The death of BitTorrent?

As an avid downloader, all I can say is that when one door closes, another one opens. As long as there is a demand for TV shows, movies, and software, there's going to be a way to obtain it for free online. And the entertainment industry has no one to blame but itself.

Pirate Bay should move to Pakistan and operate from there. Haha they can just pay off the officials and never get tried.

Well.... that's bad news

What about the fact that most modern bittorrent clients can use DHT and Peer Exchange to find peers and seeds without a tracker. What about all of the other trackers? The Pirate Bay is big but not so big that if it fails the bittorrrent protocol will fail.

'This Guy' was wrong. Pirate bay should move to Somalia...and help their pirates prepare for pirating in the information age.

these movie actors, producers, musicains, etc make so much money, have multiple houses and cars, spend ridiculous money on ridiculous things, while people are losing their jobs, cant afford their mortgages, and the government is wasting its time on people trying to save money? i almost never buy music or movies just for these reasons. they make enough!!

A non-event, spite-check way of resigning - Torrentz is the site to use
Hardest to get are research papers, journals, and reference books
Hence the backwardness of US science

Pirate bay is a visible enemy and taking it down may temporarily slow down the supply/demand of pirated material but it will in no way stop the onslaught. What the RIAA and other agencies fail to realize is that there is a selfless underground (which has been around since the internet became popular) that is willing to rip/copy new material for the communities. This suing business is akin to cutting the leaves off of weeds, the root has and always will survive. They should be focusing on making the process legal and taxable so that both producers and consumers benefit.

So they now are cracking down on torrents...well congrats, now major pirates will move to another form of downloading illegally. These lawsuits aren't going to do anything but increase the moral justification that pirates feel...sticking it to the man who is grubbing for to much money.

To the person with the Pakistan comment, have you been there before or do you live there? I was just wondering, because that could actually happen. I remember getting pulled over multiple times (I'm white, so they figure I have no license/papers which I didn't) and just paying off the cops a hundred/few hundred rupees.

As far as TPB being on trial, I hope they beat the case. I believe that the US copy right laws do not apply in Sweden, or so it was posted on TPB as a reply to one of the legal threat emails from, I believe it was Dreamworks about Shrek 3.

TPB FTW!! FTP!!!!

This articles implies that torrents are for illegal downloading, but many torrents are for legal purposes, such as the distribution of Linux CD images and the Miro video player.

Since the beginner of internet developers have face many trials and yet their still here. I remember when naspter was close and then started the Bit Torrent Protocol was the hit of the moment until know. Hacker = DEVELOPERS WITH OUT A JOB. Free file sharing will survive.

NOTE TO CAGEONER:
US copyright laws do apply in Sweden and and the 150 or so other nations that have signed the international agreement on copyright. So pirates should eliminate that little cover story from the facade they adopt to avoid the fact that they are simply shoplifting freeloaders.

I have to agree with Bryan here.
I play
The Elder Scrolls:Morrowind and Oblivion
I also design new levels/quests/items/complete worlds sometimes.
I use Torrent to send these to my friends and whoever else is intrested in them.

I agree Illeagl torrents of movies give BitTorrent a bad name..but lets not cut off the hand cause you got a hangnail.

I also download old NES-SNES/Playstation-1 ROMs/Emulators because finding the GOOD old game in a cartridge/disc format can get expensive.
As for ripping/seeding newer content
(PS2-PS3-Movies)
I personally would not do it,because I know how much work goes into what they do.

Taking down Pirate Bay will muck up the works for a bit, but like the first poster said, one door closes, another opens, someone will pick up the slack.
When Napster went down it slowed things, but things picked up.
Same here.
I don't see any slowdown yet in acquiring anything.

Yes they are never going to stop file sharing....legal or not.
Long live net neutrality!
:^)

Funny how history repeats itself. Napster a few years back, now it TPB... They will just find another way to do it.

I enjoy watching the freeloaders justify their behavior by claiming that Hollywood makes too much money. I wonder how they'd feel if they spent weeks, months, years on a piece of work only to have nobody buy it because everybody rips it off. Also, torrent traffic has had a severe effect on legitimate broadband use, making it harder for some people to stream movies and TV via services like Netflix and Hulu.

Alas, there will always be selfish, greedy lowlifes with a sense of entitlement... so if Pirate Bay goes, it won't be long before something else takes its place.

That said, torrent sites do have numerous legit and legal uses, from the distribution of game demos, trailers, and fan films to open-source software and plugins.

I really must say I agree with one aspect of the collective observation, ALL of this has happened before, and unfortunately I suspect this will repeat.

