From the very first movie that was downloaded from the Internet the entertainment industry has been yelling and ranting about how the nasty evil Internet was killing the movie business and taking food out of the mouths of hard working people. Then as file lockers and BitTorrent files became a drop dead easy way for just about anyone to use to get the movies and other stuff that they wanted that ranting has gotten only louder.

It doesn’t matter that over the years just about anyone with any sense in their heads and who understood technology was telling exactly the opposite story that the movie industry wasn’t in fact being hurt by these types of downloads. It didn’t matter that while the popularity of things like BitTorrent grew so did the box office profits of the movie industry setting new records almost every year.

Well there is a new study out titled, Reel Piracy: The Effects of Online Piracy on International Box Office Sales, and guess what they found out?

Yup, BitTorrents have had no effect on box office profits. In fact if there is any blame for loss of money to be placed it is right at the feet of the movie industry itself.

According to the study, the factor with the largest impact on piracy is the delay between U.S. and international releases of films. Because of the delay in international releases, often the only way to get a film may be to pirate or wait. Given that choice, anyone who doesn’t want to waithas to turn to piracy whereas if a legitimate venue of purchase was available, at least some of that revenue could be retained.  The study estimates that if this pre-release piracy binge were eliminated — by releasing earlier, or simultaneously with the U.S. — overall losses could be reduced by 7%.

via Geekosystem

Of course we aren’t saying the outright piracy is right or a good thing but the declaration that it is killing the movie business is patently ridiculous and is being proven so each and every day, and with every new non-partisan study that is done.

Not so quick with the BitTorrent piracy killing the box office argument. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Before Napster, musicians used to have their music stolen from a device even more devious than the computer. The dreaded radio. Legendary singer Neil Young says that he isn’t worried about digital piracy because it’s just a new version of the radio.

Speaking at a conference, Young addressed the issue of piracy saying:

“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone…. Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around… That’s the radio. If you really want to hear it, let’s make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it.”

Neil Young: Piracy Is The New Radio is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems this is the month of shutting down file sharing sites. Microsoft and Adobe have filed to take down ex.ua, a file sharing service in the Ukraine. The site has been shut down after a six month investigation into claims of piracy.

Ex.ua is a very popular site in the Ukraine and even accounted for as much as 25% of Internet traffic in the country. Companies take piracy very seriously as they rely greatly off of software sales. Even though the concept of file sharing isn’t illegal, companies manage to find a way around it due to copyright infringement.

If thousands and thousands of people download say a $300 piece of software, well, it adds up in the long run. With the file sharing service being shut down, there’s a lot of data at stake too.

Via TheNextWeb:

“Ukranian news site Watcher reports that the Ministry of Internal Affiars states “the police closed ex.ua under criminal investigation under part 2 of article 176 of the criminal proceedings”. The article in question covers violation of copyright and related rights.”

“In all it’s being reported that 200 servers were confiscated, carrying among them 6,000 terabytes of data. At present, 16 people are facing charges in the investigation, which could lead to a maximum prison sentence of 5 years.”

To give you an idea of how much data that is, 1 terabyte is 1000 gigabytes. The average computer has 250 gigabytes of hard drive space so you do the math. Either way, it’s not good for the Ukranian file sharing service. With piracy and copyright infringement lawsuits heating up, these takedowns aren’t going to end anytime soon.

Do you believe Microsoft and Adobe had the right to get the service shut down?

Microsoft And Adobe Take Down File Sharing Service In Ukraine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Megaupload who recently got shut down due to claims of piracy, copyright infringement, and money laundering, had the chance of all its user’s data deleted this week. Fortunately, they’ve received an extension, but not for long.

Why the deletion of data? The simple fact is, since the file hosting service was shut down, the US government also froze all of the company’s assets which keeps them from making any payments. They rely off of a couple hosting companies and have contracts with them to host data.

Users are saved, for now at least.

Via Informationweek:

“In the United States, Megaupload leases servers from two hosting providers: Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications. Since the Justice Department froze Megaupload’s assets, however, the file-sharing site could no longer pay its leasing bills.”

