Movie Studios Next to Sue Pirate Bay in Latest Act of Futility

A few months ago, one of the larger and better known sites to index torrent files, the Pirate Bay, was successfully sued by a group of music industry types for all sorts of copyright violations resulting in large fines and possible prison sentences.

Of course, this has done nothing to curb music piracy since the Pirate Bay is only one of literally hundreds of sites providing the EXACT SAME links to potentially infringing torrent-files.  In addition to, oh, I dunno, Google and Bing, some of these sites include Mininova, SumoTorrents, Demonoid, Thunderbytes, IsoHunt and, no kidding, hundreds more.

Now comes word that the movie studios are going after the Pirate Bay:

Columbia Pictures, Disney Enterprises, Universal Studios (NYSE:GE) and 10 others are demanding the site’s operators be fined and prevented from distributing TV-series including “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” and films such as “Batman.”     LINK

Now, a huge percentage of TV piracy is due to FANS of the show living in regions that do not broadcast current episodes.  This piracy is not an act of protest against the show but a major show of love, of a willingness to do whatever it takes to get the latest episode.  You’d think studios would want to figure out how to meet the needs of these super-fans instead of trying to hinder them but that would be far too forward-thinking for this dying Industrial Age model of doing business.

While one might argue that suing the Pirate Bay sends a message to other sites, this same thinking has done nothing to slow the rate of music piracy and force a natural evolution of the industry.  Film and TV is next, whether they like it or not.  In the meantime, they are going to waste millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours trying to shut down the Pirate Bay, after which nothing will have changed but their bank balance.

Apple Buys BitTorrent’s Bad Press

Engadget is reporting on Apple latest wacko move blocking a new iPhone app:

This time the company’s rejected Maza’s Drivetrain, an app that allows users to remotely control the Transmission Bittorrent app, because “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights.” Right, “this category of applications,” apparently meaning any app that has anything to do with Bittorrent at all.

For those still in the dark, BitTorrent is a file-transfer protocol that allows users to easily share digital content.  The challenge for those involved in trying to develop and expand upon this extremely useful and effective protocol is that it has been, it seems, inextricably linked to web piracy since torrent sharing sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova host links to both legal and copyprotected content.

Apple’s move to block this application is just one in a long line of potentially damaging decisions by Apple as it tries to police how people use their iPhones.  What’s so absurd is that there isn’t another computing platform I can think of that so strictly tries to control the actions of its users.

Imagine if you get a PC and then discovered you could only buy software from a single maker and they only made software they thought was “acceptible” to them – so you, an adult who has completely purchased the computer can no longer buy violent videogames or eBooks with explicit sex. That would be insane but so far iPhone users are accepting that deal.

How long will Apple be able to keep jail-breakers at bay as more unapproved apps make it to the pirate sites?\

LINK

Pirates Make Top Gear the Top Torrent. So…

I find the weekly list of top downloaded TV torrents fascinating.

Last week the top three shows were TOP GEAR, WEEDS and STARGATE ATLANTIS.

Unlike the classic Neilson numbers, the torrent list is much more international.  It also clearly has a bent toward a younger, more tech-savvy audience.  However, one would be wrong to ignore how important these types of fan can be to a show that is not viewed as traditionally popular at a given network.

The trick for the networks is to figure out how to lure that crowd away from the pirated torrents and toward their own streams.

Of course, that would mean real innovation and change so don’t expect anything soon.

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