RIAA Claims It Succeeded In Getting Piracy Under Control Years Ago
from the um,-what? dept
This one's just bizarre. Via Eric Goldman, we learn of an opinion piece in the Tennessean newspaper, in which the RIAA argues that its strategy of suing tens of thousands of file sharers "succeeded" in "bringing piracy under control." The opinion piece is a response to an earlier story in the paper that claimed (quite reasonably, I might add) that the sue fans strategy failed, because "the suits ultimately proved ineffective in ending systematic online piracy." The RIAA, however, says the goal has never been to end piracy, but to "bring it under sufficient control" and they claim they succeeded.The RIAA's argument makes little sense. Here's the basis for their success claims:
Our legal efforts served as an essential educational tool: Fans know far more now about copyright laws and the legal consequences of stealing music than ever before. Before initiating lawsuits in 2003, only 35 percent of people knew file-sharing on P2P was illegal; afterward, awareness grew to 70 percent.First of all, none of that has anything to do with "bringing piracy under control." For all of the supposed "education," all it really served to do was teach more people about file sharing. The amount of file sharing wasn't brought under control, it sky-rocketed, and there's good reason to suggest it was helped along by the legal strategy. There have been studies in the past about how education campaigns telling people not to do something will often increase that action. For example, signs that tell people not to remove rocks from the petrified forest in Arizona were shown to lead to greater rock taking. So I'm not sure what the RIAA thinks it accomplished here.
Where there was virtually no legal digital market before the lawsuits, today the market exceeds $3 billion annually, and revenue from online platforms will comprise more than 50 percent of total industry revenues this year. To boot, there are more than 400 licensed digital services worldwide, compared with fewer than 50 in 2003
Furthermore, it's completely laughable that the RIAA is suggesting here that its legal strategy had anything to do with the "legal digital market." The labels were pushed kicking and screaming into iTunes and other offerings. That had absolutely nothing to do with its legal strategy.
But, let's get to the key point: if the RIAA truly believes that it successfully brought piracy under control via these lawsuits that ended a few years ago... why is it supporting things like SOPA and PROTECT IP? After all, isn't the problem solved?
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Filed Under: lawsuit, legal strategy, piracy, under control
Companies: riaa
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People then used the next generation of P2P, e.g., WinMX, to download entire albums. The RIAA stopped that.
People then started using bittorrent to download entire discographies.
If music piracy is "under control", it's only because everything we want has already been downloaded.
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...Those were the days....of virus-ridden chaff and mislabeled shite.
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I used WinMX as an example because, as far as I remember, it was the first P2P program that let you download the same file from multiple sources.
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RIAA I so wish you would just die and make our lives easier.
Boycott all Big Content Now !
Fight SOPA/PIPA
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This sounds familiar....
Mission Accomplished!
Bush stated at the time that this was the end to major combat operations in Iraq. While this statement did coincide with an end to the conventional phase of the war, Bush's assertion—and the sign itself—became controversial after guerrilla warfare in Iraq increased during the Iraqi insurgency. The vast majority of casualties, both military and civilian, have occurred since the speech.
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Re: This sounds familiar....
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Piracy is under control!
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Re: Piracy is under control!
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Re: Piracy is under control!
We will not tolerate the threat of a progressive, free-thinking and democratic global society.
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If they truely want to bring piracy under control they would hire tens of thousands of people to put bogus content on the torrent networks. People would get frustrated with downloading useless crap and eventually move to legitimate sources.
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First off, they've tried that, it failed terribly. Site implement filtering, voting, etc...
Fake shit is uploaded to TPB all the time, very few fall for it.
Second, assuming they could somehow actually pull off flooding the existing BT sites, something else, resilient to whatever flooding technique was being used would spring up over night.
You're right people, would move to other sources, but by no means would they move to anything legitimate.
The people who pirate cannot be harassed into buying media. It is not possible. Even if the internet gets broken, they will find a way. Genie is out of the bottle. it's over.
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For all intents and purpouses the tpb userbase is a community, they review quality, security concerns (viruses) and authenticity (mislablelled files) just reading the comments to an upload will almost always tell you the whole story.
