I'm not a promoter of stealing or pirating, however there have been recent events that should be alarming many. The RIAA, MPAA and others are working with the IFPI in taking down sites in nations with little to no laws regarding peer to peer sharing in the guise of "piracy". Many artists who cannot secure record deals willingly share their work through such sites; it gains them an audience who have been willing to pay for their work or it simply is a hobby they believe the digital dawn has allowed them to use for their work. As the battle over Net Neutrality wanes, the RIAA, MPAA, and ISP's are working with governments in shutting down sites. "Demonoid", a file sharing member only community, was shut down a while ago through a joint effort by the RIAA and the Ukraine government. The mod's are facing hundreds of thousands in fines as well as jail time. I believe this happened last summer.
Demonoid Taken Down By Ukrainian Government; Domains For Sale
What is troubling is how this occurred. It seems by many accounts the RIAA, IFPI, MPAA, U.S. government and others worked with Ukraine officials in a DDoS attack (btw there were no laws regarding bittorrent-ing in the Ukraine, although it has been a while I would need to research that info). The Ukraine mounted this attack just after "Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky's diplomatic trip to the United States" and were given many monetary "incentives".
Demonoid Busted As A Gift To The United States Government
I have many friends who are musicians, writers, etc and it is next to impossible for them to secure record deals or to provide their work to so many who would gladly pay for it. However, they do not mind that their work is traded online; it garners recognition and many donate to the artists directly.
The RIAA and MPAA claim the monetary fines obtained from DDoS attacks on bit-torrent sites such as "Demonoid" would go back to the artists. However, the IFPI is using that obtained money to further its agenda against pirating*. Many have gone online, through blogs or other venues and expressed their frustration in the hypocrisy of the RIAA, MPAA and IFPI. They claim these sites subvert the necessary royalty fees deserved by the artists for whom they "steal".
The irony, the artists never receive a cent from the RIAA and MPAA as these funds line the pockets of the executives and a good portion goes back into furthering the IFPI agenda. The Ukraine government received a hefty reward by the IFPI through the MPAA and RIAA.
The individuals who hurt the most are the artists who want their material available for anyone to download. Bit-torrent/peer-to-peer sites were/are the best method. How about items that aren't available for sale, but can be legally traded? Many downloaded items legally as it was the only place to find such items. I recall reading statistics on how much illegal data was downloaded versus legally traded. The pirated percentage was extremely low, again I would have to recheck but I recall figures around 5-6%*.
Lastly, ISP's are winning the battle with the U.S. government in handing out harsh(er) punishments to those they believe are guilty of online copyright infringement. Following new legal precedents such as "The Patriot Act", "Due Process" may be eliminated as those accused (i.e. "suspected" through monitoring) will immediately be found guilty. I've recently received notices from individuals involved trying hard to keep this "
Six Strikes" strategy from occurring.
Six Strikes is here.
Beginning today,
AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and
Verizon have all agreed to start spying on their users.
That's right. The US's largest Internet Service Providers are implementing a new "online infringement" plan to
identify and punish, with virtually no due process, users suspected of downloading copyrighted content.
Click here to tell the ISPs: no cyber-snooping, no punitive new copyright rules.
After a year of
back room dealing with the MPAA and RIAA, the nation's top ISPs have agreed to use the so-called "Copyright Alert System" (or "Six Strikes") to go after customers
suspected of file-sharing
Following a series of escalating warnings, the plan
would allow ISPs to slow down, or "throttle," the Internet connection of suspected copyright violators.
And if you want to contest the accusation? That will cost you
$35.
Click here to put the ISPs on notice: stop overly punitive infringement policies or we'll take our business elsewhere.
The new plan would jeopardize open and public WIFI networks, and lead to widespread wrongful accusations for those who share a network at home, in a WIFI hot spot, or in the workplace.
Six Strikes is designed to safeguard the profits of America's wealthiest industries by tracking, targeting, and punishing internet users. Click here to oppose Six Strikes.
Please urge your friends to take action.
The digital age is a new era of how information is processed and relayed.
Net Neutrality came first and is still a threat, now
companies are joining forces in order to enact new legislation on what is deemed "online copyright infringement" through loopholes in online infringement law as they are losing the net neutrality battle.
I don't write long comments often, it at all, but working in communications and IT for 15 years now at 36 years of age,
I am watching a slow but evident progression to control more and charge more. As the saying goes, "
He who controls the information controls the world", and he who controls it can cash in from that control. As a capitalist based nation/economy, we have to act, with our dollars and writing those lawmakers who side with freedom of information. Pirating is one matter, controlling information, art, freedom is another matter we should not be so blind to see happening.
*As I proofread I will list the sources to support this statement
