Hurt Locker Producers Suing "Tens of Thousands" of Downloaders

[ThreeKneeNick]

This is quite interesting.

The moment someone here on the escapist mentions video game piracy everyone goes berserk with rage and demands that someone be burned at the stake.

But if this thread is any indicator pirating movies is quite fine because that's just how the internet works.

Fascinating.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

This is a bit like arresting drug addicts instead of the supplier.
Why don't they simply shut down the torrent sites? What noble purpose do they serve?

Yeah, it's not even like you can argue that you're going to use the bong to smoke tobacco. If there was a website like this for prostitutes or pedophilia or drugs, the feds would be stinging the hell out of them. At least a company like mediafire or rapidshare allows the sharing to be monitored (sometimes) and it's easy to make a copyright claim. Torrent sites are just blatant and overconfident in their breaking the law.

 

[Low Key]

I found out my ISP is one of 1/4 of providers that isn't handing over names willingly, and considering it's one of the biggest in the nation, I don't think the mass lawsuit will go very well.

 

[soapyshooter]

FUCK! FUCK!!!!!

*covers eyes hoping they don't notice*

EDIT: There is a Far Cry movie? *clicks link* HAHAHA 3.2/10, holy shit....Oh wait, Its Uwe Boll.

 

[Weaver]

Thank God I don't care at all about this movie...
and don't live in the states.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

My brother was stationed in Iraq and bought a pirated copy of The Hurt Locker for about a dollar (He felt the buck was too much for the pos film, but that's not the point). Who would the producers of the movie go after in that situation? The US soldier who's only means of seeing the movie is to buy a pirated copy off a street urchin or the Iraqi who pirated it in the first place, you know the same kind of people they made out as victims in their movie.

That's the side of "piracy" they never show anyone or talk about, no all they ever show is greedy, fat slobs in a bedroom full of computers that would make NASA envious, burning copies with their miraculous burners that can produce thousands at a time all the while wringing their hands together with evil malice so they can flood flea markets and truck stopos with their stolen goods.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

By "downloaders" do you think they are referring to the largest seeded torrenters or to anyone who has a DRM-free avi copy? I'm glad I don't steal movies and have to worry about this stuff any more.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Let me present the psychological profile of a typical internet savvy nerd who has just read this news: "Oh, wow, I didn't actually give a toss about this movie, but now they're suing people for downloading it? Hah! They'll never catch me, I'll torrent it at least ten times and brag about it to my online 'friends'! That's right bitches, I'm behind seven proxies!"

Yes, downloading movies is wrong, but it is not stealing. And no, a downloaded copy does not equal a lost sale. In fact, I think this movie would have fared even poorer if people hadn't watched a pirated copy at some point before seeing it in theaters or buying the DVD. The last bit is just me speculating though...

 

[draconicgamer]

When will people learn. if you make a site that has exclusively cheap prices and have a collection of movies you can make a profit off of it. or am i just looking to much into netflix

 

[Loves2spooge]

Bah, ambitious lawsuits like these never come to fruition.

Greedy bastards shouldn't worry anyway, I'm sure her next movies will bring in a higher gross, more than accomodating for the "loss" of the downloaders.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Wow, a lot of people don't like The Hurt Locker. I'm actually rather shocked.

 

[Beastialman]

Wow. I'd hate to be a low level clerk at THAT law firm. The paperwork would be mind-boggling!

Heh, imagine if you were one of the pirates as a low level clerk. I'd quit just to make it harder.

 

[Raineheart]

You have a problem with how the Internet, Mr. Hurt Locker. You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously you are mistaken. This series of tubes is one of the top entertainment in the world because every single user understands that people will always BitTorrent. Thus, if a film has a problem, the Internet has a problem. The time has come to make a choice, Mr. Hurt Locker. Either you choose to drop these unwinnable lawsuits, on time, from this day forth ? or you choose to hand back your Oscar for being nothing but a mediocre film. Do I make myself clear?

-Yeah, cookie for who knows where that long-assed monologue was ripped from.

The office scene in the first Matrix movie?

Naa. Nightmare Before Christmas; just after thr "somethings up with jack" song.

Um, no.

