We haven’t got the guts to go after real pirates off the coast of Malaysia, but we can go after old men and their grandsons. We’re tough.
JS Online: Movie downloads could cost Racine man up to $600,000 — This is rich. Here, in a nutshell, is everything that is wrong with the world. The MPAA must be ever so proud of itself. Good work boys. Go get ’em.
A Racine man who says he doesn’t even like watching movies, let alone copying them off the Internet, is being sued by the film industry for copyright infringement after his 13-year-old grandson downloaded four movies on their home computer.
The Motion Picture Association of America, on behalf of three major Hollywood studios, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Fred Lawrence, a 67-year-old retiree. The suit seeks as much as $600,000 in damages for downloading four movies over iMesh, an Internet file-sharing service.
The lawsuit comes after Lawrence, a former employee of Snap-on Inc. and seasonal worker for the City of Racine, refused a March offer to settle the matter by paying $4,000.
“First of all, like I say, I guess I’d have to plead being naive about the whole thing,” said Lawrence. He said his grandson, then 12, downloaded “The Incredibles,” “I, Robot,” “The Grudge,” and “The Forgotten” in December, not knowing it was illegal.
Lawrence said his grandson downloaded the movies out of curiosity. The family already owned three of the four titles on DVD, and his grandson deleted the computer files immediately, he said.
Found by Mad Dog mike
Hey, like the movie industry is so poor. They and the oil companies.
Lets give ’em 2 trilion dollars from the treasury.
Come on neocons – you like to give away big money to people that already have big money. Lets get behind this simple act of giving to those that have it all already.
Well, on the bright side, MPAA has pretty much no chance of winning such case; just another chance to embarass themselves.
Come think of it, probably their lawyer insisted on this so that they can have one more case to charge ridiculous fees from MPAA…
Did anyone happen to catch the Foxtrot comic strip that ran in the papers on Halloween? He had Jason and his friend going door to door in a “men in black” looking get-up. One had MPAA on his hat and one had RIAA on his hat. Too rich.
In case you didn’t see it, you can catch it here while it lasts……
http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/2005/10/31/
Even if the MPAA doesn’t win this case, which it won’t, it’s already enough to bring publicity to the fact that THEY’RE SUING! That’s all they want ‘us’ to know…
I agree, but when it comes to tvshow-piracy, I’m sure that if the tv-companies got their act together and faced the problem head on with releasing som kind of pay-per-episode survice, highdef, alot of people would turn their heads.
http://jveisdal.fatalt.org
What both the oil industry and the MPAA need is an anti-trust proctoscope exam. In both cases the distribution means are so integrated vertically with the “refiners” that there is no possibility of competition. And there is no possibility of equal justice for the individual against these organizations that prey on the public.
Not likely to happen in theis political climate – Say did those sociopathic tobacco execs who lied before congress ever get punished?
my point exactly.
So long as the courts alow themselves to be used by special interests to create new interpretations of law, we will get these punitive lawsuits. Just providing a defense against this kind of deliberately frivilous lawsuit will provide the punishmnent that the MPAA seeks. Unfortunately there is no organization confronting the massive deep legal pockets of the MPAA. The ACLU was envisioned to protect the civil liberties of the masses against cporporate bullies but seems focused elsewhere now.
What we can do is inform the motion picture companies that we have decided to pass on supporting this tyrany – by avoiding their products. If enough people do this, and enough of them just stop paying for movies in theatres or on DVD – they will discover that these malicious preditory practices are counter productive. From their viewpoint, it is just about money and that is the only way they will change their tactics.
If we look around us – we are surrounded by bullies in government, oil, insurance, banking, and entertainment. This happens because we give them the power to control us. We need to stop by voting with our wallets, and making an issue of this with our representitive government.
Boycott the movies for 6 months, stop buying records – find something else to do with your time and money and 2 things may happen.
1. the MPAA may get new management and redirection in their mission
2. we may change our buying habits permanently.
The last would be a good historical precedent and it is just the scare these bullies need.
I don’t understand this exactly. If they own the movies, how can they be sued for downloading them? They may just want an electronic “copy” of the movie so that they can put it on a media server for personal/backup use and don’t want to rip it themselves. Isn’t this (currently) legal for “backup” purposes? It seems to me that the MPAA/RIAA have to prove that you don’t have a valid “license” to the material before they actually have a case to sue you. The only questionable aspect is whether you have the right to “distribute” a movie without the “downloaders” proving that they have a right to the content which would require IMO that they prove the material had been distributed illegally and intentionally or profitably especially since this isn’t a service that the industry currently offers but could to justify the intent of downloaders who didn’t use their service.
It would be nice to know how many systems in our society are NOT set up to protect the bully. It’s indemic.
It seems to me that the MPAA/RIAA have to prove that you don’t have a valid “license” to the material before they actually have a case to sue you.
I don’t think that is true. I have read discussions of the assertion that there is legal statues and/or court decisions allowing “backup” copies of music and computer software – but not movies.
All videos still display that warning about viewing only, with no copying allowed. Passing a copy to others is not part of that “license”.
