Once again the laws that are pushed by the elite are only for the masses, not for the elite itself. How can they propose laws with a straight face that they themselves know they are constantly breaking?
I'm really starting to think we need to chip away at the politicians' immunity. Too often they try to pass laws that they themselves wouldn't be held accountable for breaking.
You're fighting yourself, not the elites, because what you are fighting is human nature.
It's human nature to be more forgiving to yourself, your family, and your kind, than to others.
This is how it's always been. And this is how you yourself have lived your entire life.
As long as you don't understand this, nothing will change. Because all you're doing is complaining about something you 1) can't change and 2) don't even practice.
Only after this realization can the real conversation start. Everything before is pointless.
Let's not forget that Sarkozy already has at least one strike. He used a song from MGMT on multiple occasions without permission. And then he insulted them further by offering 1 Euro (yes, 1 Euro!) as compensation.
The law is not just about enforcing property rights. It also needs to be pragmatic. If almost everyone is doing it, it's wrong to try to outlaw it.
OK, you could use a similar argument about Greek taxes - everyone cheats the system, and brings it down. But it's pointless blaming the people. Maybe the system has to change.
There are big problems with that logic. You may say "everyone smokes pot so you can't outlaw it" but they did. In fact it's common to make laws against things everybody does simply because it has become a rampant problem.
See, the problem is that it is not okay to bring a video camera into a theater, record a movie, and then give it out for free or profit. It doesn't matter if you believe copyright is silly or archaic, it's still law. I hate the laws currently being proposed that basically censor the web but the honest truth is that free distribution of paid content really does hurt the creator. The people who make the things that are worth the time to pirate need to be compensated and if they aren't getting paid then they either stop creating or make doing things the legal way a huge pain in the ass for both pirates and normal users.
Remember how you had to activate Windows XP back in the day? That was a huge pain in the ass for people who bought the software legally but was put in place because Microsoft had such a big piracy problem. I think we're actually creating this problem for ourselves and Shifting the blame and responsibility. Even the pirate websites who are giving lawmakers the biggest excuse to make these oppressive laws are actually being defended by the very people they are hurting. Which do you want more: the new Britney Spears single for free or an open, I censored web?
According to the author ([1], somewhere in the comments, in French), he's migrated to a dedicated server. Wait for the DNS to update and the page should be back up..
Fake IP poisoning from the tracker? Unless "YouHaveDownloaded.com" actually connected to this IP as part of that torrent, this seems highly unlikely to be real.
Governments around the world have been given the excuse to create overreaching and piracy laws because we let them. I'm not surprised this has happened but we should be asking what is the bigger problem. Is it people pirating and distributing copyrighted materials or is it us, the downloading public, that should be punished for not being able to resist the lure of pirates.
I personally feel that if all of us as users realized that we're handing them excuses to censor the web on a silver platter we would quit downloading copyright materials. There is such a fine line between sharing and piracy that it's hard to decide which side any person falls on. Now, a person who records a movie in a theater and puts it online is guilty. No doubt about it. But what about the person who buys a CD, rips it to his computer, then wants to share it with some friends? If he sends a few copies to friends via email or other non public way, is he doing wrong? I'd argue no. But that's what makes this whole thing so scary. On the one hand there's a clear case we are the reason these laws happen. Our inability to resist the lure of free, pirated media. But then we also cannot restrict our right to share our own property with some people.
So I'm wondering, when does it stop being sharing and turn into privacy. Never is not the answer. Whether you support or think it shouldn't exist, the fact is that copyright laws have been in effect for a long time. So considering that, where does the line get drawn?
Again, copyright law (and patents, and trademarks) exist to help the public. It takes the form of a monopoly to create an incentive for works to be produced.
There's absolutely zero proof that even with all this piracy going on, that the amount of creative work has diminished. In fact, from my anecdotal evidence, I'd say there's even more creative works available now than ever before.
Thus, stronger copyright laws targeting non-commercial users are simply unneeded. The public is already getting the benefit of having huge amounts of art being generated (with no signs of slowdown), so there's no justifiable argument for these stronger laws, despite piracy.
[+] [-] nextparadigms|14 years ago|reply
I'm really starting to think we need to chip away at the politicians' immunity. Too often they try to pass laws that they themselves wouldn't be held accountable for breaking.
