My View on Piracy and Torrents (re: AU piracy crackdown)

a reply to: WHWIV

That's also true and that's a big part of the whole problem.

Although big companies complain about lost revenue, no big company goes bankrupt because of piracy.

The problem is that the way things work, it's very hard for anyone with an idea to publish it without the intervention of a big company. Things are now much easier thanks to the Internet, if you want to make your work known you can publish on the Internet, but you will not get much money (if any) from it, although you'll get your name known and, in some cases, that may give you back some money.

But if you want to make a movie and get real money from your work you are still going to need to work with the big companies, as those control production and distribution, so you either sell your rights to a big company or you make a deal to get some kind of percentage of the sales (harder to get).

It's also true that, if big companies see that they are not making enough money (I doubt they lose any) they may start ignoring the small producers, making their lives harder and blaming piracy, but, once again, it's the "small fry" that gets the pressure, and if nobody accepts a deal in which you get a good return for your work then you are either forced to publish it for free in the Internet or to sell it at a cheap price to a big company.

There's another thing that I think happens, and that's the big companies pirating themselves to get free publicity. Many years ago, the first time I heard about Matchbox 20 was when I start seeing their songs on FTP servers with pirated music. I didn't know who they were, but I could see they were everywhere, so it was logical to think "these guys must be good, everybody is sharing their songs", but I saw it so many times that I started thinking that the record company itself was using those pirated songs sites to get free and directed publicity. This still happens now, more with movies and TV series that get "leaked" or "stolen".

originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
There are many occasion on which it's useful for find legitimate files but if they ban all the torrent search engines then that option for finding files will be gone.

Exactly, and one thing that uses torrents a lot is Linux distributions, downloading several DVDs of a free, legal operating system is easier to do with torrents (specially on slower and less consistent connections) than with HTTP downloads.

Blocking torrents will probably affect more the legal users than the illegal, as those are always finding new ways.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

So the nbn will shut down our old network right, so the censorship begins there.

Any predictions ?

a reply to: ArMaP

Well articulated and I agree. It's almost as if they are cutting of their nose to spite the face.

originally posted by: ArMaP
a reply to: WHWIV

Although big companies complain about lost revenue, no big company goes bankrupt because of piracy.

That is the key point I believe, if you like to listen to a song, support the artist so the artist can make more songs. Otherwise the artist might still do that, but has to have a job which costs time which isn't spend on producing new songs. The same goes for movies or any other expression really. Fair enough entertainment industry might be taxed more or forced to spend a percentage on charity. Plus there's the social factor even if one never sees the artist, it's fair to show some token of appreciation.

Blocking torrents isn't going to help, people will just find different methods. Best solution I think is the one already posted: flood sites like piratebay with movies in lower quality (like 720p) and with ads, or maybe even better messages like the importance of education, healthy living etc. it's mostly poorer people who would like to see movies but can't due to having a budget - it's unlikely they'll buy products through ads and if they would it might be less well spend than what they would need.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

I felt the need the need to finally post after all of this time lurking. I'm from Aus and everything you have said really resonates. You're not the only one who is frustrated with this sort of thing here. Good post for making people aware of the sort of thing this joke of a government imposes on the general public.

a reply to: AMPTAH
Hopefully you aren't serious?! As someone well versed in intellectual property laws and regulations, you are most definitely stealing if you did what you stated. There's a reason patents exist. It's a different kettle of fish in regard to getting caught, as you simply wouldn't. But technically speaking that is most certainly theft, not from the owner of the lawn mower, but the manufacturer of it.

a reply to: Badams

That's why nobody gives a single sht about laws for the most part. You can take your intellectual laws and bugger right off. If you paint a picture and I photograph it then that's just too bad, so sad for you.

a reply to: ArMaP

See my reply to someone else right about this one.

The issue really comes down to cost. If companies are unfairly ripping off the populace, some of the populace will rip them off. For example, if you paying $10 a month for netflix and you want to watch Game of Thrones you are out of luck. You will have to join another provider like foxtel for an additional $15 to watch it. As the cost in paying for multiple providers becomes prohibitive. People start downloading illegally.

Better if there was a single portal like itunes that had all movies and series available online. In which people could pay 50 cents a move or episode to view the content they are really interested in. Instead of paying $15 a month for a lot of content they not.