Sorry that I don't got much information about this, but two hours ago the court desided that the 4 people "running" TPB have to go 1 year to jail, aswell paying 30 000 000 SEK to various companies.

To me this is complete bullshit. The judge didn't even know what bittorrent was before he was shown in court, this whole thing is a scandale.

The music/movie industry has never adapted to the custommers. Usually I tend buying music and movies I like, as a symbolic act and to somewhat feel like a "fan" of it. But never more. I will not symptathize with anything this cynical and messed up as this industry. I'll advice everyone to do the same, until the industry is more custommer friendly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8003799.stm

Like Mr. Sunde said. Its just theatre for the media, it'll do sweet f*ck all to stop piraters !

This thread needs more Yarr! pirate:

Shame for those who use Torrents, personally methinks they're too much effort.

I used to love reading the angry letters he got from lawyers and his responses to them.

And it's true that it will do nothing to stop piracy, perhaps piracy is now too widespread for it to ever be stopped.

Thanks for quick reply and link mate.

My point here is that TPB did not upload these things. Other users did it. Even if they had the infrastructure for it it ain't the right thing to do to judge these people. What's next, youtube, google - hell, mails?

Quote from Equinox :

it'll do sweet f*ck all to stop piraters !

Hehe. The pirates are the ones who are helping to drive prices down. The more people who show the entertainment industry that they're not willing to pay over the odds for their content the more likely they're going to be to drop their prices. If there was no Napster/Kazaa/eMule/torrents etc the prices for music/games/movies etc would be higher than they are just now.

Quote from amp88 :

Hehe. The pirates are the ones who are helping to drive prices down. The more people who show the entertainment industry that they're not willing to pay over the odds for their content the more likely they're going to be to drop their prices. If there was no Napster/Kazaa/eMule/torrents etc the prices for music/games/movies etc would be higher than they are just now.

Interesting you say that, because prices for CDs and DVDs have gone up. About ten years ago, you could buy new-release music albums for circa $15. Now, it's about $30. Same with DVDs. They used to be around $20 for new-release movies. Now, it's more like $40. Even accounting for inflation, it's a big rise.

No. Piracy drives prices up. It's pretty much the only thing the MPAA and RIAA are not lying about.

While I think piracy is very wrong, the industry definitely needs to change its business model. If only politicians will have enough spine to create laws to quell some of the absurd claims of "copyright infringement" by the recording industry fat cats...

Quote from samjh :

Interesting you say that, because prices for CDs and DVDs have gone up. About ten years ago, you could buy new-release music albums for circa $15. Now, it's about $30. Same with DVDs. They used to be around $20 for new-release movies. Now, it's more like $40.

No. Piracy drives prices UP. It's pretty much the only thing the MPAA and RIAA are not lying about.

Inflation? How much has the cost of petrol gone up in the last 10 years? What about bread? Milk?

Quote from samjh :

No. Piracy drives prices UP. It's pretty much the only thing the MPAA and RIAA are not lying about.

And so encouraging piracy to grow further perhaps?

Vicious circle anyone?

Quote from amp88 :

Inflation? How much has the cost of petrol gone up in the last 10 years? What about bread? Milk?

I've already counted inflation.

Petrol has gone up due to instability in the Middle East. It's nothing to do with inflation.

In Australia, price of milk and bread has not doubled in the time frame I'm talking about. Average increase in groceries prices in the past decade is only 4%.

Quote from 5haz :

And so encouraging piracy to grow further perhaps?

Vicious circle anyone?

Unfortunately so.

The RIAA and MPAA argue that piracy is hurting their sales. This perceived loss of sales leads to increased prices in order to compensate for the "loss".

Stupid? Yeah, I think so. But businesses exist to make profit. What I'm surprised about is why the RIAA and MPAA don't adopt new business models, instead of becoming enemies against consumers.

The industry has used piracy as an excuse to raise prices. I remember computer games being 50p to £1 for a top quality title and the industry was making a mint, then greed got in the way, with escalating prices there was less consumer which meant less products which has driven development costs up to catch those users that are there with shiney new things.

However, as Napster showed (although the lesson has never been learned) piracy actually increases sales by giving better exposure to artists, so the whole argument is merely one to excuse profiteering.

Quote from samjh :

In Australia, price of milk and bread has not doubled in the time frame I'm talking about. Average increase in groceries prices in the past decade is only 4%.

Britain:

Bread

2000: 52p
2007: 94p
2009: ~130p

Source

Milk

2001: 20p/pint
2007: 40p/pint

Source

Bleh. All the pirates will do is move away from torrents, to some more secure file sharing protocol, and the cycle will continue.
But the entertainment industry has a chance of breaking the cycle: by stop being greedy bastards, and come up with a viable business model that would make people pirate less.

But that is hard, being blinded by greed is easy, if you know what I mean.

Hmm TBH I don't think the there is much the entertainment industry can do to stop people turning to piracy, even if a DVD has it's price slashed, you're still going to go for the free option if it's easily available to you.

