>>Actually, there is obviously some sort of link, because Manning obtained the documents and Wikileaks received them. How that link exists, well, that may be harder to show.
That much of a link obviously exists, but there is nothing there to charge Assange with. Basically the government wants to prove some type of conspiracy between Assange and Manning because that would allow them to prosecute Assange. If they can't find any evidence of prior contact between the two, then it is going to be impossible to prove that they conspired.
The media industry love their windows. At one time it maximized profit. Now it mainly frustrates fans, encourages piracy, and reduces profits. But the media giants have entire divisions built around windowing and phased releases, and executives justify their jobs my managing the whole system.
There are sometimes a legitimate reason for windowing, such as adapting to local keyboards or languages. However, in most cases products are windowed because that is the way it has always been done, and some corporate executive believes that profits can be increased that way. I can see occasions where the Amazon message should read something like "Warning: this product has not been designed for use in your region. If you purchase the product it may not work for you, and may not receive a refund if you have problems. Do you wish to assume the risk and purchase the product without warranty?" However, blocking all access usually just forces people to find a way around the block.
What I was hoping for was that they would come out with a version that had all music that artists agreed to waive a licence fee, just to have their music heard and promoted. There are a lot of great indie bands out there who would jump at the chance. Then let Activision release a version of just that music and reduce the price to reflect the lack of licensing. It would probably be an eye-opener.
I have noticed in a couple of industry written articles lately that they are counting all locker transactions as piracy. Never mind that the services themselves have been found legal on several occasions and that (some/quite a bit/a lot/most)* traffic is legitimate.
*pick your adjective based on the service and your personal prejudices.
I can't imagine a worse marketing strategy, unless perhaps it involved crash test babies or saying deforestation isn't all bad.
The people they are going after are by definition geeks. Even if they are not going after me personally, we are reading about their ridiculous efforts. We are people who tend to buy high-end electronic devices that Sony sells. Now, a lot of people besides geeks buy high-end electronics, but who do those folks usually ask? Needless to say, I no longer give the generic advice "Sony usually makes good stuff."
This is what happens when you let lawyers run the board room.
The report talks about and rentals overall. The US is a significant part of the market, and a decline in the US rental market is going to leave a mark.
The rental market for video is declining in general as rental outlets in the US fall victim to Netflix and streaming services. The decline in the rental income seen in the study may actually reflect the evaporation of the rental distribution channel.
>>So since the US does indeed have content services set up, how is piracy in the US Hollywood's fault?
One of the points of the article is that piracy rates in the US are actually lower than in the rest of the world, and one of the reasons is that the media is available. However, there is a lot of content that is not available legally in the US, and piracy caused by people trying to get material they can't get legally is partly Hollywood's fault.
The recording industry tried to shut down MP3 services and managed to teach an entire generation of young people how to do file sharing with music. It was a small step for them to go to sharing movies. That probably means that the piracy rate is going to be significantly higher than it would be if the RIAA and MPAA had handled the situation better when file sharing started.
>>It's not really difficult to figure out, unless you try to FUD it.
Yes, it is often quite difficult. The Viacon vs Google suite proved that. The example you picked is obviously illegal, but once you move off the extremes it can get a lot more complicated.
>>Maybe it's because I don't have access to the original article but what do they have to do with this?
Feargal Sharkey was the lead singer for the Undertones. He was a musician himself, so that refutes the accusation that "The problem is that these 'music industry experts' aren't creative themselves, they just freeload off of artists . . ."
Apparently you are illegal if the MPAA doesn't like you. That greatly simplifies the legal process. You don't have to mess with things like trials. Someone in the DOJ or ICE calls a friend at the MPAA and says, "Hey, what do you think about X?" Friend says "I don't like them." Bam! The government seizes everything belonging to X that they can get their hands on.
It seems to me that the warning we got from Egypt is that we should be looking for ways to prevent the government from shutting down the Internet. This includes the US government or any other government in the world.
AT&T is starting to feel the impact of the bandwidth caps. There have been several articles lately about how if it comes to sealing a deal or loosing a customer, they seem to find loopholes that qualify you for the old, unlimited plan.
I am way ahead of you on this one. By my decree it is illegal for anyone in my household to own anything made by Sony. I was reluctant to buy sony after the rootkit incident. After the forced downgrade I don't trust anything Sony-made that connects to the internet. They are only firming my resolve with this lawsuit.
You forgot the multiplier effect. Granted, you listed secondary and tertiary markets and included approapriately inflated estimates, but industry standard practice is to multiply everything by three to account for the secondary and tertiary effects of the secondary and tertiary effects. Otherwise it was a good effort, and you definitely could have a future in IP economic impact analysis. I particularly liked the fact that you avoided any calculation of possible benefits of the piracy. Things like reviving interest in an old movie or opening up Chinese markets just muddy up otherwise perfectly fine self-serving calculations.
Yes, I do use a VPN. No, I don't do anything illegal, including downloading copyrighted material. I do it because of the snooping that the federal government is doing. Also because if I do get a letter from my ISP falsely accusing me of infringement I can point to the fact that every bit of traffic through my router is encrypted. Therefore the accusation must based on someone spoofing my IP address, an error in the IP assignment logs at the ISP, or maybe just an attorney or their investigator pulling my IP address out of thin air.
I was tailed by the FBI for a week back in the 1970's. I did absolutely nothing wrong. My job required me to make a delivery to the home of someone whose church had made a contribution to the American Indian Movement, and her husband was the treasurer of the church, so he had written the check as directed by his Pastor. Apparently visiting the house was enough to earn me the attention of the FBI.
Being spied on just runs against the grain of what Americans believe in (or used to believe in). It was a huge waste of federal resources to watch me for a week. Thinking back on the situation, I should probably write a letter of apology to the FBI agents who had to watch me; it must have been a very, very boring week.
