Remember: Actors And 'Pirates' Can Be The Same People
from the it's-not-an-either-or dept
Ron Rezendes points us to a story about how a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) member is pleading guilty to a single count of criminal copyright infringement for uploading screener copies of some movies that he only had access to because he was a SAG member. I still think it’s a little silly that this is a criminal complaint rather than a civil complaint, but that’s an issue with the law itself. What strikes me as a more important point concerning this story is the simple fact that it’s a SAG actor doing the leaking. This is a lot more common than people realize. The MPAA keeps insisting that there are “evil pirates” out there trying to harm actors and others in the industry. But what that ignores is that time and time again studies have shown that a large percentage of these leaks come from actors or others in the industry. Insider leaks are a key source of such content. This doesn’t make it right, or legal, or anything like that. I’m merely pointing out the whole “us vs. them” mentality pushed by the MPAA is inaccurate and misleading. Very often the “them” the MPAA wants to blame are the very people they claim they’re trying to help.
Comments on “Remember: Actors And 'Pirates' Can Be The Same People”
Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Pirates steal the whole finished product usually from media, or prior to media release, via cameras.
Reminder: both being stealing, are illegal. Just one of the strange quirks of law.
Similarly, a person can be both president of a bank, say, and an embezzler. Many offices and acts aren’t mutually exclusive.
Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
I believe with all my heart that pirates don’t steal enough.
Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
About embezzelment you do know that many executives from the MAFIAA have been found guilty in courts of law all around the world right?
Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Actually, camming is actually perfectly legal in some countries. Thus, not stealing, obviously not illegal. Just one of those strange quirks of law. Apparently found in some civilized countries, and no, the handful of countries where camming is perfectly legal are not third world countries or backwater ones or what have you.
And why are you mentioning pirates, when this is about an actor and screeners? Can you not just admit that some of the piracy is being facilitated by people in the industry?
I find it odd how some people can be shown proof of something and yet still turn around and point the finger elsewhere. Rather than just say, yes, some of my preconceived notions are wrong. Else, where would these screeners come from, if not from people within the industry itself?
Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
You guys should be very afraid because the public sentiment is not good for you all and when people realize they can actually do something about it, you people will be the first to go down.
Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
You guys should be very afraid because the public sentiment is not good for you all and when people realize they can actually do something about it, you people will be the first to go down.
Public sentiment in the Techdirt echo chamber is not good for copyright proponents. But elsewhere (like in DC), nobody knows you exist. And about all people can do is what Masnick does…. a buffoonish Yosemite Sam routine of outrage and invective that may entertain some. But most just change the channel.
Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Yeah man, people just love you guys. You should totally check out the public sentiment on the MPAA blog, those guys love the shi…oh wait…never mind.
Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
And yet I just keep ripping blurays LoL
Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Have you gone outside lately?
Everybody is pirating, everybody can pirate and you can’t do nothing about it, funnier is the fact that DC is irrelevant for the piracy question they are not the people.
Is that why no artist dare to say anything in public?
Is that why they all hide behind the MAFIAA umbrella hoping this thing will go away?
Do you know how many people would vote against the industry interests if they got organized? actually I don’t know that one either but I want to find out that is why I will do everything in my power to empower people to see the laws and propose new ones, after a while they will be the ones proposing laws then I guess the only thing left for you to do will be to cry.
Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
But elsewhere (like in DC), nobody knows you exist.
That is where your lobbying firm is located…and here you are…along with a bunch of other paytards down the street.
Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
> Public sentiment in the Techdirt echo chamber
> is not good for copyright proponents. But
> elsewhere (like in DC), nobody knows you exist.
Sure they do, as evidenced by all the effort they go through to exclude any who’s not pro-IP maximalism from meetings, conferences, committees, hearings, and a planning sessions for proposed legislation like PROTECT IP and ACTA (while at the same time proudly trumpeting how all ‘stakeholders’ have been included).
Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Reminder: both being stealing, are illegal. Just one of the strange quirks of law.
Wrong. It is copyright infringement, not stealing. The law pretty much says so, its not a strange quirk of any kind.
And yes, one person can be in many roles at the same time. That was the point Mike was trying to make. He specifically said that movie studios/record labels often go on huge campaigns against copyright infringement saying “its for the artist” when often times, its the artists leaking the files!
Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Wrong. It is copyright infringement, not stealing. The law pretty much says so, its not a strange quirk of any kind.
Right. And taking money from your company is not stealing, its embezzlement. Welcome to Parsing 101.
Re: Re: Re: Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Wrong. Embezzlement is taking something from your company. Infringing is making a copy. Infringing is not taking anything away from anyone.
Re: Re: Re:2 Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
The Anonymous shills don’t care that theft/embezzlement isn’t defined by law the way they put it so broadly so as to capture copyright infringement. They just want to turn public opinion against this “criminal” element in order to garner public support in creating abusive laws to protect their monopoly and their profits. Why the hell we need to provide laws to “protect the artist” is beyond me when every other profession has no trouble getting by without government granted monopolies. They call file sharers entitled, they should look in the mirror. Nobody has any right to have their business model protected at the detriment of our natural rights. They can just find another damn model that doesn’t infringe on the rights of all. They’re not special, they can do it another way and that’s what they should be forced to do. Our rights are not subordinate to their profits.
Re: Re: Re:3 Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Nobody has any right to have their business model protected at the detriment of our natural rights.
Your natural rights?? What the hell is that supposed to mean? And how is it enforced? If you look at California, which has articulated “natural rights” in its constitution it says:
“Article 1, ?1 of the California Constitution recognizes inalienable rights, and articulated some (not all) of those rights as “defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.”
Note the passage about “protecting property”. That doesn’t seem to provide an exception for intellectual property. Maybe you should be careful wat you wish for before you start sniveling about your “natural right”.
Re: Re: Re:4 Clear this up for you: "leaks come from actors or others in the industry".
Natural rights, as in rights that are natural to all people or inalienable rights. They aren’t enforced, they are protected against a government that attempts take them away or violated them with other laws.
Copyright, as it exists, protects a business model. It interferes with natural rights such as speech to achieve that. In order to grant copyrights, certain speech is censored or restricted. That violates natural rights to enable a business model that is not needed nor just.
Intellectual property is not defined nor established explicitly anywhere in US legal code. IP is not property as the law defines it. It’s just a buzzword created by the publishing industry to create the illusion of property and strengthen their claim to control it. The existence of the term intellectual property does not make it property merely by its utterance. You may as well call it “imaginary property”, as it’s about as supported by law as the other. All art is created from prior art. To claim property ownership of art is to claim right of property over all prior art contained in such works. “IP” is a liar’s term.
Write your own books.
http://tiny.cc/ bookitnow
Now everyone can be an author, you just say to the computer what do you want it and it does all the work for ya.
Maybe in the no so distant future there will be no need for actors, just an app for your tablet that will watch your responses and create entertainment just for you on the fly, which you will be able to sell if you want to or even better share with others, there will be so much of it that the MAFIAA would be irrelevant.
Also since music can be composed with just a few notes it wouldn’t be difficult to create something that can create music in any genre on the fly.
That will be the age of individual realtime art creation.
Investor should invest very short term on the entertainment industry, it will die eventually and nobody will want to have their assets tied onto the Titanic productions when it happens.
Being in the movie industry doesn’t mean that the person is incapable of being a thief and a self-defeating idiot.
Why would you think that it is mutually exclusive?
Mike, you are truly going to pot this week. This is another head shaker story where any 10 year old can see through it, yet you run it with a straight face and act all shocked.
Are you that desperate to score points?
Re: Re:
Says the guy who consistently refuses to run a story with a straight face and, well, anything straight-edged. Like, at all.
Re: Re:
You really have no reading comprehension skills do you? The entire point of this article is that you can be an artist in the movie industry and still leak. Mike never said they were mutually exclusive.
Besides, how does an artist leaking his own work become a thief of his own work and a self-defeating idiot? There are countless stories of deliberate leaks that lead to great success.
Re: Re:
“This is another head shaker story where any 10 year old can see through it, yet you run it with a straight face and act all shocked.”
Then you must be 9, because you missed it completely. More likely, you just ignored it to create a straw man and knock it down.
They aren’t enforced, they are protected against a government that attempts take them away or violated them with other laws.
They’re “protected against a government that attempts to take them away.”…by who? It sounds like these so-called natural laws only have meaning to the extent that they enjoy protection of statutory law. Maybe this natural right shit might have some bearing if you live on some utopian commune, but otherwise manmade (and enforced) law is the only game in town.