“But Ira Rothken, Megaupload’s U.S. attorney, said the two hosting providers have since agreed that they won’t delete the Megaupload data they’re storing, for at least two more weeks. “The hosting companies have been gracious enough to provide additional time so we can work out some kind of arrangement with the government,” Rothken said, according to news reports. The negotiations are meant to free up funds to pay the hosting providers to recover some data, which he said may also aid Megaupload’s defense.”

While this is great, users still can’t access their data due to the site being shut down, however, there’s the hope that the site can eventually be restored after all the legalities and lawsuit is figured out.

Do you think they should save Megaupload user data?

Megaupload User Data Gets Saved, At Least For Another 2 Weeks is a post from: The Inquisitr

Megaupload, the notorious file hosting service that was abruptly shut down recently due to piracy and claims of money laundering, is taking another hit in the eyes of it’s once users. Data could be deleted this week which means anyone who uploaded content, will lose everything.

The recent debacle with the Hong Kong based company, has really ignited the Internet community on the topic of piracy and copyright infringement. Prosecutors claim to have cost the music and movie industry Billions of dollars because of people uploading copyrighted material and users then downloading it.

The service made it very easy to upload and get access to content, whether it was music or movies. Many people were using it, too, and paying for it at that. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t look to be making a comeback anytime soon.

Via The Washington Post:

“It is our understanding that the hosting companies may begin deleting the contents of the servers beginning as early as February 2, 2012,” U.S. District Attorney Neil MacBride wrote in the letter. Ira Rothken, attorney for Megaupload, told The Associated Press that, after this development, at least 50 million customers could lose their files. Megaupload had been contracting with the companies to store the information, but can no longer pay those contracts because its assets have been frozen.”

The situation is sure to make a lot of people upset, but what’s done has already been done. Since they can’t pay the hosting companies because their assets were frozen, there’s a good chance all the data will be deleted.

How do you feel about the whole Megaupload situation?

Megaupload User Data May Be Deleted This Week is a post from: The Inquisitr

As we deal with the morning afterglow of our success in making Congress rethink the whole SOPA and PIPA, even if only temporarily, the push against all things meant to supposedly protect copyright and trademark laws continues unabated, as we have seen with the take down of Megaupload by the Department of Justice.

The problem is that the battle we are fighting right now over the protection of the entertainment industry and their inability to move into a modern world of digital creation and distribution it is nothing compared to the war that is headed our way, and coming faster than we might think.

Shortly after CES 2011, where the quiet hit of the event was 3D printing I made a comment on Google+ about what this could portend

like I said the other day – 3D printing will be the biggest thing to affect our world in a very long time and it is happening faster than most people might realize – the genie is out of the bottle

This is something that I believe quite strongly. There is an incredible shift coming our way and it makes the copyright and trademark battle being fought by the entertainment industry and their bought and paid for Congress look like an afternoon playing paintball.

I think that 3D printing, while it is only in its infancy at this point, will be the source of the biggest upheaval of our society that we will ever have seen next to the Industrial Revolution.

Sure right now the 3D printers that are available oar big, bulky, and meant for the geeks and nerds of the world but even in the few short years that they have been available they have gotten better, more compact, and able to do more. For example the big news out of CES this year was that the new 3D printers coming out were able to print in two colors whbich might not seem like much but like I said this is still early days.

It isn’t just about printing out cute little toys or figurines but as Bit Rebels posted there is a company that is taking 3D printing large scale and producing  a home made out of 3D printed parts – it’s called the FACIT home.

Now today we hear that The Pirate Bay is opening a new section on their site that will let you download digital files that can be used with 3D printers to create physical goods. As TorrentFreak wrote on their site about the news:

You wouldn’t download a car, the Internet meme predicted. But if The Pirate Bay has its way that action will be a reality in the years to come. In preparation for this world-changing day, the world’s biggest torrent site has just premiered a new section containing the plans for physical items that can be downloaded then printed out. Today its a plastic pirate ship, but one tomorrow in a decade or two it may well be a car.

As we as a society struggle to deal with the copyright and trademark fights we are already fighting with the entertainment industry just imagine the battles and political repercussions that we will face when you or I can download a data file, feed it into our personal 3D printer, and within minutes have the same product that a major corporation was trying to sell us a few years ago.

If 3D printing takes off, and I see absolutely no reason why it wouldn’t, yo can be assured that the fight we have been having with the entertainment industry will pale beyond belief when compared to the battle we’ll have when global corporations that make the entertainment look like the small fish in the pond start to feel threatened by our freedom to create the goods they are making their fortunes from.

