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Archive for category Usenet

The Church of PirateBay

Jan 5

Sweden is now recognizing File-Sharing as a religion. What? The Church of Kopimism was started by pro-piracy advocates in 2010 and they practice by holding services described on their website as “kopyactings – religious services – where the kopimists share information with each other through copying and remix.” So far they have about 3,000 members, but I’m sure the PR buzz around this article will boost their numbers significantly. So basically it’s a church that believes holiness is achieved through sharing information with others, and the best way to do that is through file-sharing. Seems like they might just be trying to exploit a legal loophole, but kudos to them for getting creative. Maybe this gov’t attitude change will mark the beginning of the end for unrealistic fines and jail-time for pirates.

Full Article at TorrentFreak

This Is Why SOPA Is Wrong

Nov 22

The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act) is a bill that would allow copyright holders to shut down websites that facilitate or enable online piracy. Opponents of the bill believe that it grants too much power to copyright holders and ostensibly allows them to censor the internet. Personally I think it’s an overreaching bill that was thrown together reactively and is being heavily lobbied by the music and film industries in another attempt to stuff their pockets by suing teenagers and grandmas. Earlier this month: a judge in Spain ruled that piracy can lead to more sales; Japan believes Anime piracy helps boost sales; and a study showed that pirates are some of the best consumers. The “fact” that piracy means a loss in sales is no longer a fact and is up for debate. It’s hard to argue that damages are so great that they should be granted additional powers.
There have been a few poignant analogies that sum it up perfectly.

Blaming YouTube for copyright infringement is like blaming Budweiser for a drunk driving incident.

Or more directly, holding YouTube responsible for copyright infringement is like holding Xerox responsible when someone copies a newspaper article.

Taxpayers and Private Sector to foot the bill for PROTECT IP Act

Aug 19

 

With a bill of about $10 million per year, the PROTECT IP Act will be paid for by taxpayers, but the burden on the private sector will be even worse with costs forecasted at around $150 million. Under the PROTECT IP Act, ISPs, search engines, and other parties are required to shut down websites that allegedly engaged in copyright infringement. As far as I know, it’s not that they’re convicted of copyright infringement and then ordered to be shut down. This applies to all sites accused of infringement, meaning that the government can force ANY website to shutdown based on an allegation. That seems like a violation of the first amendment.

Full Article

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