US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spywa

I am not sure how reliable this source is.But if its true I wonder how they are going to get that stuff into already released stuff?



US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates! - Boing Boing

The hilariously named "Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property" has finally released its report, an 84-page tome that's pretty bonkers. But amidst all that crazy, there's a bit that stands out as particularly insane: a proposal to legalize the use of malware in order to punish people believed to be copying illegally. The report proposes that software would be loaded on computers that would somehow figure out if you were a pirate, and if you were, it would lock your computer up and take all your files hostage until you call the police and confess your crime. This is the mechanism that crooks use when they deploy ransomware. It's just more evidence that copyright enforcers' network strategies are indistinguishable from those used by dictators and criminals. In 2011, the MPAA told Congress that they wanted SOPA and knew it would work because it was the same tactic used by governments in "China, Iran, the UAE, Armenia, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Burma, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam." Now they've demanded that Congress legalize an extortion tool invented by organized criminals.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, s

They would just need to put the stuff into the illegal download stream. It sounds like they basically want to put a RAT into the products. It would backfire on them I think.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, s

Are the Chinese stealing products again?

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, s

Morons if true. The problem is not the people who so call steal their stuff.. it is the fact that they steal it not because it is too expensive to buy, but that they cant get access to it because of out of date draconian copywrite laws.

US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

PeteEU said:

Morons if true. The problem is not the people who so call steal their stuff.. it is the fact that they steal it not because it is too expensive to buy, but that they cant get access to it because of out of date draconian copywrite laws.

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At least you admit that there are laws and you begrudgingly admit they are being broken.

At least you are consistent in your belief that the public only has to want something in order to justify talking it. Price too high on a Rolls Royce? No problem, just take one for a test drive and don't return it. If the law says you can't? No problem, it is Draconian anyway. Steel away!

A right not defended is lost. I don't agree with this tactic, but I do agree with their right. If they want to charge $1000 for a movie or song, then that too is their right. As long as I am not forced to buy it.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, s

jamesrage said:

I am not sure how reliable this source is.But if its true I wonder how they are going to get that stuff into already released stuff?



US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates! - Boing Boing

The hilariously named "Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property" has finally released its report, an 84-page tome that's pretty bonkers. But amidst all that crazy, there's a bit that stands out as particularly insane: a proposal to legalize the use of malware in order to punish people believed to be copying illegally. The report proposes that software would be loaded on computers that would somehow figure out if you were a pirate, and if you were, it would lock your computer up and take all your files hostage until you call the police and confess your crime. This is the mechanism that crooks use when they deploy ransomware. It's just more evidence that copyright enforcers' network strategies are indistinguishable from those used by dictators and criminals. In 2011, the MPAA told Congress that they wanted SOPA and knew it would work because it was the same tactic used by governments in "China, Iran, the UAE, Armenia, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, Burma, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam." Now they've demanded that Congress legalize an extortion tool invented by organized criminals.

Click to expand...

Talk about Orwellian doublespeak. It's not the pirates that are criminals, it's those who are being stolen from that are the criminals.

Such efforts are doomed to failure because they are clearly too invasive. Private organizations inserting malicious code and indiscriminately disabling computers is clearly out of bounds.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, s

The problem I have with this is it will deploty viruses programmed by the friggen morons over at the MPAA and RIAA who cannot even get their overpriced disk encoding correct so how the hell are they going to make a virus that doesn't destroy many unrelated computers? To give you an idea my father owned satellite way back before dish network when you had a huge dish and scanned the sky for a bunch of different satellites. You could get unscrambled premium movie channels for a while. Eventually they scrambled the channels and you had to get a box. Of course, there were pirate boxes. Of course, the entertainment companies didn't like this, but because they had no reverse signal they decided it would be best to send electronic bullets through the system that would screw up any box they wanted to. If you were legit they just gave you a new box. Of course, that might involve mailing or lots of travel. This is how these stupid morons do this sort of thing because they don't care about their customers because they have a monopoly and are allowed to run rampant like a bunch of dufuses.