The next battle over copyright and trademark is coming fast and it’s going to be huge is a post from: The Inquisitr

Megaupload, a file hosting service, was recently shut down due to piracy. The founder, Kim Dotcom who’s real name is Kim Schmitz, was arrested, as were several executives. Authorities seized Kim’s property including 18 vehicles under the belief that he was running a $175 Million piracy operation.

Although the founder claims that he’s innocent in regards to piracy and money laundering, the various license plates on his vehicles show an interesting side. Whether they’re in a joking manner or not, with everything up against him currently, it’s not exactly a good look for someone who could be locked up for a long time.

Via USA Today:

“Besides a $23 million home that was considered New Zealand’s most expensive residence, he had 18 vehicles, including a 2010 Maserati convertible, a 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead coupe, half a dozen high-end Mercedes AMG models, a 1959 Cadillac convertible and a Von Dutch Kustom motorcycle. Affixed to the flashy cars were eye-catching vanity license plates. Among them: “EVIL,” “GOOD,” “GOD,” “STONED,” “CEO,” “MAFIA,” “HACKER” and “GUILTY.”

Kim and executives are still being held in New Zealand despite US authorities wanting to extradite them to the US. Yesterday, he appeared in court for a bail hearing, although the judge reserved his decision. A decision will be made today on whether or not he and the executives in custody, will be granted bail.

There’s been concerns over the fact that he may flee, but considering that the feds have seized all of his assets, he might not be able to last long running from the law. Combine that with the fact that he’s 6 feet tall and weighs over 300 pounds, not exactly someone who isn’t that noticeable.

Do you think Megaupload should have been shut down?

Megaupload Founder Had 18 Vehicles Seized, Rather Ironic License Plates is a post from: The Inquisitr

When New Zealand based Megaupload was shut down this week it sparked outrage from the likes of hacktivist group Anonymous but the real trouble lay with website founder “Kim Dotcom” who had his home raied by New Zealand police shortly after the website closure.

According to officials Dotcom, real name Kim Schmitz, “retreated into the house and activated a number of electronic locking mechanisms.”

Eventually the Megaupload CEO made his way into a barricaded panic room and police officials had to cut their way in.

Once inside the panic room they found the 37-year-old video and software pirate next to what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun.

When speaking to AFP the police chief in charge of the operation noted:

“It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door.”

Police then proceeded to seize various items from the home including a pink Cadillac. They also froze out nearly $8.8 million in assets from bank accounts belonging to the Megaupload founder.

Seen as a flight risk because of his actions at his home Dotcom and three Megaupload employees were denied bail.

New Zealand police raided the millionaires compound on behalf of US Authorities who are now looking to extradite Dotcom and his Megaupload crew for piracy charges in the United States.

As of now Megaupload has been shut down by the US Government on very valid charges of piracy. Anyone who has ever used the website knows how easy it was to watch pirated TV shows and movies and download various software files with included serial numbers and hacks.

Do you believe the US government acted outside it’s jurisdiction in having Kim Dotcom brought to justice for offenses created by Megaupload?

Megaupload Founder Hid From Police Inside Panic Room is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt RED recently came under fire for the aggressive, strong-arming, borderline blackmailing tactics employed by a firm it hired to go after pirates of their game. The developer received so much flak, in fact, that the developer ultimately backed down and “ceased” pursuing pirates.

The practice of tracing IPs in an attempt to catch pirates in the act, and then subsequently demanding the alleged pirates pay the developer cash for fear of having to pay even more, is unfortunately not an uncommon one–and it appears that CD Projekt RED isn’t the only company in the gaming industry doing it.

A report from TorrentFreak points the finger at publishing giants Atari, Ubisoft, Codemasters, Square Enix and many others, claiming that each publisher/developer has either directly or indirectly gone after alleged pirates in Germany demanding money, lest the company takes them to court.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun rounded up the games publishers/developers that TorrentFreak alleges have  gone after pirates for, and they include:

Atari’s Alone In The Dark, Test Drive Unlimited, and Test Drive Unlimited 2; Techland’s Dead Island and Nail’d; Daedalic’s (and in turn LucasArts’) Euro distribution of Tales Of Monkey Island; Square’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause 2; Koch’s distribution of Techland games and Ubisoft’s Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Agrar Simulator 2011, as well as both Painkillers; Codies’ Operation Flashpoint: Red River and DiRT 3; Kalypso’s Airline Tycoon 2, Tropico 3 and 4; dtp’s Cities XL 2012; Aerosoft’s City Bus Simulator, Airbus X; and many others.

