Copyright law needs to change soon, as right now it’s simply too ridiculous. The industry needs to get to grips with the internet and digital distribution – without Digital “Rights” Management.
If they don’t, failure upon failure will stack up and law upon freedom-raping law will be imposed upon the stupid, unsuspecting public, simply in the name of nepotism and greed.
The industry’s insistence to keep to their old ways of business is suicide, and apparently it’s clear to everyone but them. They desperately use any law they can find to scare people into their way of thinking, just so they can keep up their disgustingly high profits (of which, of course, the artist sees very little).
The industry needs to modernise and stop their ridiculous lies for their own good. That’s the theory, anyway: lucky for them they’re good friends with our politicians, and can get their own laws passed, as opposed to laws that would benefit both the people and the artist.
Secret talks between governments? Surely, there’s another invasion on the books? Maybe one of them came up with a great plan to end all of the world’s suffering? No, they’re talking about changing and implementing international copyright law.
The discussions have a broad scope: our nations’ Wisest Men will be chatting away about anything from counterfeiting [...]
This new law will greatly accommodate the government's friends in the so-called creative industries. Surely, their sales will go up. Oh, wait, they won't – because "pirates" buy more music than anyone else (mirror). But they won't be buying it from prison, or when they're trying to pay off a €300,000 fine.
That is, of course, assuming that they're at all guilty. Which, as the geekier ones among us know, can never be proven beyond doubt with a simple IP address. Ever.
… mirrors of purest virtue and truth, or like whores to use as one pleases, as Theodor Billroth said. The latter definitely applies to the vomit spewed forth by the music industry claiming they lose ever so much well-deserved cash because of all those evil, Satan-worshipping “pirates”.
In May 2009, “illegal downloads” were blamed for billions [...]
Ordinarily, when the copyright holder notices his copyright is being infringed upon, he will start a civil case against the suspected copyright terrorist. Copyright infringement, unlike murder or the possession and distribution of child pornography, is not a crime the government itself would prosecute – the owner of the rights needs to file a complaint against the other party. The government stays out of the process, except for the justice system; bar of course in this brave new world where politicians and media moguls are BFFs.
It won’t kill the internet (for now), as some people have claimed, but it will be yet another step in the direction of total internet control and the death of free speech online – the only place where a shred of freedom remains.
In June 2008, Californian Kevin Cogill uploaded tracks from the then-upcoming Guns’n’Roses album “Chinese Democracy” onto the Antiquiet website.
When asked by the Guns’n’Roses singer’s legal team, he removed the offending files. So why exactly did he end up convicted in court (mirror) because of it?
Initially, he was charged with a felony, with the prosecution asking [...]