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You know what would be helpful in answering that question? The person who is making an accusation i.e. "YOU" providing a link to the relevant Techdirt post. Otherwise your comment is just noise.
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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111112/09045016750/new-research-shows-movie-game-piracy-r ise-wont-tell-us-how-it-knows.shtml
This is a report that shows that music piracy is down in the UK. It does not show that piracy is "under control" though.
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'What this report doesn't reveal is just how the researchers came to these conclusions. Unlike some recent objective research, this report is not transparent in any way.'
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Look at The Pirate Bay and the gobs of fake content there. It's easy to tell, especially when the first five downloaders scream in the comments that the content is fake. There are other methods as well. When one account posts 120 torrents for DVD rips of movies that haven't been released in the theaters at all or for very long, they're obviously fake. Also, are you investing in multiple IP address blocks? It would be an easy pattern for site administrators to notice that a lot of fake content is coming from the same addresses. TPB also has trusted accounts from users who have been proven to upload real content, so users know which uploaders to trust.
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It could be the best zip type yet!
Don't know until you try, right?
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"RIAA Claims It Succeeded In Getting Piracy Under Control Years Ago"
should be
"RIAA Changes Definition Of 'Under Control'. Claims Ability To Control Piracy, The Universe and Everything (Under The New Definition)"
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Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
SO, I'd say that the campaign to raise awareness has worked, and that IS getting piracy under control, because whether the levels drop soon is actually LESS of a measure than getting everyone to agree that copyright infringement is wrong. -- And you all KNOW that it is, are just gleeful little pirates wallowing in your petty thefts.
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
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Re: Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
The amusing part is that business models/plans have been freely given over and over again by a plethora of people on this very site. Which he somehow seems to always overlook. Then he'll come back and demand an answer the next day.
Oh, for that $100 million it's in regard to a film. So some of us like to assume he's failed filmmaker. We speculated he might be M. Night Shamalan (or however you spell his name), but that'd be giving Blue too much credit.
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Re: Re: Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
Incidentally, I just watched "Red Cliff," the most expensive Chinese movie ever made. It cost $80 million. Hollywood could not have made it for less than $800 million. Perhaps that hints at the problem?
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
1. Yes piracy is wrong
2. However, the entertainment industry has never been more profitable
3. Your problem is that *you're* not profitable
3. SOPA won't solve your problem
4. Commenting on every article here isn't going to solve your problem either
5. Asking for out-of-the-box business models isn't going to solve your problem
6. Time to stop blaming "The Internet" and "those filthy pirates" for your plight.
7. Take responsibility for your life and your career and get back to work
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Re: Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
Why?
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Re: Re: Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
File sharing is just fine though ;)
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Re: Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
Why?
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
D'uh, why would he? It's not his job, of course.
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
The only reason the RIAA is worth worrying about is due to the massive collateral damage their little hissy fits cause. I don't care about any of the music published on any of the labels they represent, nor any of the people involved with them. I do, however, worry about ever-increasing copyright terms, the Internet Archive being declared a "rogue site," and the spreading of propaganda.
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
I don't go to work every day and support my family just so you IP owning leeches can sit on your ass and not contribute to society, while collecting your welfare royalty checks and crying that you don't get paid enough for doing nothing. You're the real thieves here.
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
So, why are they looking to nuke the 'Net?
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
To get more people aware that they could get stuff for free?
Yep that worked wonders.
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Re: Mike wants out-of-control piracy, upset by contrary claims.
If the RIAA repeats this, you'll fall in line as you always do and claim it's all under control.
Yes, one could say the RIAA has increased awareness of copyright and that it's valid (for now) for three generations (a generation is measured as 20 years) where the creator and his/her children and other heirs get to sit back and wallow in all that money the publisher never paid them because the budget to promote, distribute and print the book suddenly ended up costing more than the NASA manned mission to Mars will while doing nothing to prove whether or not zero gravity sex is or isn't fun.
And it's not Mike's problem, or mine, to solve the RIAA's problems for them. That part is real simple. In a free market it's adapt or die. Kinda like evolution, right? Not a thing to do with copyright or that imaginary $100 million movie you want to make. It's not your problem either. But as you want to make it yours fill your boots.