You can read more on the matter over at TorrentFreak (here), or at Rock, Paper Shotgun (here).

Atari, Ubisoft and more going after German pirates is a post from: The Inquisitr

Richard O’Dwyer has never set foot in the United States but a British Judge has just ruled that he may be extradited to the United States to face copyright charges stemming from his piracy site, TVShack.

O’Dwyer’s site didn’t actually host any pirated content but it did provide links to other sites where people could watch pirated movies and TV shows for free.

Wired reports that the original URL, TVShack.net, was seized by US authorities in July 201o. The website was moved to TVShack.cc, which was also seized in November 201o. UK authorities have not filed any criminal charges against O’Dwyer, but US officials want him tried for copyright infringement in the United States. O’Dwyer faces 5-10 years if he is convicted.

O’Dwyer argued that he would not get a fair trial in the United States, but District Judge Quentin Purdy rejected his plea. Purdy said:

 ”There are said to be direct consequences of criminal activity by Richard O’Dwyer in the USA, albeit by him never leaving the north of England. Such a state of affairs does not demand a trial here if the competent UK authorities decline to act, and does, in my judgment, permit one in the USA.”

O’Dwyer’s mother said she was disgusted with the British government ”for signing us up to this treaty which has opened the flood gates to America to come and seize British citizens without even having set foot outside of this country.”

Do you think Richard O’Dwyer should be extradited to the United States? Do you think he’ll get a fair trial?

TVShack Founder Will Be Extradited to US, Judge Rules is a post from: The Inquisitr

Last month, developer CD Projekt RED confirmed in a statement to PC Gamer that the company was going after pirates of The Witcher 2, and was going after them rather aggressively.

Now, it looks like the developer has had a change of heart. After backlash from the gaming community since the news broke back in December, CD Projekt RED has now decided to immediately “cease identifying and contacting pirates”.

CD Projekt RED was using the method employed by the RIAA and the like, where they send their lawyer hounds on those suspected of piracy and intimidate them into paying them money for fear of the case going to court, where they’d be faced with paying thousands of dollars.

Such tactics never have been popular (for good reason) and, unsurprisingly, CD Projekt RED took a lot of heat from its fanbase and the PC gaming community as a whole. CD Projekt RED previously insisted that its method of catching pirates was accurate, but the measures, when employed by other organizations, don’t have a good track record for being accurate.

CD Projekt RED may have had a change of heart about their method of fighting off piracy, but the company was quick to point out that their decision should not be taken as an indication that the company has changed their stance on piracy.

Here is CD Projekt RED’s latest statement in full, via RPS:

An Open Letter to the Gaming Community from CD Projekt RED

In early December, an article was published about a law firm acting on behalf of CD Projekt RED, contacting individuals who had downloaded The Witcher 2 illegally and seeking financial compensation for copyright infringement. The news about our decision to combat piracy directly, instead of with DRM, spread quickly and with it came a number of concerns from the community. Repeatedly, gamers just like you have said that our methods might wrongly accuse people who have never violated our copyright and expressed serious concern about our actions.

Being part of a community is a give-and-take process. We only succeed because you have faith in us, and we have worked hard over the years to build up that trust. We were sorry to see that many gamers felt that our actions didn’t respect the faith that they have put into CD Projekt RED. Our fans always have been and remain our greatest concern, and we pride ourselves on the fact that you all know that we listen to you and take your opinions to heart. While we are confident that no one who legally owns one of our games has been required to compensate us for copyright infringement, we value our fans, our supporters, and our community too highly to take the chance that we might ever falsely accuse even one individual.

So we’ve decided that we will immediately cease identifying and contacting pirates.

