Their real trick was in allowing you to watch movies for 72 minutes (into the third act) and then blocking your access for a period of time so you couldn't see the end of the movie. Of course, if you bought a "special VIP" style account, you could bypass the delay and get the rest of the movie right away. There is your illegal distribution right there.
By what standards are you going to condemn the site because of their features that they represented in a court of law?
By this same token, if someone puts up a legal movie on the site, that they have the rights to, then get paid for access, then how the hell is that illegal? You're confusing a service that they have with what the customers are doing.
Well, they have schemes to pay the uploaders, schemes to pay the people sending the surfers who sign up, etc. What Kim did was set up a bunch of companies holding "fronts" for Mega, which would suck people in with the info on the movies and the "free download" or "watch now free" that would send the surfer on to Mega. Then Mega would pay Kim's companies for every surfer that converted into a sale
It's really not that hard to upload material to Megaupload that people want. There's nothing illegal about that. You're all over the place with the money laundering. It's a stretched argument indicative of confusion with the laws of civil copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement.
The original bad act (selling access) made worse by using legit front companies to take the money outside, making the money appear to be just legally obtained revenue.
Last I checked, no court of law made them illegal at all. And I would be willing to bet that criminal copyright infringement has a higher standard of proof than civil copyright infringement.
The government really doesn't want to set a precedent with any of their cases. It's why they're taking so long. They usually want to bleed out defendants economically so that they're more open to plea deals.
That's the problem. The US has incredible incentive to make illegal seizures of goods based on dubious means.
I've been looking at the civil asset forfeitures and how they're abused. It's not pretty.
The US only needs a preponderance of evidence standard to keep MU offline. Basically, they will only need to show to a court that the property was used in a crime. The in rem process is being abused and it's ridiculous how they have over 400 statutes of law to keep the property owner from their property.
And good luck trying to get it back. With the lowered federal standard (thank you drug war and Prohibition!) your property is effectively guilty before being proven innocent.
If I showed how civil forfeiture was being abused by each state, that could be 5 articles. But take a look at Virginia's abuses and their ranking in regards to what they make when policing for profit.
This should be talked about more. There's no mention of reforming the system any time soon and I'm sure that a lot of people have been robbed of billions through these programs without due process of law.
The crooks run our government. It's time to run them out!
I'll dispute that. Last I checked, 18 people were arrested for file sharing. The justice system is atrocious, but I haven't seen anything recently in regards to more prosecutions. If you're talking about the Tokyo law that makes SOPA look like a great piece of legislation, then I say that using that won't solve Japan's problems. But that is all I have heard about recently.
Just a few things to understand about Japan in general:
1) Japan has seen a decline in wages for the past 20 years now in all markets:
Average Japanese incomes have taken a huge hit over the last 13 years.... salaried employees’ incomes dropped since their peak in 1997. The most significant declines came after 2008’s so-called “Lehman shock,” and even with the slight uptick in 2010 and expected for 2011, wages are still not back to 2008 levels. As Shukan Bunshun calculated, the end result is a loss of ¥220 trillion in lost or declining salaries in the last 12 years (Japan Times). Not all Japanese employees are salaried, of course, but these measures best demonstrate the state of Japan’s middle and upper-middle classes.
So of course the guy is losing his job and having difficulty in finding a new one. The entire country is suffering from too much law in the first place.
2) The judicial system of Japan is very different from the common law of the US. With a three judge system, I highly doubt that they'll understand technology issues any time soon. For the most part, these judges are former prosecutors used to convicting people. I highly doubt that they'd understand technology issues on a grand scale.
3) Names in Japanese can be quite similar with only the kanji differentiating the name. If I right Akira, 明、or 亮, (same Akira, two different kanjis) I change the meaning of the name. So maybe a few kanjis are too close together and magically his name is involved. But I really can't see how this guy is singled out for being a criminal when someone may have a similar name to a him. It does happen in the Orient. It may have been that he was just victim of the recession and he's not able to get a new job so he's finding a scapegoat.
