Pirates

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?

Microsoft vs Pirates

April 23, 2015 — Leave a comment

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It took grandpa Microsoft eleven years to shut down the pirate Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code. Better ever than never. Is that a new motto in an endless and epic fight against the online piracy? Or, maybe we are supposed to send a completely different kind of a message to the pirates.

No matter where you are, and no matter how long is going to take, we are going to get you, sooner or later, this way or another. However, the damage has already been done. What is there for Microsoft possible to gain? Some kind of a personal satisfaction in a constant pursuit after the cyber justice?

So many things are in the troubled mind of our dear grandpa Microsoft. Windows 10 is so much more than the latest OS. The pirate versions of the extremely popular and stubborn XP and Windows 7 OS systems are the self-eating cancer in the once very profitable Microsoft’s tissue, for real.

You just cannot shut down millions of computers all over the world, which are running the private versions, can you? On the other hand, you cannot pretend that business is as usual. Right? One pirate ship is down. The entire fleet is still around somewhere. Is grandpa Microsoft to tired to sail again?