With day 1 digital distribution of films becoming more prevalent, and movie theater chains going out of business, Hollywood and the MPAA are going to do everything they possibly can to kill or cobble illicit streaming. This could include increasing potential criminal penalties for individuals who operate "streaming piracy" services:
Movie Company Boss Urges US Senators to Make Streaming Piracy a Felony
In the United States, criminal copyright infringers can be sentenced to five years in prison. However, this is not the case for streaming piracy, which is seen as a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum jail sentence of one year. Millennium Films boss Jonathan Yunger is callling on senators to change this, so the Department of Justice can effectively shut down and prosecute streaming piracy operations.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property is actively looking for options through which the US can better address online piracy. During a hearing last month, various experts voiced their opinions. They specifically addressed measures taken by other countries and whether these could work in the US, or not. Pirate site blocking and upload filtering emerged as the main topics during this hearing. While pros and cons were discussed, movie industry insiders including Millennium Media co-president Jonathan Yunger framed these measures as attainable and effective.
After the hearing, senators asked various follow-up questions on paper. Last week we reported how former MEP Julia Reda answered these by stressing the importance of affordable legal options. Yunger, however, takes another approach.
In his answers, which were published before the weekend, he reiterates the power of website blocking. In addition, Yunger also brings a second, previously unmentioned issue to the forefront: criminal penalties for streaming piracy. "The second thing that we could easily do in the United States is close the legal loophole that currently allows streaming – which accounts for the vast majority of piracy today – to be treated as a misdemeanor rather than a felony," Yunger writes.
See also: Movie & TV Giants Sue 'Pirate' Nitro IPTV For 'Massive' Copyright Infringement
Related Stories
The Invisible Man, Emma, and The Hunt Hit Pirate Sites After Rushed VOD Releases
A decision by Universal Pictures to quickly make movies available on [video on demand (VOD)] services due to the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the inevitable. Titles including The Invisible Man, Emma, and The Hunt, which are still in their theatrical windows, are now all available for download on pirate sites, just hours after release.
[...] In common with hundreds of business sectors and individuals around the world, the spread of the virus is having a profound effect on cinemas. As preventative measures are put in place, revenues are reportedly down to the lowest levels in twenty-five years. On the other hand, services that can be accessed at home – Netflix for example – are enjoying a boom in usage.
In an effort to cushion the blow, earlier this week Universal Pictures announced that it would be releasing some of its newest movies, that are technically still in their theatrical windows, on digital platforms for rental. As a result, The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Emma all went on sale Friday at around the $20 mark.
How well these movies will be received and in what volumes consumed remains to be seen but within hours of them appearing on official platforms, the inevitable happened. At the time of writing, all are available for free downloading and streaming on dozens of pirate sites.
Copyright Holders Have to 'Resend' Millions of Pirate Bay Takedown Notices:
After several weeks of absence, The Pirate Bay became accessible again through its main .org domain last weekend.
At first sight the site looked more or less the same but there are some significant changes, both under the hood and in appearance.
Many users immediately noticed that the site doesn't work well with several ad blockers. Whether this is a bug or a feature is the question, but it was both frustrating and annoying for some.
[...] With the new Pirate Bay design also comes a new URL structure. Instead of the old torrent pages that were accessible through thepiratebay.org/torrent/12345, the format has now changed to thepiratebay.org/description.php?id=12345.
Other URLs, including categories, the top lists, and user pages, all updated as well. To give another example, the 100 most-active torrents on the site can now be accessed from thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=top100:all, instead of the old thepiratebay.org/top/all.
For users, this isn't a problem. All old links simply redirect to new ones. However, for copyright holders, it's an outright disaster as it means that they will have to resend all their takedown notices.
[...] Looking at Google's transparency report we see that copyright holders have asked the search engine to remove more than five million URLs. Pretty much all of these notices have been rendered useless.
For example, this 2012 takedown notice from Paramount Pictures removed the link to The Pirate Bay's top 100 video torrents. However, after the update, the same page reappeared under a new URL. Another consideration is that Google is just one search engine, so the same applies to other search engines too.