In the 1980's I saw firsthand how exactly this mindset destroyed a marketplace about a decade ahead of where the rest of the market was.

In the mid-late 80's you had slow file-sharing and BBS systems. It got so that everyone had copies of games and programs before they were even released. Such that when the then leader of the pack Atari came out with a genuinely good machine. The SOFTWARE for that machine sat on shelves of retailers because either everyone had it and in about 2 quarters, less than 90 days, you saw retailers , one by one disappear. In 6 months, the marketplace was essentially dead. It wasn't for another 3 years for some technology to catch up in the IBM/DOS marketplace.

Music as a distinct market has all but disappeared, media has conglomerated and we still seek to kill the marketplace.

The barbarians ARE at the gates, and they are us.

Piratebay was too noticeable, too daring, inviting attack
Insufficiently stealthly, making it easy to sink the Ship

Stealth will advance to another level, benefitting everyone
Even the lawyers, working for dictatorial corporations,
Win or loose this case, will keep on endlessly suing

generally people are judged by the jury of their peers. With the results of this thread, voluminously people are probittorrent... Lol for those who disagree with the practises of bittorrent then they obviousely havent tried it I Suggest go out and give it a whirl.

Joseph S

With the networks putting their TV shows online, I don't see much impact to those who were downloading TV shows from thepiratebay.

Since the FBI raided their systems several years ago, the Pirate Bay has taken steps to prevent any downtime caused by government interference.

The Pirate Bay's servers are programmed to go into lockdown and redundancy mode if one goes offline. Mirrors of their servers, presently operating in several unidentified locations will go up almost immediately around the globe, replacing the servers that were taken offline.

The 48 hours downtime that the Pirate Bay suffered last time will look like an eternity compared to how fast their servers respond if the Swedish government changes their tune and adopts an anti-file sharing attitude.

All the fiasco will do is put more urgency into completely anonymous and encrypted file sharing and put the final nails in the coffins of media copyright.

You know, once you open Pandora's Box, no one ever talks about how it's going to close and I no, I ain't no BitTorrent guy, I didn't even know what it was until I read this, LOL!!

I'm glad. My apartment has a closed WiFi, but two units abuse it by downloading from BitTorrent when most of the content they view can be seen for free online or purchased cheaply off iTunes or UnBox. I'm tight on money, and I'll admit I was downloading like crazy as a college student off of Napster, Scour and Kazaa. As I look back on those actions, I realize there was little difference from me downloading those songs and videos and from outright shoplifting an album or movie. Theft is theft.

I really hope they stay in business. Even if they are shut down, someone else will open another the very next day.

Their system is not only for illegal downloads, perhaps mostly of it is simply legal and totally ethical. There are simply tons of ways which people can use, and need, that kind of service.

Good luck to them.

Gabriel McKinsey – Academia Intercambios
Intercambio Cursos Exterior

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." – John Gilmore

They can whack-a-mole trackers until their out of money, it won't help. Soon people will simply host servers in other places. All they have to do is pull together and offer all media for a monthly fee, and I'll gladly drop my 130 dollar cable bill and pay them for the right to consume media on all my devices, whenever, wherever. My login could validate on say...up to 20 devices, and they would save me the time of converting media and storing it.

Cisco has new hardware for realtime transcoding of media to whichever device requests it, in the proper format. That would allow a movie studio to store 1 blueray of each movie, and send it on demand to any device.

People would pay for that.

I don't see how TBP is going to lose in court. They don't share files nor do the users specifically copyright infringe on TPB networks. They host a tracker... since when is that illegal? This is why individual file-sharers are sued and coerced. TPB is protected in Sweden... don't count on TPB shutting down.

Most people who pirate stuff probably wouldn't have bought the product anyway. Besides, torrenting is just so easy and convenient. Honest people pay (and burn gas and time) shopping for stuff.

i hope they go to jail and everyone else supporting illegal downloading. i work in the film industry and am directly affected by all your pathetic clicking. take away the main servers and all else could go down with it.

the interesting part is that all the things being illegally downloading are the intellectual property of the united states people. we are the creative capital of the world, people. any americans who illegally downloading are directly affecting our economy for the WORSE. you're hurting the pocketbooks of EVERYONE, including your own. you're taking away jobs from people.

STOP ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING!

buy a freaking student version or a used copy, people. there are other ways to save money. iTunes is 99 cents a song, is that too much to ask for here? netflix and blockbuster and dishnetwork all offer great savings on plans, is 15 dollars a month too much to ask for?

oh well, back to limewire...lol!

