Well, Madonna gets +1 from me now! She at least has a thinking brain.
It would be easy to write a program that made minor modifications to file bits and titles and kept uploading files via Tor. Before long the poisoned files would vastly outnumber the real ones. It would take pirates many manual hours to identify the poisoned files and take them down. Meanwhile they will have proliferated to other seeds. You can't fight automated with manual, no matter how many ways you paraphrase John Gilmore.
The AAholes can do this legally (or at least as legally as their opponents) and I would support it if that would mean they would get off their imperial control trips and stop attacking liberty.
If I were a studio, I would create a digital version of the movie that starts out great, but degrades slowly over the next 20 or so minutes, then gets completely unwatchable, followed by some kind of scolding anti-piracy message. Then I would use my astroturf minions to upload that file to all the torrent sites. That would teach those downloaders a lesson in their own language. All this other heavy-handed bullshit they are doing is just stupid.
Morality in online gaming isn't always so cut and dried. It's a gray area whether or not to use the program as it is offered or to stick to more stringent written or unwritten rules. The abilities coded into the software can validly be called a set of rules. What some call an exploit others call using the potential of the game to its fullest. Every game has this issue, and game boards are rife with arguments among believers on both sides claiming the gray area zealously.
It is telling that the man likens direct donations to artists to political donations to politicians, and having fans expect a quid pro quo. It shows you exactly where his mind is.
Part of the problem is the right wing has deadlocked Washington for anything important. So, congress critters are reduced to this sort of thing just to look like they are doing something, anything at all.
I agree with everything you said. I just mean that something else is lost when you DIY/CWF, so it's only a little better than letting a label rip you off.
TechDirt likes to tell the story of Dickens getting copied mercilessly here in America, so he toured America and made a lot of money that way instead. Fine, but what Dickens novel is the world missing because he was out glad-handing for a year? If we believe that the purpose of copyright is to promote the arts and sciences, then we have to account for the missing Dickens novel on the debit side.
If musicians can't get paid for making music, they get a day job. Then they might be able to keep making music or they might not, but even if so, the music suffers because it has to come after the day job.
Spending time connecting with fans is nice, but isn't all this fundraising just another form of a day job? So is merchandising. All these things take time away from making music.
This may be the new reality, but I don't think it's an equal substitute for getting paid for each copy of your music.
If all they wanted was a disk image, it would have been far more deft to have the host tell their client there are technical difficulties, then let the FBI shut down the server and reboot it off line to take an image right there, then restart the server. The client and you and I would never have been the wiser.
On the post: Bogus Stats Again: BSA Puts Out Its Yearly Propaganda About Software Piracy
On the post: Microsoft-Funded BitTorrent Disruptor Won't Make Pirates Pay, But Might Break The Law
Re: Re:
It would be easy to write a program that made minor modifications to file bits and titles and kept uploading files via Tor. Before long the poisoned files would vastly outnumber the real ones. It would take pirates many manual hours to identify the poisoned files and take them down. Meanwhile they will have proliferated to other seeds. You can't fight automated with manual, no matter how many ways you paraphrase John Gilmore.
The AAholes can do this legally (or at least as legally as their opponents) and I would support it if that would mean they would get off their imperial control trips and stop attacking liberty.
On the post: Microsoft-Funded BitTorrent Disruptor Won't Make Pirates Pay, But Might Break The Law
On the post: German Pirate Party Wins Seats In Fourth Straight State Election
On the post: MPAA: Censorship Is Good For Consumers
It does appear that MPAA is reading TechDirt. They are at least paying lip service to this mantra. This is a new development, right?
On the post: Musicians Realizing They Don't Need Major Labels Anymore
On the post: Musicians Realizing They Don't Need Major Labels Anymore
Er, I should say, hear about someone willing American Idol. I'd never actually watch that crap!
On the post: 2K Sports Botches Their Perfect Game $1 Million Contest
On the post: Game Of Thrones On Track To Be Most Pirated Show Of 2012; Pirates Still Asking HBO For Legitimate Options
On the post: ICE & FBI Hatch Ingenious Plan To Make DVD Piracy Warnings Longer
Re: Re:
On the post: It's Amazing The Lengths 'Music Supporters' Will Go To In Trying To Trash Success Stories
On the post: Senator Leahy Still Insisting That SOPA/PIPA Are 'Needed'
On the post: ICE & FBI Hatch Ingenious Plan To Make DVD Piracy Warnings Longer
On the post: Kevin Smith's Approach To Competing With Piracy: Give Away A Ton, Then Sell Stuff That Can't Be Pirated
On the post: AFP Back To Claiming That Twitter's Terms Of Service Allow It To Take And Sell Anyone's Twitpic Photos
Re: Re:
If you are homophobic, you are more likely than the average person to be gay.
If you are a large rights-holding corporation, you are definitely a thief.
On the post: AFP Back To Claiming That Twitter's Terms Of Service Allow It To Take And Sell Anyone's Twitpic Photos
Similarly, if you are rabidly anti-pirate, you are probably a thief.
On the post: Crowdfunding Projects: It Helps To Let Your Personality Shine Through
Re: Re: A day job by any other name...
TechDirt likes to tell the story of Dickens getting copied mercilessly here in America, so he toured America and made a lot of money that way instead. Fine, but what Dickens novel is the world missing because he was out glad-handing for a year? If we believe that the purpose of copyright is to promote the arts and sciences, then we have to account for the missing Dickens novel on the debit side.
On the post: Crowdfunding Projects: It Helps To Let Your Personality Shine Through
A day job by any other name...
Spending time connecting with fans is nice, but isn't all this fundraising just another form of a day job? So is merchandising. All these things take time away from making music.
This may be the new reality, but I don't think it's an equal substitute for getting paid for each copy of your music.
On the post: Here We Go Again: FBI Wants Backdoors To Snoop On Nearly All Internet Communications
Re: These will never be found by hackers
On the post: FBI Quietly Returns Anonymizing Server It Seized... Without Telling Anyone
Next >>