ITV Pays $30M For Controlling Stake In ‘Hatfields … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Anchorman 2′ 
2ND UPDATE: Charlie Sheen Fired Selma Blair From … 
Time Warner Cable Sued For Passing Lakers-Dodgers Costs On … 
Jonah Hill Signs For Management With LBI 
TOLDJA! ‘Dumb And Dumber To’ Proves No-Brainer … 
Salma Hayek’s Animated Passion Project ‘The … 
Relativity Moves Scott Cooper’s ‘Out Of The … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Lego Movie’ 
Comedy ‘I Didn’t Do It’ Gets Series Order … 
Liv Tyler To Co-Star In Damon Lindelof’s HBO Pilot … 
DreamWorks Animation Launches Effort To Re-Position Itself … 
‘Pacific Rim’ Sequel In Planning Stages, … 
Legendary “Down To Handful” Of Studio Suitors: … 
UPDATE: Dan Harmon Apologizes For Comments Slamming … 
Deadline Expands: Hires Washington Post Journalist Lisa De … 
MGM & BermanBraun Sign TV Production Deal, First-Look … 
EMMYS: ‘Big Bang Theory’s Science 
‘Client List’ Season 3 Pickup In Limbo Over … 
Amazon Orders Cop Drama Pilot Based On Michael … 
Lionsgate Acquires Pulitzer Prize Winner ‘Devil In … 
Should The Feds Block Online Pirates? Lobbyists Intensify Debate Over New Bill
Congress’ mailboxes are filling up fast with letters from both sides of the fight over the Stop Online Piracy Act, which the House introduced last week. The legislation, which would empower the government to block overseas website that traffic in copyrighted content, is pitting content owners who want to protect their intellectual property against tech companies who fear the power granted to shut down sites would be too vast and could harm the Web economy. Today, the MPAA — whose chairman Chris Dodd urged support for the bill in an industry speech Wednesday — put out a statement touting the support for SOPA from the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Fire Fighters, among other groups not usually associated with the entertainment industry. “The preparedness and safety of our members depend on sound, reliable equipment,” FOP National President Chuck Canterbury said in his group’s letter to lawmakers. “Counterfeit batteries, gloves, brake pads, and other equipment put us and the public at risk. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals, tooth paste, and footwear put our seniors and our children at risk. Organized gangs use these profits from counterfeit DVDs to fund other criminal enterprises and fuel violent crime in our communities here at home.”
Meanwhile, technology companies are gathering on the other side of the issue. In a letter to Congress, interest groups NetCoalition, the Consumer Electronics Association, and the Computer and Communications Industry Association today urged another approach to curbing online theft. They argue that “HR 3261 puts lawful U.S. Internet and technology companies at risk by creating new liabilities, opening the door for vague new technology mandates, imposing significant costs on small businesses, and would create a new unprecedented private right of action regime for intellectual property.”
Loading ...
“Organized gangs use these profits from counterfeit DVDs to fund other criminal enterprises and fuel violent crime in our communities here at home.”
Really? Gangs are bootlegging Puss In Boots to fund their gun supply?
Yeah I couldn’t believe they thought this was a valid point. If the crips open up a lemonade stand, I would support it. Better than selling slightly more frowned upon things like, I don’t know, guns, meth, and human beings. By their logic wouldn’t selling bootleg DVDs to fuel criminal enterprises ultimately result in LESS criminal activity?
Also, how many bootleg copies of Twilight does it take to buy a glock?
Online piracy is about as harmful to the industry as mix-tape cassetes were to music. The greed is masked as moral outrage.
What the industry fails to recognize is this: those people who downloaded your film were NEVER going to shell out $12 for your 3D-crapfest.
Doesn’t feel good when the people stick it to you, does it?
You are an idiot. You think NOBODY who pirates a movie would pay if they had too? It’s not greed, it’s called making a living, and some of us do it an honest way. It’s cheap bastards like you who think you are entitled to entertainment for free for some moronic reason. Get over yourself and pay Red Box $1.20 instead of acting like the self-righteous prick you are. If it’s crap, don’t pirate it, and don’t pollute the rest of the human race with your warped sense of self-entitlement.
