Internet piracy is the scourge of the earth – at least that’s what Hollywood and the MPAA would have us believe. According to them, internet piracy is responsible for babies going hungry, families splitting up and studios going under (MGM, I’m looking at you). In fact, the US – nay, the world, would not be in one of the worst recessions of the past few decades if it weren’t for Joe Downloader and his illegal viewing of movies online.
Hollywood thinks they can’t fight this scourge on their own; they need the mighty arm of the United States Government to reach in and slap the offenders for them. I guess suing the individual downloaders wasn’t really getting the results they expected (duh) so now they are going after the websites that make the movies accessible.
According to Variety:
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York launched Operation in Our Sites, a concerted effort with Hollywood, to take down dot coms that offer firstrun movies and TV shows for download.”
“Initiative, unveiled by ICE assistant secretary John Morton and reps from the major studios, guilds and the Motion Picture Assn. of America has already seized the domain names of nine websites. They include Movieslinks.tv, Planetmoviez.com, ZML.com, Thepiratecity.org, Filespump.com, TVShack.net, Now-Movies.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. All had offered such pics as Iron Man 2, The A-Team, Sex and the City 2, Avatar, Lost and Scrubs.”
This is a completely different approach from what Voltage Pictures (the studio behind The Hurt Locker, which won this year’s Best Picture Oscar) is trying to do by suing 5,000 individuals who allegedly downloaded their movie using the file-sharing protocol BitTorrent.
Now, let me state right here that I do not condone the copying and sharing of copyrighted movies or music in any form. However, I also do not condone the use of the US Government and Homeland security and its resources (i.e. our tax dollars) to fight what is generally considered a civil matter. According to Copyright.gov:
“Copyright infringement is generally a civil matter, which the copyright owner must pursue in federal court.”
OK, even though I think it’s a stupid approach to the problem, Voltage Pictures is sort of doing it the right way… in court. I say “sort of” because for the moment I’m going to ignore the fact that to even bring their case to court, they are using the Department of Justice to strong arm Internet Service Providers into providing private user information associated with the 5,000 IP addresses they have.
And here’s a disturbing piece of news [emphasis mine]:
“The nine sites have been shut down and an official legal notice was posted on them, alerting users to the seizures. Agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations also seized assets from banks, PayPal, investment and advertising accounts, and executed four residential search warrants in several states for other online ventures distributing entertainment.”
It didn’t take Big Brother long to jump from investigating businesses to getting inside people’s homes. Excuse me if I find it a tad disconcerting that based on a claim by a Hollywood studio, Big Government can force their way into my home.
ICE also has jurisdiction in 44 countries and 100 special agents in 11 states, with some in the Netherlands – all working to keep us safe from internet movie pirates. That’s one heck of a concerted effort to bring down a civil offense. The way John Morton, ICE assistant secretary, and the major Hollywood studios were reacting you would think these websites were peddling child pornography.
Again, I’m not saying these sites didn’t deserve what happened to them or that they shouldn’t be shut down. What they are doing is against the law and the Hollywood studios whose copyrights have been infringed deserve to have their losses recouped; but do they deserve special treatment at the expense of taxpayer dollars to protect their bottom line?
Hollywood is actually playing some great politics with ICE because the department also keeps an eye out for “counterfeit pharmaceuticals, software, electronics and various products that threaten public health and safety.” In other words Hollywood pork-barreled their way into our pockets. Well played, sir!
It doesn’t help that Morton considers himself to be in a war, saying: “This battle won’t be won in the United States. We have to wage this war globally.” So we have the War on Drugs, the War on Terror (oops, I mean “the War on People Who Don’t Like Us and It’s Our Fault”) and now the War on Internet Piracy – why does this seem laughable to me? Are countries at risk of falling to a coup staged by the dreaded Internet Pirate? Are young children being exploited or radicals killing themselves and others all in the name of the almighty Internet Pirate?
As an interesting side note, according to Variety’s report, “Undercover investigators downloaded a number of newly released movies from the Web sites and their affiliates.” So it was necessary to go “undercover”? It’s a website login people. Heck, I login to iGoogle with something other than my name every day. I suppose that makes me “undercover,” too.
Now without fail, each and every time the topic of internet movie piracy comes up, the Hollywood stuffed shirts will throw out the line, “piracy is going to threaten the ability of the little guy to make a buck in the film industry.” First, when did Hollywood start caring about the little guy, and second, are we supposed to believe that all the people working on a film get paid AFTER the movie is released?
Kathy Garmezy, the associate executive director of government and international affairs for the Directors Guild of America (or the AEDGIDGA) said:
“The commercialization of online piracy makes it difficult for consumers to distinguish between legitimate and illegal downloads. If left unchecked, this illegal activity threatens the very ability of filmmakers to both earn a living and create the content that is enjoyed by billions around the world.”
Of course it does Kathy; that’s the company line when it comes to piracy and it’s getting played out. One of the only industries in the world that isn’t suffering from the current recession is the movie industry. There are jobs to be had right now, and every day more and more movies are getting the green light and moving forward. That means hundreds of new jobs per film and with the exception of MGM and The Weinstein Company (who both made very bad financial film investments), most studios are reaping the benefits of an audience during a recession.
The fact is that all the people working on a film get paid well before a film is finished and some hourly employees get paid during production. Just like any other company, there are contract employees and non-contract employees. The actors, directors, producers, sound guys, cinematographers and even the caterers are paid before the first frame ever hits the big screen, so I grow tiresome of seeing Hollywood constantly play the “what about the little guy” card.
The other thing that’s hurting Hollywood’s argument are the ridiculous and often inflated numbers pertaining how many times a film is downloaded and exactly how much that translates into monetary loss for them. One report will say “We’re losing 10 billion in potential revenue every year,” while another report will say “We’re losing 15 billion.” Just admit that an accurate number is close to impossible to ascertain, come up with a legitimate guess and stick to it. You might get more sympathy that way.
Going back to the monumental fiscal waste of ICE, they say they will continue to monitor “the web for pirates” and “will focus on pulling the plug on other distribution sites and digital content lockers that offer entertainment for free.” On the plus side, ICE says “it has no plans yet to go after and punish individuals that download such content.” Instead they will “focus on educating them that the practice is illegal and “a serious crime.”
While internet piracy is definitely illegal (and unethical, despite infinite rationalizations from those who do it), it is far from a serious crime and there are far more important topics to dedicate all that use of human and fiscal resources. Just off the top of my head:
- An oil spill the size of the state of New York in the Gulf of Mexico
- 10 Russian Spies on US soil
- Two hostile nations (Iran and North Korea) developing nuclear arms
- Entire governments going bankrupt (Greece)
- A 10% unemployment rate
There is a lot more happening in the world right now that warrants the attention of the US Government than whether a major Hollywood studio gets its additional $19.95 for a DVD purchase. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to watch season 5 of Lost on NetFlix. Source: Variety
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