I see the point about piracy. My only complaint is certain media outlets are forcing cable and satellite on us when they could be offering their programs on the internet, but that is their choice. I just simply do not watch their crap. However, i know they are going to start screwing up people's internet and computers because they want scanware and all sorts of other BS monitoring every one of our moves. The people who really should get piracy protection, the ones whop do not have a giant media distributor like cable or the movie theaters of america and are putting stuff out themselves online are not going to be protected by any of this. If you cannot afford to pay lindsey lohan her outrageous salary for whatever crapfest her and beiber put on next and you might have to shave a few million off of their contract, oh friggen well. I cannot even put forth the effort to squeeze out a tear on that one or to pull out the small violin.

Oh, and the best way to combat piracy is to make your products reasonable. I go to redbox all the time for a dollar, and I could download those movies. I watch crap from people on the internet all the time and I do not care if a commercial runs. I even know that internet producers rely on the ad running so they can make their little bit of money so I even disable my ad blockers because those people are squeezing out a living, not trying to squeeze out a mansion for themselves, their agents, and every retarded crotch dropping that comes out of a media executive. If i cannot download i am not going to a movie theater to watch your pile of crap. I am also not going back to cable if you stop downloading. I will just stop watching anything by major media if they stop offering it online, or wait for the DVDs to go on sale in 5 years for 5 dollars or less.

greedy bastards. This is why I stopped caring about any piracy of their products. At first i used to gicve a **** and think it was wrong, but they are a bunch of evil little craps who want to screw all of our computers up with poorly written viruses I know are going to hit people who are not pirating. They forced cable without competition. They charge you 12 dollars for a ticket to see their mass produced ****ty movie. Then we have them pushing crap on us like twilight and beibermania. They get no pity from me, and i hope all their **** is pirated. It doesn't matter because I still am not watching loui anderson dive into a pool and call that entertainment. If i wanted to watch a fat guy do a belly flop I could go to any municipal pool in the US and I am sure there is one there. You have a show about New jersey? I used to live on the border. I avoided it when i lived there, why would I want to watch a show about it? If I want to see real housewives or honey boo boo I have walmart. If they are not at the first one i can drive another 2 miles and they will be at the second one.

Oh and:

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

AliHajiSheik said:

At least you admit that there are laws and you begrudgingly admit they are being broken.

At least you are consistent in your belief that the public only has to want something in order to justify talking it. Price too high on a Rolls Royce? No problem, just take one for a test drive and don't return it. If the law says you can't? No problem, it is Draconian anyway. Steel away!

A right not defended is lost. I don't agree with this tactic, but I do agree with their right. If they want to charge $1000 for a movie or song, then that too is their right. As long as I am not forced to buy it.

Click to expand...

It is not about price.. it is about access. If I lived in the US, I would have zero reason what so ever to pirate TV-series or even music or movies (DVDs). Oh I missed the last Big Bang Theory.. no problem, I can see it for free or very cheap online!

But because I choose to live outside the US, then I am not allowed to have Netflix type service, Hulu or similar, and my Tv stations takes weeks or months or even years to show my favorite TV show.

Now Netflix has come to certain European countries, but even then the content is years out of date and you only have access to stuff that has already been shown on local tv at some point in time. But most of Europe does not even have Netflix or similar services, and those that there are.. their content is years if not decades old. Why? There are plenty of companies who have tried... because the rights holders refuse to allow it. Spotify for example had a tough time getting into the US or even some European countries... why? Because the same rights holders that allowed it in some countries, refused it in others... wtf?

So frankly, the rights holders are bringing piracy on themselves by limiting access not only on price (not a major factor) but on nationality or region.. and that is living in the 1980s and not in the Internet world of the 21st century.

The rights holders could squash a lot of piracy by letting content online after it is aired in the US... at a price. I would be willing to pay 10 bucks a month to get access to my favorite CBS shows. But I cant. So I pirate them because I dont want to wait the weeks/months/years for it to come on local tv channels...