You are right. It would be interesting to see the piracy rates over the same period. According to the industry piracy is as bad as ever. At very least the rhetoric from the MPAA and forum trolling by industry apologists haven't diminished a bit.
If these lawsuits were having any effect at all, the piracy rate should have fallen dramatically. If it hasn't dropped enough for the industry to have noticed and brag about how effective this tactic is, then what is the purpose other than making some attorneys rich?
On the post: Investigators Still Can't Find Any Evidence To Link Assange & Manning; DoD Insists It Must Be True
Re:
That much of a link obviously exists, but there is nothing there to charge Assange with. Basically the government wants to prove some type of conspiracy between Assange and Manning because that would allow them to prosecute Assange. If they can't find any evidence of prior contact between the two, then it is going to be impossible to prove that they conspired.
On the post: Once Again, If You Don't Offer Authorized Versions Of Released Content, Don't Be Surprised If People Get Unauthorized Copies
Managers like to manage
There are sometimes a legitimate reason for windowing, such as adapting to local keyboards or languages. However, in most cases products are windowed because that is the way it has always been done, and some corporate executive believes that profits can be increased that way. I can see occasions where the Amazon message should read something like "Warning: this product has not been designed for use in your region. If you purchase the product it may not work for you, and may not receive a refund if you have problems. Do you wish to assume the risk and purchase the product without warranty?" However, blocking all access usually just forces people to find a way around the block.
On the post: Belgian Collection Society SABAM Caught Taking Cash For Made Up Bands It Didn't Represent
On the post: Did The Record Labels Kill The Golden Goose In Music Video Games?
What I was hoping for
On the post: Leaked HBGary Documents Show Plan To Spread Wikileaks Propaganda For BofA... And 'Attack' Glenn Greenwald
Re: Intentional Misdirection
The evidence suggests the former.
On the post: Is It Copyright Infringement To Pass A DMCA Notice On To ChillingEffects?
Legal Notice
On the post: MPAA Files Surprisingly Weak Billion Dollar Lawsuit Against Hotfile
But we'll still count it in bogus piracy stats
*pick your adjective based on the service and your personal prejudices.
On the post: Sony Demanding Identity Of Anyone Who Saw PS3 Jailbreak Video On YouTube
Bad PR
The people they are going after are by definition geeks. Even if they are not going after me personally, we are reading about their ridiculous efforts. We are people who tend to buy high-end electronic devices that Sony sells. Now, a lot of people besides geeks buy high-end electronics, but who do those folks usually ask? Needless to say, I no longer give the generic advice "Sony usually makes good stuff."
This is what happens when you let lawyers run the board room.
On the post: Japanese Government Study Shows Anime 'Piracy' Could Boosts Sales
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Japanese Government Study Shows Anime 'Piracy' Could Boosts Sales
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: NBC Universal Study Shows That It's Hollywood's Own Damn Fault So Much Content Is 'Pirated'
Re:
One of the points of the article is that piracy rates in the US are actually lower than in the rest of the world, and one of the reasons is that the media is available. However, there is a lot of content that is not available legally in the US, and piracy caused by people trying to get material they can't get legally is partly Hollywood's fault.
The recording industry tried to shut down MP3 services and managed to teach an entire generation of young people how to do file sharing with music. It was a small step for them to go to sharing movies. That probably means that the piracy rate is going to be significantly higher than it would be if the RIAA and MPAA had handled the situation better when file sharing started.
On the post: Homeland Security Domain Seizures Raise More Questions: Is Embedding A Video Criminal Infringement?
Re: Re:
Yes, it is often quite difficult. The Viacon vs Google suite proved that. The example you picked is obviously illegal, but once you move off the extremes it can get a lot more complicated.
On the post: UK Music Lobbyist Says Rethinking Fair Use Is 'Intellectual Masturbation'
Re: Re: Teenage Kicks
Feargal Sharkey was the lead singer for the Undertones. He was a musician himself, so that refutes the accusation that "The problem is that these 'music industry experts' aren't creative themselves, they just freeload off of artists . . ."
On the post: Homeland Security Seizes Spanish Domain Name That Had Already Been Declared Legal
What is illegal
On the post: Probably Not The Best Time To Introduce Legislation That Can Be Described As Having An 'Internet Kill Switch'
Just the opposite
On the post: Metered Bandwidth Isn't About Stopping The Bandwidth Hogs; It's About Preserving Old Media Business Models
Re: Bad practice forced on competitors
On the post: Sony Trying To Play Whac-A-Mole Over PS3 Hack
Re:
On the post: Chinese TV Station Tried Passing Off Top Gun Footage As Training Exercises
Re: Re:
On the post: Does Your ISP Care About Protecting Your Privacy?
Wrongfully watched
I was tailed by the FBI for a week back in the 1970's. I did absolutely nothing wrong. My job required me to make a delivery to the home of someone whose church had made a contribution to the American Indian Movement, and her husband was the treasurer of the church, so he had written the check as directed by his Pastor. Apparently visiting the house was enough to earn me the attention of the FBI.
Being spied on just runs against the grain of what Americans believe in (or used to believe in). It was a huge waste of federal resources to watch me for a week. Thinking back on the situation, I should probably write a letter of apology to the FBI agents who had to watch me; it must have been a very, very boring week.
On the post: Just Under 100,000 Sued In Mass Copyright Infringement Suits Since Start Of 2010
Re:
If these lawsuits were having any effect at all, the piracy rate should have fallen dramatically. If it hasn't dropped enough for the industry to have noticed and brag about how effective this tactic is, then what is the purpose other than making some attorneys rich?
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