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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?'

#211

Post by the8472 »

terrence_giggy wrote: post #170
the8472 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

529C39CC24553DFE030119BD35E19884F34A65E0 Free speech or theft?

Context matters. I can yell FIRE in my own home, but I can't go into a crowded theatre and yell it. The hash as you post it here is meaningless. But elsewhere it could be the key to another's property.

Personally I think you should be free to yell "FIRE" in a theater too. If that started a panic and someone came to harm due to it then you might be held partially responsible to that harm, but so should those people who mindlessly trample on others without assessing the situation.

But if nothing happened then there should be no reason to make your exclamation illegal.

Of course you could still be thrown out of the theater for disrupting the performance, providing further disincentive for doing something like that, but that's separate from the legality of your speech.

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

#212

Post by [deleted] »

jkaunisv1 wrote: post #205
ultramancool wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, there are rich people who make money off of TV shows, movies, videogames, etc. But there are also regular hardworking people who depend on it for their living, and saying TPB is just exercising free speech really skips over the issue. Does it though? TPB themselves are not doing any sort of piracy, nor are they harming anyone. That exercise is left entirely up to the users. The only thing they do is distribute…

The world isn't theoretical. Context matters, intent matters. It's called the PIRATE bay for fucks sake. Sure, there is plenty of regular sharing on TPB. But the majority of it is pirated content that they are making a hell of a lot easier for people to access. This thread is really exposing to me the variety of views on the topic. I get your argument, but it's like you're deliberately ignoring the reality of how TPB…

[deleted]

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

#213

Post by pothibo »

giarc wrote: post #190
pothibo wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a narrow view you have. Torrent makes it accessible to see things you have paid for but didn't have time/forgot to watch (TV series). They also make it accessible to get stuff you couldn't (Not because it's available in USA that it is in every country). That's crazy that someone went to jail for running TPB when the MPAA and RIAA are big monopolies that control how much we should spend on stuff. It's not a free…

Are you saying that people that download the latest version of X TV show all have a cable subscription that includes that show? That, I would say, is completely incorrect.

Way to put words into my mouth.

I said makes it accessible.

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

#214

Post by AustinG08 »

danielalmeida wrote: post #178
NotOscarWilde wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Netflix exists because of illegal sharing. And even though Netflix is pretty awesome, look at what all the established companies are doing to try to screw with Netflix. And let us not forget that Netflix is still unavailable in many countries (pick any Eastern European Country, EU countries included). And where it is available, many titles from the US Netflix are not available. Torrents (and illegal downloads in gen…

> Torrents (and illegal downloads in general) are a strong incentive for copyright owners to improve their game. Otherwise it'd be a stagnant monopoly. I'm not sure breaking the law (whether you agree with it or not) is the proper way to fight monopoly (?) or to push companies to "improve their game". Btw, there is no monopoly in the music or gaming industry (not that I know of, at least). There are laws for monopoly…

In such an unfair fight, i'd argue it's the BEST method.

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

#215

Post by geographomics »

thekingofspain wrote: post #201
sigzero wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it was a lot different from Reddit or HN. Please stop trying to support the "pirating is okay". It's not. It's theft. You do not need or have to see those shows. You want to watch them and you fulfill that want by pirating. That pirating may cause purchases later is a horrible argument for theft.

I dunno. At a low level, piracy is just copying bits. It just so happens that certain bits contain some people's "intellectual property". If we concede that this makes sense and want to fight a losing battle anyway, it becomes a philosophical line-drawing fiesta about the bits you're copying. I propose instead that it's futile for people to try and monetize a certain sequence of bits given a certain interpretation. T…

You could say that about almost any activity in today's digital age. Sending abusive emails, making harassing phone calls, stealing money from people's bank accounts - these are also activities that essentially are also just copying bits.

Describing these in such a way doesn't imply anything about the moral implications.

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

#216

Post by justaman »

pothibo wrote: post #148
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.

What a narrow view you have. Torrent makes it accessible to see things you have paid for but didn't have time/forgot to watch (TV series). They also make it accessible to get stuff you couldn't (Not because it's available in USA that it is in every country). That's crazy that someone went to jail for running TPB when the MPAA and RIAA are big monopolies that control how much we should spend on stuff. It's not a free…

>>The only reason the iTunes model has come to exist is because of torrents and illegal sharing.

