News UK Govt. to hear calls to disconnect file sharers

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2009/05/12/uk-govt-to-hear-calls-to-disconnect-file-sh/1

An alliance of UK creative industries will today urge the Government to take action against illegal file sharers.

 

If they had less of a reputation for being ****, I'd be concerned.

I'm sure it's been noted elsewhere, but the cinemas are empty these days. I went to see Star Trek this weekend - Mere days after launch, and christ on a stick - The place was deserted. There were a massive ten other people in the room, a total of 12 people, and one of those was a cinema employee.

Lower the astronomical costs of everything (Seriously, eight quid to see a movie?) and maybe start being cool and they'll re-attract the customers they lost when they started showing their douche-bag colours.

 

When will people learn that they can't stop file sharing, and just embrace the luuuve.

 

This is so annoying, P2P file sharing is perfectly legal sharing copywrited content is NOT. so they are saying i should have my internet disconnected because i may downloaded some free software like open office or a linux distro.

granted lots of people use it for illegal stuff but P2P sharing is also a very effective method of distribution of perfectly legal stuff.

also are they gunna monitor my bandwidth and then disconnect me because they suspect im using too much !!!!!!!!! and therefore must be downloading illegally.

i watch a film on sky player most nights, i play online most nights i also download patches, free demos, betas etc etc. now my monthly usage is quite high but not illegal.

 

The only real way to stop illegal file-sharing over the internet would be to either shut down the internet (not gonna happen obviously), or make it impossible for people to be anonymous over the web, and let the MAFIAA roam free, which is basically what is happening everywhere right now.

 

Given the large amount of easily cracked WEP networks I would feel very worried about the issues of wrongful disconnections - and think that the government would be quick to disconnect people and very slow to reconnect people who were wrongfully disconnected.

I agree with the article on the legal methods of getting media on the internet - spotify, steam and the iplayer are all very good, I am also very happy with the new channel 4 catch-up player - now it uses flash and has 2 or 3 adverts in it which I'm happy to sit through.

 

And remove the ridiculous 30-45 minutes of adverts!

Last time I went to see a film in the cinema I had to get there 'early' (ish) to get a decent seat. Which mean sitting through about 30 minutes of f*****g adverts! I almost walked out. Just when I thought it was done, another one popped up. I didn't pay money to watch adverts.

Besides, with blu-ray and amazing home cinema now, I can watch my favourite films in the comfort of my own home, without adverts, without annoying cinema-goers and extorionate food prices and all the other rubbish that comes with it.

Sigh. The industry has a *long* way to go to catch up with what the consumer wants, not what they want the consumer to want.

 

See the problem is, if they do decide to take this action, virtually everyone would have to be disconnected from the net, which would destroy the net industry, not only ISPs but .com businesses such as play and amazon UK.

For the little I steal through the internet, I buy a hell of a lot more than I probably wouldn't have done before.

I think the problem with the new Star Trek movie is that most of the people who would see it because it's Star Trek wont because they have heard how "****" it is and the normal movie going populace wont see it because it's Star Trek.

 

Agree With Liratheal. We paid 3x8= £24 to go and see Star Trek at the Weekend.
For that money, I can buy it on Blu-Ray, And not have my GF's experience ruined by the fat bloke behind who can't keep his ****ing feet still.

I remember, not that long ago, when it was £3.50-£4 to see a film. At those prices we'd probably go twice a week. As it is, we might go 6-7 times a year.

I can wait the couple of months for films to come out on DVD, then get them on Lovefilm.

It's the Cinemas/movie industry itself that are killing the movie industry, not file sharers.

 

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090506/1014074769.shtml

 

Completely agree with these points. I also went to see Star Trek on Friday night; we actually turned up about 10 minutes early for the showing, but thought we might as well go and get a decent seat, rather than head to the bar and miss it. We also sat through around 30 mins of adverts in a deserted cinema, after having paid £7.50 each for the privilege.

Also agree that the industries need to pull their socks up and move on. We're slowly getting there with music (Spotify, DRM-free music on iTunes et al, etc), but other media are way behind. An idea I have heard batted around quite often is that ISP's strike a content deal with providers, and allow users free access to movies and music. The cost of this can be offset by charging their subscribers a little extra per month; if you have 2 million subscribers all paying an extra £5 per month, that's £120 million a year. Even if it's not run by ISPs, then it's still a good model. Hell, I wouldn't mind paying an extra £20 a month for unfettered access to whatever movies & music I wanted (with 2 million subscribers, that's £480 million a year). Obviously the details of financing and licensing would have to be hammered out in full.

Either way, the ISP's have a part to play. Forget about disconnecting filesharers, because that's the way things are moving (iPlayer downloads use P2P, Spotify uses P2P, etc); if we don't get a massive overhaul to the infrastructure, the system as it stands simply won't cope with the ever-increasing traffic going through. ISPs already use draconian throttling measures to ensure quality of service (don't get me started on Virgin Media...). Our end-user bandwidth/speeds are way behind the rest of the world.