And what better scapegoat than a technology giant when you're down on your luck?
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
We should look at how we rethink IP completely so that it's better to create more work and more artists.
The point can't be reinforced enough. Ideas are meant to be spread and even if they're "taken" the good ones rise to the top while the bad ones are left by the way side.
The unionized workers aren't making all that much money and the independent actors are really hurt by the MPAA or RIAA respectively.
If there are benefits to SAG or any other major label you might want to enlighten everyone. There's too many stories about how they are antiquated in their dealings on the internet to truly believe they protect any one.
The artists and the recording companies only have a monopoly on their own work.
And yet, that doesn't vibe with the utilitarian concept of copyright.
Create some great music and send that out to your users.
Don't have to. The artists do it without the labels, hence why the labels are going after Spotify.
If you want to be a rock and roll star, you've got to pay your dues.
This is not the 1960s, there are no more hair bands, and the artists pay their dues by building an audience.
If that's the case, maybe Spotify should just share their revenues with the hard working artists who've actually put in the time it takes to be a rock and roll star.
Which they've been doing if you paid attention.
Honestly bob, what are we going to do with you? You seem intent on being ignorant and we're trying our damndest to educate you on matters of course.
Just read the article before everyone just calls you Wrongway Bob from now on.
Congratulations. You have no evidence of your belief and expose the fact that you're full of shit as usual. I pity you. That paradox-inducing crumple zone of yours seems to be the size of Alaska right now.
Show evidence of patent working. India and Brazil work far better without IP laws. This has been shown countless times on this sure. It's also been proven that the consequences of patent law have led to over pricing of drugs and shortages of supply.
And this has been explained countless times to you. The largest example of patent law killing people or causing drastic reactions is with the birth control debacle, where the price changed overnight from $10 to $1500. Or how about Sweden eliminating their patent system in the 19th century? Or how about the NPR report "when patents attack?" Or how facebook wastes money on useless patents? There are plenty of examples but you consistently ignore them to be obtuse and pedantic.
That is the problem. His entire incentive in being critical of open research is because he makes money through the patent system. So he goes into long diatribes about how the patent system is great, but never pulls out examples of his own in how they have helped the respective industry flourish. Then he uses his crypto-talk to show how he is better than others much to most people's annoyance. He's not here for a discussion. He's here to protect his own self interest.
I was merely pointing out that to some people the fact that it is from the official source is important and to the extent that fans can support the artists they admire this becomes an advantage as long as it isn't being overshadowed by the seller raping the artist and the buyer.
You've just answered your own question. The official source is important to some people. Not all. And the people are supporting the artists. That's why they want the content in their formats. The more content in the way that the people want, the more money they're willing to spend. That's the advantage.
The pirates can mimic almost everything on the list except #4 and #5, and when people are getting it all for nothing, they don't give a crap on #4, they will download it a second time from another archive. Number 5 is worse, you can see it here with enough people on the "f**k the **aa's!" and "f**k Sony!" bandwagon that getting it from the original source is considered very uncool.
You're delusional about #4. Megaupload was more reliable than what the MPAA was providing (Hint: The MPAA doesn't produce anything, you're thinking the movie studios they represent. Not the artists nor the film directors that are independent of the studios.)
And #5, is a misnomer since there are plenty of people that can find content outside of what the MPAA offers. Thinking they're the only one that matters is beside the point that they once again want control of all people and what they can produce.
Lets take some loan Manga artist (and keep in mind, these kids claim to *worship* these guys... just IMAGINE their attitude for some other form of content)...
The manga artists? Like Eichiro Oda who makes the incredibly detailed One Piece manga that stands atop the manga field for very complex characters taken from history?
Characters such as Roronoa Zoro based on the actual Zoro figure? How about Blackbeard whose real name is Edward Teach, two characters that make up the One Piece world and give it incredible diversity?