[+] [-] ovi256|14 years ago|reply
God help up when we're guarded by wolves.
[+] [-] powertower|14 years ago|reply
It's human nature to be more forgiving to yourself, your family, and your kind, than to others.
This is how it's always been. And this is how you yourself have lived your entire life.
As long as you don't understand this, nothing will change. Because all you're doing is complaining about something you 1) can't change and 2) don't even practice.
Only after this realization can the real conversation start. Everything before is pointless.
[+] [-] mattmanser|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] soult|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bgentry|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pefavre|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Silhouette|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wisty|14 years ago|reply
OK, you could use a similar argument about Greek taxes - everyone cheats the system, and brings it down. But it's pointless blaming the people. Maybe the system has to change.
[+] [-] pyre|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] billpatrianakos|14 years ago|reply
See, the problem is that it is not okay to bring a video camera into a theater, record a movie, and then give it out for free or profit. It doesn't matter if you believe copyright is silly or archaic, it's still law. I hate the laws currently being proposed that basically censor the web but the honest truth is that free distribution of paid content really does hurt the creator. The people who make the things that are worth the time to pirate need to be compensated and if they aren't getting paid then they either stop creating or make doing things the legal way a huge pain in the ass for both pirates and normal users.
Remember how you had to activate Windows XP back in the day? That was a huge pain in the ass for people who bought the software legally but was put in place because Microsoft had such a big piracy problem. I think we're actually creating this problem for ourselves and Shifting the blame and responsibility. Even the pirate websites who are giving lawmakers the biggest excuse to make these oppressive laws are actually being defended by the very people they are hurting. Which do you want more: the new Britney Spears single for free or an open, I censored web?
[+] [-] canop_fr|14 years ago|reply
edit : fixed the link. sorry, bad copy-paste.
[+] [-] veyron|14 years ago|reply
To verify the results: http://www.youhavedownloaded.com/?q=62.160.71.75
If you want I can post screenshots of both
[+] [-] Wilya|14 years ago|reply
Google's cache [2] also works.
[1] https://plus.google.com/104846995293145552969/posts/cxxM2D3i... [2] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%...
[+] [-] obtu|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tbassetto|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BoppreH|14 years ago|reply
Isn't this addresses easy to spoof? I thought they were only suited for scaring friends, not basing investigative articles.
[+] [-] philjackson|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sg2342|14 years ago|reply
[1] http://opentracker.blog.h3q.com/2007/02/12/perfect-deniabili...
[+] [-] SurenTer|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] umarmung|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] gulbrandr|14 years ago|reply
[1] https://vtunnel.com/
[+] [-] xer0|14 years ago|reply
They could be angels for all I know, but a site that promotes anonymity and loads up with flash makes me pass it by.
[+] [-] billpatrianakos|14 years ago|reply
I personally feel that if all of us as users realized that we're handing them excuses to censor the web on a silver platter we would quit downloading copyright materials. There is such a fine line between sharing and piracy that it's hard to decide which side any person falls on. Now, a person who records a movie in a theater and puts it online is guilty. No doubt about it. But what about the person who buys a CD, rips it to his computer, then wants to share it with some friends? If he sends a few copies to friends via email or other non public way, is he doing wrong? I'd argue no. But that's what makes this whole thing so scary. On the one hand there's a clear case we are the reason these laws happen. Our inability to resist the lure of free, pirated media. But then we also cannot restrict our right to share our own property with some people.
So I'm wondering, when does it stop being sharing and turn into privacy. Never is not the answer. Whether you support or think it shouldn't exist, the fact is that copyright laws have been in effect for a long time. So considering that, where does the line get drawn?
[+] [-] MichaelGG|14 years ago|reply
There's absolutely zero proof that even with all this piracy going on, that the amount of creative work has diminished. In fact, from my anecdotal evidence, I'd say there's even more creative works available now than ever before.
Thus, stronger copyright laws targeting non-commercial users are simply unneeded. The public is already getting the benefit of having huge amounts of art being generated (with no signs of slowdown), so there's no justifiable argument for these stronger laws, despite piracy.
[+] [-] nvictor|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cafard|14 years ago|reply