/nanal/ - News & Analysis

>>9

>Intellectual Property Czar Daniel Marti

>Intellectual Property Czar

I didn't even know this was a thing.

It's interesting that the MPAA and its cohorts are willing to continually shift strategies to try to bust pirates–they rarely go after individuals anymore, since harassing single moms and 15-year-old kids made for bad press–but they're not willing to reexamine their fundamental business model.

Basically, the MPAA and RIAA got used to a business model that was the result of a historical fluke. Before the advent of the phonograph and, later, record players, if you wanted to hear music, you either had to make it yourself, or know someone who did, or go to a concert. And live music was a big thing.

After technology allowed the creation of recording media which could be recorded once, mass produced, then sold over and over again, the music industry was created and became addicted to that model. Now that further technological advances have allowed ordinary people to share music, the industry wants to find legal means to preserve their antiquated business model.

Same thing for the MPAA. Before films, you had to attend a play to see a performance. With the advent of film, they could record a "play", make copies of it, and send it to moviehouses all over the country. The film industry railed against the VCR, even though it was a net gain for them in the end.

I'm surprised the article didn't refer to the TPP. If that passes, that's probably the real threat: the Congress will be obligated to provide more effective copyright enforcement means for big business to stay compliant with the TPP provisions.

>>12

God help us all if the TPP ends up passing. To tell you the honest truth, I've always speculated (even ten years ago) that the government and corporations would inevitably fuck up our internet and our ability to share media as easily as we do. I always recommend people start making backups of all the stuff they want or need over the internet, that way when file hosts and torrent sites start getting shut down en mass at least they'll have what they want stored on an external drive for future use.

A couple old DVD players and a binder full of ripped movies ain't so bad when online services like "Popcorn Time" get shut down. Know what I mean?

>>15

Interesting you say that, I've heard of I2P but have never tried it. I really should at some point.

I recall a great article a couple years back about the "sneakernet" becoming more popular, that is to say sharing files offline from USB / DVD / external HD swapping. I'm sure that will gain momentum as well if the TPP were to pass.

Have you ever heard of the new P2P Maelstrom Browser? I really love the concept of it, it is a new browser that will help host full website content via Bit Torrent protocols so the websites will be next to impossible to shut down since multiple users can host them and share them through the browser client. Also, Tribler is another cool counter-censorship tool that is very similar to P2P and bit-torrent. People can host files on their drives and share them through Tribler, which also has it's own built-in search engine to help you find what you are looking for. I recommend people check those two platforms out. If this became popular enough, there may be no way for the MPAA to fully control content like they want to do over the current web.