Oh, it seems you need more manga artists that are making money... Well, they aren't. But the manga artists are making comics despite how much it's pirated.
Arguably the licensors are failing because they have no digital plans. Bandai recently went bankrupt because they decided kids such as the one interviewed were too dumb to understand the most recent offerings they had. Guess what? The pirates, the ones that enjoy a series and put it up for free, are the ones that are making the free sites that people can keep up to date with the manga artists. Also, the artists are figuring out how to use iTunes and put up their offerings for others to share or pay for. If you haven't heard of Gen Manga or Comics Loud, it's time to look at other publishers and see how they've adapted to digital.
I do NOT get the specious argument of defending this attitude because it is convenient for your argument.
No one's defending piracy, they're showing that the failing is with the middlemen that believe that their gatekeeper mentality will suffice in a digital era.
You must not work in a field where your very ability to eat is directly tied to someone consuming an intangible product.
Why do people think that just because you aren't in one field it suddenly disqualifies you from showing the inaccuracies of their argument? If you have to rely on an appeal to morality, you're doing it wrong.
What will happen, if this attitude were to become universal, is that creative jobs will simply no longer be viable.
Right. And more artists will make creative works and sell them where they want without a nasty editor criticizing them. Just because the industry is changing doesn't mean the creative jobs are going away. They're just going elsewhere (ie people are making art and selling it in other areas).
Piracy
Several economic studies, mixed results
Cannot explain most of the decline
Worst decline is sales
Relatively successful MPAA anti-piracy effort
----------------------------------
I love how this document says that the MPAA's anti-piracy effort has been successful in cannibalizing their sales...
On the post: Kim Dotcom Fires Back: Raises Questions About US's Evidence, Shows Studios Were Eager To Work With Megaupload
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
By what standards are you going to condemn the site because of their features that they represented in a court of law?
By this same token, if someone puts up a legal movie on the site, that they have the rights to, then get paid for access, then how the hell is that illegal? You're confusing a service that they have with what the customers are doing.
Well, they have schemes to pay the uploaders, schemes to pay the people sending the surfers who sign up, etc. What Kim did was set up a bunch of companies holding "fronts" for Mega, which would suck people in with the info on the movies and the "free download" or "watch now free" that would send the surfer on to Mega. Then Mega would pay Kim's companies for every surfer that converted into a sale
It's really not that hard to upload material to Megaupload that people want. There's nothing illegal about that. You're all over the place with the money laundering. It's a stretched argument indicative of confusion with the laws of civil copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement.
The original bad act (selling access) made worse by using legit front companies to take the money outside, making the money appear to be just legally obtained revenue.
Last I checked, no court of law made them illegal at all. And I would be willing to bet that criminal copyright infringement has a higher standard of proof than civil copyright infringement.
On the post: Pinterest Updates Terms Of Service... And People Are Still Overreacting
Don Quixote
It's about time for commenting on how large those windmills the copyright maximalists fight truly are.
How anyone can be so against making copies or burning images into your head is beyond me.
It's like you have thoughtcrimes if you ever benefit from watching a movie.
On the post: Kim Dotcom Fires Back: Raises Questions About US's Evidence, Shows Studios Were Eager To Work With Megaupload
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Kim Dotcom Fires Back: Raises Questions About US's Evidence, Shows Studios Were Eager To Work With Megaupload
Re: Re:
On the post: Kim Dotcom Fires Back: Raises Questions About US's Evidence, Shows Studios Were Eager To Work With Megaupload
Re: Re: Re:
Money laundering? How? People paid money legally to store content. Nothing more.
If anything you can prove money laundering by just taking your money to a bank and withdrawing it.
On the post: Kim Dotcom Fires Back: Raises Questions About US's Evidence, Shows Studios Were Eager To Work With Megaupload
Re: Re: Re: Re: Legal Conspiracy
I've been looking at the civil asset forfeitures and how they're abused. It's not pretty.
