Amicus curiae brief - friend of the court brief
Quote:
Originally Posted by joannajet
Hello,
As views have been requested on the subject of illegal porn, here comes mine.
Piracy of intellectual property is considered by all those who partake in it as being a soft crime, fo which a self-pardon can be justified on the grounds "I'm not hurting anyone", "everyone does it", "it's not like I am going to get busted for it" or "like they need any more money, they are obviously doing just fine".
By you know what, I don't pirate anything. I don't buy DVDs before their official release from a car boot sale, I don't download music unless I have paid my 99 cents to ITunes, shit, I don't even upload a porn pic unless I own it or have paid for it.
So now let me present the reality of piracy:
Even in the most conservative of estimates, I have lost, this year, at least 40 to 50 percent of my revenue from the purchase of non-original DVD copies, Internet publication without licence and stolen passwords for access to commercial web sites.
That 40-50% has denied me the funds necessary to succeed in my legal battle with the US government, which has resulted to date, in not just the indefinite release of new DVDs and hardcore content on Joannajet.com (that pirates considered as worth spending the time to download illegaly) but also in the firing of three, very talented and able, US citizens because I could not be there to offset the revenue being lost to piracy...
For fuck's sake, even the graphic design company who works on my boxcovers has had to fire someone because I am no longer releasing often enough.
Whether it be porn, movies, music, software or any other form of intangible product, those that acquire it without remunerating it's creator consider themselves as pirates and somehow that makes it OK.
Well if you are such a pirate, I doubt that you are on a ship, wear an eye patch, have scurvy, strut around on a wooden leg or sport a foul-mouthed parrot on your shoulder so let's cut out the self-indulgent glamourous name calling and face up to the fact that you nothing more than a petty thief robbing behind the anynomity of a keyboard.
Joanna Jet
xxx
I apologize in advance for the length of this post, it is something I feel strongly about as well. Also, while it addresses all of digital copyright infringement in general, much of it is relevant to adult entertainment material.
While not trying to render a Solomon like decision, or sound like John Kerry, I will say that I understand both viewpoints, and they both have merits.
If the media industry is unable to re-coup the money it spends on producing it’s product, then obviously there will be no money to pay talent, and other related production costs.
End result to the consumer, no new, or simply shoddy product.. So, why can’t people see that it is in their best interests to stop illegally obtaining digital material.
But, ‘twere’ the problem and it’s solution so simple:
1. You can’t legislate morality, specifically in the case of, The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology that can circumvent measures taken to protect copyrights.TheEuropeans, in May of 2001 came up with , EU Copyright Directive or EUCD, which is comparable to the DMCA.
Ever hear of it, most likely not, but one if the things is says is you could be in ‘big trouble’ for making copies of your friends cds for mixtapes.
Kinda, like Nancy Reagan, coming up, with ‘just say no’ to drugs, sounded nice on paper in a meeting but hasn’t meant much to the average person, or piracy.
2.But what about, law enforcement: The FBI kicking in warehouse doors, in Flushing, Queens, NY, with operatives from the RIAA, seizing millions of dollars worth of pirated, software, music, and movies. Surely, that must have taken a bite, out of crime. One would think so, wouldn’t one. But in every major city, that I have been to in the world, there is absolutely no problem what so ever purchasing pirated material, often for pennies on the dollar.
3.Come on, surely it can’t be as bleak as all that, aren’t there technological safeguards in place to prevent copying and mass distribution of digital material. For every encryption safeguard, for every codec put in place to prevent you from getting free stuff, there is a 13 year old kid in Finland, or Florida, cracking it, as we speak, and the crack will be on the internet and around the world in hours.
Face it folks the genie is out of the bottle, every one has or knows some one who has cd or dvd burners. Digital recording equipment, and the accompanying software is very affordable and easy to use. Technologically, it is a no – brainer to copy, just about anything byte for byte, bit for bit, in a spot on manner.
It is a very difficult problem, with seemingly no solution in sight. And one can yell, cajole, coerce, until the cows come home, or the swallows come back from where ever the hell they have flown off to, it’s not going to solve the problem.
So, what’s a viable solution, well actually it’s multi-tiered one:
A.Legislation and law enforcement are good, but put some teeth into them Now that doesn’t mean fining some teenager living in the projects of the Bronx, $1,000 per song, movie or video, he or she has illegally downloaded. Just like you wouldn’t lock the town ‘stoner’ up in a Federal prison for smoking a ‘blunt’ behind the Dairy Queen. Though you most likely would want to go up higher in the criminal food chain, and impose stiffer penalties.
B.Oh, and remember those countries that I mentioned with all the pirated stuff. Well guess what many of them are our friends, ie we trade with them, we loan them money, we keep their governments from being overthrown, you know friend stuff. And, I am not just referring to some third world impoverished countries, but so called first world as well. Counterfeiting in many counties in not done in some small, dank basement. But rather is big business. This memo from the U.S. Dept Of State http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/rm/30717.htm , http://www.iipi.org/topics/Arts_culture_music.asp , from the IIPI, and this additional State Department memo illustrate the point http://cryptome.org/ip-war.htm as well as this from Europe show the scope of the problem http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressRele...guiLanguage=en .Somewhat boring reading, but makes the point. What is our government, doing about international counterfeiting, smacking wrists.
C.Technology, it is a game of cops and robbers, of one upsmanship. The so-called good guys come up with something to keep the bad guys from stealing their stuff, the bad guys figure it out, defeat it, rinse and repeat, ad nauseum. Gotta, pump more money, time and energy, into that process, where does that money come from, take a guess.
D.We are almost ready to wrap, this is the part where the companies come in
Memo to: CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, CIOs, et al, it’s not 1995 anymore. The way you sell product is not the same as you did back then. E-commerce folks have a grasp of this, brick and mortar folks are catching up.
Delivering a product at a competitive price point, securing your infrastructure as much as possible (don’t be cheap with IT) This includes but is not limited to the securing of passwords, credit card information, etc. are some things that can keep piracy at bay. Be creative in your marketing, it is a very competitive marketplace.
Bug the hell,out of your trade associations, have that lobbyist, bug Wagington, again think food chain
Finally. I am thinking we need to have a summit with government, media suppliers, IT people, open source folks, electronic freedom folks, consumer groups, and other interested parties, to further hash this issue out
This is not just an intellectual property problem, but a dollars and cents problem, with international consequences that hurts us all.
