According to TorrentFreak (TF) entertainment coalitions such as the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) are continuing to threaten developers of Kodi addons:
The MPA, Netflix, Amazon, and dozens of other content companies are ramping up the pressure on a third-party Kodi addon developer. Last year, JSergio123 was warned by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment to cease his activities and sign a confidential settlement agreement. He did not and now he's coming under pressure to comply. But what are ACE's demands?
[...] JSergio123's reluctance to sign an agreement with ACE hasn't gone unnoticed by the anti-piracy group. In a letter dated March 5, 2018 and signed by Kelly Klaus of US-based lawfirm Munger, Tolles & Olson, the developer is reminded of what transpired last year and what is expected of him moving forward.
"I understand that ACE counsel have discussed with you various of your "Addon" software applications and related software and services, including URLResolver (collectively, the "[redacted] Addons") and other actions you have undertaken to induce and contribute to the mass infringement of the ACE members' copyrighted works," Klaus writes. "I also understand that ACE counsel have provided you with a proposed settlement agreement, pursuant to which you would end your infringing activities and provide cooperation and other consideration in exchange for ACE agreeing not to pursue legal action against you arising out of your infringing activities. To date, you have not signed the settlement agreement."
JSergio123's precise reasons for not signing the settlement agreement aren't being made public. However, TorrentFreak understands that some of the terms presented to addon developers last year have caused considerable concern. In some cases they are difficult to meet, not to mention unpalatable to the people involved. They include promises to ensure that specified addons and indeed any developed in the future can no longer infringe copyright. For those that scrape third-party sources, this could prove impossible to absolutely guarantee. This could effectively put developers out of the addon game – legitimate or otherwise – for good. TF is also informed that ACE demanded a high-level of cooperation, including that the developers should supply what amounts to a full confession, detailing all the projects they've been involved in, past and present.
Meanwhile, Dish Network is continuing to pursue a lawsuit against TVAddons and ZemTV.
Related: MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform
Kodi Panic in the UK and Popularity in North America
Kodi Add-on Library "TVAddons" Disappears After Lawsuit
Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons
Kodi Returns to its Roots With an Xbox One Release
Two New Lawsuits Against Makers of "Pirate Streaming Devices"
Related Stories
In an interview with Variety, the Motion Picture Association of America's CEO Chris Dodd spoke out about the growing popularity of Kodi open source media player:
While torrent sites have been a thorn in the side of the MPAA for more than a decade, there's a new kid on the block. Speaking at the Berlin Film Festival, MPAA chief Chris Dodd cited the growing use of the Kodi platform for piracy, describing the problem as the "$64,000 question."
[...] Legal battles over the misuse of the platform are ongoing, mainly in the UK and the Netherlands, where test cases have the ability to clarify the legal position, at least for sellers of so-called "fully loaded" devices. Interestingly, up until now, the MPAA has stayed almost completely quiet, despite a dramatic rise in the use of Kodi for illicit streaming. Yesterday, however, the silence was broken.
In an interview with Variety during the Berlin Film Festival, MPAA chief Chris Dodd described the Kodi-with-addons situation as "new-generation piracy". "The $64,000 question is what can be done about such illegal use of the Kodi platform," Dodd said.
While $64,000 is a tempting offer, responding to that particular question with a working solution will take much more than that. Indeed, one might argue that dealing with it in any meaningful way will be almost impossible.
First of all, Kodi is open source and has been since its inception in 2002. As a result, trying to target the software itself would be like stuffing toothpaste back in a tube. It's out there, it isn't coming back, and pissing off countless developers is extremely ill-advised. Secondly, the people behind Kodi have done absolutely nothing wrong. Their software is entirely legal and if their public statements are to be believed, they're as sick of piracy as the entertainment companies are. The third problem is how Kodi itself works. While to the uninitiated it looks like one platform, a fully-modded 'pirate' Kodi setup can contain many third-party addons, each capable of aggregating content from dozens or even hundreds of sites. Not even the mighty MPAA can shut them all down, and even if it could, more would reappear later. It's the ultimate game of whac-a-mole.