Besides, I remember reading that copyright infringement pre-dates the concept of copyright itself; apparently the practice of making unauthorised copies of books goes back 400 years. When you put it in that context, it's quite a big task to prevent it - so stop wasting money on it, we already have copyright laws.

EDIT: PS, for those who are interested in reading a long, ranty, rambling post which is not backed up by verifiable facts or evidence, I wrote up my opinion on "the music industry", DRM & the internets...

 

Until every tv show and film is available to download, immediately after release, at reasonable cost (ie not £8 for a 2hr film), the industry can shut the f*** up. They need to offer alternatives before they start wailing about P2P. I mean it when I say EVERY show as well - last night I had to try to find torrents for Charlie Brooker's Newswipe, because the bbc iplayer doesn't have it, just endless Two Pints and a Packet of Crisps shite.

If I'm paying for it, I want consumer of choice of who I'm buying it from too - I happily watch premiership football illegally on the net, as there's no way I'm giving money to Rupert Murdoch. If I could buy access from someone less evil I'd be happy to consider it.

 

Most people only dl movies cos they can. If ISP's started removing illegal filesharers, the most that will happen is that those dl'ing movies would not do it any more. It does not mean that the people who downloaded the 500,000 copies of the particular movie, would start going to the cinema.

It seems ludicrous to suggest this. Did people go to the cinema more when there was no internet? Of course they did, but the cinemas were not battling for market share with Sky, Virgin, Digital TV, Legitimate onlne Content, the rise of console gaming etc etc.

The movie industry needs to realise that they are not the draw they once were. Yes, people will download stuff of the interent cos they can, not cos they really want to.

Most people i know who download illegal stuff are data whores, most of which never gets listened to, watched or used.

I'm not saying its right, just that the reasons people are doing it are not as clear cut as the Media and Movie companies would lead us to believe.

Still, having said all that, If someone can be proved categorically to have downloaded illegal content, and the evidence presented is correct and survives scrutiny, then YES i think the industry has a right to protect itself.

 

I try and buy whatever I can, but some things are downright impossible to get hold of in a reasonable time frame - TV shows are a prime example of this. I don't see why there is such a huge gap between what's aired in the US and what's aired here. I inevitably buy anything that I watch an entire season of (Scrubs, for example), but something like Birds of Prey, I'll see the pilot and won't.

I'd happily 'rent' the pilot episode via an itunes like service, so long as I could get it within 24 hours of the original air time I wouldn't even care if it had adverts in it. If I liked that, I'd likely be willing to 'subscribe' to the rest of the series, and probably end up buying the DVD collections. Will they do that? Hell no. Will I feel bad that they're not making as much money (Or in their words; losing money)? Nope.

Best thing about a DVD/BR is you can pause it to nip to the toilet, or watch it over dinner or something. Oh, and be comfortable. Which is a massive bonus.

 

Our local Vue was rammed! Fully sold out and had been that way for a couple of days after the premiere! The industry (as said in the article above) needs to move with the times and stop dwindling around trying to stop something that is (at least for the time being) incapable of being policed..

 

Oh really?

I guess it must be the area or something - I was at a Vue, too.

 

yeh the poor music industry and film industry thats been so so good to everyone over the years.

rite sure, screw them

i download alot of music but id never buy a cd anyway, id just as soon listen to the radio as play my ipod. i know radio pays rolalties or whatever but i def wudnt buy music

i go to the cinema once a week and yeh it could be a bit cheeper but , and i like pickin up dvds here and there when i see something at the right price, but dvds when they come out first are way too expensive. if they can afford to sell it for £5 in a year and still make a profit why should i pay the £15 pounds they charge now.

how can they wave the fingure at us the general public when they pay actors and musicians such ludacrus money. i say the music industry can go shove it let musicians make money from preforming not a week spent in a studio

 

there is also the detail of the economic crisis, and that people are preferring to eat instead of going to the movies!

 

Oh and another thing!

I will not DL Star Trek even though it is available on line, cos its a movie i want to see in the cinema! I have read reviews in magazines and listened to Wittertainment and all is good.

Crank2 on the other hand . . . . . .

 

its also interesting how it seems to be purely P2P (read bit-torrent) thats being hounded. There are other ways to download content and at a damm sight faster speed as well.

As for the Cinema, im with Liratheal, if i can get it on BluRay im going to get it and enjoy the High Def-ness and surround sound in the comfort of my own home. Sure its nice to go out once in a while (make a night of it) but i dont do that as often as i suppose i should.

EDIT:: Spot on BradShort! I too will be buying the ST movie as soon as its out, I was hoping to download it before i had to leave for work so that id have somthing nice to watch when i was ticked off etc, but that wasnt to be (i left 2 hours before it was posted online).