4Chan-Coordinated DDoS Attack Brings MPAA Website Down

reply to post by Blaine91555


wow, you are a little late, aren't ya? Guess you were tied up with server issues?

I work in the software industry and I cannot as a developer understand how people view any of this as theft? At least not anyone who has any experience or friends who are actors or musicians or stangehands, etc. The only people who are hurt by this are the people who would make money from nothing to line their already loaded pockets.

Originally posted by Blaine91555
If you get caught and it gets on your record, no job worth having will ever hire you. Those must be some really valuable movies to you folks to risk your whole future to watch a movie?

Actually no: There is no record for civil cases, an definitely none for out of court settlements (as you know there were 2 cases that weren't settled out of court, so far, and in both the judge cut the jury awarded penalty not by, but to 10 %).
And again: If it was theft, you are right, there would be a criminal record. There is none. Ergo: No theft I would say, wouldn't you?

I don't condone copyright infringement, but I don't judge or think badly of people who do. My issue is with the RIAA/MPAA, who time and again, prove themselves to be nearly identical, in purpose and tactics, to the Mafia.

So, once again, from me.


-TheAssoc.

I'm curious. If it's theft, that implies you've stolen something from somebody.

So if piracy is theft, question one is:

1. What have you stolen? Did you steal the disk you burned it to? Did you steal the computer or TV you play it on? Probably not. If so, then that's theft of that object... but not the movie.

Okay, so let's say you answered "You stole the creative work of somebody else!" Alright, well that comes to the second part of theft: The "somebody" you stole it from. So question two is:

2. Who did you steal the movie from? Did the people who actually made the movie - the actors, director, writers, et cetera - all get paid the money that they agreed to do the work for in their contracts? Did they get a pay cut? They were the ones who did the creating, and they got paid what they agreed to work for. So you didn't steal from them.

Oh, well you say they stole from the MPAA, because through contracts the MPAA has the rights to distribute the movie and yadda, yadda, yadda. Okay, I get that, it's a legal thing where the "creative content" was basically sold off to the Production Companies and the Record Labels by contract.

But... wait a minute. Why did the artists who actually created the movie agree to sell of their content? Well, they had to. They didn't have a choice. The Producers give the artists a demand: Sign a contract giving US all the rights to YOUR work, or we'll bury you. They won't sign a contract that allows the artists to remain in control of their own work. The artist has no negotiating power. They use threats of failure to coerce the artists into giving up the rights to their own work. Failure to comply means they get dropped from the industry. Careers ruined, creative work destroyed, artist blacklisted, game over. And if you use coercive threats to force somebody to agree to something, that is extortion.

And contract or no contract, even in the eyes of our highly flawed legal system, if you take something by extortion it is not actually yours.

So the REAL answers to my two questions are Nobody and Nobody.

The MPAA (and the RIAA) are, in fact, nothing more than organized crime rackets that have bought and paid the government to look the other way.

The end.

reply to post by Blaine91555


what exactly does a pirate steal?

the SCOTUS has already ruled that Copyright infringement does not easily equal theft. Since the original copyright holder is still in procession of his copyright and not wholly deprive of its use. he is still able to exercise his rights over the copyright to do with it as he chooses.

you mean the pirates steal the profit the MPAA, RIAA, game developers etc. would have made if the pirate would have went to a store and bought the product right? well see there in lies the problem with your logic. If the pirate wasn't going to buy the copyrighted item then there was no profit to steal.

So again what exactly did the pirate steal?

The FBI is charged with investigating copyright violations. however unless they physically catch the person in the act it is very hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a suspected pirate was the one that actually downloaded the copyrighted material. Thats why the MPAA and the RIAA goes the route of threatening suspected pirates to settle a civil case out of court. Because if the case went to court even they couldn't prove the person they claimed violated their copyright actually was the person that violated it. thus their case would be tossed out.

you might think pirates are thieves, and that is your right. and maybe they are. But what exactly does a pirate steal? they don't steal a real profit, they don't steal the actual copyright, and they don't steal anything physical. And they don't prevent the copyright holder from making a profit from their work.

The MPAA RIAA etc spend millions lobbing congress each year and taking people to court trying to vilify piracy. and thats their right. but they are kidding themselves if they think that their actions will stop piracy. the more you vilify a group or their actions the more people will get upset with you and join the ranks of the people your trying to vilify.

The MPAA RIAA etc are to stupid to realize that piracy actually helps them in the form of free advertisement! Johnny downloads a movie, cd, game, computer software, etc. if Johnny likes it he tells all his friends and they run out and buy whatever Johnny likes. they in turn tell their friends and they run out and buy it. And if Johnny really liked it he will buy a copy of it as well.

Who reaps the benefits of this free advertisement? The MPAA, RIAA, the game and software developers etc. And what do the pirates get in return? not a thank you but your nothing more than a damn thief and we're going to harrass and bully you until you pay us hundreds of thousands of dollars and pay our legal fees. all over a a DVD that cost them less than $10 to make. that they wouldn't have sold anyway!

If you ask me the real thieves are the MPAA, RIAA etc. not the pirates.

Dowling v. United States (1985)