That quote is from Mr Anderson's previous employer. (The Matrix.) Not verbatim, but the gist of the conversation you included quite nicely.

It is not the Nightmare before Christmas.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I wonder when people are going to stop complaining about piracy...?

Why it is against the law is beyond me... And what is even more confusing is that most people seem to think that these companies have valid points.

Because if it wasn't illegal, everyone would do it and the movie, games, and music industries would completely go under? I mean, I understand that this lawsuit is completely retarded and will never work, but to say piracy should be legal is, without a doubt, an idiotic statement. You have to see it from their side. How many billions are lost every year because of torrent sites? I'd wager a lot.

These lawsuits should be aimed at Torrent sites like BitTorrent and ThePirateBay, not at the people downloading this stuff. This is just a ploy to get people to settle for a quick cash in.

 

[Wicky_42]

Question is, how much does it cost to breach copyright? Cinemas in the UK say it's a fine of £200(0? can't remember) - would that fine be to the copyright holder? And wouldn't the seeder of the torrent be the one breaching the copyright, distributing the material?

Welcome to 2010, where the common business practice is to file legal action against your consumer base because as an industry, you decided to move toward a digital medium that can be easily duplicated and moved electronically to save money.

See, now this is an interesting point, and one of the reasons why piracy is so rampant: it's so easy, precisely because all you're doing is copying a stream of 1s and 0s. Nothing material is used or de-constructed, it's an intellectual theft that the majority wouldn't dream of doing to a physical medium. If you make it so that your format is easy to copy, then that's what's going to happen.

If big budget films aren't breaking even THEN LOWER THE BUDGET. Flash graphics aren't new any more, and have been good enough for years. 3D's a huge money sink - if you're worried about money then don't waste your cash.

Same applies to game - finding it hard to make ends meet with the latest "AAA-rushed-out-for-the-deadline-needs-2-patches-to-install-but-has-sweet-graphics game"? Then spend less on sparkly eye candy, put a little bit more into the script and story and sell games on their real merit. Let the medium mature a little, and make people WANT to own the games, but don't break the bank doing so.

Gah, I think I'm starting to ramble. Basically, I think copyright legislation and industries working with digital mediums need to rethink their business model. I'm just not sure that that's going to be easy with the capitalist business model.

 

[lacktheknack]

I wonder exactly how they intend to get money from every single person who downloaded it.

 

[Timbydude]

Finally, pirates are actually seeing some repercussions for what they've done. I hope this trend keeps up.

The movie was pretty mediocre, I thought. It was just the same stupid "we should never ever have war ever" message that we've heard a thousand times already, wrapped up in a disjointed, semi-entertaining shell.

 

[Playbahnosh]

This is a bit like arresting drug addicts instead of the supplier.
Why don't they simply shut down the torrent sites? What noble purpose do they serve?

Yeah, it's not even like you can argue that you're going to use the bong to smoke tobacco. If there was a website like this for prostitutes or pedophilia or drugs, the feds would be stinging the hell out of them. At least a company like mediafire or rapidshare allows the sharing to be monitored (sometimes) and it's easy to make a copyright claim. Torrent sites are just blatant and overconfident in their breaking the law.

You people have no idea what you are talking about. Do you even know what "torrent" is? Or what Peer to Peer is? You see, with the torrent protocol, data transmission is happening directly between two user computers and not between a user and a server. Those so called "torrent sites" are nothing more than search engines, they do NOT host downloads. In this sense, you could scream at Google and demand it to be shut down because you can find all sorts of illegal stuff with it.

With decentralized tracking, it became impossible to find who pirated what. Unlike certain hub-based file sharing networks like DC or eDonkey, torrent connections do not go through central servers, there is no record of the transfer whatsoever, anywhere. Progress in P2P development even made ".torrent" files and trackers unnecessary, with magnet URIs and "cloud surfing" and stuff like that made tracking down pirates virtually impossible.

In that sense, torrent exists outside of everything, an invisible network or user computers without any central organization or monitoring. Torrent sites only tap into that "cloud" and bring you search results, nothing more. You can shut them down, but that won't even make a dent in the torrent network. As things stand now, the torrent network is indestructible, because to totally destroy the network, you'll have to manually track down and turn off every single user and home computer seeding a torrent. Good luck with that