The Pirating Elephant in Uncle Sam’s Room
#1
[Image: sam.jpg]It’s not a secret that, in sheer numbers, America is the country that harbors most online pirates.

Perhaps no surprise, since it has a large and well-connected population, but it’s important to note considering what we’re about to write today.

Over the past decade, online piracy has presented itself as a massive problem for the US and its entertainment industries. It’s a global issue that’s hard to contain, but Hollywood and the major record labels are doing what they can.

Two of the key strategies they’ve employed in recent years are website blocking and domain seizures. US companies have traveled to courts all over the world to have ISP blockades put in place, with quite a bit of success.

At the same time, US rightsholders also push foreign domain registrars and registries to suspend or seize domains. The US Government is even jumping in, applying pressure against pirate domains as well.

Previously, the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica threatened to have the country’s domain name registry shut down, unless it suspended ThePirateBay.cr. This hasn’t happened, yet, but it was a clear signal.

What’s odd, though, is that ThePirateBay.cr is a relatively meaningless proxy site. The real Pirate Bay operates from an .org domain name, which happens to be managed by the US-based Public Interest Registry (PIR).

So, if the US authorities threaten to shut down Costa Rica’s domain registry over a proxy, why is the US-based PIR registry still in action? After all, it’s the registry that ‘manages’ the domain name of the largest pirate site on the entire web, and has done for nearly 15 years.

Also of note is that the entertainment industries previously launched an overseas lawsuit to seize The Pirate Bay’s .se and .is domains, but never attempted to do the same with the US-based .org domain.

There are more of these strange observations. Let’s move back to website blocking, for example.

In a detailed overview, the Motion Picture Association recently reported that ISP blocking measures, which are in place in more than two dozen countries, help to reduce piracy significantly. This is further backed up by industry-supported reports and independent academic research.

In an ideal world, the US entertainment industries would like ISPs in every country to block pirate sites. While this is all fine and understandable from the perspective of these companies, there’s also an elephant in the room.

Over the past decade, US companies have worked hard to spread their blocking message around the world, while they yet have to attempt the same on their home turf. And this happens to be the country with the most pirates of all, which could make a massive impact.

Sure, it was a major success when a court in Iceland ordered local ISPs to block The Pirate Bay. But with roughly 130,000 Internet subscriptions in the entire country, that’s peanuts compared to the US.

So why is the US, the largest “pirate nation,” ignored?

From what we’ve heard, the entertainment industries are not pushing for ISP blockades in US courts because they fear a SOPA-like backlash. This likely applies to domain suspensions as well, which aren’t all that hard to accomplish in the US.

Instead, the major entertainment companies are focusing their efforts elsewhere.

While these entertainment companies are well within their rights to lobby for these measures, there’s an elephant in the room that is hard to ignore. Personally, I can’t help but cringe every time Hollywood pushes the blocking agenda to a new country or demands domain seizures abroad.


Originally Published: Sun, 13 May 2018 19:22:37 +0000
source
Reply
#2
(May 13, 2018, 17:20 pm)Ernesto Wrote: [Image: sam.jpg]

Get that elephant out of the room !   The Pirate Bay doesn't seem to be connecting to the server again.  
Is there any connection between that and this article, or is that just a coincidence because it's happened so many times in the past ?
Reply
#3
I'd say sheer coincidence...Should be back up in time...
Reply
#4
(May 13, 2018, 20:42 pm)LZA Wrote: I'd say sheer coincidence...Should be back up in time...

It came back this evening -- much faster than usual !
Reply
#5
Cassette decks copy no one gave a shit if it didn't make money and encouraged people to buy the better quality than the radio.
Microsoft never made their retail discs available online until vista came along.
mp3's will never be as good quality as a purchased compact disc from the store; manufactured to last for up to 100 years (And is acceptable as the modern day cassette equivalent).
webcam film footage from a theatre will never be as good as being in attendance to a theatre; films should be released for global viewing
than 1 country first then the rest because that way we all get to see it first.
now about this online pirate blockade: I cannot sample products without being disappointed after buying it.
Shareware nags are a pain in the a$$
hey parents yer paying taxes for your kids to be blocked.
can't be helpful for future voting numbers.
Hackers get treated like shit because they smoke pot yet without hackers there'd just be DARPA internet wouldn't exist.
Unfair monopoly has dominated bought out and put small business out of business and who's to say they don't pose as pirates
so shareholders loose confidence due to a minority anyway.
the nature of the internet is and always shall be the internet.
it cannot be policed without collateral.
I use an ip then the next person does clocks slightly out of sync I get away for freedom of expression poor dude goes down instead.
The new age of open source where authors and companies ask for donations has been completely ignored whilst
the copyright holders of closed source monopoly are holding worthless copyrights blaming pirates than offering
products that are worth the license.
Apple, Microsoft, Linux, Unix, etc got their software influenced by a GUI computer complete with a mouse from the 1970's
genuine ADVANTAGE? make something UNIQUE to replace a 1970's invention THEY CAN'TBig Grin
Real Piracy is making money for copies not seeking a backup of an already legitimately purchased product
because of a disc scratch or crack
I don't want xp pro corporate them keys are used by corporates to pirate themselves Big Grin
Reply
#6
I'm sure the record companies were very worried with the home made recordings, they just couldn't make it go away.
There were 5-track cartridges, cassette tapes (Harmann-Kardon was excellent), MP3 128K; tech evolves and quality sometimes go down to make it more convenient or affordable, then go back up.

We should not expect the Internet to be forever what we know today, leniency is fading in light of a new order.
The more data services become part of our lives, the closer we are to the point collateral will be smaller than the losses such freedom causes.
The more tech evolves, the more powerful they become, not us; for institutions and big companies control the economy and the technology, not us.
Reply
#7
Please tell me why this site is off line so often?

Thank you
Reply
#8
I think the copyright companies would like to see TPB as a site that is trying to be blocked, such actions could be controversial and reputation damaging for companies so thank god we have TPB.

Uncle Sam killing elephants would certainly not look good in his backyard.
Reply
#9
(Jun 25, 2018, 18:08 pm)contrail Wrote: I think the copyright companies would like to see TPB as a site that is trying to be blocked, such actions could be controversial and reputation damaging for companies so thank god we have TPB.

Uncle Sam killing elephants would certainly not look good in his backyard.

CEOs don't care much about rep damage, as marketing damage control tools are effective, too. At least, time passes.

And Good Ole Uncle Sam cares even less about killings, as he spends a trillion dollars each year with offshore destruction, global interference, etc.
What is a puny elephant for who kills entire populations, destroy cultures, raze countries?
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  72-Year-Old Man Accused of ‘Pirating’ Over a Thousand Torrents Ernesto 4 25,988 Aug 25, 2017, 12:02 pm
Last Post: Philidor



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)