And then there is DVDs...the most idiotic thing ever. Not only cant you get new movies online, you have to buy a DVD, but the morons at the movie companies actually believe there are borders on the Internet, so they release DVDs in say Russia long before everywhere else... even before they are in the cinema in many countries, and then they are shocked that the movie is being pirated online? Morons.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

PeteEU said:

It is not about price.. it is about access. If I lived in the US, I would have zero reason what so ever to pirate TV-series or even music or movies (DVDs). Oh I missed the last Big Bang Theory.. no problem, I can see it for free or very cheap online!

But because I choose to live outside the US, then I am not allowed to have Netflix type service, Hulu or similar, and my Tv stations takes weeks or months or even years to show my favorite TV show.

Now Netflix has come to certain European countries, but even then the content is years out of date and you only have access to stuff that has already been shown on local tv at some point in time. But most of Europe does not even have Netflix or similar services, and those that there are.. their content is years if not decades old. Why? There are plenty of companies who have tried... because the rights holders refuse to allow it. Spotify for example had a tough time getting into the US or even some European countries... why? Because the same rights holders that allowed it in some countries, refused it in others... wtf?

So frankly, the rights holders are bringing piracy on themselves by limiting access not only on price (not a major factor) but on nationality or region.. and that is living in the 1980s and not in the Internet world of the 21st century.

The rights holders could squash a lot of piracy by letting content online after it is aired in the US... at a price. I would be willing to pay 10 bucks a month to get access to my favorite CBS shows. But I cant. So I pirate them because I dont want to wait the weeks/months/years for it to come on local tv channels...

And then there is DVDs...the most idiotic thing ever. Not only cant you get new movies online, you have to buy a DVD, but the morons at the movie companies actually believe there are borders on the Internet, so they release DVDs in say Russia long before everywhere else... even before they are in the cinema in many countries, and then they are shocked that the movie is being pirated online? Morons.

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Poor Pete, some companies don't want to do business in his area so he condones theft rather than looking at why a company would not want to do business in his area. Let's see if I have this correct: They have it, I want it, they're stupid. I wouldn't rule that out as a possibility, but why would they not want to sell to your area? Could it be that they don't agree with the regulation in your marketplace?

You say that rights holders are bringing piracy upon themselves. They could eliminate piracy completely if they just put out their content for free in geographically distributed data centers. That's the logical extension of your argument.

Here is an alternative point of view: Content owners either can't or won't abide by local regulation to sell legitimately in your area, but these same government entities are obligated to enforce copyright laws and don't so you can freely pirate whatever you want to have. So you say you want to be honest but just can't because THEY are morons. At least you are honest in your law breaking.

As I indicated, I don't agree with all the tactics that the entertainment industry uses, but I understand why they try.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

The parts of the article in the boxes, that I assume are quotes from the report are scary.

like this:

If an unauthorized person accesses the information, a range of actions might then occur. For example, the file could be rendered inaccessible and the unauthorized user’s computer could be locked down

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So they are proposing as an "example" allowing businesses to lock down someones personal property, thwarting access to potentially vital personal records, information, and data, cutting off avenues of communication, blocking easy access to things such as bank accounts, disallowing someone to shop online, as well as a myriad of other intrusions and inconveniences into unrelated activities? All of this without any sort of due process, or judicial/legal intervention? Allowing a private entity the power and the ability to lock someone out of their property, their records, their machinery should in no way be allowed, hell I am dubious about giving the government this power, yet alone putting into the hands of private enterprises.

And then 2 sentences later we have this:

Such measures do not violate existing laws on the use of the Internet

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In that case it is time to make some laws that do prevent this. Someones access to and use of their personal computer should in no way be allowed to be potentially threatened by private companies, I do not care what it is you do on your computer. The only way that this should be even remotely allowed to occur is within the bounds of our judicial system - and this does not mean some all encompassing decree of some sort that allows third parties to get away with this nonsense, this should only occur on an individual case by case basis and with the proper warrants.

