WTO Sanctioned Piracy

[kentonio]

So now we should get to dictate how music companies make their revenue because we're too ****ing cheap to actually pay for **** that we use?

So now we should lose any sleep over the record companies getting screwed, the same record companies who spent half a century getting rich off the hard work and creativity of bands who they exploited?

[regexcellent]

We should be losing sleep over the fact that people are having their property, property which in many cases contains their entire livelihood, stolen from them by a government in coordination with an international bureaucracy.

[kentonio]

Actually we shouldn't, the idea that this is actually going to change anything is pretty unrealistic. You think you can't get pretty much anything you want electronically right this second if you wanted? Pirate Bay just rang, they'd like to introduce you to 2003.

I work in an industry that is utterly dependent on selling our creative media, and if this kind of thing was a genuine threat it could very easily put me out of a job. Thing is, its not a threat and the arguments why it is are the same arguments the record companies and movie studios have been using since the days of VHS and cassette tapes.

Creative media has to roll with the times and explore new ways to earn revenue, or it dies and good riddance to it. You think it was a fair model when to get a song from a band that hadn't been released as a single, you had to spend $15 on the album? Surely being able to pirate everything should have made the music industry already go bust right?

Companies like Apple and Spotify have shown that the bulk of people honestly don't expect to pay nothing for something, but at the same times they aren't willing to get ripped off left, right and centre. Create a good business model, give customers a fair deal, and the future of creative media is safe as houses.

[Felch]

It looks like this is just tit for tat retaliation against the United States for screwing with Antigua's gambling business. I have no idea why America feels entitled to ban gambling in other countries, but I'm not surprised to hear that we do.

[Dinner]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/28/170466137/antigua-land-of-sun-sand-and-super-cheap-downloads

That's a report from NPR on the same topic. Apparently, it will be legal for anyone in the entire world to download stuff from servers in Antigua and they expect full legit copies of all music, movies, and software to go for ~$0.10 a download. MS Office? $0.10. Latest movie? $0.10 before it's even out on blu-ray. Every work ever by a given band? $0.10.

It was bound to happen sooner or later and the MPAA and RCAA have no one to blame but themselves because they had a chance to do it right however they simply refused to modernize and accept they weren't going to be able to hold on to their outrageous margins. Now it has been taken out of their hands and the financial costs to them will be many, many, many times worse than if they had gone along with dozens of other online sales options. To bad, so sad, now **** off and die.

[Guynemer]

Musicians are paid, as strictly an example, 50 million to record 3 CDs over 5 years. The End. The music industry gets a percentage for all blanks sold Googlethe Harvard law study, before you blow a gasket.

Yes. every band on every record label gets a FIFTY MILLION ****ING DOLLAR CONTRACT.

That is the STUPIDEST GODDAMN **** I HAVE EVER SEEN ON THIS ****ING FORUM.

Jesus ****ing Christ.

[Dinner]

It looks like this is just tit for tat retaliation against the United States for screwing with Antigua's gambling business. I have no idea why America feels entitled to ban gambling in other countries, but I'm not surprised to hear that we do.

Back in the Bush years Republicans banned most forms of online gambling for Americans and anyone using American banks or credit cards. Why? Because they're religious loons and that's what religious loons do. Remember that next time they try to claim they're the party of "small government".

[giblets]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/...heap-downloads

That's a report from NPR on the same topic. Apparently, it will be legal for anyone in the entire world to download stuff from servers in Antigua and they expect full legit copies of all music, movies, and software to go for ~$0.10 a download. MS Office? $0.10. Latest movie? $0.10 before it's even out on blu-ray. Every work ever by a given band? $0.10.

It was bound to happen sooner or later and the MPAA and RCAA have no one to blame but themselves because they had a chance to do it right however they simply refused to modernize and accept they weren't going to be able to hold on to their outrageous margins. Now it has been taken out of their hands and the financial costs to them will be many, many, many times worse than if they had gone along with dozens of other online sales options. To bad, so sad, now **** off and die.

They'll just have to adapt to the products they produce being worth approximately nothing on the market. Perhaps they'll "adapt" by going out of business.

[kentonio]

Did anyone actually read the whole article? They're only allowed to reclaim $21 million in damages via this method, plus they don't want to do it anyway because it would involve pissing off the US. It's symbolic, they're in negotiations over a settlement and it's pretty safe to say its never going to actually happen.

[MRT144]

How do you propose that the production of movies, software and music gets funded if nobody pays for it?

You have a limited view of piracy.

[Ben Kenobi]

If this is why we have Steam, *sigh*.

I hate Steam. I just want to be able to drive down to the store and buy a CD of a game that's mine. Have the actual hardcopy of it, TYVM.

[SlowwHand]

Yes. every band on every record label gets a FIFTY MILLION ****ING DOLLAR CONTRACT.

That is the STUPIDEST GODDAMN **** I HAVE EVER SEEN ON THIS ****ING FORUM.

Jesus ****ing Christ.

You know what? You're an idiot. It's quite apparent that you didn't read my reference. You decided screaming was the way to go. Very intelligent.

[dannubis]

His wife is an author that gets shafted by illegal downloads, so I understand his feelings.

However, the background noise coming from Kuci Jr and his sidekick twin Regsomething is really pathetic. ON the one hand they have no issues with illegal immigrants making below minimum wages for their hard labor, but when files are illegally downloaded, mayhem follows.

[Dr Strangelove]

So is the WTO saying that nations can't regulate their international commerce? Did the US single out Antigua? IIRC a numbr of Caribbean island nations run on-line casinos.

Currently gambling is regulated on a state level, but states may be unable to regulate on-line gambling because they don't have the right to regulate international commerce.

[Felch]

Back in the Bush years Republicans banned most forms of online gambling for Americans and anyone using American banks or credit cards. Why? Because they're religious loons and that's what religious loons do. Remember that next time they try to claim they're the party of "small government".

And during the Obama years absolutely nothing has changed. You know why? Because "Hope" and "Change" were lies.