RIAA losing the war, pushing swappers onto encrypted nets

[BJ_M]

The big irony here is that the media conglomerates are going after the little small fry, not the big priates. And who are the big pirates?
Entire countries. Like, oh, say, China.

Incorrect. The USofA is constantly coming down on China, Taiwan, Phillipines, Malaysia, etc., trying to get them to enforce our copyrights. These things have to be accomplished diplomatically first, then through ever-increasing trade sanctions. It's not like US forces can swoop down on a market in Beijing and start making arrests, you know.

:idea: Hey, that's the REAL reason we invaded Iraq! To stop piracy!

Lookout, Iran.... :evil:

no country like USA would ever put trade sanctions against china -- not anymore ..

oddly enough, of course you can buy copies of everything there (software and movies) for real real cheap ... once in a while the police there do a sweep and arrest a few people ... really what is more alarming there is news so censured and you face risk of arrest using the net in an non appproved gov way .... as in reading the news

[SquirrelDip]

I lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from '95 to '98 - unless things have drastically changed since then, the piracy policing was a real joke.

There exist shopping plazas in the city with dozens of shops where mostly all dealt in pirated software. New games, PS1 (at the time) and PC were available within days of their official release for about $2 per CD - business applications were generally about $5 per CD. Police would periodically raid the establishments but would only ever arrest a single merchant. This single arrest would always make headline news. Funny enough, the merchant would be back in operation within a couple of days (and yes, selling the same pirated software).

I do believe that much of the piracy can be stopped by lowering prices - I'm not expecting that price of $2 per CD but $50 per game is a little much. Many people there I spoke to would prefer to buy the real thing but when choosing between $2 or $50 it's a no brainer - especially when considering the salaries in the poorer countries.

[DaBarrister]

The big irony here is that the media conglomerates are going after the little small fry, not the big priates. And who are the big pirates?
Entire countries. Like, oh, say, China.

Incorrect. The USofA is constantly coming down on China, Taiwan, Phillipines, Malaysia, etc., trying to get them to enforce our copyrights. These things have to be accomplished diplomatically first, then through ever-increasing trade sanctions. It's not like US forces can swoop down on a market in Beijing and start making arrests, you know.

Hey, that's the REAL reason we invaded Iraq! To stop piracy!

Lookout, Iran....

no country like USA would ever put trade sanctions against china -- not anymore ..

oddly enough, of course you can buy copies of everything there (software and movies) for real real cheap ... once in a while the police there do a sweep and arrest a few people ... really what is more alarming there is news so censured and you face risk of arrest using the net in an non appproved gov way .... as in reading the news

We do lean on them, but that's really the best we can do. You are correct about trade sanctions, as well - it's clear that the US will not "bring it on" when it comes to trade with China. From the Journal-Sentinal (1/24/04):

http://www.jsonline.com/news/nat/jan04/202560.asp[/url]]Ever since the administration of President George W. Bush's father more than a decade ago, the United States has kept pressure on China on the issue of product piracy. And yet, according to Sensenbrenner, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees enforcement of patent rights, "The Chinese steal intellectual property right and left."

Political analysts in Washington concur that the U.S. has relatively restricted leverage over China on free trade and job issues. Reasons vary from China's authority as the emergent political anchor of Asia to its newfound influence as an industrial powerhouse and its role in financing America's surging debt and deficits.

[menace]

I was under the impression that the RIAA was sued and fined for price fixing??? is this not true? How can an organization commit criminal acts on one side and yet chase down evil-doers with the other--what it comes down to is a turf war between a big thug (RIAA) and a small time hood (you the consumer). As far as other countries go--like canada--they tax everything so badly that I'm shocked when people buy things legitimately--I for one buy all my media from the US and carry it across, just to avoid all those lame taxes (its like 1.99 for a spindle of 50 cd's there and like 35.00 for a spindle here--you do the math)

[BJ_M]

$1.99 for 50 ? must be good stuff ... not a normal price anywhere ...

yea -- its 35$ CND (24$ US) for a good brand pack of 50 in canada ..

add in shipping (or your time and gas) and its the same or cheaper in canada ... (compared to meritline best prices for example for cd-r)

[menace]

All the major retailers (compusa, best buy, office max) routinely put cd's on for sale (with rebates) for $1.99--I guess its a loss leader--usually every week. And since I'm between there and canada all the time anyways I can get this pricing--just have to wait for the rebates. if you know anyone in the US, ask them to pick you up a few spindles--tell them you'll buy them one if they do--still works out cheaper than overtaxed canadian prices.