Previously: XBMC Is Getting a New Name: "Kodi"
Middlesbrough Trader Prosecuted for Selling Streaming Boxes Preloaded With Kodi
Five Arrests in 'Fully Loaded' Kodi Streaming Box Raids
[Ed Note: This is the same Chris Dodd who served 30 years as a US Senator from Connecticut. Probably best known for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.]
Kodi, previously known as XBMC or Xbox Media Center, is being used "fully loaded" with add-ons (such as TVAddons.ag) by millions of households in North America:
New data published by Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that close to 9 percent of all North American households have at least one Kodi device. Roughly two thirds of these actively use pirate add-ons, which is good for millions of families in total.
[...] Sandvine analyzed a dataset from multiple North America tier one fixed-line provider, which covers over 250,000 anonymized households throughout North America. Using this data, it was able to estimate how many households actively use at least one Kodi device. "The Kodi application itself does not generate much data, but it is easy to detect within a household due to its 'heartbeat' traffic which can easily be identified," Sandvine reports.
Overall Sandvine estimates that 8.8% of the households with Internet access across North America have an active Kodi device. This translates to several millions of households and many more potential users. [...] Looking at the various traffic sources for the streaming data, including file-hosts, the company determined that 68.6% of the households with Kodi devices also use unofficial, or "pirate" add-ons.
Meanwhile, UK tabloids are running stories (tall tales?) about Kodi:
You know a technology's gone mainstream when the tabloids start yelling about it. This year the Sun, the Mirror, the Express, and the Daily Star have run splashes ranging from "Kodi Crackdown" through "Kodi Killers" to "Kodi TOTAL BAN!". It's not that they've stumbled on an underground hack scene; the stories have been briefed by copyright owners and law enforcement agencies.
[...] Illicit use of Kodi has reached a point where the UK government's Intellectual Property Office issued a "Call for Views," which closed in April, to find out how law enforcement agencies were dealing with infringing use. They use the term "IPTV," but also refer specifically to Kodi. No conclusions have yet been published, but three basic enforcement approaches are possible: shutting down suppliers of boxes, cutting off illegal streams, and going after end users.
TVAddons, one of the leading add-on libraries for the Kodi platform, has disappeared:
TVAddons, the leading library for unofficial Kodi add-ons, has mysteriously disappeared. The site's domain names have become unresponsive after the DNS entries were removed. It's unclear why these drastic actions were taken, but since TVAddons was sued last week, some fear the worst.
Last week we broke the news that third-party Kodi add-on ZemTV and the TVAddons library were being sued in a federal court in Texas. Since then, the 'pirate' Kodi community has been in turmoil. Several popular Kodi addons decided to shut down, and now TVAddons itself appears to be in trouble as well.
TVAddons is one of the largest repositories of Kodi add-ons, many of which allow users to watch pirated content. The site has grown massively in recent years and reported that nearly 40 million unique users connected to the site's servers in March.
[...] Based on the current downtime issues, it's no surprise that people are getting worried. If TVAddons doesn't return, the Kodi-addon community has lost what's arguably its biggest player. The site's extensive library listed 1,500 different add-ons, of which the community-maintained Exodus addon was one of the most popular. Now that the site is no longer available, people may run into issues while updating these.
Previously: Kodi Panic in the UK and Popularity in North America
An anti-piracy alliance supported by many major US and UK movie studios, broadcasters and content providers has dealt a blow to the third-party Kodi add-on scene after it successfully forced a number of popular piracy-linked streaming tools offline. In what appears to be a coordinated crackdown, developers including jsergio123 and The_Alpha, who are responsible for the development and hosting of add-ons like urlresolver, metahandler, Bennu, DeathStreams and Sportie, confirmed that they will no longer maintain their Kodi creations and have immediately shut them down.
[...] The crackdown suggests the MPA/MPAA-led Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has a thorough understanding of how owners of so-called "Kodi boxes" are able to stream TV shows and films illegally. While Colossus merely hosts the tools, urlresolver and metahandler did much of the heavy lifting for streamers. Their job was to scrape video hosting sites for relevant streaming links and serve them up for tools like Covenant inside Kodi. Streamers will find it very difficult to find working video streams of their favorite content without them, but they could reappear via a new host in the future.
