why are you mentioning pirates, when this is about an actor and screeners? Can you not just admit that some of the piracy is being facilitated by people in the industry?
I find it odd how some people can be shown proof of something and yet still turn around and point the finger elsewhere. Rather than just say, yes, some of my preconceived notions are wrong. Else, where would these screeners come from, if not from people within the industry itself?
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Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
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http://tiny.cc/ bookitnow
Now everyone can be an author, you just say to the computer what do you want it and it does all the work for ya.
Maybe in the no so distant future there will be no need for actors, just an app for your tablet that will watch your responses and create entertainment just for you on the fly, which you will be able to sell if you want to or even better share with others, there will be so much of it that the MAFIAA would be irrelevant.
Also since music can be composed with just a few notes it wouldn't be difficult to create something that can create music in any genre on the fly.
That will be the age of individual realtime art creation.
Investor should invest very short term on the entertainment industry, it will die eventually and nobody will want to have their assets tied onto the Titanic productions when it happens.
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Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Public sentiment in the Techdirt echo chamber is not good for copyright proponents. But elsewhere (like in DC), nobody knows you exist. And about all people can do is what Masnick does.... a buffoonish Yosemite Sam routine of outrage and invective that may entertain some. But most just change the channel.
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Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
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Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
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Why would you think that it is mutually exclusive?
Mike, you are truly going to pot this week. This is another head shaker story where any 10 year old can see through it, yet you run it with a straight face and act all shocked.
Are you that desperate to score points?
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Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Everybody is pirating, everybody can pirate and you can't do nothing about it, funnier is the fact that DC is irrelevant for the piracy question they are not the people.
Is that why no artist dare to say anything in public?
Is that why they all hide behind the MAFIAA umbrella hoping this thing will go away?
Do you know how many people would vote against the industry interests if they got organized? actually I don't know that one either but I want to find out that is why I will do everything in my power to empower people to see the laws and propose new ones, after a while they will be the ones proposing laws then I guess the only thing left for you to do will be to cry.
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Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Wrong. It is copyright infringement, not stealing. The law pretty much says so, its not a strange quirk of any kind.
And yes, one person can be in many roles at the same time. That was the point Mike was trying to make. He specifically said that movie studios/record labels often go on huge campaigns against copyright infringement saying "its for the artist" when often times, its the artists leaking the files!
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Besides, how does an artist leaking his own work become a thief of his own work and a self-defeating idiot? There are countless stories of deliberate leaks that lead to great success.
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Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Right. And taking money from your company is not stealing, its embezzlement. Welcome to Parsing 101.
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Then you must be 9, because you missed it completely. More likely, you just ignored it to create a straw man and knock it down.
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Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
That is where your lobbying firm is located...and here you are...along with a bunch of other paytards down the street.
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Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
> is not good for copyright proponents. But
> elsewhere (like in DC), nobody knows you exist.
Sure they do, as evidenced by all the effort they go through to exclude any who's not pro-IP maximalism from meetings, conferences, committees, hearings, and a planning sessions for proposed legislation like PROTECT IP and ACTA (while at the same time proudly trumpeting how all 'stakeholders' have been included).
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Your natural rights?? What the hell is that supposed to mean? And how is it enforced? If you look at California, which has articulated "natural rights" in its constitution it says:
"Article 1, §1 of the California Constitution recognizes inalienable rights, and articulated some (not all) of those rights as "defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy."
Note the passage about "protecting property". That doesn't seem to provide an exception for intellectual property. Maybe you should be careful wat you wish for before you start sniveling about your "natural right".
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Copyright, as it exists, protects a business model. It interferes with natural rights such as speech to achieve that. In order to grant copyrights, certain speech is censored or restricted. That violates natural rights to enable a business model that is not needed nor just.
Intellectual property is not defined nor established explicitly anywhere in US legal code. IP is not property as the law defines it. It's just a buzzword created by the publishing industry to create the illusion of property and strengthen their claim to control it. The existence of the term intellectual property does not make it property merely by its utterance. You may as well call it "imaginary property", as it's about as supported by law as the other. All art is created from prior art. To claim property ownership of art is to claim right of property over all prior art contained in such works. "IP" is a liar's term.
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They're "protected against a government that attempts to take them away."...by who? It sounds like these so-called natural laws only have meaning to the extent that they enjoy protection of statutory law. Maybe this natural right shit might have some bearing if you live on some utopian commune, but otherwise manmade (and enforced) law is the only game in town.
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