stories filed under: "piracy"
Despite Inflammatory Headline, UK Authors Society Looking To Embrace Free, Not Fight The Internet
from the history-says-otherwise dept
There's a really inflammatory headline and opening paragraph in an article in the Times Online in the UK stating that "book piracy on the internet will ultimately drive authors to stop writing." This claim is actually unsubstantiated by history (which has actually shown book piracy ends up helping authors) or, actually, by the rest of the article. Rather than a reactionary RIAA-style response from the UK's Society of Authors, the article shows that the group isn't so much fearing internet piracy, but simply noting that business models need to change. Once you get beyond the headline and first paragraph, it's actually a rather refreshing article, as the head of the Society of Authors basically says that new business models are needed, and even suggests a few.This isn't a "doom and gloom" story as the opening suggests, but rather a "let's figure out how to change before it's forced upon us uncomfortably." While many are covering this story as if the authors group is acting like the RIAA, the head of the Society even notes: "We have to evolve and create a very different pay system, possibly by making the content available free to all and finding a way to get paid separately." That seems like a rather reasonable and thoughtful approach to a changing marketplace, rather than a "sky is falling! run! run! run! sue! sue! sue!" response. The group seems to recognize that shared files can act as promotion, and the article even highlights the story of the first known literary "pirates" who were later applauded by the author, who was thrilled at the publicity the piracy generated.
This actually is a really interesting (and even surprising) recognition by authors that the business model they're used to is changing. It's just too bad that the Times Online chose to portray it in a totally inaccurate manner.
Filed Under: authors, business models, embracing, free, piracy, uk
Attorney General Mukasy Claims Piracy Funds Terrorism
from the oh-please dept
We had assumed that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' sudden facsination with "piracy" was as a way to avoid dealing with the controversy surrounding his office -- but it appears his successor is heading down that path as well. In a speech given today in Silicon Valley, Attorney General Michael Mukasey gave a fear mongering speech about how piracy and counterfeiting fosters terrorism. This is a line (literally) straight from the RIAA training manual, which it appears Mukasey has bought into. It should come as no surprise to hear that Mukasey flew up to Silicon Valley after spending a day in Hollywood at Warner Brothers.Still, what's most interesting is that he doesn't seem to indicate much of a difference between merely copying content and "counterfeiting," which would be passing off a fake good as a legitimate one. Counterfeiting is more akin to "trademark" in that it's really about customer protection (making sure you're not buying Bob's Cola thinking that it's Coca Cola). It's understandable to be upset about counterfeiting -- but the problem is that two separate impartial government agencies have both found that counterfeiting isn't that big a problem, and it's regularly exaggerated by lobbyists.
Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that any of these nuances have made it to the AG's office. Instead, he's just lumped all piracy and counterfeiting issues into one single category and labeled it all a big problem and linked it to "terrorism" so that no one questions it. And rather than assigning more Justice Department officials to work on real problems and real crimes, he's been beefing up the "IP" group, increasing prosecutions 33% in the last couple of years. Is this really the best use of our taxpayer money?
Filed Under: counterfeits, michael mukasey, piracy, terrorism
Why Is The Hollywood Tail Wagging The Dog Of Academia?
