Piracy

Austria vs The Pirates

August 18, 2015 — Leave a comment

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It is official. The Austrian busy little cyber bees, who are not too much eager to pay for the digital content, can forget about the Pirate Bay, Isohunt.to, 1337x.to, and h33t.to. You do not have to ask why, do you? The Europeans are trying to make a point in an endless fight against piracy, or what?

On the other hand, we just could not help ourselves noticing an impressive list of countries, which have agreed to cancel the local hospitality for these notorious pirate websites. So, what is this supposed to mean? Are we going to eradicate cyber piracy in Europe? Somehow, we are not too optimistic about it.

Why? Well, for what is worth, the online pirates have proven themselves more than once to be one tough opponent. Their ability to change, adapt, and find new creative ways to continue with their forbidden work is quite an impressive one. They will think of something, in the meantime, that is for sure.

The only thing we are not sure about is, how long this meaningless legal game of a cat and a mouse is going to last. Until we become dead tired, or Hollywood spends all of its money for lawsuits, or pirates disappeared completely, or else? Or we stop writing about this topic?

MPAA vs MovieTube

August 4, 2015 — Leave a comment

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The busy little legal bees in the MPAA (The Motion Picture Association of America) have obviously found a way to end the pirate reign of the MovieTube. This notorious piracy website, including a couple more similar sites associated with it are offline.

But, for what is worth, this is only the beginning. The MPAA is after some legal blood, including the substantial compensation claims. Yet, it is always interesting to see what is going to happen in the legal, financial and piracy aftermath of these events.

Is it possible to end the online piracy with a single lawsuit? How come we cannot find a middle ground after all of this time? The entertainment industry is merciless and unwilling to compromise, while on the other side, the pirates themselves are stubborn and innovative.

It sounds like a nice scenario for a disaster movie. The only difference is that we are talking about the real life people and events within the virtual world. There is no win-win outcome here. Does the entertainment industry earn more than enough? Can the pirates find other things to do? Questions with no answer.

The Living Room Pirates

July 31, 2015 — Leave a comment

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It is nice thing to fight piracy from the Hollywood’s perspective. However, there is this question, we need to ask. Can you exaggerate a little bit, from time to time? We dare to say, this is exactly what has happened in the UK cyber and law field. Have you heard about their piracy laws?

The UK lawmakers have adopted one of the most rigorous no-copy policies in the entire cyber history and world. Even if you are the rightful owner of a certain video or music CD or similar, you cannot make a copy for yourself. Under any circumstances. Seriously?

Not so long ago, this strange law, at least to say, had a reasonable limitation. You can get yourself in trouble, if you make copies in order to share them with your friends, or earn money by doing so. This make sense, but what is with this no-copy zero tolerance?

How they are going to prove that the UK users have done something wrong, in the first place? They are going to chase or spy people in their living or bedrooms? It just does not make any sense. So, what should we do? Leave your CDs at home when you are planning to travel to London. Right?

The Pirate Percentages

May 7, 2015 — Leave a comment

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Imagine a world with no cyber-pirates. Imagine a moment where all computers all over the world will use and run only the fully legitimate and legal software and licenses. Would not that be a sight? Yet, what could this unrealistic scenario change for real? Does it mean that you would be a happier person?

Or, maybe you will have less money to spend on other things? Why? The pirate software version is substantially cheaper, by default. Here is a catch. In the EU alone, more than 70 million jobs, which is almost one third of its entire labor market, depends one way or another on the proper protection of the intellectual property rights.

When you mess up with the intellectual property and copyrights in the wrong way, there is no win-win scenario. Someone will always lose. Strong legal pressure means that we will pay more. Cyber loopholes can allow pirates to give us cheaper functional alternatives. Yet, that is a loss for the corporate world.

And, here we are where we are, where we have been all of this time. There will be some cosmetic changes, but the main troubles will remain the same more or less. Pirates are not going to disappear, and a software is not going to be offered for free. Our cyber seas will be restless for quite some time.

The Wrong Torrent Moment

November 7, 2014 — Leave a comment

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Finally, some busy little bee from the entertainment industry has put two and two together and decided to pay a visit to the Google itself. Why? Well, to ask Google to do something about the piracy trouble. What would be a role of Google in a situation such as this one? Can it do something about it?

It turns out it can. With no need to eliminate the piracy websites. The catch is in the search engines. The cyber pirates are dependant on the substantial number of visits on a daily basis to ensure that their illegitimate business makes money. So, Google struck them, when it hurts the most.

From now on, if your website uses something like “torrent”, “watch movie online”, “free this”, or “free that” as the keyword, you can forget about the eye-catching positioning on the top Google pages. The Isohunt crew already reported that the number of visits has dropped for more than 50% in the last couple of months.

On the other side, the pirates from the Pirate Bay support this Google move. Why? They believe that this is the only way to ensure the reliable number of direct visits. Either way the tide for the cyber pirates has changed. They can no longer count on Google indifferent role. How do you feel about it? Honestly.