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U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

torrentfreak.com

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Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#51

I don't pirate music, I don't pirate games, I don't pirate software, I don't pirate anything but TV and movies and the reason is simple: piracy is a service problem for me. I know where to get music/games/software, I have no idea where to get the movies and TV I want to watch, they're spread over 20 different services, 90% of which are not available in my country and the ones that are don't have that specific content…

I pirate because I don't want to be tracked. I don't want Amazon, AppleTV, Netflix, building a profile on me based on my viewing history.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#52
I didn't see any mention of fixing the biggest problem with the current system: no penalties for false claims.

If I post a video of myself playing moonlight sonata to youtube, and somebody puts a copyright claim (or more than one) against it, then it gets taken down and I suffer the consequences, but there is no mechanism for penalties for what amounts to fraud by the claimant. They should automatically get fined (payed to both me and youtube), and if damages were more severe I should be able to bring them to court to receive larger damages. Claimants should also get strikes the same way posters due, too many false claims and you then have to manually prove the copyright is yours before youtube takes the video down.

The above example was for youtube, but broadly this is how it should work. If copyright protection action cause harm, because of false claims (either accidental or intentional) then the claimant gets punished.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#53
post #10

I don't pirate music, I don't pirate games, I don't pirate software, I don't pirate anything but TV and movies and the reason is simple: piracy is a service problem for me. I know where to get music/games/software, I have no idea where to get the movies and TV I want to watch, they're spread over 20 different services, 90% of which are not available in my country and the ones that are don't have that specific content…

You are not entitled to any movies or television shows at any quality at all because it's not your IP. If someone wants to shoot a movie and then lock it in a vault, never to be seen by anyone, Prince-style, that is their right. If they want to change it to remove and permanently memory-hole offensive elements, that is their right. If they want to release it only in certain formats, up to and including theatrical-onl…

> You are not entitled to any movies or television shows at any quality at all because it's not your IP.

That's not true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_science_and_culture and https://cultureactioneurope.org/files/2015/02/2015UNESCO--Co...

Some examples from the PDF:

> Disability advocates have long expressed concern that copyright law can impede the adaptation of works into formats functional for people with disabilities when copyright holders fail to publish works in accessible formats, such as Braille, or allow others to do so. To resolve that problem, many countries have adopted copyright exceptions and limitations allowing authorized not-for-profit organizations to produce and distribute accessible works to persons with disabilities.

> Problems of translation and linguistic barriers likewise are of concern for speakers of non-dominant languages. Copyright regimes are formally neutral regarding the language of a work. In practice, however, the results are widely disparate, as copyright protection offers little financial incentive to write and publish in most of the world’s languages. People able to speak English, French or Spanish can select reading material from millions of books; however, those unable to speak a globally used language may enjoy access to very few. The vastly unequal distribution of published literary works across languages poses a significant barrier to the right to take part in cultural life for linguistic communities not offering a major publishing market. The issue is not limited to reading for pleasure; that also impacts the ability to pursue education and knowledge, take part in debates on social and political issues and earn a livelihood as a writer.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#54

Fascinating how greed and the demand for ever increasing profits leads to these cycles of purchase and privacy. First we had physical DVDs but studios’ greed in extending the theater playtime as long as profitable resulted in bootleg recordings so people could watch at home. Then torrenting was the final nail to this physical media strategy. Netflix arose, consolidating content into an even easier experience than tor…

Don't forget when DVDs shipped with ads that your DVD player wouldn't let you skip.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#55
post #4

Setting aside the arguments around infringement equaling/not equaling actual theft, is the actual incidence of piracy high enough that it's on beancounters' radar? I may be wrong, but my impression is that streaming made it a non-issue. This feels like a smokescreen.

I'm totally on board with copying is not theft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4

Except that it is something. I go to my tax accountant, have them calculate my taxes, then, when they send me the filled out paperwork I make a copy, send back the originals, and say "No thanks. Didn't really need this". What would we call that? Theft of time? Theft of labor? Breach of contract? (I didn't sign a contract). Breach of implied contract? Does any of this apply to movies/music? It feels similar except there's more than 1 person making a copy and they didn't "pre-order". Do those differences matter? It still feels like taking the product of someone's labor without compensating them for it, same as the tax accountant example.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#56
post #11

I'm a bit confused as to how this even solves anything to do with piracy even if you take the RIAA's side. Youtube et al already have incredibly aggressive copyright filters. I can't actually think of a major media platform that is based in the US sphere of influence that lacks those filters. At best this sounds like reinventing what already exists, but with more bureaucracy. I'm also confused as to how anybody expec…

> I'm also confused as to how anybody expects to create an upload filter system that respects fair use, given how subjective the fair use criteria are. We have already have seen how this works out with sites like YouTube - it simply does not work.

The groups that want this do not like fair use, either. In their ideal world, fair use wouldn't exist and you'd go to prison the second you opened a BitTorrent client.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#58
post #55
post #4

Setting aside the arguments around infringement equaling/not equaling actual theft, is the actual incidence of piracy high enough that it's on beancounters' radar? I may be wrong, but my impression is that streaming made it a non-issue. This feels like a smokescreen.

I'm totally on board with copying is not theft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4 Except that it is something. I go to my tax accountant, have them calculate my taxes, then, when they send me the filled out paperwork I make a copy, send back the originals, and say "No thanks. Didn't really need this". What would we call that? Theft of time? Theft of labor? Breach of contract? (I didn't sign a contract). Brea…

The analogy fails because the tax accountant has finite time to spend completing tax returns and your action directly took some of that time. Whereas with IP, there are not a limited amount of bits to copy and you making that copy did not restrict the availability of those bits to someone else.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#59

Fascinating how greed and the demand for ever increasing profits leads to these cycles of purchase and privacy. First we had physical DVDs but studios’ greed in extending the theater playtime as long as profitable resulted in bootleg recordings so people could watch at home. Then torrenting was the final nail to this physical media strategy. Netflix arose, consolidating content into an even easier experience than tor…

Don't forget when DVDs shipped with ads that your DVD player wouldn't let you skip.

And when Blu-rays started wasting your bandwidth to show you ads you can't skip. Such progress.

Re: U.S. Senators Introduce SMART Copyright Act to Combat Piracy

#60

Fascinating how greed and the demand for ever increasing profits leads to these cycles of purchase and privacy. First we had physical DVDs but studios’ greed in extending the theater playtime as long as profitable resulted in bootleg recordings so people could watch at home. Then torrenting was the final nail to this physical media strategy. Netflix arose, consolidating content into an even easier experience than tor…

Don't forget when DVDs shipped with ads that your DVD player wouldn't let you skip.

A once popular illustration of the issue: https://i.imgur.com/GxzeV.jpg
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