from the that-seems-backwards dept
Hollywood's admission last week that its campus piracy stats were bogus raises an interesting question: why have colleges been so quick to roll over and accede to Hollywood's demands? Greg Sandoval points out that universities could have done their own studies a long time ago and had hard numbers to dispute the industry's accusations. If, as now appears to be the case, colleges are only responsible for a fairly small fraction of illegal file sharing, it makes the industry's demands that academia bend over backwards to help Hollywood in its anti-piracy fight a little unreasonable. The really screwy thing about this is that the movie industry is a relatively small part of the American economy. The industry's revenues in 2006 were just $42 billion. For comparison, Harvard alone has an endowment of $35 billion, and altogether the higher education sector has assets in the hundreds of billions of dollars. If they chose to stand up to Hollywood's bullying techniques, they would have little trouble mounting an effective legal defense. And given that Hollywood seems determined to paint students—academia's customers—in the worst possible light, it seems only appropriate that colleges be more proactive about countering unfair negative stereotypes of college campuses.Filed Under: academia, movies, mpaa, piracy, students, studies
Companies: mpaa
Hollywood Continues Its Worldwide Push To Have ISPs Block Sites Like Pirate Bay
from the why-innovate-when-we-can-legislate! dept
It would appear that the IFPI is following in the footsteps of the US entertainment industry in pushing government around the world to force ISPs to block access to sites and content that the entertainment industry wishes weren't available online. This is the latest in an ongoing effort for the entertainment industry to pretend that the internet needs to conform to the way it wants the world to act, rather than conforming to the way the internet actually works. The push would include requirements such as having ISPs set up massive filters, similar to China's "Great Firewall," to block sites like the Pirate Bay (despite the non-infringing uses of such sites) and also to block any downloads of certain digital audio and video tracks as recorded by a digital fingerprint. The fact that the IFPI is pushing for this is no surprise, given the RIAA/MPAA's similar push within the US, as well as recent efforts in both France and the UK to implement such policies.There are many, many reasons why such policies aren't just bad, but dangerous to innovation. As we're already seeing elsewhere, the entertainment industry now seems to think that any new innovation that makes it easier to distribute, copy or promote content now needs to get approval from the industry (while also paying a royalty fee). If Hollywood had its way, things like the VCR and the iPod wouldn't even exist -- despite the fact that both devices have helped to provide new life to the entertainment industry. The same will be true of various internet services -- but not if Hollywood succeeds in getting them blocked completely. It's amazing how many times Hollywood will need to relearn this lesson. Every time some new technology comes along, Hollywood freaks out that it might need to adapt -- and yet, time and time again, that new technology has only helped to reinvigorate the industry. Yet, by spreading FUD all over the place, the entertainment industry has become much better at bending politicians' ears to the point that those politicians incorrectly believe that the industry is doomed if it actually needed to adapt and change its business model, despite plenty of historical and economic evidence that those adaptations will come if the market is left alone to innovate.
Filed Under: filtering, hollywood, ifpi, isps, mpaa, piracy, riaa, unauthorized content
Companies: ifpi
Tools Don't Make Pirates. Unreasonable Barriers Make Pirates
from the misplaced-blame dept
Last month's launch of Amazon's e-book reader, Kindle, has people talking about ebooks again, with some questioning whether or not the potential popularity of the reader combined with the ease of viewing unauthorized ebooks on it would lead to an increase in e-book "piracy." Reader Carolyn writes in to point to a terrific rant about how this assertion is misplaced. The writer, Kassia Krozser, notes that it's not the Kindle's fault that people will use unauthorized content -- it's the fault of publishers for making it inconvenient for people to do what they want with content. It's the same thing that we said when JK Rowling refused to offer the Harry Potter books as ebooks out a fear of unauthorized copies getting out. That's ridiculous of course. In doing so, you guarantee that the only digital copies are unauthorized, even if someone wanted to pay for them. It's this thinking that helped screw up the recording industry as well. If the industry had recognized early on how Napster showed how people wanted to consume music, they could have offered a compelling solution that people would have paid for. Instead, they resisted and fought it, and now the problem is much worse. The problem isn't with the device, but with publishers not giving people the content in a format they want. As Krozser says (and we used for the headline of this post): "Devices don't make pirates. Unreasonable barriers make pirates."If Microsoft's WGA Is So Successful... Why Change It So Completely?
from the not-quite-so-successful,-huh? dept
Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage program has been nothing if not controversial. The anti-piracy system tries to determine if you're using an unauthorized version of Windows, which it will then disable. That works great for Microsoft if it's actually catching unauthorized copies -- but the problem is that it was catching an awful lot of legitimate users at the same time, causing plenty of damage in the process. However, Microsoft has continued to stand by WGA, and just last week the Associated Press ran an article highlighting what a huge success WGA has been, not only in slowing piracy, but in encouraging others that similar means could be useful in slowing piracy elsewhere.Perhaps that article was a bit premature. The Associated Press is now running a new article about some fairly significant changes that Microsoft is making to WGA, including that it will no longer disable copies of Windows that do not pass the WGA test. Instead, it will just make those copies annoying, by making the wallpaper black and putting a white notice on the screen alerting the user to the fact that his or her copy is unauthorized. Every time the user logs in and once an hour a reminder will pop up, asking the user to buy a legitimate copy. However, it will continue to work. And, if a user does decide to buy a legit copy, he or she will get a 50% discount... meaning that if you want to buy a legit copy, you're now better off pirating a version and then buying a legit replacement. So, for all that talk of how successful WGA has been, it appears that the collateral damage of effectively bricking many computers simply wasn't worth it. Those rushing to implement similar solutions to WGA after last week's article may want to think again.