Let’s make this clear: we don’t support piracy. It hurts us, the developers. It hurts the industry as a whole. Though we are staunch opponents of DRM because we don’t believe it has any effect on reducing piracy, we still do not condone copying games illegally. We’re doing our part to keep our relationship with you, our gaming audience, a positive one. We’ve heard your concerns, listened to your voices, and we’re responding to them. But you need to help us and do your part: don’t be indifferent to piracy. If you see a friend playing an illegal copy of a game–any game–tell your friend that they’re undermining the possible success of the developer who created the very game that they are enjoying. Unless you support the developers who make the games you play, unless you pay for those games, we won’t be able to produce new excellent titles for you.

Keep on playing,

Marcin Iwinski
co-founder
CD Projekt RED

The Witcher 2 dev CD Projekt RED ceases pursuing pirates is a post from: The Inquisitr

‘Gimme All Your Luvin” will be the lead single from Madonna’s next album, due out before spring 2012. However, fans got an early preview in November when the song popped up online.

The hacker allegedly responsible for the leak is described by authorities as “a big Madonna fan.” The 31-year-old, a resident of Zaragoza in Spain, was arrested as a result of ‘Operation Madonnaleaks’ – police have given his initials as ‘JMR.’ The man has now been charged and released.

‘Gimme All Your Luvin” was recorded with William Orbit, who also produced the entire album, Madonna’s 12th studio record. There are cameos from MIA and Nicki Minaj on the song. Madonna herself was said to be fuming about learning the single had been released. Immediately after the leak, the singer’s manager Guy Oseary said:

“Madonna told me this morning: ‘My true fans wouldn’t do this.’ Whoever is responsible for this leak, we ask that you please stop.”

The 53-year old star has a busy 2012 ahead. As well as her new album, she has also been booked as the half-time performer at Super Bowl XLVI on 5 February, where she’ll perform a stage show developed by Cirque du Soleil and the choreographer Jamie King.

Her new album is the first in a new deal with Universal Music. Her Madgesty’s last album, 2008′s Hard Candy, sold more than 4 million copies. Her accompanying tour set a record as the highest-grossing solo tour of all time.

Madonna Fan Arrested Over Song Leak is a post from: The Inquisitr

I still remember the old adage that my parents tried to stuff down my throat as a kid when they were trying to get me to stop doing something while they themselves were doing it – do as I say not as I do. I think most of us have had to deal with that kind of better than thou crap in our lives but it rankles even worse when it comes from the people t hat we elect to represent us in government.

Case in point this whole nonsense around SOPA and how the entertainment back Congress is trying its damnedest to gain control of the Internet at the behest of their corporate backers.

On one hand they tell us that it’s illegal and well .. just plain wrong to download movies and music among other things without paying for them, even though most studies have proven that if you make it easy to buy people will in fact pay for what they download. Then on the other hand as the team at TorrentFreaks found out those self-same politicians are just as guilty of pirating stuff as anyone else.

Since it’s the birthplace of the pending SOPA bill, we wondered how many of the employees there have engaged in unauthorized copying.

The answer is yet again unambiguous – they pirate a lot.

In total we found more than 800 IP-addresses assigned to the U.S. House of Representatives from where content has been shared on BitTorrent. After a closer inspection it quickly became clear the House isn’t just using it for legitimate downloads either, quite the opposite.

Below we’ll list a few of the 800 hits we found on YouHaveDownloaded, which in turn represent just a fraction of total downloads since the site only tracks a limited percentage of total BitTorrent traffic. Again, this is real and confirmed data that is just as good as the evidence used by the RIAA when they sued tens of thousands of people for file-sharing.

I wonder how Microsoft will deal with the fact that someone in the Hill seems to think it’s okay to pirate Windows.

Once again we have those in power thinking and acting in ways that they would see you and me arrested for and spend years in jail.

Me, I’m not the least bit surprised.

Congress just as bad at piracy as those they want to push under the SOPA bus is a post from: The Inquisitr

I just finished getting my own copy of the recent comedy show that Louis CK put on and then made available via the web for the amazing price of $5; and you know what .. it was one of the best online buying experiences that I have had. I mean it only took entering in my email address, paying for the video via PayPal, and then selecting the quality of the video I wanted to download, and with no DRM included.

It is a process that the television would do well to mimic and maybe then we wouldn’t be seeing Top 10 Most Pirated TV-Shows of <insert year here> type posts showing up this time of the year. Oh sure it wouldn’t get rid of them entirely, just as Louis CK’s experiment didn’t stop some idiots from uploading and sharing the video via torrent sites.