Previously:
(2020-04-11) Pirate Bay No Longer Uses Cloudflare, Visitors Sent to 'Black Hole'
(2020-04-09) Anti-Piracy Copyright Lawyer Decides to Abuse Trademarks to Shut Down Pirates
(2020-04-07) Movie Company Boss Urges U.S. Senators to Make "Streaming Piracy" a Felony
(2020-03-26) Supreme Court Rules States are Not Liable for Copyright Violations
(2020-03-23) The Invisible Man, Emma, and The Hunt Hit Pirate Sites after Rushed Video on Demand Releases
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:02PM (6 children)
We should not ever let the industry write the nation's laws.
(Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:51PM (3 children)
That ship has sailed.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday April 08 2020, @03:23PM (2 children)
Then that ship needs to be sent to the bottom with several torpedoes.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday April 08 2020, @09:41PM (1 child)
Too late.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2020, @07:14PM
No, it's not too late. Every time one of these stupid fucks pops up, chop their fucking head off and the other ones will STFU.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday April 07 2020, @11:07PM (1 child)
And just who do you think runs that industry? Perhaps overrepresentation of a people known for their avarice?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday April 07 2020, @11:41PM
Rich people run that industry, so yes, people known for their avarice.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:03PM (5 children)
Can't say I get too worked about about prosecution.
A lot of people who frequent this site seem to believe watching movies without paying for them is a human right. I say it just shows how utterly controlled their minds are by Hollywood that they go through all the bother and illegality to get their fix.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:34PM (3 children)
It's my right to freely watch movies 150 years before they enter the public domain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @04:45PM (2 children)
The biggest financial hit to Hollywood is from people pirating brand new movies, sometimes the day of release. Movies make the vast majority of their money during this important period. The vast majority of people who pirate don't respect ANY duration of copyright, so you are throwing out a red herring with that public domain argument. Would you promise not to pirate content that is less than 50 years old? I doubt you would even care about the movie then. Most people would find the content "dated."
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday April 08 2020, @11:37PM
In the second place, I wouldn't make any such promise for such an unreasonable length of time. If copyright was a more reasonable time, such as half the time patents stay in force in any given jurisdiction, I probably would.
In the first place, I don't pillage ships at sea so I don't pirate; I also don't copy/download/buy hollywood films because doing so just feeds the trolls.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10 2020, @07:16PM
all of these establishment video channels are propagandists and need to be bankrupted anyways.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by MostCynical on Tuesday April 07 2020, @10:37PM
Do you mean people are controlled becasue they want the content at all?
If so, so what?
People will pay even if content is crap, but make it hard enough and people will find an alternative.
As for your contention about 'bother and illegality'.. there is hardly any "bother", and one could argue that any 'illegality' is on the distributors, making alot of content difficult or impossible to access legally (by refusing to make it available to watch or listen).
watch legally: download a program, sign in, activate account, hand over credit card details, set up profile, find preferred content (if available), watch
watch by download: download a program, find content, download (VPN recommended)
watch by streaming: Find content, press play (VPN recommended)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Archon V2.0 on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:15PM (2 children)
Everyone's having trouble making money to pay for their residence right now, but the only rent-seekers are people like this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @04:51PM (1 child)
Actors, writers, stagehands, and makeup artists don't have to make their rent either?
If nobody pays for the product, how do you think ANYBODY will get paid? People who view without paying are mooches. SOMEBODY has to pay... right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @08:58PM
Sounds great. So when they are all paid a reasonable wage for the hours they worked the movie goes public domain?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by P on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:24PM (3 children)
So what I get from this is they want to punish anyone in possession of their material as a felony. Assuming the cost of a physical copy of a movie sitting in a store is around $12, if a person took a copy from a store, it would be nothing more than a misdemeanor. Depending on the state, felony theft of merchandise doesn't take effect until you're over ~$1000 or more.
So basically they think their movies (which most have been absolutely horrible in the past decade) is worth a grand per view. They better change their prices to reflect that. Oh wait, they wouldn't do that, it's a money grab.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday April 07 2020, @11:21PM (2 children)
The criminalization is almost certainly for people transmitting the content to others, not the people watching. Possession shouldn't have anything to do with it, because you could take a legally owned Blu-ray disc, play it on your computer, and stream what you see on your screen to thousands of others. Or host the legally ripped content on your illicit streaming website/service.
