Greece Stares Into the Abyss; Meanwhile, Local Music And Audiovisual Collecting Society Gets Court Order To Block Web Sites

from the question-of-priorities dept

As you may have heard, Greece is having a spot of bother at the moment. Its economy shrank by 6.2% in the last three months alone, and the austerity measures imposed in return for international loans to keep the country running have contributed to a 40% jump in the suicide rate.

But the Greek music and audiovisual collecting society hasn’t let a little thing like a national meltdown prevent it from tackling the really serious problems in life — like stopping people sharing files online (Greek original):

The Court of First Instance Court in Athens accepted the request of the collecting society for music and audiovisual works to order, among other things, that the Greek ISPs should take technical measures to make it impossible for their subscribers to access Web sites through which illegal posting and exchange of works can take place.

Amidst the deepening Greek tragedy, it’s good to see someone offering a little comedy.

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Comments on “Greece Stares Into the Abyss; Meanwhile, Local Music And Audiovisual Collecting Society Gets Court Order To Block Web Sites”

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29 Comments
drew (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

Surely even you recognise the sheer idiocy of this statement “that the Greek ISPs should take technical measures to make it impossible for their subscribers to access Web sites through which illegal posting and exchange of works can take place.”?
Impossible to access any websites through which illegal exchange of works can take place also eliminates the sites that allow exchange of legal works.
Surely, surely, you can see that this is an over-reaching and detrimental step?

Anonymous Coward With A Unique Writing Style says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

Well, since this is an obvious troll type post I know I shouldn’t respond to it, but I’m going to to point out the stupidity of it anyway.

In a country that is barely keeping afloat and where the suicide rate has jumped 40% due to the failing economy, it stands to reason that there are WAY MORE IMPORTANT ISSUES to focus on solving than whether or not people are downloading a song or movie.

But yet again, people like you show their true colors. “Oh, you can’t pay your bills or feed yourself because the economy is in the sh*tter and nearly half your family has committed suicide? F*ck you, pay me.” That’s essentially the gist of this kind of thing. And it’s always amusing to see your type complain about exploiting others, yet you don’t see the irony in going to court to force others to do your work for you. It’s no one else’s problem, well not usually unless a court ruling goes your way, to fix your f*ck ups. If you aren’t able to beat piracy through the obvious methods (like I don’t know… OFFERING THE CONTENT GLOBALLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND AT REASONABLE PRICES WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED) then it’s no one’s job to find a solution for you.

Also, it’s amusing you used the phrase “illegal, unethical and exploitative business practices” when we all know what website or two you’re specifically referring too. “HOW MUCH DOES THE PIRATE BAY GIVE ARTISTS?!” That’d be you right? You don’t have to answer, those of us who can read recognize your writing and your usual favorite words. The Pirate Bay, as has been repeatedly explained, is not a business. It is NOT a label. It is NOT hosting any content. And so on and so forth. I know you’ll still keep repeating the same stupidity, so I honestly don’t know why I bother.

But speaking of, what do you call a business that withholds royalty payments from artists? And also tries to have someone sneak interesting tidbits about removing artists rights to take back their work if it’s been X amount of years, like a thief in the night, into a bill that’s in progress? Is that ethical? Is that not exploitative? Isn’t that illegal? Oh, but it’s the labels doing that, so it’s okay. [palm meet face]

“I’m starting to lose my grip…”

You don’t have to state the obvious. We all realized that some time ago. But I guess the first step on the road to recovery is admitting you have a problem, so way to go.

Anonymous Monkey (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

Or hosting ANY content. Since the browser you use to view the web page you’re on now has to FIRST download it to your computer, then READ it, and then DOWNLOAD any pictures/video referenced in the webpage. So all the internet MUST be put to a stop so we can stop all sharing of infringing content….

The internet is a massive digital replicator. Everything is a copy. Otherwise it wouldn’t be able to work as well as it does.

It’s just sad.

drew (profile) says:

Re: Re:

I’m assuming that this is an anti-freetard rant? It’s a bit confused, but I’ll approach it in that regard.
So, one step at a time:
“Everything should be free.”
Right, let’s find the people who are saying that please?

“Please come clean my house for free. Thanks.”
That would be a service that is discrete, as opposed to a product that is near-infinitely abundant.

“Oh wait, you can’t because cleaning can’t be digitized?”
This is progress. You now recognise that analogue scarcities don’t translate to digital abundances.

“You’ve chosen to live in a society. Deal with it.”
Umm, we are, we’re not the ones trying to throttle the communication mechanisms of that society. That, last time i looked, would be the legacy industries discovering that they are unable to deal with society.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:

You now recognise that analogue scarcities don’t translate to digital abundances.

Snore.

People breaking the law with new technology is seriously the OLDEST STORY IN THE WORLD.

Good lord.

as opposed to a product that is near-infinitely abundant.

aaand why do you describe the situation as “near-infinitely abundant”?

Ignoring of course, the rather dystopian wishful thinking on your part.

And I’d have a few album requests for you, if that was actually true…

drew (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re: Re:

“You now recognise that analogue scarcities don’t translate to digital abundances.
Snore.”
Well, ok, you can ignore that if you like, I wouldn’t recommend it.

“People breaking the law with new technology is seriously the OLDEST STORY IN THE WORLD.”
Yep, about 5 minutes older than legacy industries whining to their representative.

“aaand why do you describe the situation as “near-infinitely abundant”?”
Because once you have a digitised file that’s what it is! Limited only by global storage space that is, as close as is relevant, to infinite.

“Ignoring of course, the rather dystopian wishful thinking on your part.”
I would argue that this distopian vision is the one that is framed by the idea of regressive legislation every time a new technology comes to market.

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