As for what television shows did get pirated this past year TorrentFreak has put together a list of the top 10 victims which are:

Interestingly TorrentFreak also made note that TV-show downloads in the United States has actually been declining; but of course the networks say otherwise.

Television 2011 and the top 10 most pirated television shows is a post from: The Inquisitr

Late last month, CD Projekt RED estimated that upwards of 4.5 million people pirated The Witcher 2 since the game was released earlier this year.

CD Projekt did release a DRM-free version over on GOG.com, but that doesn’t mean they’re willing to let the rampant piracy of their game slide; in fact, the developer is sending legal notices to thousands of alleged pirates in Germany demanding they pay up to $1,180.

In a situation like this, the concern is that innocent people might be wrongly accused of pirating copyrighted content – it’s certainly been the case in the past. As inaccurate as copyright holders’ attempts to monitor trackers to catch pirates turned out to be, CD Projekt RED, in a statement to PC Gamer, insists that their method of catching pirates, they believe, is “100%” accurate.

“We’re addressing only 100% confirmed piracy causes that are 100% possible to prove,” Michal Nowakowski, VP of Business Development for CD Project RED, told PC Gamer. “We are not worried about tracking the wrong people. As this is the trade secret of the company working on this, I cannot share it.

“However, we investigated the subject before we decided on this move, and we aware of some past complications (the famous Davenport case). The method used here is targeting only 100% confirmed piracy cases. No innocent person was targeted with the letter so far. At least we have not received any information as of now which would indicate something like that.”

The company wouldn’t say just how many alleged pirates agreed to pay the compensation that CD Projekt RED demanded, but Nowakowski did say that, so far, no cases have gone to court.

Nowakowski told PC gamer that while he doesn’t believe this will stomp out piracy completely, he hopes that it will at least put a stop to some of it. He said:

“I do believe this may work as a deterrent to future pirates, especially the most notorious ones. I would personally hope these people would be more convinced by our pro-customer policy, but if they are of the unchangeable kind that never bought and never will buy a legal game, I would at least hope they do not trespass on our title. Do I believe this will stop the piracy? That’s impossible, and never will be. But maybe it will be smaller.”

Source: PC Gamer

CD Projekt RED going after The Witcher 2 pirates is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a move sure to drive more than a few music business mogul running and screaming it seems that the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) has come out and said that they think that legalizing file-sharing might not be such a bad idea.

Now before you go claiming that this must be a bunch of crazy people who don’t know what they are talking about it is important to know that SAC has some pretty big names from the music business as part of the organization.  People like Bryan Adams, Randy Bachman, and Carole Pope along with 1,500 other Canadian musicians all of whom have some pretty strong views on the industry, and opinion that doesn’t seem to coincide with the labels.

SAC believes that consumers should have access to all the music in the world, something that only file-sharing sites provide today. So instead of shutting these sites down the songwriters association wants to legalize file-sharing, while compensating the artists whose works are shared.

“People have always shared music and always will. The music we share defines who we are, and who our friends and peers are. The importance of music in the fabric of our own culture, as well as those around the world, is inextricably bound to the experience of sharing,” SAC writes in a detailed proposal.

via TorrentFreak

There are times when I am really proud of my country.

Oh those wacky Canadians and their wanting to legalize file-sharing is a post from: The Inquisitr

Oh let the laughter ensue raucously on this one folks.

Seriously how ridiculously stupid do you have to be to not only steal music from the very people you are suppose to be representing, and protecting, but then to get caught doing it.

It all started back in 2006 when Dutch performer Melchior Rietveldt was approached by the anti-piracy group BREIN to write a score for an anti-piracy video which he was led to believe would only be shown a a local arts festival.

Well it turns out that his music found its way on a large number of retail DVD’s as the background music for the anti-piracy lead in to the movie. Rietveldt only discovered this because he heard it playing on the Harry Potter DVD he was watching. Now according to some numbers being floated around his music could very well have ended up onto tens of millions of discs.

It was Rietveldt’s financial advisory who informed him that had he been properly paid for the additional use of his work he would have seen a payday of around one million Euros.