Not just no but, HELL NO. There is absolutely no way that that kind of power, or those abilities should be allowed for anything, or anyone in the private sector. It is like allowing a grocery store to lock down your refrigerator because you stole a gallon of milk. Sounds kind of ridiculous does it not? While it may be an extreme example, it is not really different from this proposal. Imagine if there were anti-theft devices on items on the shelf in the grocery store, and if you brought them home without them being deactivated upon purchase they sent a signal to an electronic lock on your fridge preventing you from accessing its contents. Would you be ok with this?

Having said that even IF they somehow pulled of this draconian plan it wold get circumvented, it might end up being an inconvenience to some, but the same people who are able to crack other forms of DRM would also be able to neutralize these little "computer bombs". Those who pirate then would not have this malicious bit of code on their machines, it would be the ones who have the game legitimately who would have these little "presents" hiding out in their systems. It would backfire, people would not trust the legitimate versions and would be more prone to attain a "clean" version through other channels.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

AliHajiSheik said:

Poor Pete, some companies don't want to do business in his area so he condones theft rather than looking at why a company would not want to do business in his area. Let's see if I have this correct: They have it, I want it, they're stupid. I wouldn't rule that out as a possibility, but why would they not want to sell to your area? Could it be that they don't agree with the regulation in your marketplace?

Click to expand...

What regulation? We are a common market, the regulations are no different in the UK or Denmark, where there is Netflix for example when it comes to establishment and distribution of online content.

It would be like California having CBS programming but because you are in Texas then you are not allowed access to it.

You say that rights holders are bringing piracy upon themselves. They could eliminate piracy completely if they just put out their content for free in geographically distributed data centers. That's the logical extension of your argument.

Click to expand...

Where do I say free? I even state that I would be willing to pay 10 bucks a month to see my favorite CBS tv shows.. I would even be willing to pay to see new movies online, rather than go to the freaking movie theater. But no, there is no such service in Europe or the countries I live in.

Here is an alternative point of view: Content owners either can't or won't abide by local regulation to sell legitimately in your area, but these same government entities are obligated to enforce copyright laws and don't so you can freely pirate whatever you want to have. So you say you want to be honest but just can't because THEY are morons. At least you are honest in your law breaking.

Click to expand...

The only "local regulation" that is different between Spain and say the UK, is that in Spain it is not illegal to download trademarked content, but it is illegal to sell it and possibly distribute it. That is being changed sadly.. although the download bit by the consumer will require a change in the constitution. But that should in no way what so ever prevent companies in establishing Netflix type content providers in Spain... in fact quite the opposite... if they want to win their argument, they should establish such services to force through stricter regulations on illegal downloading.

There is also no regulation that prevents the establishment of such services... in fact there is one "Spanish Netflix" type system.. well there was last I looked a few months ago when it was launched...but the company only has the rights to old movies (2+ years) and tv series (2+ older seasons showed in Spain) and only if they demand a high price. The monthly charge is 10 euros for limited "unlimited viewing" of 5 year old content, and you have to pay extra to see the "new content", which is only 2 years old.. wtf? Yes it is the content providers that dictate the price not the company that wants to distribute the content.

No the problem is not the illegal downloading, because the illegal downloading is the symptom of the illness called out of touch entertainment industry. If people dont have access to content legally, then they will steal it to get access to it. It is pretty simple.

As I indicated, I don't agree with all the tactics that the entertainment industry uses, but I understand why they try.

Click to expand...

Yes you would.. trying to keep the status quo instead of evolving... typical conservative types. You have a lack of knowledge on how the music/movie/tv content providers are abusing people world wide and then crying foul.

Explain this... why was it that, Spotify could get clearance from EMI or Warner Brothers or Sony to allow free streaming with ads of music online in places like Sweden, Spain, UK, but not in the US, Denmark and Germany? That the only reason that it was eventually allowed in the US, was that Spotify had to change its business model and limit the amount of times that you could hear music for free with ads... in Europe, but not in the US? WTF? That took years to negotiate, all in the while services like Pandora poped up in the US and ONLY in the US.