It is easier than ever for ordinary people to stream copyrighted content. YouTube can detect infringement on streams in real time and end them within about a few minutes.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Touché) by Hartree on Wednesday April 08 2020, @05:24AM (1 child)
"The criminalization is almost certainly for people transmitting the content to others, not the people watching."
Uh huh. Sure.
Two words: Prenda Law.
Make it a felony, and there will be shysters who will try to use it to threaten some old lady whose grandson streamed an illegal movie if they don't pay up n thousand dollars.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 08 2020, @02:18PM
BitTorrent users are potentially committing a crime, while "stream watchers" are probably not. There was also an easy way for Prenda Law to obtain lots of IP addresses from the swarm, but it would be difficult to replicate that with streaming unless the copyright troll ran their own streaming site, which could sink their cases.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:31PM (2 children)
Did you know 90% of over-the-air television viewers are stealing their programs? They never buy the products advertised and even leave the room during commercials! Its theft!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @02:13AM
Wrinkly old cleavage isn't something I'm interested in buying.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 08 2020, @04:34AM
That was in fact argued when TiVo was big. It didn't go anywhere because Netflix and Prime stole TiVo's lunch and entire relevance shortly afterward.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday April 07 2020, @09:35PM (5 children)
Yeah, right, let's talk about throwing even more people in prison, during a pandemic. But when the squeeze is on, and things are tight, as happens in a worldwide emergency, there's less room for stupidity.
Hey, Hollywood, it's over. Copying belongs to the masses. Even sneakernet can commit millions in copyright infringement in a matter of seconds by exchanging just one thumb drive. That boat has sailed. It's water under the bridge. Now get to work on building and improving other business models. You know, like crowdfunding, patronage, and endorsements and advertising. That last seems to have worked for radio and TV for decades, and it still works now.
The main question I have is, why does this bozo Yunger get the privilege of addressing Congress? I mean, if our lawmakers are going to waste time on bull and nonsense, why not have astrologers on the floor of the senate while the senate is in session, to consult the stars concerning the pandemic? Yunger deserves jail time himself for pulling this stunt. I suppose he bribed his way in, and who knows what that cost? What a colossal, stupid waste of money.
Hollywood, hello again, can you guys do basic math? Do these campaigns to bribe the lawmakers cost more than copyright is worth? You don't really know, you're just sure copyright is invaluable, beyond price, eh? Oh, right, Hollywood Accounting. You don't care to do math honestly.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday April 07 2020, @11:12PM
I doubt any new law related to this will be passed or go into effect during the next year or two. But it is likely coming somewhere down the line.
I was encouraged that they let Julia Reda address Congress. She was a German Pirate Party MEP.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @11:44PM (1 child)
I'd be willing to accept this proposed law. But in exchange, I want a thorough tax audit of every Hollywood movie made over the past 50 years. Any "Hollywood bookkeeping" found, and the producers rot in jail the rest of their lives.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @01:00AM
How about this? Any entity by their own actions or their agent's that issues an illegitimate DCMA takedown request loses owership of any and all copyrights retained up to that point in time. Everything goes into the public domain. If copyright is so fucking important that it can be a felony, they can have a little skin in the game for claiming copyright to others' works.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday April 08 2020, @12:07AM (1 child)
Since it's his bought and payed for property, he can do whatever he likes with it.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday April 08 2020, @07:02PM
> he can do whatever he likes with it.
Just like Mr. Candy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifh6xJQyufc [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Comptine on Tuesday April 07 2020, @10:22PM (1 child)
The Internet is for the free shearing of information.
If information is on the Internet, it can be shared freely among other people over the Internet.
If you want to charge people money to share information over the internet and others are willing to pay that is acceptable.
But the Internet is what it is, deal with it or make your own network to sell information to your customers.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday April 08 2020, @12:11AM
I like what you did there :)
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @10:24PM (2 children)
Parasite: 'murica's bestest medical system.
There is no good guys, none at all - the doctors, the hospitals/administrators, the insurers, the government, the pharma, voters/patients, all selfish assholes.