Now this is where insult gets added onto injury because when Rietveldt tried to contact the local group responsible for collecting these types of royalties he was ignored. It wasn’t until he was contacted by the local BREIN representative Jochem Gerrits with a proposition. or rather what amounted to a shakedown.

You see Gerrits, who also owns a record label, offered to intercede on Rietveldt’s behalf to get his money if Rietveldt agreed to pay Gerrits 33% of whatever was retrieved. Apparently the reasoning behind this arrangement as Gerrits told Rietveldt’s financial advisor was that without his help Rietveldt wouldn’t see a dime so he deserved a cut for his help.

And the music industry wonders why people don’t trust them further than they can spit in a headwind.

via Geek.com / TorrentFreak 

Anti-piracy group BREIN caught ripping off music is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s pretty clear at this point that Ubisoft considers piracy on the PC platform to be a considerable problem, and they are undeniably right – it is a problem. Their solution, as many PC gamers are aware, was to impose restrictive always-on DRM on the PC ports of their titles.

Apparently, the company is going for an even more harsh form of anti-piracy with I Am Alive, which is to not release it at all. That’ll show ‘em!

“We’ve heard loud and clear that PC gamers are bitching about there being no version for them,” Stanislas Mettra, creative director at Ubisoft for I Am Alive, told IncGamers.com. “But are these people just making noise just because there’s no version or because it’s a game they actually want to play? Would they buy it if we made it?”

Even in the case that people are interested in buying it, Mettra still considers a release on the PC to be more trouble than it’s worth.

“It’s hard because there’s so much piracy and so few people are paying for PC games that we have to precisely weigh it up against the cost of making it. Perhaps it will only take 12 guys three months to port the game to PC, it’s not a massive cost but it’s still a cost. If only 50,000 people buy the game then it’s not worth it.”

Are you disappointed that I Am Alive most likely won’t be coming to the PC?

I Am Alive probably won’t be coming to PC, piracy to blame is a post from: The Inquisitr

For as long as there has been software there has been piracy. From the earliest days of sneaker net floppy disks through to broadband speed web surfing piracy has been a fact of our computing life. The movie companies and music execs like to shout from the high hills of Hollywood about how bad piracy is and how it is destroying their businesses, even while they are recording record profits.

The reality is that you can take any numbers about the damaging effects of piracy and add them to a bunch of salt before throwing them over your shoulder. Piracy is only successful when the consumer doesn’t have an easy way to pay for goods on the web, which is something that the entertainment industry just doesn’t get.

Rather than making it drop dead simple to buy their products these industry giants try everything from DRM to convoluted payment methods, and as a result we have people trying to get something for nothing.

Here’s an interesting infographic outlining some numbers ts about piracy on the web.

via WindowsObserver

Some numbers and stats about online piracy [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you listen to the garbage spewed forth by industry trade groups like the MPAA and the RIAA you would think that the music and movie industry is on the verge of collapse because of those nasty dirty pirates who spend their days, and nights, stealing other peoples work.

So it is interesting, and refreshing, to here people like Mike Lang, CEO of Miramax, and Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos suggest that piracy isn’t really that much of an issue, especially if you give people an easy to buy and watch, or listen to, their digital content.

Max Lang suggested in a recent keynote speech at the MIPCOM conference that people really don’t want to be pirates as long as they can easily get what they want. For Miramax piracy has never been that big of an issue but more of making sure the customer can get their content without jumping through hoops. As well Lang disputed that the main problem for the music industry was piracy but rather the rise of digital monopolies.

Another problem, related to the pricing issue, is the emergence of digital monopolies such as the one Apple has in the digital music business. This threatens the music industry more than piracy, Miramax’s CEO suggested.

“Apple is the strongest company in the music industry because there was not enough competition, and still to this day there is not enough competition. As an industry it can’t then influence, packaging, merchandising – all the things that are vital,” Lang said.

via TorrentFreak

As Ted Sarandos said in his keynote – “when consumers tell you what they want, give it to them. Figure out a way to give it to them because if you don’t they’ll figure out a way to get it.

Got to admit that it was interesting hearing this kind of talk from some industry big-wigs. Too bad the rest of the industry doesn’t clue in.

Miramax CEO says piracy isn’t as much a danger as digital monopolies is a post from: The Inquisitr