Thoughts on the daftly named "War on Piracy".
The War on Piracy falls on its face.
The War on Piracy begins (what, again?)
Piracy hurts...corn growers?!
This is amusing to watch, because even if it got governmental power to stop pirates, it'd pretty much be a U.S Civil War for the most part.
Once you discount non-US shows like "Good News Week" and "Doctor Who", where do transmissions of American shows originate on the day of broadcast? Yup, America.
And following that logic, how does an American program get put online? Someone living there captures the broadcast, makes a video file and uploads it.
(Cause: Adverts between, during and over show.)
For films? If the file is made just after the American cinema release date, three guesses who went into a cinema with a video camera.
(Cause: High cinema pricing for the tickets, the cheap/nasty food and seats.)
For DVDs of films? Check the file upload against release dates. Uploaded just after US release of the R1 disc? Sure as hell wasn't France.
(Cause: Distance between each Region's release date and Region Lock making it near-impossible for people to *purchase* foreign DVDs for their own viewing unless they know how to unlock the region on their player.)
(I was going to buy the whole Batman cartoon series. Only Volume One came here. THREE YEARS BACK.)
Music is a little fuzzier, but not via services like iTunes - purchases from the American iTunes don't even work WITH a legitimate VISA card. I've tried!
(The only American company I can't purchase online or offline products with.)
All they do is nick a temporary US$1 to test your card repeatedly - temporary my arse - yet to get my cash back, and it made my bank lock my card off until I contacted them, and this was after the embarrassment of not being able to pay for my cooked meal, with cash in my account no less!
So if anything is iTunes only (or temporarily like that but isn't in worldwide release), and it's pirated, guess who did that.
(Even recent cult hit "Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog" is being pirated due to this business plan flaw.)
(Cause: iTunes implementing "separate regions" in online sales without letting the products be sold at each online store worldwide.)
So it'll be interesting to see what happens in the future if they keep this "War" up.
All it seems to be doing so far is creating a demand which apparently a lot of people are happy to supply. Some are greedy and force people to join websites to download, others do it for free since they think the companies are being dicks too.
Even if some magic cure is found stopping US piracy, all we need to do is wait until the other CDs/DVDs are released around the world. If the real deal is still filled with a shitload of ads (especially the glaringly brainless "You wouldn't steal a handbag!" anti-piracy crap you can't skip on a DVD you BOUGHT), who isn't going to pirate things?
(With TV, adverts between parts, fair enough, toilet break time. DVD rental ads? Maybe, IF it lowers the rental cost. All else? Useless. We went from VHS to DVD to escape ads, now we can barely fast forward the DVD ones!)
And to make up for the seriousness of this post, boingo, boingo, whoopsy, knickers!
^ "The I.T Crowd"'s take on the DVD anti-piracy ads! XD
Anyone got a take on Piracy themselves? Points of view, solutions, ideas? I'm curious.
The War on Piracy begins (what, again?)
Piracy hurts...corn growers?!
This is amusing to watch, because even if it got governmental power to stop pirates, it'd pretty much be a U.S Civil War for the most part.
Once you discount non-US shows like "Good News Week" and "Doctor Who", where do transmissions of American shows originate on the day of broadcast? Yup, America.
And following that logic, how does an American program get put online? Someone living there captures the broadcast, makes a video file and uploads it.
(Cause: Adverts between, during and over show.)
For films? If the file is made just after the American cinema release date, three guesses who went into a cinema with a video camera.
(Cause: High cinema pricing for the tickets, the cheap/nasty food and seats.)
For DVDs of films? Check the file upload against release dates. Uploaded just after US release of the R1 disc? Sure as hell wasn't France.
(Cause: Distance between each Region's release date and Region Lock making it near-impossible for people to *purchase* foreign DVDs for their own viewing unless they know how to unlock the region on their player.)
(I was going to buy the whole Batman cartoon series. Only Volume One came here. THREE YEARS BACK.)
Music is a little fuzzier, but not via services like iTunes - purchases from the American iTunes don't even work WITH a legitimate VISA card. I've tried!
(The only American company I can't purchase online or offline products with.)
All they do is nick a temporary US$1 to test your card repeatedly - temporary my arse - yet to get my cash back, and it made my bank lock my card off until I contacted them, and this was after the embarrassment of not being able to pay for my cooked meal, with cash in my account no less!
So if anything is iTunes only (or temporarily like that but isn't in worldwide release), and it's pirated, guess who did that.
(Even recent cult hit "Doctor Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog" is being pirated due to this business plan flaw.)
(Cause: iTunes implementing "separate regions" in online sales without letting the products be sold at each online store worldwide.)
So it'll be interesting to see what happens in the future if they keep this "War" up.
All it seems to be doing so far is creating a demand which apparently a lot of people are happy to supply. Some are greedy and force people to join websites to download, others do it for free since they think the companies are being dicks too.
Even if some magic cure is found stopping US piracy, all we need to do is wait until the other CDs/DVDs are released around the world. If the real deal is still filled with a shitload of ads (especially the glaringly brainless "You wouldn't steal a handbag!" anti-piracy crap you can't skip on a DVD you BOUGHT), who isn't going to pirate things?
(With TV, adverts between parts, fair enough, toilet break time. DVD rental ads? Maybe, IF it lowers the rental cost. All else? Useless. We went from VHS to DVD to escape ads, now we can barely fast forward the DVD ones!)
And to make up for the seriousness of this post, boingo, boingo, whoopsy, knickers!
Click to view^ "The I.T Crowd"'s take on the DVD anti-piracy ads! XD
Anyone got a take on Piracy themselves? Points of view, solutions, ideas? I'm curious.