SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
BBC reports that computer programmer Philip Danks for has been jailed for 33 months after recording Fast And Furious 6 from the back of a cinema after a judge in Wolverhampton ruled that the defendant uploaded the movie, which was downloaded 700,000 times. As well as putting the film on the internet, Danks offered to sell copies of the film using his Facebook profile.
The judge who sentenced Danks said his behavour was "bold, arrogant and cocksure". Police said that Danks had continued to illegally distribute movies after his arrest in May last year. Fraud investigators quickly traced him after they noticed his online ‘Thecod3r’ tag attached to the video was identical to his profile on dating site Plenty of Fish. Danks was arrested by police after a special ‘webwatch’ team was set up by LA-based Universal Pictures, who raided his home in Bloxwich, Walsall on May 23 – less than a week after the video surfaced online.
The court heard that despite making some money from sales of the film on Facebook and by personal delivery his real motive was ‘street cred’. "The first person with a pirated version attracts much kudos," said Ari Alibhai, prosecuting on behalf of the Federation Against Copyright Theft. "He wanted recognition from the community."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by chris.alex.thomas on Sunday August 24 2014, @08:34AM
the problem here is that at the end, it's the seller who decides the price and the market which gives the seller an expectation of what to sell for.
But the terms of sale sometimes are not a negotiation, but a price they want and what right does anybody have to tell them "you should change the price or terms"
If they want to sell it ONLY at cinemas, then release it onto a DRM encumbered format which restricts your rights and makes them more money, that is up to them, not up to you, if you all decide to stop watching and they make no profit, perhaps they will change their behaviour, but you change your behaviour when somebody want to do it and not because somebody else is telling them to.
If you don't want to pay the price, don't, go play in the fields with the critters and make some awesome open source software, but stop complaining, they put the price, you dont wanna pay, you get to do other things.
If you think it's extortion, make a decision and stand by it and if you want, get your friends to join in.
But you have absolutely no right to insert yourself into the price or delivery equation, because you did nothing which helped in the production of whatever it is you're buying.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by tathra on Sunday August 24 2014, @09:01PM
the problem is that a lot of people support the works by buying them, because they want to see more of them in the future, but only hate the heavy-handed restrictions (so they download the DRM-free version so they can actually enjoy the product they have purchased). if they stopped buying, the customers would be punished because the works they wanted would no longer be created, but the restrictions would continue in all future creations, until the company went completely out of business.
"voting with your wallet" doesnt work when the creators can't understand to which part you're objecting, and its not like sales reports come with reasons why people are buying or not buying.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday August 25 2014, @12:47AM
If you think it's extortion, make a decision and stand by it and if you want, get your friends to join in.
But you have absolutely no right to insert yourself into the price or delivery equation, because you did nothing which helped in the production of whatever it is you're buying.
Capitalist entitlement! What could possibly make you think that the producer gets to set a price? Just because you were stupid enough to produce Fast and Furious 6 or even worse Expendables 3, that does not mean you are entitled to make back whatever you foolishly spent on it. The market sets the price, not the producer, and if you have not noticed, it is purchasers that make a market. And in some cases, that means that products have zero price. In this case I would argue that they should have a negative price. The guy should be jailed for making copies of a movie that never should have been made, in effect spreading cultural pollution and being a nuisance to society.
So what do you say that we haggle? Ten shekels for that? Are you mad? Its not even worth one! (Monty Python, Life of Brian)