"Greedy Corporate America"
The Battle Cry of Gottfried, the Pirate Bay hangout Captain
Maps of treasure locations are exchanged
But the actual treasure has numerous copies, scattered like dandelions
Due to internet limitations, and legalities;
Newer a dandelion is allowed into Pirate Bay
Not even Dandelion Vine, just the forbidden fermentation method

Not for driking Dandelion Vine, or sharing a fermantation method
Gottfried will be convicted of having Long Hair
Sweden will sacrifice a rich Hippie, to prevent a US bombing run ?
Faustian Bargain with Satan, Sweden not so free after all ?

I've been downloading since before Napster was famous, 24/7/365... no delays for me, except for when I re-install my operating system, or go on vacation... the riaa/mpaa will always be about 2 years behind the power curve... I don't expect any downtime from this, it just makes it a little harder for me to get the same things. we shall adapt and overcome.

Hmm, this is quite amusing. Shutting down The Pirate Bay might place a dent in the Torrent business for maybe a couple of months, but by the end of it, i'm sure 10 more things will have taken its place.

These suers need to remember what happened once Napster was shut down. Within a year, dozens of other file-sharers appeared with the ability to transfer not just music, but movies as well.

If they really want to end illegal file-sharing, a complete and radically new solution is required.

**I realize there was little difference from me downloading those songs and videos and from outright shoplifting an album or movie. Theft is theft.**

Only reason RIAA/MPAA cares about it, is they already paid the artist what they thought was fair. Artist receives very very little (pennies) after they are initially paid. They hope their 2 million investment nets them 40m..

Theft? really? So it's theft like this: I car-jack someone, and in the process of doing so, the original owner of the car gets to keep their car, and I get a copy of the car - in the end we both have cars. Who was stolen from? No one.

This is another symptom of the sickness that is our country, and most Americans are either too dumb or too lazy to fix it. Corps are allowed to assign values, and made up dollar amounts to anything they want, at anytime they want. Thankfully a few have chosen to call Bravo Sierra on their tactics, and even a few judges have agreed that the heavy handed industry isn't all knowing.

If you kill one server or server farm, the guys and gals will just open another one (site) in another country. duh. If I were Swedish I'd be protesting their puny worthless judicial system holding country of awesome metal to try to accomplish far more reaching things like ousting that lesbian whacko from Iceland with icbms because Iceland just wants to be Swenske anyways.

What some people don't understand is that the majority of people that pirate software never had any intention of buying the software in the first place if they weren't able to pirate it. They will instead go to a freeware alternative, even if it has less functionality.

Because of this face, the "entertainment industry"(if you can even call it that anymore, with the Michael Bays, Uwe Bolls, and Soulja Boys of the world running rampant and talentless in it) has never actually 'lost' money. You can't claim to have lost money you were never going to make in the first place; it's simply a blatant display of greed, and dare I say grade-school level tantrums.

Would that I could, I would create an entire essay about the idiocy of these corporations in thinking that they have a leg to stand on, but I will have to leave it at that for this type of venue.

Its all a matter of perception. For example, you who say that you can buy this new song and that new song from itunes or other stores – thats nice. Now move to a country where itunes does not allow those to be downloaded.

Or move to a country where your favority tv show will only be aired in 1 years time because the money-making industries want to suck every corner dry. Would you then not maybe be inclined to download an episode here or there?

My suggestion to anyone who doesnt like torrents, next time 24 or Lost or your other favorite show is on – record it and wait until February 2010 to watch it.

Shut them down for good, what they are doing is providing an online middle man for theft.

Just like killing Napster stopped illegal music sharing, right?
This is about Television. For years networks were all "We don't want our shows online!" Now they're realizing that they can make money that way, after resisting change for over a decade, so it's "You can watch our shows online... but on OUR sites where we can sell advertising."
The pendulum is already starting to swing– BitTorrent is becoming a distribution hub before shows end up on Megaupload and Rapidshare, or online high-quality video sites. (Often foreign language sites, making it harder to send takedown requests– assuming they bother to listen.)
And meanwhile in the background, IRC fServs continue to chug away– closed circles with untraceable one-to-one file downloads that feed BitTorrent, which feeds Rapidhare, that feeds Megavideo and Youtube, which are indexed by TVLinks and SurftheChannel...

BitTorrent's not the SOURCE of the sharing. It's just the public face most people interact with.

I think there are enough other trackers to carry the weight. Those of us who stick to private trackers have no need to worry.