Source: Hollywood strikes back against illegal streaming Kodi add-ons
Additional info at TorrentFreak and TVAddons.
The Kodi media player has re-entered the Xbox ecosystem. But can it be "fully loaded"?
The popular Kodi media player software returned to its roots today. The team just announced that Kodi for Xbox One is available worldwide through the Microsoft and Xbox store. This means that the project, which once started as the Xbox Media Player, has come full circle. [...] The roots of Kodi are directly connected to the Xbox, as the first iterations of the project were called the "Xbox Media Player." As time went by XBMP became XBMC, and eventually Kodi. The last name change made sense as the software was no longer being developed for Xbox, but for other devices, running on Linux, Windows, OSX, and Android.
While the broader public was perfectly happy with this, the sentimental few were missing the Xbox connection. For them, and many others, Kodi has a surprise in store today after returning to its roots. "Let us end the year 2017 with a blast including a nostalgic reference to the past," the Kodi team announced. "It has long been asked for by so many and now it finally happened. Kodi for Xbox One is available worldwide through Windows and Xbox Store."
Also at Engadget.
See also: Our 'Kodi Box' Is Legal & Our Users Don't Break the Law, TickBox Tells Hollywood
Previously: XBMC Is Getting a New Name: "Kodi"
Five Arrests in 'Fully Loaded' Kodi Streaming Box Raids
MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform
Kodi Panic in the UK and Popularity in North America
Kodi Add-on Library "TVAddons" Disappears After Lawsuit
Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons
Netflix, Amazon and Hollywood Sue Kodi-Powered Dragon Box Over Piracy
Several major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix have filed a lawsuit against Dragon Media Inc, branding it a supplier of pirate streaming devices. The companies accuse Dragon of using the Kodi media player in combination with pirate addons to facilitate mass copyright infringement via its Dragon Box device. [...] In recent months these boxes have become the prime target for copyright enforcers, including the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an anti-piracy partnership between Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and more than two dozen other companies.
After suing Tickbox last year a group of key ACE members have now filed a similar lawsuit against Dragon Media Inc, which sells the popular Dragon Box. The complaint, filed at a California federal court, also lists the company's owner Paul Christoforo and reseller Jeff Williams among the defendants.
According to ACE, these type of devices are nothing more than pirate tools, allowing buyers to stream copyright infringing content. That also applies to Dragon Box, they inform the court. "Defendants market and sell 'Dragon Box,' a computer hardware device that Defendants urge their customers to use as a tool for the mass infringement of the copyrighted motion pictures and television shows," the complaint, picked up by HWR, reads.
Google has censored the term "Kodi" from its search engine's autocomplete feature, despite it being completely legal open source software:
Google has banned the term "Kodi" from the autocomplete feature of its search engine. This means that the popular software and related suggestions won't appear unless users type out the full term. Google has previously taken similar measures against "pirate" related terms and confirms that Kodi is targeted because it's "closely associated with copyright infringement."
[...] The company demotes results from domain names for which it receives many DMCA takedown notices, for example, and it has also removed several piracy-related terms from its autocomplete feature. The latter means that when one types "pirate ba" it won't suggest pirate bay. Instead, people see "pirate bays" or "pirate books" as suggestions. Whether that's very effective is up for debate, but it's intentional.
[...] The Kodi team, operated by the XBMC Foundation, is disappointed with the decision and points out that their software does not cross any lines. "We are surprised and disappointed to discover Kodi has been removed from autocomplete, as Kodi is perfectly legal open source software," XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen told us.
The Kodi team has been actively trying to distance itself from pirate elements. They enforce their trademark against sellers of pirate boxes and are in good contact with Hollywood's industry group, the MPAA.