TPB is popular because Netflix is still budding. Had Netflix/iTunes been around in the late 90's I doubt file sharing services like Napster would have been half as popular. I dont believe people who have the means to pay for media desire to steal.

The fact is the market failed to keep up with consumer demand.

If you examine how TiVo came to be you will see the main concept is "TV on your schedule". Netflix services this need in a much simpler manner.

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

#217

Post by k-mcgrady »

sp332 wrote: post #184
k-mcgrady wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are exceptions to copyright to minimise the impact on free speech (satire, news for example). I guess people's opinions on this will ultimately come down to their views on free speech and that varies throughout the world.

The US Constitution does not recognize ideas as property. Copyrights and patents are limited-time incentives which may be granted by the government to encourage creativity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Clause Also, satire isn't protected, but parody is.

The US constitution does not effect me. Thanks for the correction on satire/parody, got them mixed up.

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

#218

Post by pdabbadabba »

humanrebar wrote: post #207
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #156

I'm sorry, but downloading entertainment is not a human right. He didn't exactly feed starving people by breaking the law. He put up a torrent aggregator to, mostly, Hollywood movies and shoved aggressive and high-revenue porn and malware ads into every nook and cranny of that site. HN and those passionate about internet freedoms deserve better heroes than guys like Sunde, Dotcom, and Ulbricht. These guys very much e…

> I'm sorry, but downloading entertain is not a human right. Making money from producing entertainment isn't a human right. Maybe certain entertainment business models aren't sustainable in the internet age. It's not like we'll run out of entertainment. Most cat-based YouTube videos are better than the Real Housewives of Schenectady anyway. And to extort and imprison people for the sake of a business model is terribl…

>Making money from producing entertainment isn't a human right.

No, but at least in the U.S., and most of the rest of the world, it is a legal right. Does that count for nothing just because we're on the internet?

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

#219

Post by humanrebar »

karmacondon wrote: post #43

Many don't agree with the principles of TPB, but Sunde was willing to take risks for what he believed in. He deserves a lot of respect for that no matter what people think about the morality of what he helped to create. Most people go their whole lives without caring strongly about any issue at all, and almost all of those that do care are willing to sacrifice exactly nothing. I'd like to think that I would be willin…

> But there are other ways to do that, significantly more effective ways. Martin Luther King (as an example, not a comparison) went to jail too, but he also went to the right schools, wore a suit and influenced the right people.

And he was making a moral argument founded in religious principles. He was literally risking martyrdom in order to fight for justice in the name of his God. And he ultimately was murdered for his work.

It might not sound relevant to an agnostic or atheist, but I don't see how you can get there from here if "there" is Dr. King and "here" is a secular argument for the right to share files.

At the end of the day, in his theology, King would have enjoyed success just for fighting even if his efforts changed zero minds and were swept away in a flood of racism and indifference. It's the difference between "we can make a difference" and "we are making a difference... let's see how much more we can do".

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

#220

Post by _almosnow »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #156

I'm sorry, but downloading entertainment is not a human right. He didn't exactly feed starving people by breaking the law. He put up a torrent aggregator to, mostly, Hollywood movies and shoved aggressive and high-revenue porn and malware ads into every nook and cranny of that site. HN and those passionate about internet freedoms deserve better heroes than guys like Sunde, Dotcom, and Ulbricht. These guys very much e…

Yeah, Sunde's far from being the martyr he's trying to portrait.

"8 months in jail in Sweden" is not that much of a big deal, I mean, jail is still jail but he's writing it as if he were some kind of digital Mandela, far from it, I'd argue that the publicity associated with his sentence was extremely beneficial in terms of exposure of the site and thus economical revenue.

Yesterday's post about him not being OK with what TPB had become (a sexist 10th anniversary party, a site full of ads) really show how twisted the guy's mind is; he truly believes (or wants the public to believe) that his ideals are good and pristine and that the business he created had spontaneously (and against his will, yeah) became something else. Well done is better than well said; I'll believe his statements the day he spends a major part of his wealth in supporting actual charity or at least some kind of net-neutrality non-profit projects. This guy is Kim Dotcom all the way.

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