I hope the case is thrown out – and I am glad they are getting such bad press for even bringing the suit – but that doesn’t mean the law isn’t written to support their claim.
So what exactly is the MPAA supposed to do about people downloading movies? Just ignore it and let everyone steal?
From this story and from a previous TWiT episode, I get the feeling that you don’t like Malaysia very much. I’ll be happy to be your tour guide the next time you’re here.. and you don’t have to go to those pirated CDs shop in shopping malls if you don’t want to. Cheers 😉
estacado
Penang, Malaysia.
I love how the blog entry and article make a point of showing the guy is old and retired. Are we supposed just assume the elderly are incapable of knowing what’s right and wrong? Are they immune from the law?
We won’t know the whole story until the trial or whatever happens. However, stop with the sympathy ploy.
Quote: “So what exactly is the MPAA supposed to do about people downloading movies?”
A couple of things would work like providing the service themselves for people who want media servers and charging a fair price (ex. iTunes). You can easily destroy criminal activity by not making it very profitable and worth the effort and risk. Also, they need to look at the option of integrating ad content into the film and/or media.
They need to quit treating “cultural” material that is easily duplicatable as a “one-of-kind” rare element that deserves a pricing scheme that is perceptively inflated especially considering all the restricted uses that is put on the material; not to mention, the reduced quality level of the material to fit on the media with which it is released.
The facts that the entertainment industry must face can be shown by the prohibition of alcohol. Restricting or outlawing only serves to create higher quantities of crime by making things more valuable. How many people do you know that have a still in their house to produce liquor? It was common when the stuff wasn’t cheap and easy to get but now almost everyone buys their liquor. The intense lobbying that the industry is doing to restrict consumers for greater profits is only serving to increase the amount of “criminal” activity. The introduction of iTunes has supported this fact as many people who would have ordinarily “stolen” the media through downloading have now become purchasers because the option has become available at a “reasonable” cost and quality.
BTW, the desire to get EVERYONE to pay is unrealistic at any cost and not justification for the extreme tactics that are being used by the industry. IMO, they either need to Lead, Follow or just get out of the way of technological progress.
Also, they need to look at the option of integrating ad content into the film and/or media.
Oh please no! Ads during my movies? I paid for this stuff. I don’t want commercial breaks during it! It’s already bad enough that we have commercials on cable TV and at the beginning of the movies. The last thing we need is more ads.
I think a pay service to download the movies would probably solve most of the problem. However, it is slightly less feasible due to the large amounts of bandwidth needed to transfer the movie files. It will happen eventually, but not for a little while.
So if you don’t like the price they’re charging, that makes it OK to steal it? As a practical point you’re right that it would reduce crime if you reduce the cost. Seems to me they are right to go after anyone they can catch, to make others less likely to do the same.
I was told by a friend that in Bollywood(Indian Hollywood), movie makers release DVD versions of new movies about a week or so after the movie is released in cinemas. Instead of trying to fight with movie pirates, movie makers try to make their money as fast as they can and flood the market with their own original DVDs instead of letting pirates do it.
Good way of fighting piracy maybe? Beat the pirates at their own game??
Lavi
Looks like the MPAA and RIAA are in a race to find out who can piss off the public the most. Both have sued grannies and grandpas to show the public they’re not going to “take it”. (Of course, the RIAA promised us cheap CDs years ago, but, hey, who’s counting? I think $20 in entirely reasonable when it costs a couple of bucks to stamp a CD, don’t you? That doesn’t encourage piracy at all, does it?) Now, after this embarassment, we find out that the MPAA wants to work towards making Fair Use illegal:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004106.php
In responce to AB CD, No argument about the right or wrong of ilegal downloading. But this is an issue about bullys strongarming the little guy into setteling out of court for large sums of money and in most cases thier lifes savings, and about the desire for excessive control of the media files. It is wrong and is a far greater wrong than the downloading of movie or music files that are usualy at a far less quality than a purchased DVD or CD. It is time for the American justice system (is such a thing exists) to step in and impose a fine penality system or a cap on settlements. Consumers won this battle years ago when the VCR was introduced, but if the simplified mind set you expressed on the topic prevails we stand to loose more civil liberties to the evil recording industry.
What liberty is it that’s being lost? The freedom to make illegal copies?
No of course not, just the right to be treated fairly and pay a penalty that fits the crime, rather than some entertainment exec’s idea of imagined damages or losses. And the right not to be bullied out of your lifes savings over it. Also to lesson the strangle hold the entertainment industry wants to force on all of us who wish for fair use and the ability to make copies for either backup or compatability with other forms of media. I am not advocating piracy at least not for profit, but I feel one should be able to make a backup or place a copy on a laptop or yes give a copy to a friend rather than let them borrow your master copy. This has been going on for decades in one form or another ever since recordable media has been conceived and the movie and recording industry has always thrived regardless it is no different today. At lest let the punishment fit the crime. Fine him $100 it is far more value than the avi files are worth. America needs to revamp it’s legal system so that the average Joe has some protection from Lawyers with deep pockets wanting to set an example.