Related: MPAA Chief Focuses Attention on the Kodi Platform
Hollywood Strikes Back Against Illegal Streaming Kodi Add-Ons
Kodi Returns to its Roots With an Xbox One Release
Kodi Media Player Addon Developers Under Pressure from ACE, Dish Network
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:05PM (16 children)
It seems to me that it's a bad idea to get involved with projects like this if you live in the US or some other western nations, where you can easily be targeted by a lawsuit like this. But if the developer lives in someplace like Ukraine or Kenya or wherever, what could they do?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:14PM
A man could be heard delivering a spectacular speech about freedom, justice, and oppression. If one were to listen more closely, they would notice that the speech was about how women maliciously oppress men and violate their rights daily. Below the speaker, as well as the only other one present, was a naked woman; she had been savagely beaten and raped, but was still hanging on to her life by a thread. As the man continued delivering his speech, it happened.
Blood. The woman had coughed up blood, interrupting the man's legendary speech. Impossible. The man had thought he was being overly magnanimous by letting the woman off with only a brutal raping and beating, but she did not seem to care about the man's immense kindness! She was still trying to oppress him! Anger welled up within the man to such an extent that it was as if nuclear bombs were detonating in his brain. The man realized he had to correct this injustice, here and now!
The man readied himself; he was battling against a great evil, and as such, needed to be more cautious than ever. His fist slowly rose into the air. Finally, the fist - which embodied the very concept of justice itself - slammed down like a meteor on the woman's head. Then, it happened again. She broke. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again...
No one would ever again see the oppressor, as her body had become utterly unrecognizable. What they would see, however, is a man who valiantly stood up for his freedoms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:19PM (5 children)
Seal Team 6!
Ok ok bad joke, the gov would never deploy such valuable assets for something so mundane, they'd need to catch a violent terrorist / drug lord / dictator to sell it.
No, instead ACE would just send a "tourist" to the country and take out a hit contract for probably less than it costs to have their lawyers send those threatening legal letters. As people who like to consider themselves civilized they rely on lawyers and bribery, but when push comes to shove they'll blame the dev for "forcing their hand." If the dev is lucky they'll just be targeted for harassment like getting cheap Korean knockoffs of "Taken" with little Kim shown in the corner reacting to the film.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:29PM (1 child)
These people know no bounds. Remember SOPA. They had congress bought and paid for -- until major web sites went dark and informed the public what was happening. Then, suddenly all congress critters were distancing themselves from SOPA. Most of the public had never heard of SOPA.
Then, based on timing, I think right after SOPA died, these people raided Kim Dot Com over MegaUpload. Private American companies getting foreign law enforcement to act in an outrageous way, without due process. Destroying his business. No compensation. I don't know if he ever got his servers and property back. Eventually NZ said it was all a mistake (or something like that). It went nowhere in the US. (I'm going from memory, so corrections are welcome.)
These people think it is everyone else's job to police their intellectual property. When they, themselves are unable to determine what is and is not an infringement, how to they expect other people to do so? (Example: they take down videos their own marketing arm uploaded as promotional material. They claim someone's nature recording of birds chirping infringes their music.)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @11:38PM
Nope. Kim Dotcom stoty is still not over yet. Some people really do not feel like admitting their mistakes. Besides, US got his assets, what's not to like?
https://torrentfreak.com/tag/kim-dotcom/ [torrentfreak.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:31PM (2 children)
You jest, but look what's Still Happening with Kim Dotcom.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:24PM
But they misfired badly or else kimmy would be sitting in gitmo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @09:37PM
It is jesting but I was totally serious about corporations hiring intimidation / hit squads. Plenty of stories have come out over the years, at least they usually resort to quasi-legal harassment before real violence, but I'm sure that is merely a cost benefit analysis for those greedy assholes.
(Score: 4, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:23PM (8 children)
It seems he's being targeted with threats of lawsuits. An extortion attempt to get him to agree to future behavior and reveal all kinds of past behavior in exchange for not getting sued.
The real question that nobody seems to come right out and ask / state: Is JSergio123 developing something that is illegal, or that directly infringes copyright, or that has a primary purpose of infringing copyright?
