Let's get something settled right away: 90% of what comes out of Hollywood is total shit. Being on screen does not qualify you to give expert opinion on anything (except maybe being on screen)! A great deal (and this is fact, look it up if you doubt it) of the "most popular" songs that are sung by young, pretty faces, and make their way to the tops of the charts, are written by one, overweight, post-middle-aged white man. (I've seen his house. Even though he doesn't, it looks like he lives in his mother's basement. Even as a millionaire, he's a perpetual basement dweller. Nothing against this guy, though.)
So why all the hate? I'm not hatin'. Haters gonna hate, but I ain't hatin. I ain't even mad! You know who is mad? Sony, the RIAA, the MPAA, and other groups like them. They like things like the DMCA and SOPA. It gives them (corporations and trade organizations), through the guise of government legislation, carte blanche, to jail people who share. Right now, they make the claim that sharing digital copyrighted material (downloading movies and music) is hurting their industry, even though independent research shows contrary. They then can have those people held financially and/or criminally responsible. If SOPA passes, and I shit you not, linking to a video of Justin Beiber dancing to songs by Usher, makes you a felon. Felons go to prison. Again, I'm not shitting you on this. Look it up.
But much of what I wrote was conjecture. Conjecture, because I didn't give any sort of citation to back up my claims. But I'm not taking the time to explain the history behind, and ins and outs, of the war on
Now that you've educated yourself on these things, we can converse. Side A has the entertainment industry against Side P (P stands for pirate. What does A stand for?) Back in the day, Side P got a hold of some CDs. The CDs tooks up a whole lot of space, so the nerds/geeks of Side P "ripped" their music CDs to their computer's hard drives. Since these Side P nerds and geeks were hardcore nerds and geeks, they made their material accessible to themselves at remote locations.
THEORETICAL EXAMPLE: I have some music, that I purchased and paid for, stored on my computer, and can access it, over the internet, when I'm using a computer at school or work. My bosses and/or teachers are totally cool with me listening to a CD while at work or in class, but this way, I don't have to lug those CDs back and forth, where they can get stolen, lost, broken, or melt if I leave them in my car. So far so good? THEORETICAL EXAMPLE: Some of my fellow hardcore nerds and/or geeks notice this, and do the same. Later, we compare lists and see that I have songs others don't, but want, and vice versa, so we share.
And now everything must come to a screeching halt. Remember Napster ten years ago? Or KaZaA? Well Napster was sued into oblivion by Side A, turned into a premium service, and faded away into obscurity. KaZaA was purchased and turned into a semi-commercial product, and infects downloads with all kinds of illegal stuff operated by Side A, i.e. Side A obtains a type of malicious software called a rootkit, puts it in the files you download, and uses them to obtain your personal information (illegal - computer fraud) in order to prosecute you. Meanwhile, skiddies use the backdoor created by the rootkit to steal your passwords and credit card info and uses your webcam to record you nude and then uses that for blackmail. And so it goes. LimeWire fell due to malware. Morpheus too. Even Sharaza was targeted, but fear not Side P! SourceForge hosts a project by the original founders of Shareaza called... Sharaza! It still works and is disease free.
Through all of this brief history I recounted lives the file sharing protocol known as bit-torrent. On Side P, person 1 has a file he wants to share. He creates a torrent tracker, and uploads it to a website. Person 2 clicks this link, and begins to download the file. As it's downloading, persons 3 through 50 click the link too, and are now downloading it from persons 1 through 50. Then persons 51 through ad nauseum do the same, so now the people downloading the files are now also guilty of uploading.
tl;dr
I told you all of that in order to ask you this: DOESN'T ANYONE REMEMBER FUCKING CASSETTE TAPES? Seriously? Some of you reading this are too young to really remember the cassette tape, but it was this little thing that you could really easily record to. They're cheap. The equipment to record is cheap. The equipment to play is cheap. You can record from the radio, other tapes, CDs, MP3s, or even those archaic 8-Tracks and vinyl records!
Many of you reading this have spent enough time in Akron to know that if you see Reggie in North Hill, on Exchange Street, or in Kenmore/Lane-Wooster, and he's carrying that black duffle bag, you know you could get some pirated CDs or DVDs from him for cheap. That is piracy. He's making money. (Oddly, I've never seen him in Middleburry, or down on Arlington) But when cassettes and VHS tapes were prominent, people would make tapes for each other for free. Sometimes, they'd just put their favorite songs from various artists, maybe sorted by genre, onto one cassette. They called it a "mixtape". It was an amazing time.
Person 1: Hey, did you get that new Offspring tape?
Person 2: Naw, I can't afford any new tapes right now.
Person 1: Oh, no sweat, man. I'll dub a copy for you. Pick it up when you come over.
Person 2: Oh cool. Thanks dude.
Person 2 would go over to Person 1's place. Person 1 would have the tape there waiting. Person 2 would converse with Person 1 and all the other people there. Sometimes the whole group would go out together. Sometimes there was pizza and beer. It was a face to face meeting, behind closed doors. If Person 1 didn't supply Person 2 with the goods, Person 2 didn't go out and buy said tape, Person 2 just didn't listen to it. Person 2 doesn't have the disposable income to go buy it. If Person 2 doesn't buy it, and Person 1 doesn't give or lend it to Person 2, then Person 2 doesn't know how good (or bad) the album is, and might go buy it when that disposable income does come along. A lose-lose situation for Side A.
My point is that it is the same now. People from Side P want to watch a movie or listen to a song, but they can't afford to go out and buy every DVD/CD/premium download they want, so they simply don't watch that movie or listen to that song, unless they download it for free. If Side A succeeds in killing off this "internet piracy", all they'll succeed in is lessening their audience. They're not going to make any more money by preventing those who cannot rent or buy their movies/songs from seeing them for free.
Unless, of course, those people go back to the days of the mixtape, but maybe with a more modern, Reggie-esqu spin.
Person 1: Hey man, did you see that new X-Men movie yet?
Person 2: Naw man. I'm not gonna blow twenty bucks on movie tickets or a DVD.
Perosn 1: Well shit, bro, I'll burn it for you when you come over.
Person 2: Cool. Thanks, bro!
So it's back to the behind-closed-doors-causal-attire-pizza-and-beer-rendezvous of the pirating underground. Wow! Cloak and dagger just got really exciting! But wait, there's more. Side A is trying to make that a thing of the past too!
'Outrageous!' you say. 'Impossible! How could they possibly do that?' The answer is: Gradually. Every buy a movie with a "digital copy" included? It works like this: You buy a DVD (or Blu-Ray disc, or whatever) and it comes with a code that allows you to download, for free, that exact same movie you bought to a limited number of electronic devices. The theory is that you can have it to play in your living room, but maybe also on your laptop or phone or tablet. You know, when you're away on business, but have that undying urge to watch Failure to Launch.
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| I see you! |
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| Did you take your Prozium? |
I smell the death of physical media. I smell the death of personal ownership. Maybe Orwell was right, but it's not Big Brother, but Big Entertainment, who will be encroaching into our private spaces.
Read this: Wikipedia: Sony BMG Copy Protection Rootkit Scandal
Have to be careful when selecting search terms.
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