Quote from amp88 :

Britain:

Bread

2000: 52p
2007: 94p
2009: ~130p

Source

Milk

2001: 20p/pint
2007: 40p/pint

Source

Good for you. Too bad I'm talking about the experience in Australia.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the increase in prices across all industries between December quarter of 1998 to December quarter in 2008 is approximately 44%.

this is bs

Quote from samjh :

Good for you. Too bad I'm talking about the experience in Australia.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the increase in prices across all industries between December quarter of 1998 to December quarter in 2008 is approximately 44%.

That's my point...

We have vastly different experiences because we're in different countries. Your situation can't be compared to mine's and vice versa.

Quote from 5haz :

Hmm TBH I don't think the there is much the entertainment industry can do to stop people turning to piracy, even if a DVD has it's price slashed, you're still going to go for the free option if it's easily available to you.

Criminals generally re-offend if they are not rehabilitated. Pirates are the same.

However, most "pirates" are otherwise honest consumers. If the price is reasonable, they'll buy. At the moment, the prices for movie DVDs and music CDs are not reasonable (in my opinion, of course).

IMHO, the recording companies can just disappear and the music industry will be just fine as long as rights to artists' music is transferred to appropriate rights holders under new contracts. Artists can hire producers to record their albums, and sell those albums to distributors for retail sale. For concerts, artists can hire their own promoters and organisers whose business is specifically for running and promoting concerts. Just those two separate arrangements can cut out the record company in the middle. At the moment, the business model for music artists and record companies is that the record company owns all rights to an artist's music, and does everything from organising concerts to publishing and distributing CDs, while scoring themselves hefty commissions and up-front payments - in return for minimal benefit to the artist, and hight prices for the consumer due to the magnitude of commercial risk that record companies take upon themselves. It's a laughably flawed model, but the industry juggernaut is too big to adapt such a radical change; not to mention that record companies won't be happy to be left out of the loop!

Quote from samjh :

Criminals generally re-offend if they are not rehabilitated. Pirates are the same.

However, most "pirates" are otherwise honest consumers. If the price is reasonable, they'll buy. At the moment, the prices for movie DVDs and music CDs are not reasonable (in my opinion, of course).

Hmm, nah I don't think so, but then I'm talking from my experience, I don't know what other people do, maybe I'm just a miser.

Quote from amp88 :

That's my point...

We have vastly different experiences because we're in different countries. Your situation can't be compared to mine's and vice versa.

I'll say! In the 80's, I was buying music for $10-15. I was buying VHS movies for $15-20. 30 years later, I am buying CD music for $10-15 and I am buying DVD movies for $15-20. The media moved from analog magnetic tape to digital recordings, far better quality.

In comparison, in the 80's, my parents were paying $0.50/gallon for gasoline and $8000 for a reasonably nice car. 30 years later, I am paying $2/gallon (was $5 last year) and $25-30,000 for a reasonably nice car. Now gasoline has so much crap in it that mileage suffers and the cars are built with so many stupid "safety features" and crap materials that the quality has gone downhill.

Oh those horrid horrid people of the entertainment industry....

Quote from mrodgers :

I'll say! In the 80's, I was buying music for $10-15. I was buying VHS movies for $15-20. 30 years later, I am buying CD music for $10-15 and I am buying DVD movies for $15-20. The media moved from analog magnetic tape to digital recordings, far better quality.

In comparison, in the 80's, my parents were paying $0.50/gallon for gasoline and $8000 for a reasonably nice car. 30 years later, I am paying $2/gallon (was $5 last year) and $25-30,000 for a reasonably nice car. Now gasoline has so much crap in it that mileage suffers and the cars are built with so many stupid "safety features" and crap materials that the quality has gone downhill.

Oh those horrid horrid people of the entertainment industry....

I don't understand your point here. There has been a lot more progress in technology in the entertainment industry than in the car industry (especially the US auto industry...). I still believe that if it wasn't for piracy the cost of CDs/DVDs/Games would be higher than it is just now.

Cost is the main reason I haven't bought a lot of the music I like. I think a lot of that is down to retailers though, I've bought new CDs online for £3.99 before (plus delivery), when they've been over a tenner in the shops. I've only paid double digits for a CD once, and that for was a somewhat rare special edition. Buying music needn't be expensive, if anything it's paying for lossy music downloads that is the pricey option.

Quote :

Now, it's about $30. Same with DVDs. They used to be around $20 for new-release movies. Now, it's more like $40. Even accounting for inflation, it's a big rise.

I remember when we got our first VHS recorder, and started hiring tapes from the local video store. I asked someone there how much it would be to buy a tape instead of just renting it- they said about $70. I can't be sure that that was the roughly correct price or what, but from memory videos did seem very expensive to buy- the only option was to rent.

On another train of thought- I really like the idea of a virtual online video store, which is just like your normal video place, but online. You can walk up and down the aisles, click on videos and get all the information you want including reviews and star ratings. There could even be people being paid to work there to offer personal advice on movies...

I guess that kind of thing would require an internet revolution, but we're not far off one now in Australia, and we're actually catching up with a lot of the rest of the world. Somewhere like Japan or Korea, this would be a fantastic way to hire your movies.

OT: Decent AA batteries are cheap though . 99p for Hyundai Alkaline 6pk rather than £2.49 for Duracell PLUS 4pk. Hyundai Alkaline is better than Duracell PLUS and Duracell IMO.