Out of one side of their mouths the RIAA claims that file sharing is killing them, killing their industry and turning artists into paupers (as if they give a tinker's damn about artists) and out of the other side they're now claiming that it's all under control, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the grass is growing (the grass they're smoking anyway). everyone is dancing in the pile of money they're making and the world is just a wonderful place.
Why then SOPA and IP Protect and what's the point in them if the RIAA has solved the problem?
Just wondering.
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I neve knew that before!
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They do have control
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Okay, and what percentage of people even knew what P2P was in 2003?
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combined with
the time lag of legislation is shorter than the time lag of data examination
equals =
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I think he's right. Since people can't see anything wrong with file sharing, they all simply trusted their moral compass and did what we all know is right: They had something they could share without causing any pain to themselves or anyone and so they did. After all, we all reasoned that if what we are doing is ethical and reasonable, it must also be legal. Little did we know that a corrupt political process was at work here and had banned this perfectly normal activity. If it wasn't for how many lives the RIAA has destroyed through their lawsuits, we would all hear about copyright laws through those funny websites where you read that in some crappy little town in the middle of Nebraska, there is still a city ordinance on the books which prohibits wearing orange on the first Thursday of every month. We would all go double-check the existence of copyright law to make sure it's not just an absurd urban legend. Really, the RIAA has rendered us a service. They've exposed the corruption in Washington.
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This also means there is no need for that one bill.. what was the name of it again SPOS? (Super Piece of Sh..)
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Perhaps, but see pirates TOOK ships, gold, people and all that..
Today's supposed 'pirates' just copy stuff. If in 1600, a 'pirate' just copied the ships, people, and loot - it wouldn't have been an issue except for those that made big $$ off of claims of scarcity and such.. :O
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They DON'T have control
Again, piracy exists because the media companies are not providing the goods in the manner the public wants. And don't give me that "Copying is Theft" crap. The original source still exists, nothing has been stolen. This is all about greed and avarice anyway. Poor media companies, they're losing their cash cows. Too bad.
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Time to lower the Jolly Roger
I routinely download movies via bit torrent to supplement my legitimate Netflix and Hulu accounts. After viewing, my most common reaction is, 'Man, am I glad I didn't pay to watch that.' Let's face it, movies are a pig in a poke. Last week, my daughter and I saw Hugo in 3D in the theater. When filmmakers start making more movies like that, I will happily spend more time attending theatrical releases.
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Re: Time to lower the Jolly Roger
What the copyright mafia is claiming was stolen is the 'potential income'(aka imaginary money) you 'stole' from them when you downloaded the mp3. That's the whole point of the IP lobbying machine- make people believe that their IP(Imaginary Property) is worth the same as tangible goods, so a downloaded album should cost the same as a CD with the album on it.
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Re: Re: Time to lower the Jolly Roger
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Real Ignorant Asshats of America!
"Duh"
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Fight SOPA/PIPA
I buy plenty of DVD's and Music - if SOPA passes, I will be too scared to... so indeed - SOPA passes, I'm boycotting - I'll cut cable and quit buying DVD's - I'll just go the the library and 'pirate' content by checking out books and movies and then I'll 'un-pirate' when I return them.
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Wait, what?
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Correlation does not imply causation
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Since its under control, you can stop pushing these things to break the internet, right?
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the coying of files is still not piracy in any sense except imagination.
I believe these are legal definitions not related to current rhetoric.
of course "pirate" must be an acronym that does not have anything to do with piracy...
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a.k.a. what everyone who has ever been 5 years old knows, and gets reminded of when they have their own children. Do they really need studies to tell them the blindingly obvious?
"Where there was virtually no legal digital market before the lawsuits... there are more than 400 licensed digital services worldwide, compared with fewer than 50 in 2003"
Christ... do you think that maybe licencing legal services and allowing them to sell the product the customer wants might have been the relevant factor here and not the lawsuits?
They're identifying the things they did right, then pretending that the things they did utterly wrong were responsible for the results.
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Fixed that for you...
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Why do they blame the transfer method
I happen to think alot of these methods to transfer files are pretty cool and have real world applications. Ask anyone about Torrents or P2P and their first answer will be its illegal.
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