This country is Barkin Mad

[pseudonym]

Went to the cinema yesterday,while waiting for the main feature and watching endless crap adverts one in particular caught my eye, F.A.C.T ( Federation Against Copyright Theft) spouting on about how it's a crime to copy this film etc etc, ok it's against the law,the bit that got me was i quote Film piracy in the UK is a real crime, punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment up to ten years yeah, you can go out get pissed knock a kid off he bike and kill him and get less, these scummers got five years for this, where the justice?

Couple who 'switched identity of twin babies' after abusing one them are jailed following cover up | Mail Online

 

[vegster]

One of the worst offences I know of that went unpunished was that of the producers of " Letters to Juliet " for actually releasing this sad drivel.

Nailing 'em up is too good for them !

 

[Biscuit]

 

[beorhthelm]

i agree wholeheartedly with the protection of copyrigted works, but the FAST and anti-priracy lobby aren't half a bunch of cocks. above sums it up neatly. its pathetic that you could get longer in prison for running a piracy racket than a car stealing racket.

also we're told piracy funds drug trafficing, prostitution, people trafficing and arms smuggling. i'd have thought those rackets would pay their own way, but there you go.

 

[Joey Deacon's Disco Suit]

Piracy is theft. There's no two ways about it. Someone created something and you are taking it for nothing depriving them of an income stream. What gets me though is that if I choose to buy a legit DVD I have to sit through 2 minutes of crap telling me about sodding piracy on a DVD that I actually own and I can't even fast forward that little bit. If I'd got a moody copy of the same DVD they'd have very kindly removed the Piracy advert. That really is barking mad.

 

[beorhthelm]

Piracy is theft. There's no two ways about it.

but its not. simple definition, from the Theft act 1968:

A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

with "piracy" (which is a bloody stupid word to call copyright infringment in the first place), there is no depriving the owner of the property. it is not theft, the Theft act does not cover copyright and the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 does not use the term.

its purely for sensationalism. and i bet you've infringed someones copyright too.

 

[ArcticBlue]

Piracy is theft. There's no two ways about it. Someone created something and you are taking it for nothing depriving them of an income stream. What gets me though is that if I choose to buy a legit DVD I have to sit through 2 minutes of crap telling me about sodding piracy on a DVD that I actually own and I can't even fast forward that little bit. If I'd got a moody copy of the same DVD they'd have very kindly removed the Piracy advert. That really is barking mad.

Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief - Bono

 

[Brovion]

The 'piracy or theft' semantics are interesting and neither are really accurate. It's not physical theft admittedly as the original still exists, but if you're going to go down that line - what if it were a credit card? If someone clones your credit card and uses it, what's that? Have they stolen anything by making a copy? (After all you still have the original) And are they stealing by using it?

Anyway, back on topic and without wishing to sound TOO much like a 1970s communist throwback one of the reason laws against theft are so harsh is that laws were traditionally made by the people who owned the property and thus wanted to protect it.

 

[Notters]

but its not. simple definition, from the Theft act 1968:


with "piracy" (which is a bloody stupid word to call copyright infringment in the first place), there is no depriving the owner of the property. it is not theft, the Theft act does not cover copyright and the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 does not use the term.

its purely for sensationalism. and i bet you've infringed someones copyright too.

I thin you've missed the point there; it's not theft of the film that's the issue, but theft of the ability to make dosh from it.

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I'm pretty sure the ten years refers to the crime of counterfeiting and not copyright theft.

 

[Uncle C]

So a pirate at sea doesn't actually take your loot and your ship, he just uses it to fabricate an exact replica before leaving you in peace.

 

[vegster]

What about fraud on a grand scale perpetuated by the studio's publicity departments ?

How many times do you go to see a film puffed way beyond the sum of its parts ? difficult to blame a couple who go out to be " entertained" for £20 + popcorn etc having to sit through a dog then saying "sod that, I'll download next time ..." ?

 

[Norman Potting]

Anyone old enough to remember the "home taping is killing music" sticker on vinyl LP's?? Did it?

 

[Seagull Steve]

Anyone old enough to remember the "home taping is killing music" sticker on vinyl LP's?? Did it?

Yeah I remember that Norman, a black sticker with a white skull and crossbones. Digital music is probably even easier to pirate. There must be hundreds of P2P sharing sites out there.

 

[Biscuit]

So a pirate at sea doesn't actually take your loot and your ship, he just uses it to fabricate an exact replica before leaving you in peace.

You're right. It's the wrong word.

 

[Fef]

Anyone old enough to remember the "home taping is killing music" sticker on vinyl LP's?? Did it?

and the music industry wanted the government to impose a levy on blank tapes by way of compensation. FFS ! The sheer arrogance of the music industry is breathtaking at times.

 

[beorhthelm]

Yeah I remember that Norman, a black sticker with a white skull and crossbones. Digital music is probably even easier to pirate. There must be hundreds of P2P sharing sites out there.

yet the record lables still manage to pump out all that pop shite, and the film studios find the money to remake 70's films.

 

[beorhthelm]

I thin you've missed the point there; it's not theft of the film that's the issue, but theft of the ability to make dosh from it.

which is a completely vacuous argument, based on accountancy concept of opportunity costs. people pirate and still purchase what they like, or dont purchase what they wouldnt have done so if they hadnt had a free copy. anyway, im not condoning copyright infringment, im just saying its not "theft".

 

[JCL - the new kid in town]

I thin you've missed the point there; it's not theft of the film that's the issue, but theft of the ability to make dosh from it.

what if you wouldn't have paid to see the film in the first place therefore they wouldn't have made money out of you, is it still theft?

 

[sten_super]

what if you wouldn't have paid to see the film in the first place therefore they wouldn't have made money out of you, is it still theft?

If you wouldn't have paid anything for it, that suggests that you attach no value to it and are unlikely to watch it even if you bother to download. What's a more realistic scenario is that you weren't willing to pay the £10 to see it at the cinema or £15 to buy the DVD/Blu-ray when new, but would be tempted when it's on sale for £3 a year later in HMV/Amazon.

The idea that piracy is somehow acceptable because you aren't denying someone else the opportunity to own/watch said film/music is frankly completely ridiculous. And I say that as someone that has done it from time to time, but not under any illusions that it's not illegal or morally wrong.