Filed Under: drm, piracy, wga, windows genuine advantage
Companies: microsoft
Russia Continues To Use 'Piracy' As An Excuse To Silence Critics
from the good-work,-US dept
For quite some time now, US diplomats have been pressuring Russia to crack down on copyright violations in the country. While Russian officials have mostly given lipservice to the requests, it appears they've now found a convenient way to kill two birds with one stone: shutting up government critics with charges of software piracy. We first mentioned that strategy back in September, but now it appears to be working quite well. A newspaper critical of the government has suspended publication thanks to a criminal investigation into whether or not the newspaper was using "pirated" software. Since we've already seen that piracy convictions in Russia can mean getting sent off to Siberia, it seems like Russian officials now have discovered how to send many critics off to Siberia while appeasing US demands to crack down on piracy.How Embracing Piracy Jumpstarted Brazilian Music
from the oh-look-at-that... dept
One of the more amusingly wrong statements from the RIAA and its supporters is the idea that piracy is killing the music industry. Those who say that without being able to sell music there would be less music out there are flat out wrong, and we seem to see more proof of it every day. There's more music being produced today than ever before and it's often because of file sharing -- the very thing the industry honchos want you to believe is killing the industry. For natural experiments, we've pointed in the past to places like China and Jamaica. In China, where "piracy" is rampant, the music industry is thriving. Musicians have learned to use the piracy to help promote themselves so they can sell more concert tickets at higher prices. They also realized that companies would often pay for the creation of new music, so that it could be used to boost brand recognition of products. Meanwhile, in Jamaica, musicians competed to make better versions of songs, using the same "riddims," but adding their own singing over them. While in an RIAA-inspired world, the "riddim" creators would get upset, in Jamaica it's been great for them. The most popular riddims turn their creators into stars who are in high demand to create new riddims from musicians who are eager to be the first to create their own songs on top of the new riddims from the hottest riddim creators.Now it looks like we can add Brazil to the list of natural examples. There, the tecnobrega music scene is on fire thanks to musicians embracing piracy. They don't just look the other way, they actively encourage it. Musicians burn their own CDs and rush them down to street vendors, begging them to sell them (without the musicians getting any cut at all). Those musicians also upload MP3s and email them to popular DJs who make mixtapes (similar to the US hiphop mixtape scene). Just like in China, the artists realize that they need to use so-called "piracy" to help them get more publicity. "Piracy is the way to get established and get your name out. There's no way to stop it, so we're using it to our advantage," according to one tecnobrega star, Gabi Amarantos. Contrary to what the RIAA and it supporters would tell you, the lack of copyright respect hasn't hurt the tecnobrega space at all -- it's made it explode. It's allowed many more musicians to make a decent living from music than via a traditional model and it means that much more technobrega music is being produced. In other words, all the stories about how a lack of copyright creates less music are, once again, provably wrong. Yet, of course, the RIAA and its supporters will continue to repeat the lie. In fact, the National Anti-Piracy Association in Brazil says that tecnobrega is a problem because it "makes light of piracy." It's not "making light" of piracy -- it's making money from piracy.
Filed Under: brazil, music, piracy, tecnobrega
Companies: riaa
YouTube Announces Tool For Angry Copyright Holders
from the the-latest-magic-bullet dept
After many many months of saying the company was "working on it," Google has finally released the details of its tool to help angry copyright holders deal with their content being shared on YouTube. The tool doesn't sound all that surprising. Basically, the company tried to build its own version of Audible Magic's famed "magic bullet" approach to stopping unauthorized sharing. Of course, Audible Magic's solution has run into problems when people realized it doesn't work very well, and you have to wonder how well Google's homebrewed solution will work as well. It's not an easy problem to solve, and going back to the original Napster (which tried to add its own similar filter), people quickly find ways around the filters. There are two noteworthy things in the Google announcement. First, it requires copyright holders to upload their own copies so that Google can match them to the content on the site, and it offers the copyright holder a variety of options beyond just "block any copies." That's where it gets a little interesting. Copyright holders can also choose to leave the content up, but place ads on it, with a split of the ad revenue going back to the copyright holder. In other words, Google is at least encouraging copyright holders to consider that simply taking down the infringing content may not make as much sense as trying to make money off of it. Somehow, we doubt that too many copyright holders will sign up for this "leave it up, but with ads" program, but perhaps we'll be surprised.Filed Under: copyright, dmca, piracy, video
Companies: google, viacom, youtube
