You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You

[xg4bx]

Now that the SOPA and PIPA fights have died down, and Hollywood prepares their next salvo against internet freedom with ACTA and PCIP, it’s worth pausing to consider how the war on piracy could actually be won.

It can’t, is the short answer, and one these companies do not want to hear as they put their fingers in their ears and start yelling. As technology continues to evolve, the battle between pirates and copyright holders is going to escalate, and pirates are always, always going to be one step ahead. To be clear, this is in no way meant to be a “pro-piracy” piece, it is merely attempting to show the inescapable realities of piracy that media companies refuse to acknowledge.

So, what to do? Go the other direction. Realize piracy is a service problem.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...ever-kill-you/

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...ever-kill-you/

So true. The way to fight piracy is to make sure the product match the customer's wants

[Billi]

So easy? I would guess there are many pirated products that match the customer's wants.

(My apologies, I haven't read the link, only your remark.)

[miguel1626]

Oh no, according to the wisdom I've received on this very forum, the way to fight piracy is to throw people in jail (we've been too lenient toward pirates for too long) and fine them the production cost of the entire movie if they ever download one illegally...

[Apache]

Originally Posted by miguel1626

Oh no, according to the wisdom I've received on this very forum, the way to fight piracy is to throw people in jail (we've been too lenient toward pirates for too long) and fine them the production cost of the entire movie if they ever download one illegally...

We could always go back to hanging pirates.
Apache

[elemenoP]

Originally Posted by Apache

We could always go back to hanging pirates.
Apache

No way. You make them WALK THE PLANK of course!

eP

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Apache

We could always go back to hanging pirates.
Apache

Yep, then put 'em in gibbets and hang them near the Hollywood sign....

[DrNefario]

I think we should jail people for participating in threads about piracy.

[300com]

Originally Posted by miguel1626

Oh no, according to the wisdom I've received on this very forum, the way to fight piracy is to throw people in jail (we've been too lenient toward pirates for too long) and fine them the production cost of the entire movie if they ever download one illegally...

Fighting piracy is like fighting the war on drugs.
or fighting for peace. You will never win the battle.

For one, people believe they are sharing. That is what we as humans love to do. Piracy is stealing and selling for profit. Manufacturing and retailing copied materials. Piracy is not sharing and online torrenting is just that.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by 300com

For one, people believe they are sharing. That is what we as humans love to do. Piracy is stealing and selling for profit. Manufacturing and retailing copied materials. Piracy is not sharing and online torrenting is just that.

Contrary to what some people seem to think, copyright infringement does not require a profit motive. The offence is still the same, regardless of whether you give it away for free, or charge for it.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Contrary to what some people seem to think, copyright infringement does not require a profit motive. The offence is still the same, regardless of whether you give it away for free, or charge for it.

Not here. Copyright infringement (downloading or purchasing) is a civil matter, unless profit is made, then it becomes criminal.

Quite a number of people have been charged selling pirate DVD's at flea markets around Australia, yet it is perfectly legal to bring copy DVD's and CD's in from Bali, Penang, Malaysia etc, purchased whilst on holidays.

The distinction is quite clear.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Quite a number of people have been charged selling pirate DVD's at flea markets around Australia, yet it is perfectly legal to bring copy DVD's and CD's in from Bali, Penang, Malaysia etc, purchased whilst on holidays.

That is also legal in the UK, as long as the copy is for your own private use.[0][1]
However this only applied to physically importing it, it is an offence for someone to electronically transfer an infringing copying into or within the UK. It is also an offence to import a device designed to infringe copyright, and that does not have a personal-use exception.[2]

In fact I think Harry's original claim:

Contrary to what some people seem to think, copyright infringement does not require a profit motive. The offence is still the same, regardless of whether you give it away for free, or charge for it.

is incorrect for the UK. There is a separate criminal offence, which requires at least one of the following:
- Copying for sale/hire/in the course of a business
- Copying on such a large scale as to prejudicially affect the copyright holder
- Communication to the public on the same bases as copying
Simply possessing, but not transmitting, an infringing copy would not cause this offence.[3]

[0]: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/22
[1]: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/23
[2]: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/24
[3]: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/...ading/offences

[spindlegirl]

edited

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

In fact I think Harry's original claim:

is incorrect for the UK. There is a separate criminal offence, which requires at least one of the following:

Copyright infringement is illegal with or without a commercial motive. The charges just differ between a criminal offence which is handled by the police vs a civil offence where the author/company (copyright holder) involved needs to take you to court (afaik).

There are provisions for legally making copies, but in some ways they're out dated and in need of an overhaul.

The kind of piracy we frequently debate on this forum tends to fall into the civil category. Which is good and bad. It's good because you're incredibly unlikely to see anyone pursue a court case over someone ripping a cd to mp3 or format shifting their ebooks, even if they're not letter of the law correct. But, it also means there's no real way for authors/companies to obtain sufficient amounts of proof* to make the kinds of fines people do get reasonable. Only way to do that would be to make it a criminal offence and that opens a whole can of worms

* I mean in terms of amount of proof that you can be sure the person been fined is correct. Not the amount needed to win the case, which tends to be lower in civil cases since there's no reasonable doubt, but it's balance of probabilities or something along those lines.

[RainingLemur]

I don't think that any cute anagram'd law/act/agreement/handshake is going to ever kill piracy. Where there's a will to not pay for things like movies, games, books and such...there will be a way for people to toss on their eye-patch, say "Arrr!", and load their hard drives.