The man on a mission to end internet piracy in Australia

IF you spent the weekend illegally downloading the latest blockbusters, you had better watch out because Australia’s very own piracy crusader is gunning for you.

Graham Burke is on a mission to take down pirates and you could be next.

But who exactly is Mr Burke?

On one hand he is the freshly appointed chairman of Creative Content Australia — an organisation attempting to educate those illegally downloading about online piracy.

On the other hand, he is the co-chief executive of Village Roadshow — a leading Australian co-producer and co-financier of major Hollywood motion pictures including Mad Max: Fury Road and San Andreas.

While speaking in his position for the former, Mr Burke said the primary role of Creative Content Australia is to enlighten and educate internet users about piracy.

Link

Will making it harder for Australians to access popular torrent websites result in drastically reduced piracy rates?

While the popular response by pirates is generally "no, for every site blocked 10 more will be created", the reality is that such legislation (forcing ISPs to block access to certain websites) would probably be a major blow. Sure, there are ways around it, but you need to remember that the vast majority of people are not clued up on VPNs, proxies and other forms of hacks.

Personally, I do not strictly equate internet piracy with theft, but I do agree that internet piracy is correctly deemed as morally questionable. Nevertheless, that is for another thread.

Sites like KAT and TPB have taken years to build up the kind of resources needed to maintain a viable torrent index site. They are not as easily replaceable as many seem to think.

Casting aside your bias on the issue, do you believe such legislation will make a serious dent in the occurrence of internet piracy in Australia — and perhaps around the world?

a reply to: Dark Ghost

No, not really. It would slow things for a couple of months, maybe only a couple of weeks, then a new method would be devised, possibly using Tor or maybe through a different fully encrypted protocol. It's not very hard to confuse the system. Right now there is controlled opposition residing in some VPN's that are actually alphabet controlled, that share information with government agencies and others trying to stem the tide. There will always be shills and parasites riding on the backs of pioneers. You have to remember after arpa (and I was on arpa in the 70's) the internet wave was driven by hackers, pirates and porn. I doubt this will change much unless the government can sufficiently dumb down the populace to leave very few capable of critical thinking.

Cheers - Dave

I wonder if there will be a new movement of tech-savvy people who know enough about the technology of piracy to make relevant rules and think that piracy is unethical.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

What a hero this guy is, i am sure he will reduce piracy...

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Dark Ghost

What a hero this guy is, i am sure he will reduce piracy...

He should also do something about governments who are stealing money from us through unfair tax policies and blowing the money on useless missions and donations...

That and I can think of a thousand other causes that may be just a biiiit more urgent than internet piracy. But whatever he thinks is important, I guess.

(In response to skywatcher)

Double post sorry.

On the other hand, he is the co-chief executive of Village Roadshow — a leading Australian co-producer and co-financier of major Hollywood motion pictures including Mad Max: Fury Road and San Andreas.

Because people are just going to listen to a big wig producer who feels that they lose money from torrents?



Hah, good luck with that as it hasn't worked before.

While Mr Burke wouldn’t confirm when his court case would be brought against the Australian public, he is actively progressing with legal action against Piracy site SolarMovie, which claims to offer 51,236 movies and 5793 TV shows “absolutely for free”.

True that another will spring up, etc.

The proceedings, due in federal court this week, will see Village Roadshow calling for ISPs to take down or block access to piracy websites, including SolarMovie.

This also, for the most part it already happens in the US as to ISP companies taking action. It hasn't stopped the popularity of torrenting files.

originally posted by: darkbake
I wonder if there will be a new movement of tech-savvy people who know enough about the technology of piracy to make relevant rules and think that piracy is unethical.

I believe those tech savvy people who have any say so with piracy rules, for example, quickly find that it's not unethical.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

Wow, this guy is an anti-hero the likes of Darth Vader. I will be booing and hissing his misguided crusade.

One issue with all this bull*** . These ignoramuses think any torrent is "piracy" . So they want to take down ALL torrent sites.

The issue arises when a new band wants to put their music out there. They dont have the funding at the time to pay for ads. Know how many publish those on torrent sites ? New software developers , etc ? All legitimate to download.

