Pirate Bay trial starts...

[Neil]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7892073.stm

[MinionZombie]

I always find it funny that these big media companies think that every single download is a lost sale - bullshit says I - I guarantee you that a lot of people download stuff they'd never have any intention of buying, or even renting ... and then I bet there's a significant amount of stuff, by a large number of downloaders, that gets downloaded but never watched/listened to. No doubt there's a problem for the big companies - but it's only to an extent - and part of the whole problem is from them themselves, i.e. pumping out music which is awful, or crapping out movies which are absolute garbage (e.g. "insert vague genre here Movie"). And in terms of piracy - why not put some serious effort into those street vendors who sell knock off dvds - they're actually making a profit on the crap they peddle, whereas a place like The Pirate Bay only makes money through advertising and/or t-shirts and the like. The thing with downloading online is that it's easy to do - and iTunes has proved to be a popular way of accessing media online, and a bunch of people use that - so these movie companies etc need to get off their arse and work out a proper system with which to deliver their content digitally directly into people's homes. Although once you download via their official service you should be allowed to keep it - none of that iPlayer wank where it deletes itself after a month or one viewing. The people want things cheap as possible, and as easily accessed as possible. But even then - you're always going to have a problem of piracy, it's just about reducing the current level to more palatable means - and because the companies are far more interested in suing people, rather than going with the flow and seeing how they can profit on a new trend, the issue of online piracy is here to stay until they get off their arse and essentially come up with 'iTunes for movies'. ... Just some thoughts about it all, off the top of my head.

[krakenslayer]

I always find it funny that these big media companies think that every single download is a lost sale - bullshit says I - I guarantee you that a lot of people download stuff they'd never have any intention of buying, or even renting ... and then I bet there's a significant amount of stuff, by a large number of downloaders, that gets downloaded but never watched/listened to. No doubt there's a problem for the big companies - but it's only to an extent - and part of the whole problem is from them themselves, i.e. pumping out music which is awful, or crapping out movies which are absolute garbage (e.g. "insert vague genre here Movie"). And in terms of piracy - why not put some serious effort into those street vendors who sell knock off dvds - they're actually making a profit on the crap they peddle, whereas a place like The Pirate Bay only makes money through advertising and/or t-shirts and the like. The thing with downloading online is that it's easy to do - and iTunes has proved to be a popular way of accessing media online, and a bunch of people use that - so these movie companies etc need to get off their arse and work out a proper system with which to deliver their content digitally directly into people's homes. Although once you download via their official service you should be allowed to keep it - none of that iPlayer wank where it deletes itself after a month or one viewing. The people want things cheap as possible, and as easily accessed as possible. But even then - you're always going to have a problem of piracy, it's just about reducing the current level to more palatable means - and because the companies are far more interested in suing people, rather than going with the flow and seeing how they can profit on a new trend, the issue of online piracy is here to stay until they get off their arse and essentially come up with 'iTunes for movies'. ... Just some thoughts about it all, off the top of my head. Yeah, I pretty much agree with that. Before I download anything, I always ask myself: "Am I willing to pay full retail price for this title?" If the answer is "yes", because it's reasonably priced and/or a high quality product, I will go out and buy it because it's good to support the artists, and it's often quicker to just go to the shops and pick it up than wait half a day for it to download. Plus if it's software, it's easier to use online and you get tech support, patches, etc... If the answer is "no", because it's too expensive and/or I'm not convinced the title is of sufficient quality, then I have no moral issues with downloading it; the producers are not losing my money because I would not be buying their product anyway if I didn't download it.

[MoonSylver]

I always find it funny that these big media companies think that every single download is a lost sale - bullshit says I - I guarantee you that a lot of people download stuff they'd never have any intention of buying, or even renting ... and then I bet there's a significant amount of stuff, by a large number of downloaders, that gets downloaded but never watched/listened to. No doubt there's a problem for the big companies - but it's only to an extent - and part of the whole problem is from them themselves, i.e. pumping out music which is awful, or crapping out movies which are absolute garbage (e.g. "insert vague genre here Movie"). And in terms of piracy - why not put some serious effort into those street vendors who sell knock off dvds - they're actually making a profit on the crap they peddle, whereas a place like The Pirate Bay only makes money through advertising and/or t-shirts and the like. The thing with downloading online is that it's easy to do - and iTunes has proved to be a popular way of accessing media online, and a bunch of people use that - so these movie companies etc need to get off their arse and work out a proper system with which to deliver their content digitally directly into people's homes. Although once you download via their official service you should be allowed to keep it - none of that iPlayer wank where it deletes itself after a month or one viewing. The people want things cheap as possible, and as easily accessed as possible. But even then - you're always going to have a problem of piracy, it's just about reducing the current level to more palatable means - and because the companies are far more interested in suing people, rather than going with the flow and seeing how they can profit on a new trend, the issue of online piracy is here to stay until they get off their arse and essentially come up with 'iTunes for movies'. ... Just some thoughts about it all, off the top of my head.

[SRP76]

Fuck 'em. I don't see any record company execs starving to death. If it comes right down to it, I don't need music in my life. So, they won't be making money off me regardless. As for other forms of media, that's what the library is for. No dickhead is going to tell me I can't use my library card.

[Danny]

normally ill download a few tracks and buy the album if i like it.

[EvilNed]

I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that currently (And ESPECIALLY when this charge was first filed, two years ago) the prosecution had no legal chance whatsoever. There are no laws to support it, seeing as Sweden do not have laws to prevent Torrent-downloading. The Pirate Bay does not indulge in either uploading or downloading, which is illegal in Sweden (however, downloading was not illegal two years ago when the prosecution began it's work). Add to that, the whole thing is based on the swedish police illegaly confiscating computers and files two years ago with a badly prepared court order. And it was a utter failure, considering The Pirate Bay was only out for maybe a day or two, after which the servers were simply located to the Netherlands - where it's legal. (Of course it is... The Netherland laws are basicly based on what's illegal everywhere else, is legal there. ) Anyway, hopefully the prosecution will fail. It's a matter of pride here in Sweden, which over the last few months (with the new government) is quickly turning into something more akin to 1984. We got our own "Patriot Act" here a few months ago, which was highly criticized by everyone and totally unnecessary. Norway is even suing Sweden in the European Union Court for breach against human rights. And I say "Go Norway, show them right wings in office who's boss!". Also, the prosecutor in this case doesn't even understand how torrent-downloading works, which probably makes him easy pickings for the Pirate Bay's own lawyer, who's sole job it is to defend against accusations such as this. This trial is a debacle and I hope the state of Sweden learns a valuable lesson regarding personal rights... And in two more years, this government will be OUT, OUT, OUT on the streets are replaced by the more worker-friendly Social-Democratic party. EDIT. I'd like to add that I normally steer clear of pirating issues, because I have no clear stance on it. But this trial is very much a trial of the People vs. the Government/Megacorporations. So I root for the people, of course.

[Usumgal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7892073.stm If they're found guilty then Google could be found guilty of the same thing. Technically they are a search engine! But you'll never hear of Google being charged.