Why is that even on Spotify, within the EU, some music is only available in some countries but not in others? It is not like you cant buy it in the shop or on iTunes or Amazon, but the music companies refuse to give Spotify access in said countries..... and you blame the people who download illegally when the companies act like this?

How about the movie A-Team, that was sent out on DVD in Russia, with English sound... 3 weeks before it hit the movie theater in the UK and Spain? Yea you betcha that movie was pirated big time..

Sorry but you can side as much with the entertainment industry as you want, but they, like you, are living the past and need to grow up and smell the sunshine and change their business models faster. They resisted online music so much that it almost killed the industry, and now they are resisting allowing more companies than Apple to distribute their music online and they are failing yet again.

Restricting access based on nationality and region is a very very bad idea in the Internet world.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

AliHajiSheik said:

Poor Pete, some companies don't want to do business in his area so he condones theft rather than looking at why a company would not want to do business in his area. Let's see if I have this correct: They have it, I want it, they're stupid. I wouldn't rule that out as a possibility, but why would they not want to sell to your area? Could it be that they don't agree with the regulation in your marketplace?

Click to expand...

It is not just a matter of netflix not doing business there. If that were the case then wait and it will eventually come when they can make money. It is a matter of the fact they are banned from doing business because of international regioning. One of my roommates loves BBC. Don't ask me why, but he wants to see their crappy programming. He can go online and the BBC streams programming but because his IP registers in america he cannot chose to view the BBC programming with their advertisements that generate their revenue because it is a different region. It is not banned because of content or moral restrictions. It is not banned because of national security, which would be BS. It is banned because the media conglomerates of the US say you are not supposed to watch the english BBC here in america. The best they will offer you is the modified american BBC.

That is a load of BS. When the content is available and you are watching it under what should be a for profit system of advertising revenue for that company then there is no reason in free countries to restrict it just because of borders. If China and countries like that want to do this, then that is their business, but this is america and watching the BBC based on their profit based format should not be outlawed. It is litterally against the law to view that programming.

There are reasons for this. The american Tv networks have paid to keep the BBC out of their market for competition purposes. Some free market we have there. Also, the boundaries exist because it allows american media, it is mostly american media, to capitalize on jacked up prices as you cross borders with media. If you chose to watch BBC america american companies get a cut of money for programming they did not produce and are limiting your access to. region based copywrites have absolutely nothing to do with protecting intellectual property. they have to do with limiting competition, limiting exposure to foreign information, and jacking up costs for no reason. The hell with that. If i want to go watch some foreign show because it happens to be really good then I do not need american media telling me what i like, and I certainly do not need to put money into the hands of american media for content they had nothing to do with producing. He is damned right that europeans and other countries should be ticked off, as should americans, that this BS is allowed to happen. In the past it might have made sense, but with the internet as it is today there is no excuse for having those restrictions in a free country.

AliHajiSheik said:

You say that rights holders are bringing piracy upon themselves. They could eliminate piracy completely if they just put out their content for free in geographically distributed data centers. That's the logical extension of your argument.

Click to expand...

Here is the problem, you are wrong. It is not for free or provided for free. he is talking about netflix which is a paid service to access the library they make available. As an american if i like their library and chose to pay for acess to it in the profit based legal way I can pay. if this guy wants to do the same thing I do and pay for the same service he cannot. He is not even asking to pirate, he is asking for the same profit driven service we get here in america that could easily be streamed to his location over already existing means. That should be completely legal. Netflix would get more customers. The copywrite holders would get their royalties from the subscription service. Everyone would make money, but they do not want to allow it. He is absolutely right, that drives people to find pirated material because they do not have access.

I am a long term fan of japanese animation. For the longest time there were simply no alternatives to getting that content here in america. Even as DVD sales came to the states we only got what our media wanted to bring to the states. Worse yet due to moral values stories were altered to remove references to GLBT characters, and to sanitize the stuff released in america for our protection from evil boobies and some animated blood. I can understand if it is on broadcast TV which bows to censors, but on licensed DVDs you paid for is ridiculous. Now they are realizing streaming is money to the japanese animation studios and you can now watch shows on first run directly from japan. That is allowed because it is a niche market that is not seen as competing as much with american broadcasting. It is profitable and increases the revenue for the people making the shows. So why can't some guy in europe watch some netflix movies on a paid subscription that gives profits to american companies that make these programs?