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

He should also do something about governments who are stealing money from us

That would be funny if it wasn't so goddam real....

originally posted by: Dark Ghost

IF you spent the weekend illegally downloading the latest blockbusters, you had better watch out because Australia’s very own piracy crusader is gunning for you.

Graham Burke is on a mission to take down pirates and you could be next.

But who exactly is Mr Burke?

On one hand he is the freshly appointed chairman of Creative Content Australia — an organisation attempting to educate those illegally downloading about online piracy.

On the other hand, he is the co-chief executive of Village Roadshow — a leading Australian co-producer and co-financier of major Hollywood motion pictures including Mad Max: Fury Road and San Andreas.

While speaking in his position for the former, Mr Burke said the primary role of Creative Content Australia is to enlighten and educate internet users about piracy.

Link

Will making it harder for Australians to access popular torrent websites result in drastically reduced piracy rates?

While the popular response by pirates is generally "no, for every site blocked 10 more will be created", the reality is that such legislation (forcing ISPs to block access to certain websites) would probably be a major blow. Sure, there are ways around it, but you need to remember that the vast majority of people are not clued up on VPNs, proxies and other forms of hacks.

Personally, I do not strictly equate internet piracy with theft, but I do agree that internet piracy is correctly deemed as morally questionable. Nevertheless, that is for another thread.

Sites like KAT and TPB have taken years to build up the kind of resources needed to maintain a viable torrent index site. They are not as easily replaceable as many seem to think.

Casting aside your bias on the issue, do you believe such legislation will make a serious dent in the occurrence of internet piracy in Australia — and perhaps around the world?

The key lie in all this is the use of the word piracy.

Piracy is when somebody takes something from you by force that is your property which you not have voluntary given them. An example of this is the looting of the public by police and other authorities in the US and other countries.

This bloke knows full well that when somebody downloads material from the net the original material remains and all that has occurred is that a copy of that material has been taken.

This cannot be, by definition, theft.

The other lie which I am guessing, he is going to enage in, is the lie that by copying material from the net, someone will go hungry or become homeless as a result of that material being copied.

It is far more likely, should any such claim be made and any evidence in support of the claim be offered, that the artist has gone hungry or become homeless as a result of being screwed by the sorts of organizations is connected with.

Has anyone who makes these kinds of claims ever offered any verifiable evidence that copying content from the net has resulted in hunger or homelessness?

If we get the chance we should all ask this bloke to show us some verifiable evidence of someone going hungry or going onto the street to live as a result of an act of copying content off the net.

Its more likely that the organisations this bloke fronts are responsible for these kinds of outcomes, should they occur, than any other cause.

Example. I was driving home one day and they played a piece of music that is in all the James bond movies and the bloke behind the microphone went to do explain that far form the composer of the music making a fortune out of this piece of music, he sold it for something like 17 English pounds.

If this bloke is concerned about struggling artist going hungry let him lobby the purchaser of that James bond music to pay the composer what its worth today.

a reply to: Dark Ghost

Not that I pirate movies. Very rarely do I watch TV and/or go to the cinema. Occasionally we buy a movie to watch.

Each to their own so I say if there's an oppotunity some people are gonna take it'

There's an old saying in Aussie - "You're a bit of a Burke" or "You flamin Burke" - Think we borrowed it from the poms, latter one is Aussie for sure.

The sayings mean a lot for a person who makes mistakes or is simply a lost cause.

My thoughts,

Kind regards,

Bally

a reply to: Dark Ghost

Why even waste time downloading this stuff...you can buy a box on amazon or anywhere else on line and see all the videos you want..you can pay as little as 100 bucks or up to 300 bucks...sure the upfront cost is a lot but in the long run you don't have to worry about downloading viruses or people like this guy...

I think most UK ISP's already block torrent sites but that hasn't stopped most people I know and hasn't stopped me. Il start buying movies and music when these so called stars start making less money then teachers and nurses

a reply to: Dark Ghost

This sucks.
The internet here in Woop Woop is excessively slow. I can't stream, even viewing websites are jerky. If I had better internet
I'd have a Stan subscription

originally posted by: Azureblue

The other lie which I am guessing, he is going to enage in, is the lie that by copying material from the net, someone will go hungry or become homeless as a result of that material being copied.

Reminds me of my illegally downloaded episode of South Park where Will Smith couldn't afford to buy a Luxury private jet so he had to buy a smaller one.