The US only needs a preponderance of evidence standard to keep MU offline. Basically, they will only need to show to a court that the property was used in a crime. The in rem process is being abused and it's ridiculous how they have over 400 statutes of law to keep the property owner from their property.
And good luck trying to get it back. With the lowered federal standard (thank you drug war and Prohibition!) your property is effectively guilty before being proven innocent.
If I showed how civil forfeiture was being abused by each state, that could be 5 articles. But take a look at Virginia's abuses and their ranking in regards to what they make when policing for profit.
This should be talked about more. There's no mention of reforming the system any time soon and I'm sure that a lot of people have been robbed of billions through these programs without due process of law.
The crooks run our government. It's time to run them out!
On the post: Japanese Court Misunderstands Autocomplete, Orders Google To Turn It Off To Protect 'Privacy'
Re:
On the post: Japanese Court Misunderstands Autocomplete, Orders Google To Turn It Off To Protect 'Privacy'
Correlation and causation...
1) Japan has seen a decline in wages for the past 20 years now in all markets:
Average Japanese incomes have taken a huge hit over the last 13 years.... salaried employees’ incomes dropped since their peak in 1997. The most significant declines came after 2008’s so-called “Lehman shock,” and even with the slight uptick in 2010 and expected for 2011, wages are still not back to 2008 levels. As Shukan Bunshun calculated, the end result is a loss of ¥220 trillion in lost or declining salaries in the last 12 years (Japan Times). Not all Japanese employees are salaried, of course, but these measures best demonstrate the state of Japan’s middle and upper-middle classes.
So of course the guy is losing his job and having difficulty in finding a new one. The entire country is suffering from too much law in the first place.
2) The judicial system of Japan is very different from the common law of the US. With a three judge system, I highly doubt that they'll understand technology issues any time soon. For the most part, these judges are former prosecutors used to convicting people. I highly doubt that they'd understand technology issues on a grand scale.
3) Names in Japanese can be quite similar with only the kanji differentiating the name. If I right Akira, 明、or 亮, (same Akira, two different kanjis) I change the meaning of the name. So maybe a few kanjis are too close together and magically his name is involved. But I really can't see how this guy is singled out for being a criminal when someone may have a similar name to a him. It does happen in the Orient. It may have been that he was just victim of the recession and he's not able to get a new job so he's finding a scapegoat.
And what better scapegoat than a technology giant when you're down on your luck?
On the post: Content Creators: Control Is An Illusion And That's A Good Thing
Re: Another point in that direction
On the post: Content Creators: Control Is An Illusion And That's A Good Thing
Another point in that direction
This would have been an excellent time to bring up how our Forefathers thought about ideas.
How about Thomas Jefferson?
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Or how about the meme of Al Gore and the internet?
Perhaps we should go deeper.
We should look at how we rethink IP completely so that it's better to create more work and more artists.
The point can't be reinforced enough. Ideas are meant to be spread and even if they're "taken" the good ones rise to the top while the bad ones are left by the way side.
On the post: How Piracy Created The Massive Movie Industry Success Of Nollywood
Re: What wages?
The unionized workers aren't making all that much money and the independent actors are really hurt by the MPAA or RIAA respectively.
If there are benefits to SAG or any other major label you might want to enlighten everyone. There's too many stories about how they are antiquated in their dealings on the internet to truly believe they protect any one.
On the post: How Monopolies Strangle Innovation: Record Label Demands Making Investors Nervous About Spotify
Re: Monopoly? Nah
And yet, that doesn't vibe with the utilitarian concept of copyright.
Create some great music and send that out to your users.
Don't have to. The artists do it without the labels, hence why the labels are going after Spotify.
If you want to be a rock and roll star, you've got to pay your dues.
This is not the 1960s, there are no more hair bands, and the artists pay their dues by building an audience.
If that's the case, maybe Spotify should just share their revenues with the hard working artists who've actually put in the time it takes to be a rock and roll star.
