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Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

wired.co.uk

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Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#21

Post by solarc »

tormeh wrote: post #3
k-mcgrady wrote: post #2

He went to jail for creating a website that enabled people to download music and movies without paying for them. Jail is a harsh punishment IMO for that. ACTA/SOPA etc. are all terrible things that we can't allow and we can't allow the internet to become more centralised/controlled by government. But that's not why he went to jail. Enabling illegal downloads of content has little to do with those causes.

Agreed. Freedom on the Internet != Piracy. I can't really remember this guy doing anything for freedom, except freedom to download Hollywood entertainment for free. I mean, sure, I pirate, but I sure don't pretend it's virtuous.

Hollywood is just the testbed. If you can transmit Hollywood stuff to the masses without a way for them to stop you, then you can transmit other more important information when the time comes.

Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#23

Post by throwawayaway »

tormeh wrote: post #20
throwawayaway wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

personally, the use for bittorrent is long tail, niche software that has become obsolete and is no longer viable commercially and therefore not available. the idea of the few people that have it being able to share it with the many that may eventually need or want it, is something that the centralised "cloud" based services cannot compete with. so you may think there's no virtue, but there is in spades. you are blind…

That's the theory. Turns out, though, that anything that's not really popular is hard to get hold of on TPB. It's usually easier to get hold of obscure content commercially.

it's a fact not a theory in my experience. your experience differs. big deal, fact is - it works for me - it has virtue, the fact that it didn't work for you does nothing to change that.

also i infer from the immediacy with which you changed from niche obsolete software, to "obscure content" leads me to conclude you are talking about ripping off producers of low volume content who are still in business - again - blinded by your own piracy.

Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#24

Post by jfaucett »

I think the problem is that no one realizes the internet we grew up with and loved is changing fundamentally and we can't be passivist users of the medium anymore.

If you are you're basically saying you're okay with a future where governments regulate which services you can use and ISPs control how fast you can download bits based on whether you're using their sponsored services or not.

Its bullshit but its what's happening. At its core though, I think its a hardware problem. We REALLY need a decentralized networking solution to replace ISPs and DNS and if we don't get it, the road is going to be really hard going. This still doesn't solve the problem of intercontentinal networking, and I have no idea how we could solve that one without some monopoly/govt controlling everything.

Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#25

Post by the8472 »

hackerboos wrote: post #14
tomp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Manning went to jail for revealing government secrets about government crimes. And Snowden cannot return home because he revealed that people are being spied on. It's very easy to say, "he went to jail because what he did was illegal". It's harder to say "he went to jail despite what he did was right". I support TPB's cause. I believe that non-profit sharing of information should be free.

I wouldn't put Sunde in the same category as Snowden and Manning. The Pirate Bay isn't some noble cause like the latter two. It did have a minor effect of disrupting the industry and accelerating the inevitable change in business model for the film and movie industry.

> The Pirate Bay isn't some noble cause

Consider it as a litmus test for free speech.

Providing links to pirated content, not even the content itself, can easily be seen as free speech.

Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#26

Post by tormeh »

throwawayaway wrote: post #23
tormeh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the theory. Turns out, though, that anything that's not really popular is hard to get hold of on TPB. It's usually easier to get hold of obscure content commercially.

it's a fact not a theory in my experience. your experience differs. big deal, fact is - it works for me - it has virtue, the fact that it didn't work for you does nothing to change that. also i infer from the immediacy with which you changed from niche obsolete software, to "obscure content" leads me to conclude you are talking about ripping off producers of low volume content who are still in business - again - blin…

Yeah, that's fair. I guess it's different for software.

Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#28

Post by Swizec »

jfaucett wrote: post #24

I think the problem is that no one realizes the internet we grew up with and loved is changing fundamentally and we can't be passivist users of the medium anymore. If you are you're basically saying you're okay with a future where governments regulate which services you can use and ISPs control how fast you can download bits based on whether you're using their sponsored services or not. Its bullshit but its what's ha…

It's not a hardware problem, it's a convenience problem. People like that there's somebody else worrying about this. They are willing to do almost anything it takes so they don't have to worry about issues of basic infrastructure.

We already do this with water, electricity, and other infrastructure. Anything it takes as long as I can get water/power/trash-taken-out just by flipping a switch and paying a bill.

We, as a society, do not want to think about this. As long as the internet is there when we open a laptop or a phone, we don't care how it got there.

Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#29

Post by [deleted] »

tomp wrote: post #6
k-mcgrady wrote: post #2

He went to jail for creating a website that enabled people to download music and movies without paying for them. Jail is a harsh punishment IMO for that. ACTA/SOPA etc. are all terrible things that we can't allow and we can't allow the internet to become more centralised/controlled by government. But that's not why he went to jail. Enabling illegal downloads of content has little to do with those causes.

And Manning went to jail for revealing government secrets about government crimes. And Snowden cannot return home because he revealed that people are being spied on. It's very easy to say, "he went to jail because what he did was illegal". It's harder to say "he went to jail despite what he did was right". I support TPB's cause. I believe that non-profit sharing of information should be free.

[deleted]

Re: Peter Sunde: 'I went to jail for my cause. What did you do?'

#30

Post by solarc »

phillc73 wrote: post #17
k-mcgrady wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "And you also argue that basically providing links should be illegal" I specifically avoided saying this. By providing those links they 'enabled' downloading of content illegally.

This whole argument disappoints me. Every manufacturer of a DVD or CD Writer has "enabled" illegal copying and potential distribution of copyrighted content. I haven't seen any of those entities reprimanded for their product manufacture.

There's a tax in some countries over blank CD/DVD exactly for that reason, enabling illegal copying. It is a crazy world, anything is possible.

Edit: found a link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy

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