(of course you could claim FTP and HTTP have a primary purpose of infringing copyright. But one can claim anything. Like being a stable genius.)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:51PM (5 children)
That's not the real question. Why should they be able to stop people from developing software even if it is mostly used for infringing upon copyright? How would that not be a violation of freedom of speech? Copyright takes a back seat to freedom of speech, as far as anyone sane is concerned.
And I don't see how it could possibly directly infringe upon someone's copyright at all, or be illegal in and of itself.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:14PM
People are only realizing that copyright and free speech are not compatible.
That is an excellent point. It is the way that software is USED that matters. You say "even if it is mostly used for". But that could turn out to be true even if it was not designed for infringing uses. For example Bit Torrent. Designed to distribute large Linux distribution ISOs. But "mostly used for" something else.
BitTorrent would be the poster boy of what the copyright pigopolists want to destroy. And to make illegal even to develop. Yet has substantial non-infringing uses.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:33PM (3 children)
Good question; very easy answer! We just apply the same standard to firearm manufacturers. Either way, win-win!
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:19PM (2 children)
Huh? Which firearms are mostly used for infringing upon copyright?
Have I got my pirates confused again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @11:39PM
"Software doesn't kill people, people with guns kill people. Software only abets copyright infringement, or goes all Blue Screen of Death on your life-support system. Letting die is not the same a killing."
(Score: 2) by dry on Friday March 09 2018, @03:43AM
Think about it. Armed crooks hold up a video store and kill the teller, take all the cash and a dozen DVD's. Now taking DVD's without paying is copyright infringement, especially when the cops catch the crooks watching the videos with friends. Now we have the serious crime of copyright infringement. Forget about the minor crimes of murder and armed robbery, those crooks used a gun to infringe copyright and are going to go to jail for a long time, don't even have to bother with the other minor charges.
Now that it has been shown that guns can result in copyright infringement, the *AA's are going to go up against the NRA, get the 2nd repealed and ban guns.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:10PM (1 child)
It doesn't matter whether you are right or not. It really doesn't matter at all. you must have deep pockets to face a lawsuits against such moguls.
Even if you are absolutely right and the judge rejects it immediately, you would have needed a lawyer. And in such case, it may be only the first of a long string of lawsuits. Let alone if judge accepts it and there is a trial, then you will have to face 10 years of appeals.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @10:10AM
This is why there is no justice. The rich guy is always right and you're always wrong.
Add to that anybody can sue anytime for any reason and we're all dead men walking.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:06PM
I'll start shedding tears for ACE as soon as they start lobbying for copyright reform 3-20 years seems like a good min/max for copyright expiration, with the default being 3 years and extensions required to get up to 20 years. If we had sane copyright limits Disney might actually have to produce decent content! Their current business model is vacuum up all the IP they can and pump out soft hitting mass appeal mush.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:07PM (15 children)
Car manufacturers have still not signed the obvious pledge that their products will not be used for illegal activities.
Computer manufacturers have still not signed the obvious pledge that their products will not be used for illegal activities.
Dildo manufacturers have still not signed the obvious pledge that their products will not be used for illegal activities.
Gun manufacturers have still not signed the obvious pledge that their products will not be used for illegal activities.
Let's apply pressure on everyone to comply with our demands !
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:16PM (12 children)
Looking at your list. Why does Arizona have a limit of two (2) dildos per household, but no such limit on cars, computers or guns? Cars and Computers can be dangerous weapons. Just ask anyone who has been hit over the head with a computer.
But Kodi Addons, wow. This IS a serious danger to society. How many people per year die from Kodi Addons? (or from Disney movies?)
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:02PM
Kodi Addons should be honored because they strip away the ad-laden web interfaces of terror-supporting streaming sites!!!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:22PM (4 children)
You must be kidding. Aren't you?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:55PM
Debunked here. [phoenixnewtimes.co] Though as a teenager living in Arizona I remember hearing it as well... Actually I think it was a cap on the possession of the number of porn videos one could possess. The main adult store in the Valley of the Sun, the Castle, was in rural Maricopa County between the borders of Tempe and Phoenix (back when there was actually space in between them) where supposedly the laws on that were not enforced.
