Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

justice.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 198 posts

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#21

Post by unity1001 »

rebelos wrote: post #14
ssklash wrote: post #12

It is insane to me that someone can get up to 5 years or more for using one of the fundamental mechanisms of digital technology. If you put out a product on a medium whose design is fundamentally based on copying bits , I don't know how you can expect anything else to happen. Instead of accepting the reality of digital communications, the MPAA, RIAA, and the like lobby to have the law protect their outdated but favor…

It's not hard to see how piracy threatens the entire business model. You can have rampant piracy or you can have financially sustainable content production. You cannot have both. There is some critical mass of piracy that would in fact destroy the economics of the content production model. The industry has to work to deter that by periodically making examples of people. The timing is likely not coincidental either. E…

Record industry does not support content production at all. Less, artists. They are one of the biggest scams on the planet.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110707/03264014993/riaa-a...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140425/07192227027/riaa-c...

...

That industry should be killed with fire.

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#22

Post by Sytten »

The claim that is caused tens of millions in lost revenue is always funny to me. It is the same argument used to push DRM everywhere. The fact is, a lot (if not most) people that downloaded the movies or shows would not have paid for it in the first place. So it is not lost revenue.

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#23

Post by unity1001 »

azalemeth wrote: post #3
randywaterhouse wrote: post #2

> "for his involvement in the Sparks Group, an international piracy group that illegally distributed movies and television shows on the Internet." (from the announcement) in case you were wondering if this was some "simple" torrent usage or what... > "In furtherance of its scheme, the Sparks Group fraudulently obtained copyrighted DVDs and Blu-Ray discs from wholesale distributors in advance of their retail release d…

They bought DVDs with a paper trail, shipped them internationally, ripped them and then uploaded to scene sites with photos of the retail packaging. Not difficult to see how they got caught. One can't help but feel sorry for them. Commercial copyright infringement in the states probably carries a $1e308 financial penalty and/or life imprisonment. The fact that the article is written about a UK national just highlight…

> life imprisonment

Life imprisonment for copying digital bits. Less than that for premeditated murder.

US justice system does not serve justice or the people. But the corporations.

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#24

Post by mistrial9 »

rebelos wrote: post #14
ssklash wrote: post #12

It is insane to me that someone can get up to 5 years or more for using one of the fundamental mechanisms of digital technology. If you put out a product on a medium whose design is fundamentally based on copying bits , I don't know how you can expect anything else to happen. Instead of accepting the reality of digital communications, the MPAA, RIAA, and the like lobby to have the law protect their outdated but favor…

It's not hard to see how piracy threatens the entire business model. You can have rampant piracy or you can have financially sustainable content production. You cannot have both. There is some critical mass of piracy that would in fact destroy the economics of the content production model. The industry has to work to deter that by periodically making examples of people. The timing is likely not coincidental either. E…

after thirty years of being in this debate, I tend to agree with the down-voted parent. In the West, there must be a source of payment to artists, production houses, management and legal.. its a tragedy when that fails, because it is the artists that lose the most, the quickest.

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#25

Post by dogma1138 »

ssklash wrote: post #12

It is insane to me that someone can get up to 5 years or more for using one of the fundamental mechanisms of digital technology. If you put out a product on a medium whose design is fundamentally based on copying bits , I don't know how you can expect anything else to happen. Instead of accepting the reality of digital communications, the MPAA, RIAA, and the like lobby to have the law protect their outdated but favor…

This isn’t someone who torrented game of thrones, he was part of a scene/warez group called SPARK.

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#26

Post by firecall »

ssklash wrote: post #12

It is insane to me that someone can get up to 5 years or more for using one of the fundamental mechanisms of digital technology. If you put out a product on a medium whose design is fundamentally based on copying bits , I don't know how you can expect anything else to happen. Instead of accepting the reality of digital communications, the MPAA, RIAA, and the like lobby to have the law protect their outdated but favor…

They literally said that about the printing press!

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#28

Post by DennisP »

rebelos wrote: post #14
ssklash wrote: post #12

It is insane to me that someone can get up to 5 years or more for using one of the fundamental mechanisms of digital technology. If you put out a product on a medium whose design is fundamentally based on copying bits , I don't know how you can expect anything else to happen. Instead of accepting the reality of digital communications, the MPAA, RIAA, and the like lobby to have the law protect their outdated but favor…

It's not hard to see how piracy threatens the entire business model. You can have rampant piracy or you can have financially sustainable content production. You cannot have both. There is some critical mass of piracy that would in fact destroy the economics of the content production model. The industry has to work to deter that by periodically making examples of people. The timing is likely not coincidental either. E…

So change the business model. In the words of Robert Heinlein:

"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit."

http://homepage.eircom.net/~odyssey/Quotes/Popular/SciFi/Hei...

Re: UK national extradited to US for film/TV piracy

#30

Post by toiletaccount »

Sytten wrote: post #22

The claim that is caused tens of millions in lost revenue is always funny to me. It is the same argument used to push DRM everywhere. The fact is, a lot (if not most) people that downloaded the movies or shows would not have paid for it in the first place. So it is not lost revenue.

i like the numbers they come up in some of those lawsuits. i have uhh...heard of people that have robbed the entertaintment industry of roughly the world gdp. if you go by their numbers.
Post reply on HN