AliHajiSheik said:

Here is an alternative point of view: Content owners either can't or won't abide by local regulation to sell legitimately in your area, but these same government entities are obligated to enforce copyright laws and don't so you can freely pirate whatever you want to have. So you say you want to be honest but just can't because THEY are morons. At least you are honest in your law breaking.

Click to expand...

There is the problem. the people who own the big systems like american media, the RIAA, and MPAA are all against the profitable distribution of products across country lines because they feaar for their monopolies. none of this copywrite fighting has anything to do with a few pirates. it has to do with protecting the high profits of executives in those companies. You have artists like Louis CK going out and self distributing his comedy material through the internet and making more money than if he went through the MPAA. They do not want to compete with smaller producers. They want to control what you have access to and how you have access to it because they make huge amounts of extra money from it. I would not have a problem with that if they were not trying to pass these bills for the sole purpose of driving the little guys producing profitable and popular content that people want out of the market because they do not like the competition. The real damage to them is other people producing and competition and that is what they want to go after.

AliHajiSheik said:

As I indicated, I don't agree with all the tactics that the entertainment industry uses, but I understand why they try.

Click to expand...

They have every right to try, but when they are so blatantly greedy and monopolistic it becomes a point to many people to say the hell with the unfair rules they impose. They would do more damage to piracy if they simply made their products reasonable. Just as unfair rules are a reality, so are things like piracy and knock offs. The more expensive and exclusive you make your products the more of a demand you make for knock offs and pirated material. Not to mention the more money the distributors of illegal goods can make the more power they have to do those activities. The more they fight, the more power they give to their opponents because people will find a way. It is like the drug war. It is near impossible to stop piracy today, their methods will only hit innocents as pirates will find out how to avoid them, and it only happens because of intensive greed.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

PeteEU said:

What regulation? We are a common market, the regulations are no different in the UK or Denmark, where there is Netflix for example when it comes to establishment and distribution of online content.

It would be like California having CBS programming but because you are in Texas then you are not allowed access to it.



Where do I say free? I even state that I would be willing to pay 10 bucks a month to see my favorite CBS tv shows.. I would even be willing to pay to see new movies online, rather than go to the freaking movie theater. But no, there is no such service in Europe or the countries I live in.



The only "local regulation" that is different between Spain and say the UK, is that in Spain it is not illegal to download trademarked content, but it is illegal to sell it and possibly distribute it. That is being changed sadly.. although the download bit by the consumer will require a change in the constitution. But that should in no way what so ever prevent companies in establishing Netflix type content providers in Spain... in fact quite the opposite... if they want to win their argument, they should establish such services to force through stricter regulations on illegal downloading.

There is also no regulation that prevents the establishment of such services... in fact there is one "Spanish Netflix" type system.. well there was last I looked a few months ago when it was launched...but the company only has the rights to old movies (2+ years) and tv series (2+ older seasons showed in Spain) and only if they demand a high price. The monthly charge is 10 euros for limited "unlimited viewing" of 5 year old content, and you have to pay extra to see the "new content", which is only 2 years old.. wtf? Yes it is the content providers that dictate the price not the company that wants to distribute the content.

No the problem is not the illegal downloading, because the illegal downloading is the symptom of the illness called out of touch entertainment industry. If people dont have access to content legally, then they will steal it to get access to it. It is pretty simple.



Yes you would.. trying to keep the status quo instead of evolving... typical conservative types. You have a lack of knowledge on how the music/movie/tv content providers are abusing people world wide and then crying foul.