Well, maybe except for the nurses. Nurses, even the male ones, had been good in my book.
(Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Wednesday April 08 2020, @03:12AM (1 child)
*Everyone* working in a hospital now is like gold. Also grocery store clerks, truck drivers, farmers and such. All of them are the reason we are still a functioning society - and they need some real hazard pay.
When I go to the grocery store, I am thinking about giving them some laundered money - a $20 in a small plastic bag of soapy water.
SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @01:11PM
The real fun one is how, in the course of the last month, undocumented farm workers went from, a blight that must be kept out/deported to card carrying "essential workers."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by meustrus on Tuesday April 07 2020, @10:35PM
There's a huge problem right now in the financing of video production, that's for sure. But it's not piracy.
The problem is actually that copyright is too strong. Content is locked up in huge bundles too vast for anyone to appropriately manage, owned by megacorporations worried about giving a leg up to one of their few competitors.
The problem is that content companies are too few and too big. They own all the copyright, and they aren't interested in sharing.
What would be best for the consumer, best for the market, and best for the industry is if there were real competition in streaming. If the hoards of content were equitably available to whatever streaming platform could pay for it, exclusivity be damned, and those platforms could fairly compete with each other.
What would be best for the industry is if creators had more control and ownership over their creations. If the people who most benefitted from a successful production were the people whose creative vision made it happen, rather than the executives and marketers who spend most of their time manipulating markets to shut out otherwise successful ideas.
Most people who want it have access to every streaming platform, either because they bought access or borrowed it from a friend or family member. The only streams worth pirating are the streams not available on any of those platforms.
If copyright were weaker and corporations smaller, that content would be available somewhere. People, who generally prefer to stay within the law when possible, would be watching through a paid platform.
Oh, and if anyone could make, say, a Fantastic Four movie, not just the one studio that bought the rights forever ago and refuses to share or make a good movie...we could have some pretty excellent Fantastic Four movies right now. Repeat for every single franchise that turned to schlock the minute it hit the Hollywood copyright incest machine.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Tuesday April 07 2020, @11:17PM (3 children)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 07 2020, @11:36PM (1 child)
Huh. Is there some sorta underground nntp/uucp network?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @01:07AM
Shush! See GP's comment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2020, @09:08PM
I use it for text only. Btw I'm still waiting for someone to make that control message to create alt.soylentnews (or be nice and put it in some appropriate subtree).
https://www.aioe.org/ [aioe.org]
https://www.eternal-september.org/ [eternal-september.org]
http://www.neodome.net/ [neodome.net]
http://www.albasani.net [albasani.net]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday April 08 2020, @02:17AM
if the movie is hyped as the best movie of my lifetime, but really it sucks COMPLETELY, can I sue them and charge them with a felony?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @02:57AM
There were movies about pandemics, but we still weren’t ready for the real thing.
We need to spend MORE money on pandemic movies so we can be ready for the next one!
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 08 2020, @04:42AM (2 children)
Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems like the production of new movies has fallen off a cliff. There aren't that many anymore. TV, too, seems to have suffered in the Age of Netflix.
So when content that's not produced by Netflix withers, and the content being produced by Netflix is available at very low cost there already, why is it necessary to go to these lengths? I can't remember the last time we actually watched anything on Netflix. Prime, either. The kids watch YouTube or play video games some, but what they really love to do is play sports, dance, or create art. Interacting with their friends and other kids is what stimulates them.
Perhaps we're nearing the end of the Age of Distraction.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 08 2020, @02:42PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Television_(2000s%E2%80%93present) [wikipedia.org]
"Experts" would not agree with you, although if you want to double down and use the "ALL TV AND MOVIES ARE SHIT" argument, nobody here will stop you.
There's also a huge fragmentation happening as the Streaming Wars have commenced. Netflix became gigantic, and other corporations (e.g. NBCUniversal) wanted a piece of the pie. So they pulled content from Netflix and started their own streaming [wikipedia.org] services [soylentnews.org]. Now you have possibly good TV shows appearing on platforms you have never heard of.