However, in Texas, the sale of one is illegal. [state.tx.us] Though likely unenforceable now, to believe Wikipedia.
In Alabama, though, it is illegal and was upheld by the court. [wikipedia.org] You can own one, just not sell one. [findlaw.com]
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 08 2018, @09:16PM (2 children)
I was not kidding. But, it looks like this may be debunked, if it ever was true [phoenixnewtimes.com].
I got it long ago from somewhere online. Googling just now, I can find multiple references. Whether it is actually true or not, I cannot say.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @11:42PM (1 child)
Actually, the law read, "Only two dildos from the Great State of Arizona can be in the US Senate at any one time." Kind of a Flakey law, but there it is. Hope no one goes raising Cain over this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @11:50PM
There. FTFY.
(Score: 3, Touché) by stretch611 on Thursday March 08 2018, @08:18PM (5 children)
Because stuffing 2 dildos in a person is a perfectly reasonable act.
However, 3 at a time is immoral and wrong. ;)
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Lester on Thursday March 08 2018, @09:57PM
Yeah. Two shoes is reasonable. Three is absurd, let alone two pairs.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:22PM (3 children)
Um, the post says _per household_ not per person.
Arguably two dildoes per three (or more) people is even more wrong...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @11:43PM (2 children)
2 per 3 can kind of work if double dildos count as one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @12:42AM (1 child)
I wonder if anyone thought of creating a multi-dildo to get around such laws. A single device with multiple different business ends. Kind of like the charger cables which split into half a dozen different connectors.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday March 09 2018, @04:06PM
Yes. We call it a kitty. [youtube.com]
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday March 08 2018, @10:45PM (1 child)
I suggest copyright and DRM are big issues precisely *because* no one dies if you "infringe".
As a result, it is hard to get "the masses" to care, until it is someone they know or something in which they, as an individual, get caught up.
When a person is eatened, they, and their friends become aware of the scale of the injustice/non relative threats compared to act.
Otherwise, meh, my torrenting.
Worse, the rigts holders do such a good job of the demonising that the people targeted are understood by the masses (even those that torrent) to be "really bad guys", who "deserve punishment".
Itis all a PR game, and the developers/ hackers / geeks are losing.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 09 2018, @03:00AM
> As a result, it is hard to get "the masses" to care, until it is someone they know or something in which they, as an individual, get caught up.
DRM also gets phased in gradually a little step at a tiime to prevent pushback, as we see in the Vulkan 1.1 spec, the UEFI spec , and the HTML5 spec. "no one" cares about specs. So DRM gets established there first to little resistence. Then comes a requirement for optional support, then mandatory support, then optional compliance, then mandatory compliance:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/07/2031207 [soylentnews.org]
http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/UEFI [techrights.org]
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=eme [techdirt.com]
Computers that just anyone can program and a net where just anyone can publish rub very many powerful people and institutions the wrong way. They have been looking for decades for a way to roll back the world to a cnetralized, top-down broadcast model like with oldmedia.
In the 80s, most PCs had a programming environment available within a fraction of a second of flipping the power on. Now look at the barriers in place before you can even get started even with training languagres like Python. Look also at how oldmedia has been grinding away at the term 'hacker'. Mention 'hacking' to most people now and they'll get all upset and start asking about legality.
Besides, most of the public is already locked into Facebook. There they can be monitored in detail and rounded up at a later time when deemed expedient:
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2017/02/08/police-mine-facebook-for-data-on-inauguration-protesters/ [sophos.com]
These are not sheep. Sheep have at least the protection of the flock. We're looking at hamster-like behavior and intelligence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08 2018, @06:42PM (2 children)
Either do your work anonymously, or you take your chances with the bounty hunters. There is nothing else you can do until the voters start to elect civilized humans into the government.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:02PM
The so called civilized humans gradually become jaded by what goes on around them. Then they realize how profitable it is to participate in the corruption.
There needs to be less corruption, or more opportunity to participate in it.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Thursday March 08 2018, @07:11PM
There is a third choice - make it personal https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2095852-altered-carbon [goodreads.com]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.