I’m all for stemming piracy. I’m not for literally destroying the internet to do so. If it comes down to a bill like this, that asks you to side with entertainment or the future of the internet, I’ll take the latter every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
It’s like we hear so often: right idea, piss poor execution. This shuts down Google, Twitter, Facebook, and hundreds of thousands of other sides on day one, if interpreted to the letter of the law (and what’s the point of the law if you have to interpret any other way.) It also puts consumer privacy and legal action into the hands of the accuser sans even a requirement for count hearings let alone an actual conviction.
You want to hand over the entire future of the internet to the interpretation of multinational corporate conglomerates? Have fun then. I, for one, have no such interest.
AC, if you really believe what you’re typing, you’re either
1) Ignorant of what is in the bill – it’s available to read online, btw
2) A hysterical type… Convinced that the sky is falling and everybody’s out to get you.
3) Illiterate.
You misrepresent the legislation. Either you haven’t read it, or you misunderstand it.
The bill will pass, and it is 5 years overdue.
hahaha. The funny thing is, you haven’t read the bill at all. The bill gives the government the power to literally pull a website off the DNS listing for NOT DOING ENOUGH TO STOP PIRACY. What is “doing enough to stop piracy”? No one knows, it’s not defined in the bill. If any website that relies on UGC doesn’t institute an upload-by-upload monitoring system, they could be taken down. If a social networking site allows its users to post hyper-links to potentially infringing sites, it could be taken down. And once a site is taken down, the site owner must go through a 2-week process to petition a court to put the site back up, which the rights-holders (not the content producers, mind you) can immediately petition to have taken down again. Even if the site is cleared of the allegations of infringement, they have no way to file for compensation of revenue lost while the site was down due to a wrongful accusation of hosting infringing material. The bill is essentially a doom-bringer to legitimate online businesses that rely on user-generated content.
This has nothing to do with the age-old content publishers v. content producers debate. It has everything to do with Congress not understanding how the internet works at a fundamental level.
Online piracy is about as harmful to the industry as mix-tape cassetes were to music.
Ridiculous.
What the industry fails to recognize is this: those people who downloaded your film were NEVER going to shell out $12 for your 3D-crapfest.
Look at you desperately trying to rationalize your freeloading. What a joke. Grow up you self-entitled child.
“What the industry fails to recognize is this: those people who downloaded your film were NEVER going to shell out $12 for your 3D-crapfest.”
He’s right, deal with it. I paid $24 to see Drive in theaters twice. There’s no way you’re getting me to watch Transformers 3 unless its for free.
Just like every industry your product’s profits should be determined by the quality of the product.
So it goes.
This legislation would give the government the right to put Youtube stars like Justin Bieber in jail for copyright infringement. I’m all for it.
Sam,
You forget, there are smaller independent filmmakers who have been virtually eliminated because of online piracy. Small films that get stolen have zero chance of turning a profit on DVD, and when a small filmmaker spends years of effort to build a small bubble of publicity, only to have the vast majority screen his small film on bittorrent for free, that filmmaker might never work again, and his investors lose their investment, making it harder for others to raise capital. It’s a cycle that has decimated independent film production over the last 5 years.
I’m all for anything that will somehow try to protect this important independent segment of the arts.
Johnathan, do you have any examples of independent filmmakers that has been affected or virtually eliminated by online piracy?
Thank you Johnathan; see my comment below as an example of such a filmmaker. You have no idea what an awful feeling it is to see someone else selling your tiny film (years out of your life) and be able to do nothing about it.
I don’t know. Never watched a pirated movie in my life. There must be a fair amount of interest to STEAL a movie!
I don’t know. Never watched a pirated movie in my life. Must be a fair amount of interest to STEAL a movie!
The largest consumer of bootleg DVDs is the US military stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Haji-Vision cheap-o discs are the dirty Pentagon secret since you’re not allowed to bring them back when you return from a tour of duty.
I used to think video piracy was just a fly in the “Big Studio’s” ointment, a tiny problem hurting no one but those anonymous stockholders who might get a few thousand dollars less in profits. Hey, a few broke kids watch a few free films. I thought the complaints about piracy were exaggerated, a big to do over nothing.
Boy was I in for a surprise.
