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U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

torrentfreak.com

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Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#191

Post by ryandrake »

Pfhortune wrote: post #169
thefourthchime wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is actually a larger problem that has to do with lost licensing negotiations and residuals. For a place to offer up streaming, they have to know they can license the content. But oftentimes, that production company is closed shop. They've sold the licenses off to someone else, who split it into something else. And then there's the music rights. The whole thing becomes extremely complicated. There's a whole set o…

The length of time it takes for media to enter the public domain is absolutely absurd. It if didn't take over a century for works to enter the PD, we could say, "Eh, just wait a few years." But instead we hold these works of art captive for no reason, other than a few multi-billion-dollar conglomerates want to keep milking art for money again and again. If we had a more reasonable period like a decade, it would be a…

> But instead we hold these works of art captive for no reason, other than a few multi-billion-dollar conglomerates want to keep milking art for money again and again.

In many cases, the conglomerates aren't even making money from them. How much do you think the movie company (and all the various middlemen) are making from some obscure movie from the 80s that they don't even make available on DVD or streaming anywhere? They're just griefing the public by withholding it and not even making any money.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#192

Post by int_19h »

cvoss wrote: post #54
rcpt wrote: post #9

Our own great firewall

The Great Firewall of China is a censorship program. This proposed US legislation puts the power of blocking under the authority of its court system and only in the domain of copyright law. The courts are historically very concerned with upholding 1st Amendment rights to a degree that often (but not always) surpasses analogous rights in many sister liberal democracies. Anything that remotely smells of censorship woul…

When you prevent distribution of information, that is censorship by definition. You can argue that censorship in this case is socially beneficial, but don't muddy the waters as to what it it is.

At the same time, laws like these require creation of infrastructure that is goal-agnostic. Once you have ISPs implement mandatory blocking of websites for copyright reasons, this system can, and eventually will, be used to block other things deemed undesirable for the plebs to access.

Given the current presidential administration especially, any Democrat participating in such a project should be tarred and feathered.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#193

Post by Henchman21 »

cvoss wrote: post #54
rcpt wrote: post #9

Our own great firewall

The Great Firewall of China is a censorship program. This proposed US legislation puts the power of blocking under the authority of its court system and only in the domain of copyright law. The courts are historically very concerned with upholding 1st Amendment rights to a degree that often (but not always) surpasses analogous rights in many sister liberal democracies. Anything that remotely smells of censorship woul…

So how long before its used to block sites that say mean things about Trump?

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#194

Post by standardUser »

Wojtkie wrote: post #175
standardUser wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I broadly agree with your assessment, but I think the important takeaway is that these situations are created artificially, usually by dominant market players for their own benefit. There is nothing natural or neccesary with the way these markets work, and it's certainly not unchangeable.

>but I think the important takeaway is that these situations are created artificially Are they really though? It's easier than ever for an indie creative to create and distribute their works through the many channels. Problem is, people don't spend as much money as a whole on indie works compared to focus-grouped blockbusters.

> Are they really though?

Yes, in the sense that at one point IP laws didn't exist and then we made them up. It stands to reason we could make up something better - maybe something that doesn't routinely banish media from public access.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#195

Post by lanfeust6 »

parliament32 wrote: post #105
blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

This is precisely the problem, and the whole reason why we still pirate TV/movies. I would have no problem paying $XX to a unified service that has basically everything; I have no interest in paying a dozen different streaming platforms for effectively "cable packages" that often add/remove/shift content around. The music industry figured this out: I pay Spotify, they have 95% of music content I could ever way, the U…

I only understand the frustration with finding any legal avenue at all to see certain films. I don't really understand why disparate services are a big deal. You don't need to subscribe to multiple things all at once, and it's all done in a few clicks in the convenience of your own home.

I'm concerned and curious about one thing, which is that tech giants have a monopoly on renting. If you want to rent a digital movie that isn't otherwise available from subscription, you might be able to get it from MSFT, Google or Amazon. Meanwhile the telecoms only seem to offer this through cable machines, just new releases at that.

I'm interested in seeing a few Korean films, the kind that aren't on criterion or mubi. Basically no legal way to see them.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#196

Post by int_19h »

rkomorn wrote: post #120
RankingMember wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, these backronym bill names are obnoxious at best.

I used to think so, but now I think they're just intended to make it easy to refer to the bill in a context people can recall quickly.

They're intended to be propaganda soundbites. The point is that people use them to refer to the bill because it's much easier than using the full title or describing what the bill actually does, and in doing so, they inadvertently propagate a specific perspective on the nature of the bill. "PATRIOT" act etc are good examples.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#197

Post by jjk166 »

rsynnott wrote: post #146

Process of drafting a bill in the US: - Actually drafting the bill: 10 minutes - Coming up with the perfect stupid acronym pun name: 6 months. As far as I know, this is a uniquely American thing.

Well given that the acronym is the only part of the legislation anyone will read, it makes sense it should get the lion's share of the effort.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#198

Post by neuralRiot »

dml2135 wrote: post #167
ryandrake wrote: post #29

Isn't torrenting way down from its heyday? Streaming companies are not perfect, but I always thought they were at least moderately successful such that in 2025, average, casual, non-techies no longer bother to jump through the VPN and private tracker hoops just to download a movie.

It's down from it's heyday for the mainstream, but for the dedicated few, it's better than ever before. Gone are the days of manually searching for a movie on tracker sites, downloading them, organizing your library and watching stuff on your laptop. There are now open-source, self-hosted applications that automate that entire process, so it's as simple as requesting a movie on your phone and having it show up on you…

I know a guy who knows a guy that says that you don’t even need that, you just browse the movies and press “play” as there is direct torrent streaming now. But I don’t know anything about all this i just use my VCR with the clock flashing 12:00.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#199

Post by int_19h »

myvoiceismypass wrote: post #31
hooverd wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thom Tillis - R Chris Coons - D Marsha Blackburn - R Adam Schiff - D

Schiff is (D) Worth noting that this was introduced by Zoe Lofgren (D) the 77 year old that represents a big chunk of Silicon Valley. Disappointing.

The fact that some Democrats are introducing bills that mandate creation of infrastructure that can be easily repurposed to censor political viewpoints, during this administration no less, tells you all you need to know about how much disdain they really have for their electorate.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#200

Post by brnt »

tarnith wrote: post #94
blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

Video games too. Try to buy Need For Speed Most Wanted (2005). You can't.

Oh boy. That one. And Battle for Middle Earth 2.

Nobody wants my money, so to the bay we go.

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