UK agency will discourage piracy

Citizens understand fines and jail time for piracy. That should be the message. I'm pretty sure anyone pirating knows full well that they are a criminal.

The only thing the law can do is curtail it. The only thing I like about Piracy is putting lawmakers in their places and creates a balance to make sure they don't overrun the system with draconian measures.

Myself, I decided not to support either side because I see myself as a fair person and am disgusted at all the unfairness spread with this cyber war.

Did I ever copy before? Copying is part of our everyday lives, but I also decided not to copy any pirated or copyrighted material a long time ago, not because I'm taking a side, in fact its because I cannot take any side.

How much money are they going to waste on this?

Could I have a technical consultants rule on this agency? Easy money train.

I thought that copying a legally-purchased CD onto your own iPod was one of the few approved instances of copying permitted, according to the MAFIIA/BPI anyway.

No sane person would purchase both the CD and the iTunes album.

I copy but I also buy CDs. Is it any different from listening to songs on the radio? I thought the UK record industry were doing quite well before the crunch. Profits were up. I saw increasingly more attractive packages being offered and I was happy to spend.

The real solution to copyright violation is to tax the ISPs since most normal people do it. Then we can argue about where the money goes...

We should put everyone in the US who violates the DMCA in Jail for the recommended amount of time. Also anyone who has violated the FBI warning on VHS. Anyone who has copied or ripped a CD in England (yes it's technically illegal there).

See how many people are left after all of that. Say goodbye to everyone who copied tapes from the video store in the 80/90s, everyone who has been to college in the last 10 years, and pretty much every child. What a bright future.

At least the traffic jams will go away.

they are just interested in sustaining their greedy empires

they should start by charging reasonable amounts for their products instead of extorting the buying public for maximum revenue. then pay decent wages to the workers of the country so they have more disposable income instead of having to live hand-to-mouth.

its wrong that multi-zillionaire actors and musicians complain when they have several luxury homes, an array of expensive vehicles and they rarely do a hard days work in their idle lives.

excessive money corrupts people and turns them into greedy scrooges

Because the UK government doesn't already suck Big Media cock enough, apparently.

The crusade by this government against piracy,is nothing more than loading the dice for big business against the consumer.
Let's face it,consumers pay through the nose for something that is basically 'junk',because within a year,you can find at any boot fair,quite literally,'Skiploads' of audi & video disc & tapes,that less than a year ago,cost the earth.

Even so,when one buys any media,with it's content,they ought to be free to load it,or copy it to any other medium,without breaking any law.

re: BritSwedeGuy's comment,

youve hit the nail on the head - couldnt have put it better myself.

sad but true....

Okay here's the thing. I recently read an article which pretty much sums up the modern day demeanour of a typical consumer and that is we as consumers are no longer happy to be told what we see, where we have to see it and when. A film is released and then depending on its popularity will stay at the cinemas as long as possible to create as much box office money as possible. Then it goes through the channels of being on box office sky channels on tv and then it will arrive onto DVD. That is the problems right there...people are no longer willing to wait this amount of time for the film to get from point A to point B. Yes there is nothing wrong with going to a cinema but can you immeidately keep your memory of that movie with you by actually owning it straight away? No of course not. It's that whole issue that people who download via p2p are trying to make, even though it just comes across in a very black and white looking way that people want something for free and thats it....and in some cases that might be the case but i don't think the unwillingness to pay is due to the fact that all these people are criminals, instead they are just fed up of waiting in this digital age for a digital piece of work to be made available to them in the old fashioned way. "old fashioned" is the part people don't like. Its 2009 and amidst this digital era, consumers feel that the old formula of cinema, rent dvd, own dvd just doesn't appeal anymore.

Theres always a great curiosity into what the consumer wants well for me as one consumer, this is it.....

Create a service on the internet whereby people pay £30 montly (or something like that) and this then enables that consumer to watch (and download if they wish) cinema releases in dvd screener/dvdrip quality straight to their hard drives. Make it so that there is no limit on how many films can be downloaded in a month period and you will be on to a winner. This idea will surely raise afew eyebrows of companies but lets admit it, isn't it alot more worth pondering such a suggestion than keep having people download movies for free on torrent sites or similar sites?

This idea would only work if torrent sites were closed down because for some people the temptation to obtain something for free will still be there right in front of them if the choice is "to pay or not to pay"

It will be like an internet service where people have their very own cinema right in their own home. A similar site could be created for music.....charge a monthly subscription to a service and allow people to download as much of the music they want to in that time period.

If this kind of idea is instantly snubbed then the companies can expect a very very bleak future with trying to maintain a hold of any kind on the future of music and film. Its as simple as this, as long as the net exists so will piracy.Like it or lump it or do something about it which wins favour and not gives you negative publicity (through lawsuits, litigation etc).

Yes these massive companies will lose some money and not reach the levels of sales that they once did but isnt pulling some of that money back through a scheme like the aforementioned one better than have everyone continue obtaining music and film for free.

The kids who are 5 or 6 now will in 10 years time be downloading illegally too via p2p if an attractive and legal alternative isnt discovered.

The reason why people who use napster or itunes make up a small percentage of the number of people who download music on the internet is not because those people who use p2p are all criminals and have a profound lack of morals...instead on napster and itunes theres that already talked about theme of "you can have this but we tell you how much your limit it, how you can recieve it (streaming, pay a fee per song) and that you cannot copy this material anywhere else (use of DRM eg)".In 2009 this is not going to happen and is something the future consumer will not tolerate either.

Thanks

D
Birmingham
UK