I have a different perspective on piracy now, as the producer (and part financer ) of a $600,000 indie that was pirated internationally before we had even sent our legally licensed deliverables to our cable outlets and to Canada. I’ve been contacted by people all over the world – from India to China to Saudi Arabia – who saw our film before it was even out of theaters. Not one person – not us, nor our legitimate distributors, nor any of the outstanding and dedicated actors who killed themselves for scale on this passion project – has made a cent on this film EXCEPT international pirates, who seem to be doing quite a brisk business with it. These pirates blatantly advertise on the internet and on TWITTER and there’s nothing we can do about it. I’ve now spoken to dozens of other indie filmmakers who have literally lost the ability to make ANY money from their movies because of pirates. We’re talking people who are working for scale, not big studio moguls, people. This is for real. It’s really, really stealing.
How the hell did they get a hold of it in the first place? Do you have any idea?
Melissa, can you tell us which movie that was?
Sorry Melissa, but if you wanted to make any money you guys could have tried to make a better movie.
White Irish Drinkers was ho-hum at best. A perfect example of not wanting to shell out hard-earned money on tripe.
And judging from your imdb page where you helped produce My Big Fat Greek Wedding, I think you’re gonna be A-O-K.
So you didn’t like it.
Should be used to it by now, but always stunned at the freedom people feel to be rude and gratuitously hateful when writing anonymously online under a pseudonym.
it’s difficult to stop piracy in mexico, where the cartels are running it.
just accept reality and move to television and cable.
Blocking web-pages will never stop people from getting access to pirated media. It doesn’t matter what people think about pirated material, trying to block or enforce this just isn’t going to change anything. It will not make people stop downloading, they will find another way. It will not increase the revenue for companies. It will not put food on the table for anyone working in the media industry.
What needs to be done is to look over how media is delivered. With the global infrastructure these days, we cannot separate release dates for different countries. We cannot wait for plastic DVDs to be manufactured and shipped. As soon as the producer is satisfied with the product, it should be made available for purchase digitally, over the internet, smooth, fast and reliable. If it is easy, then people will pay.
What the lobbyists never understand is the ease of use that these pirate sites provide. Just “Google” for anything you feel like watching, and ten minutes later you are munching popcorn watching the film in High-Def with 5.1 surround sound.
Now why can’t there be a legal way to do just that? That people can pay for? No matter which country they live in?
What is shocking about the bill is that it isn’t balanced at all, and is incredibly vague. Yes, we need laws to protect the viability of the industry, but filmmakers also need to adjust to the realities of the market and technology. We don’t have to kill one industry to save another.
This legislation is absolutely insane. There is zeo justification for it to exist on the basis of any potential crime. If you ranked crimes to protect citizens from copyright infringement is like #5000.
The concept that the government would have the power to do it is absurd. The idea that entertainment industry is able to buy and bully such legislation is worse. It is so bad it makes me actually want to go and pirate stuff.
This is a big issue for me as it relates to those of you in the entertainment business. I realize your livelihoods are predicated on these copyrighted works but that does not justify some of the abhorrent behavior by the likes of the MPAA over the years. I hear nothing from the people in Hollywood on the way they act. Yet if this same tactics were used in other industries outdoubtedly those in entertainment would have something to say.
Why wouldn’t people be championing such extreme legislation to block all of Nigeria from the US.
I would add that the legislation is technologically ignorant it would not even accomplish their fascist goals.
This is chilling legislation that would have a profound and negative impact. It is a horrible idea and I hope nobody supports it
It’s called karma.
Hollywood and the music industry have spent the last few decades promoting whatever feels good over morality, and encouraged people to stick it “to the man.” Guess what? This is the very behavior Hollywood and the music industry promoted.
Take a look at some interesting facts and statistics:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/piracy-problems-us-copyright-industries-show-terrific-health.ars
Quote from the article:
“Pity the poor people who work in the US “copyright industries.” Battered by a decade of digital piracy and facing even more of it thanks to cheap computers, fast Internet, P2P file-sharing, and online file lockers, the US creative industries teeter on the verge of collapse. You can tell because the industry:
* Pays better than most American jobs
* Has outperformed the US economy through a horrific recession
* Sells record-setting amounts of product overseas, earning more foreign revenue than the entire US food sector or US pharmaceutical companies
Things are going so “badly” that a major new report commissioned by copyright holders says that these “consistently positive trends solidify the status of the copyright industries as a key engine of growth for the US economy as a whole.”