Which they've been doing if you paid attention.
Honestly bob, what are we going to do with you? You seem intent on being ignorant and we're trying our damndest to educate you on matters of course.
Just read the article before everyone just calls you Wrongway Bob from now on.
On the post: David Muir's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: David Muir's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
And this has been explained countless times to you. The largest example of patent law killing people or causing drastic reactions is with the birth control debacle, where the price changed overnight from $10 to $1500. Or how about Sweden eliminating their patent system in the 19th century? Or how about the NPR report "when patents attack?" Or how facebook wastes money on useless patents? There are plenty of examples but you consistently ignore them to be obtuse and pedantic.
On the post: David Muir's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
No person is as ignorant as you are by trying constantly to reframe arguments and not answering questions unless they are paid to do so.
I honestly don't think you're a bad guy. Just a blowhard that ignores research to keep up your own pedantic view of IP law.
On the post: David Muir's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: We Don't Want Everything For Free. We Just Want Everything
Re: Re: Re: Re: Perception problem
You've just answered your own question. The official source is important to some people. Not all. And the people are supporting the artists. That's why they want the content in their formats. The more content in the way that the people want, the more money they're willing to spend. That's the advantage.
On the post: We Don't Want Everything For Free. We Just Want Everything
Re: Re: Perception problem
You're delusional about #4. Megaupload was more reliable than what the MPAA was providing (Hint: The MPAA doesn't produce anything, you're thinking the movie studios they represent. Not the artists nor the film directors that are independent of the studios.)
And #5, is a misnomer since there are plenty of people that can find content outside of what the MPAA offers. Thinking they're the only one that matters is beside the point that they once again want control of all people and what they can produce.
On the post: We Don't Want Everything For Free. We Just Want Everything
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Lets take some loan Manga artist (and keep in mind, these kids claim to *worship* these guys... just IMAGINE their attitude for some other form of content)...
The manga artists? Like Eichiro Oda who makes the incredibly detailed One Piece manga that stands atop the manga field for very complex characters taken from history?
Characters such as Roronoa Zoro based on the actual Zoro figure? How about Blackbeard whose real name is Edward Teach, two characters that make up the One Piece world and give it incredible diversity?
Oh, it seems you need more manga artists that are making money... Well, they aren't. But the manga artists are making comics despite how much it's pirated.
Don't believe me? Link
Arguably the licensors are failing because they have no digital plans. Bandai recently went bankrupt because they decided kids such as the one interviewed were too dumb to understand the most recent offerings they had. Guess what? The pirates, the ones that enjoy a series and put it up for free, are the ones that are making the free sites that people can keep up to date with the manga artists. Also, the artists are figuring out how to use iTunes and put up their offerings for others to share or pay for. If you haven't heard of Gen Manga or Comics Loud, it's time to look at other publishers and see how they've adapted to digital.
I do NOT get the specious argument of defending this attitude because it is convenient for your argument.
No one's defending piracy, they're showing that the failing is with the middlemen that believe that their gatekeeper mentality will suffice in a digital era.
You must not work in a field where your very ability to eat is directly tied to someone consuming an intangible product.
Why do people think that just because you aren't in one field it suddenly disqualifies you from showing the inaccuracies of their argument? If you have to rely on an appeal to morality, you're doing it wrong.
What will happen, if this attitude were to become universal, is that creative jobs will simply no longer be viable.
Right. And more artists will make creative works and sell them where they want without a nasty editor criticizing them. Just because the industry is changing doesn't mean the creative jobs are going away. They're just going elsewhere (ie people are making art and selling it in other areas).
On the post: Hollywood, Once Again, Sets A Record At The Box Office
Re: box office is only piece of pie
Several economic studies, mixed results
Cannot explain most of the decline
Worst decline is sales
Relatively successful MPAA anti-piracy effort
----------------------------------
I love how this document says that the MPAA's anti-piracy effort has been successful in cannibalizing their sales...
Next >>