[MikieV]

I lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from '95 to '98 - unless things have drastically changed since then, the piracy policing was a real joke.

Looks like everyone is still laughing.

John Dvorak wrote an online column about it in Sept 2003, with the title "Vortex of Piracy", at this link:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1275902,00.asp

Be sure to check-out the "photo essay" at the end of the article. Amazing what is on public display.

On the original topic, this reminds me of the "near-miss" we had, years ago, when the US Gov was trying to get the "Clipper" chip mandated - so the only crypto allowed in the US would be hardware encryption via the "Clipper" chip, which would have "back-door" access by FBI, NSA, whatever.

All transactions - your banking, email, you name it - could only be encrypted by devices using the USGov-designed chip. Any other encrption detected would be automatically flagged as being "illegal".

I'm surprised Bush and Ashcroft haven't picked that ball up and run with it, using the "Terrorist" angle.

Mike

[RabidDog]

RE earlier quote about Booths in places where you could download and burn (and pay for) your own mix Cds. This WAS tried .. but for whatever reason.. it didnt work..WHSMITH in many london locations. I think mainly it ws to do with the hardware being Crap .. everytime I saw these booths they were out of order .. and the drives they were using were

[MikieV]

Incorrect. The USofA is constantly coming down on China, Taiwan, Phillipines, Malaysia, etc., trying to get them to enforce our copyrights. These things have to be accomplished diplomatically first, then through ever-increasing trade sanctions.

I can understand that, and would tend to believe the Industry is lobbying our elected officials constantly to have this done.

So, I find this snide comment by John Dvorak, in his "Vortex of Piracy" article - linked in my previous post - to be amusing.

By the way, a friend of mine in Jakarta says that while the US talks a big game about copyright violations, the local American diplomats load up with DVD-9s when they head back to the States.

Not a factual argument that would stand-up in court, but believable - considering human nature.

What will be interesting, is how the rest of the world responds to enforcing "American style" copywrite. Saw this Australian link on Wired:
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8633777%5E15319%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

What caught my eye, in the story was:

Most contentious is the so-called "harmonisation" of Australia's intellectual property laws to allow stronger protection and enforcement of largely US-owned IP rights.

This includes the extension of copyright - dubbed the Mickey Mouse clause when US Congress amended the law to prevent the Disney character passing into the public domain - and "alignment" with the tough US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

When "Free Trade Agreement" means "enforce our laws". 8)

Interesting idea, when I hear a lot of people (I'm an American) worried about losing national soverienty(sp?) to international organisations (WTO, World Court, UN, etc) but American business/government doesn't mind when the "other guy" is required/requested to give up "his" soverienty.

Its' a small world, but an increasingly complicated one.

Mike

[Reality]

i-tunes has DRM and is too expensive therefore it is useless as far as I am concerned.

I agree with the comments about downloading resulting in minimal revenue loss. I bet 90% of the material downloaded would not have translated into sales in the absence of downloading.

I also don't view downloading as a substitute for purchasing the CD. MP3s and WMAs are way to low quality if you have a decent quality stereo. This will be especially true if DVD audio becomes a dominant format (and it looks like it will).

I have discovered at least 20 new artists through filesharing and if it wasn't for the RIAA being such D*CKS I would be buying their CDs.

New filesharing programs like "Mute" prevent anyone from seeing your IP number so the RIAA will not be able to sue anyone anymore. This is the future that the RIAA is pushing on us.

Filesharing can not be stopped.

[BJ_M]

MUTE = http://freshmeat.net/projects/mute/?branch_id=46853&release_id=148824


still in alpha stages and such .... but looks like people like it (1 vote !!)...