Explain this... why was it that, Spotify could get clearance from EMI or Warner Brothers or Sony to allow free streaming with ads of music online in places like Sweden, Spain, UK, but not in the US, Denmark and Germany? That the only reason that it was eventually allowed in the US, was that Spotify had to change its business model and limit the amount of times that you could hear music for free with ads... in Europe, but not in the US? WTF? That took years to negotiate, all in the while services like Pandora poped up in the US and ONLY in the US.

Why is that even on Spotify, within the EU, some music is only available in some countries but not in others? It is not like you cant buy it in the shop or on iTunes or Amazon, but the music companies refuse to give Spotify access in said countries..... and you blame the people who download illegally when the companies act like this?

How about the movie A-Team, that was sent out on DVD in Russia, with English sound... 3 weeks before it hit the movie theater in the UK and Spain? Yea you betcha that movie was pirated big time..

Sorry but you can side as much with the entertainment industry as you want, but they, like you, are living the past and need to grow up and smell the sunshine and change their business models faster. They resisted online music so much that it almost killed the industry, and now they are resisting allowing more companies than Apple to distribute their music online and they are failing yet again.

Restricting access based on nationality and region is a very very bad idea in the Internet world.

Click to expand...

I wish there were more "available content" too. For example, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to access every great library at least in the United States. But I can't. And I can't get beyond rationalizations to this: "If people dont have access to content legally, then they will steal it to get access to it. It is pretty simple."

No, what it is is wrong.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

nota bene said:

I wish there were more "available content" too. For example, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to access every great library at least in the United States. But I can't. And I can't get beyond rationalizations to this: "If people dont have access to content legally, then they will steal it to get access to it. It is pretty simple."

No, what it is is wrong.

Click to expand...

But you can get access to the library of your choice. Your own Library of Congress is going more and more online with its material, and you can travel freely to Washington to access it. Point is, I cant travel freely (at least as freely as you, since I need to give my finger prints, reasons and financial information and warn the US authorities I plan to travel to the US ahead of time, and I am lucky since I dont need a visa) to Washington to access the content.

Plus much of the content in your local great library is available... in all other libraries as well. It is only the rare stuff that is highly limited, which btw rare stuff tend to be. Your argument is a bit... not so convincing

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

marduc said:

Having said that even IF they somehow pulled of this draconian plan it wold get circumvented, it might end up being an inconvenience to some, but the same people who are able to crack other forms of DRM would also be able to neutralize these little "computer bombs". Those who pirate then would not have this malicious bit of code on their machines, it would be the ones who have the game legitimately who would have these little "presents" hiding out in their systems. It would backfire, people would not trust the legitimate versions and would be more prone to attain a "clean" version through other channels.

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I'm reminded of the big scandal, some years back, over a copy-perversion scheme that Sony included on some audio CDs, where, if a CD bearing this scheme was mounted on a PC running a compatible version of Windows, it automatically installed malware on that PC. Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It sounds like what is being proposed here is a much, much, much worse version of the same basic idea.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, s

PeteEU said:

Morons if true. The problem is not the people who so call steal their stuff.. it is the fact that they steal it not because it is too expensive to buy, but that they cant get access to it because of out of date draconian copywrite laws.

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Some of the time for domestics, that is true. I would have been prompted to pirate, say, Tron, when Disney made it impossible (and the used market prices for *all* physical media formats of the film were outrageous-upwards of $100+) to buy it prior to the theatrical release of the sequel-only making it available once Legacy was released on DVD/Blu-ray/Download. Of course, matters were not helped in the rental department, as I discovered that in my town of 70,000 people no rental store had Tron. Making matters worse, not a single legitimate online provider for streaming & download content had the rights for Tron. Most of the time for domestics, it is the expense issue, which is almost entirely a lazy excuse. International viewing, absolutely, you're right.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

AliHajiSheik said:

At least you admit that there are laws and you begrudgingly admit they are being broken.

At least you are consistent in your belief that the public only has to want something in order to justify talking it. Price too high on a Rolls Royce? No problem, just take one for a test drive and don't return it. If the law says you can't? No problem, it is Draconian anyway. Steel away!