Maybe we can quantify a fall off in movie and TV production as this shift happens. And obviously, Hollywood took a very recent hit from coronavirus. Hundreds of movie theaters [deadline.com] nationwide may never reopen or could get bought up (including some by Netflix so they can get their movies in the awards shows that created anti-Netflix rules). Also, if Netflix wants to displace Hollywood films, they have to do better than Bright [wikipedia.org].
https://www.statista.com/statistics/187122/movie-releases-in-north-america-since-2001/ [statista.com]
https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ [the-numbers.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 08 2020, @03:20PM
A couple of other thoughts.
Your kids' activity has probably changed given the coronavirus. No interacting with other kids outside of a phone or screen, I assume. So their use of streaming and YouTube could be peaking right now, for better or worse.
Production costs for a given "CGI quality" could plateau and even drop. You've got shows like Sanctuary [wikipedia.org] that extensively used CGI sets. The film industry sometimes reveals [electronicdesign.com] the hardware used to produce a big budget animated or CGI film. A given level of performance/quality will eventually be achievable by amateur/independent animators, especially given algorithmic improvements (like low-ray-count raytracing with machine learning denoising) and procedural generation to replace man-hours of work.
Various computer tools and tricks are also reviving 2D animation:
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/how-klaus-draws-on-centuries-old-artistic-principles-to-push-2d-animation-forward-182325.html [cartoonbrew.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @09:08AM
I've been on Netflix for a few years. It's easy. Go to the local store, buy a Netflix card, logon, put the card info it, and use the credit to extend. Nice. It works.
Netflix has been great. Lots of TV shows. I've binged lots of things I never thought I'd watch. Gotten into shows from other countries too. Love O2O. Kings Avatar.
Now Netflix is absolute shit. Every 5 or 10 minutes it stops at 99% buffered. Nothing works to fix this. It's horrible. Terrible.
I am now seriously considering going back to torrents. Yes, I stopped torrenting years ago. Now I can't stand normal TV. I'll watch some specific shows, or the news, but that's about it. Netflix has jumped the shark. They can't deliver video anymore. I have not watch a full show uninterrupted for the last two months. They blame this lockdown, but here in Aus I suspect it's just that their system is crap. Their website doesn't load properly. Constant dropouts. Just crap.
No it's not my connection. Everything else works fine. 40Gbps.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2020, @09:22AM
Parking ticket? Jail!
Jaywalking? Bend over son, your best new friend is named Bubba... JAIL!
Tax return oversight? JAAAAAAIIILL!
Parked in the wrong place? Yes. Jail for you.
Played music in your car without a licence? MAXIMUM PENALTY! WITH PUNITIVE DAMAGES!!!
Smoking outside a government building? Lady, jailtime.
Perhaps, one day, they will understand.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday April 08 2020, @03:24PM
If your DMCA notice:
* is for a work you don't own
* fails to consider fair use
* is sent to the wrong party
* is not signed by a truly authorized agent
* does not clearly explain the infringement (eg, someone's nature recordings)
Then it should be a felony. Statutory $150,000.00 fine per instance. And a minimum 30 days jail time.
I bit that would raise the quality and reduce the quantity of DMCA notices considerably.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Thursday April 09 2020, @08:45AM (1 child)
This is the guy... [variety.com] -- seems to be bright young chap. He's been working at Millenium films for several years.
I don't pirate, but I find his statements misguided -- I ain't a fan of felonizing people for pirating streaming in the US, not with all the implications a felony has there (voting rights, work problems, etc).
If you too don't like his comments, may I suggest boycotting/avoiding his company's films for a few months? During lockdown, with everyone viewing streaming services, this should send some sort of market signal back.
List of Millenium films on IMDB [imdb.com]
_____________________________________________________________
Angel Has Fallen (2019) R | 121 min | Action, Thriller. ...
Rambo: Last Blood (2019) R | 89 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller. ...
Hellboy (2019) R | 120 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy. ...
London Has Fallen (2016) ...
Hunter Killer (2018) ...
The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) ...
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) ...
Conan the Barbarian (2011) ...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 09 2020, @07:19PM
That is a fantasy. Not even 0.1% of people will ever know who this guy is, so there won't be any sort of market signal.
Luckily, nobody will watch Hellboy (2019) anyway.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]