60 Minutes, 11.01.09
November 1, 2009 5:00 PM
Scott Pelley reports on the H1N1 flu vaccine; Lara Logan reports on a member of Japan's mafia; Plus, Lesley Stahl on movie pirates, costing Hollywood billions in lost revenue
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See all 11 CommentsFirst of all, I believe the broad use of the word "pirate" grossly mischaracterizes the issue. The people who are illegally recording other's work, then selling it for profit are pirates. People downloading movies online are thieves. Every business in the world has theft, yet I can think of no other business that is able to swing the power that the MPAA has to change law, be granted access to vast amounts of private data, and so on, in the attempt to minimize its theft.
The segment on "gee-whiz computer technology called BitTorrent" demonized something that is merely a protocol for sending information, and has nothing to do with people using it to move pirated data. The BitTorrent protocol is used in many industries where moving large files is necessary, not to mention the fact that all internet data is sent in broken down discrete packets that are reassembled by the accessing computer.
In the discussing the "billion" of lost revenue, there was no mention of the fact that the movie industry is more profitable now that at any point in history.
Soderbergh's comments that movie pirates are hurting the low-paid crew members were met with no rebuttal? So the MPAA has enough profit to travel around the world and lobby governments to enact things like the three-strikes rule, but not enough to continue to employ low-payed film crew members?
Which brings me to my biggest complaint of the piece - the casual nature with which the French three-strikes rule was presented as a positive. This is a highly controversial law that the MPAA has attempted to get through many governments around the world, and has thus-far only been successful in France (and even their it took several tries and vetos). The way this law gives the MPAA the power of cop, jury, and judge is unprecedented, and has been largely fought against around the world, by both individual groups, as well as ISP's who are being forced to spend time and resources to allow this one industry the ability to fight theft. And with the MPAA's current attempt to get the three-strikes rule incorporated into the ACTA internet standards, this issue is one that warrants a lengthy discussion where appropriate, but certainly a balanced one whenever mentioned, rather than this purely positive portrayal.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/hollywoods-antipiracy-charm-offensive-has-fcc-in-crosshairs.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/leaked-acta-internet-provisions-three-strikes-and-
If they probably would not have made "The Matrix" today because of the internet, then why were both were "Transformers" movies , "Harry Potter" sequels, anything Disney's involved in and many other movies get made? The copyright holders need to have control their material before it gets to the internet. Watermark the digital screener media. Put out rewards for convictions of people caught recording in theaters; I bet those guys rollover pretty easy on the real pirates bosses. Those guys with the camcorders are the worst, followed by the people who get their hands on screeners. Notice how the war on drugs doesn't hurt the dealers at the top controlling and organizing everything, it mostly allows people at the bottom to continually get arrested and the illegal product continues to flow.
There are many cliches for this: Cut the head off the snake means the eliminate top players and kill the system; Head them off at the pass means find where they meet/travel that creates a pinch point to easily prevent their spread/distribution. I can't think of a cliche for dealing with a problem quickly and effectively that involves starting with many, many infringing parties at the end of a network.
Fast-forward 30 years later...
Wow. Three decades to do your homework on this issue, and you've set yourselves up for ridicule once more. Clearly failing to grasp the vast difference between piracy online vs. pirated physical merchandise, failing to understand software that has existed since 2001, and failing to include even one example of a counterpoint in your story.
Enjoy your slippery slope to irrelevancy. You are to journalism what Fox is to news.
Read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-copyright
SAVE THE INTERNETS!
However, please, when discussing computer issues, get someone who has at least actually used these technologies before. Lesley Stahl is very talented, but not the right person for this item. BitTorrent is not some kind of magic, it's simply a very intelligent little bit of software.
However, that's beside the case, since you are mixing up two different issues here. There's the Mexican-drug-cartel type of pirating, which involves selling DVDs of someone else's work on the street. That is completely wrong and should not be condoned in any way.
The problem I have with this item is that this type of pirating, which has serious consequences, is being mixed up with the average Joe type of 'pirate', who downloads the occasional movie or music album. This is mostly a victimless crime, since in most cases, these people would not have bought this movie.
The movie industry should think of another approach of appealing to these people. Because really, people do care, nobody watches a cam-rip for fun. If they make sure that nothing of higher quality than a CAM is leaked before the DVD/Blu-ray releases, the theatrical revenue will not be hurt, or at most negligibly. Since people who don't even value a movie enough to want better quality than a cam rip, will never pay $10+ to see it in a theater.
So please, MPAA and other relevant institutes, don't crack down on your customers, but show us the advantages of going to the theater, and having the real theater experience, and make it worth our while.
That pretty much explains it. Cash does not care about gender, creed, ethnic origin, or anything else. Cash always works. Being on some so-called "list" doesn't. Some folks won't like reading this. To them, wake up.
The assumption that control of virus proliferation -whose occurences have predated the arrival of humanity- has awaitied development of a vaccine is ludicrous and another evidence of modern day hubris and pharmaceutical presumpptions and governmental misinformation and misguidance. Nature has been controlling bacteria, fungus and viral agents within the natural environs for ages without vaccines. Several natural anti-viral sources are known requiring no injections for efficacy and do not deteriorate in storage or require refrigeration.
Eggs from fowl raised in congested confined feces ridden environments are themselves prone to be infested with Salmonella bacteria and other debilitating bacterial and viral agents which itself can compromise virus efficacy. There is currently no evidence that people will contract a flu simply because they have not received a vaccine & no evidence vaccines can protect against virus mutations. The specific virus being injected does not protect against a viral varient resulting from viral mutation and redapatation. The virus deactivating agents may pose more longer term danger to health than a mild flu. Persons wanting to obtain information of how to identify and use naturally occurring anti-viral, antibacterial and antifunhal sources should contact capstonepublusblishing@att.net
[Media principals only should call 916 978-4015 and leave specifics & best times for a return call].
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