A right not defended is lost. I don't agree with this tactic, but I do agree with their right. If they want to charge $1000 for a movie or song, then that too is their right. As long as I am not forced to buy it.

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Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

PeteEU said:

But you can get access to the library of your choice. Your own Library of Congress is going more and more online with its material, and you can travel freely to Washington to access it. Point is, I cant travel freely (at least as freely as you, since I need to give my finger prints, reasons and financial information and warn the US authorities I plan to travel to the US ahead of time, and I am lucky since I dont need a visa) to Washington to access the content.

Plus much of the content in your local great library is available... in all other libraries as well. It is only the rare stuff that is highly limited, which btw rare stuff tend to be. Your argument is a bit... not so convincing

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I wouldn’t call scholarly sources “rare,” only generally unavailable except through subscription through a professional organization or via a university library, and even these aren’t going to subscribe to all of the, say, marketing journals because the cost is too prohibitive. Just FYI, public libraries generally don’t subscribe to the sources I’m interested in. A scholar at one institution is not going to be able to access the databases of another institution unless both institutions are members of a consortium, and I think that I should be able to access more than abstracts or TOCs.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

Great way to increase sales. :roll:

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

Not sure what your post is commenting on. Clarification?

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

PeteEU said:

It is not about price.. it is about access. If I lived in the US, I would have zero reason what so ever to pirate TV-series or even music or movies (DVDs). Oh I missed the last Big Bang Theory.. no problem, I can see it for free or very cheap online!

But because I choose to live outside the US, then I am not allowed to have Netflix type service, Hulu or similar, and my Tv stations takes weeks or months or even years to show my favorite TV show.

Now Netflix has come to certain European countries, but even then the content is years out of date and you only have access to stuff that has already been shown on local tv at some point in time. But most of Europe does not even have Netflix or similar services, and those that there are.. their content is years if not decades old. Why? There are plenty of companies who have tried... because the rights holders refuse to allow it. Spotify for example had a tough time getting into the US or even some European countries... why? Because the same rights holders that allowed it in some countries, refused it in others... wtf?

So frankly, the rights holders are bringing piracy on themselves by limiting access not only on price (not a major factor) but on nationality or region.. and that is living in the 1980s and not in the Internet world of the 21st century.

The rights holders could squash a lot of piracy by letting content online after it is aired in the US... at a price. I would be willing to pay 10 bucks a month to get access to my favorite CBS shows. But I cant. So I pirate them because I dont want to wait the weeks/months/years for it to come on local tv channels...

And then there is DVDs...the most idiotic thing ever. Not only cant you get new movies online, you have to buy a DVD, but the morons at the movie companies actually believe there are borders on the Internet, so they release DVDs in say Russia long before everywhere else... even before they are in the cinema in many countries, and then they are shocked that the movie is being pirated online? Morons.

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It sounds like you have stumbled on to a wonderful business opportunity. I hope it makes you fabulously wealthy and nobody steals it from you.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, s

ChuckBerry said:

Talk about Orwellian doublespeak. It's not the pirates that are criminals, it's those who are being stolen from that are the criminals.

Such efforts are doomed to failure because they are clearly too invasive. Private organizations inserting malicious code and indiscriminately disabling computers is clearly out of bounds.

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It probably can't work. But I disagree with your assertion that the people being stolen from are the criminals. If you don't buy a DVD, it's not the DVD manufacturer that doesn't get paid, it's the people without whom there would be no DVD to buy.

The worst argument I ever hear about CDs is that they are cheap to make. The actual disc is cheap. What's not cheap is the studio rental, the producers & engineers -- and all of that is before the actual artist makes anything. The reason the music industry keeps putting out **** music is that it might actually sell -- suburban teenage girls usually have bad taste in music. The real artists don't get a chance because of piracy.

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

marduc said:

In that case it is time to make some laws that do prevent this.

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Obviously the industry morons who say/believe that such efforts don't violate existing law need to do more homework.

What about the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act"?

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

Re: US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits,

only if it is legal for everyone to employ the same tactics against those companies that force advertisement on us.....