Attacking Pirate Bay will prove to be fruitless for authorities. Hackers and Pirates alike feel that if it is software, it is free as it should be. There are so much bull crap software out there that wants people to pay astronomical amounts of money for virtual information. Honestly, this is not a couch, a car, or even a house. Why are these corporations charging $15 to $50 for a DvD and $10 to $30 for an audio CD. Not to mention the software giants that are charging over $1k for software. Seriously $1k for software is highway robbery and she be illegal by itself. Hackers and Pirates do what the Government should have done long ago, which is the redistribution of wealth.

Honestly taking out this software pirating giant will do little to hackers and pirates that normally use more then one source for all their downloading needs. In fact if you are really hardcore about hacking and pirating, you probably belong to private sites and have access to private FTP servers that require invites to get into. These sites are for elite internet users and will NEVER go away. So I say do what they must to pirate bay, they should have known that eventually they were going to be shut down, but be advised another WILL take its place.

As for all these people that are saying that Sweden doesn't recognize US Copyright Laws, it just isn't true. If you want to make a hacking site, they should make them in either China or Japan where US Copyright Laws are nothing more then toilet paper.

Torrents don't just hurt big, rich, greedy corporations, actors, and musicians. There are honest, hard working people trying to make a living who have their work passed around for free by thieves. People with mortgages, student loans, car payments, not private planes to fly, mansions, and a car for everyday of the week.

Torrents might be a poke in the eye of a major business, but for the smaller industries they can be a death blow.

This trial won't stop file sharing, but I still hope TPB gets sunk and those guys go to jail for the max.

File sharing something you didn't create is stealing. If the Pirate Bay enables this, we shouldn't be surprised they are in court. there are people who make entertainment who need the income generated by sales and most of those people are not studio heads.

While I purchase licesenses to software I use for business, I have no doubt that closing of this site will impact people who use torrents as a way to get software for free. Many beginning web designers for example cannot afford the steep cost of these software packages, and many will not buy them still.

After bittorrent is washed away, the next one in line will emerge. This will always be a continuous loop.

  
Derik is correct - Distribution has moved - cannot go back in time
A tide that will newer return, - despite endless litigation

The legal point is encouraging an activity (without policing copyright)
Not selectively co-operating with the enforcers by actively blocking

Perhaps, the Controlling Enforcers, should pay for the extended control
Was Pirate Bay offered a fee for blocking ?
Will this be the key legal reality ?

Where are the Policing Wages of Guttfried
Per Bible; "the laborer is worthy of his wages"

Apparently people forget so easilly about THE EXACT SAME THING occuring, or has the Napster deal so quickly been forgotten about with the advent of its legal equivalent of iTunes. BT is only getting so much press now because its so widespread in use now. If I want something from the internets, while BT is the easiest source, it is by far not my only one. IRC, Limewire, and to a lesser extent IM client field transfers. You guys can't win, so long is there is a demand, people will create a supply. Maybe studios should take the hint and not take 9mon to release the DVD when we can get one usually within 9 days.

Sorry, but many upcoming artists and such put their work on torrents, better quality than flash players and better coverage. Three local groups here put their first albums on torrnet for sharing. They actually made some money from pay pal donations.

I am ever astounded by the presence of 'entitlement' that is growing in the internet world. For everyone who enjoys the opportunist activity of sites such as BitTorrent and the like, I hope you take the time to start going to work for free. The world is not a better place for the technology of BitTorrent.

Copyright law has become completely out of hand. It was originally only 7 years. Then renewals became available. Then it went to 28 years (I may have the last two backward). Now it's life of the author plus 70 years or 95 years for corporate copyrights. There is virtually no public domain and it's only getting worse. I won't be surprised if the works of Shakespeare start having to have royalties paid to his heirs in the future.

 
Will we become more than jailers of information ?
Passing on the Guilt that is mandated by the Dictatorial Corporations

Panopticon of Jeremy Bentham
Can we reverse and spy the Dictators ? Universality Principle Someone ?

Trying to stop P2P sharing is pointless and impossible. Slamming ThePirateBay is a futile gesture. Whether or not the use of torrents in general is ethical or not isn't the point. The question is whether doing this will stem the tide of illegal file-sharing. The answer is: minimally, and only temporarily. Just like the war on drugs, it's a waste of time and money.

One of the commenters seems to feel that charging for software is outrageous and tantamount to robbery. What they seem to be overlooking is that it costs money to develop software. Writing an application can take years of time and incur millions of dollars in development costs – programmers, QA staff, writers, and admin staff rarely work for free. While some applications can be developed through open source methods its not conducive to all software or all markets.

TPB is only one head the hydra: the digital floodgates have been opened, and there's no turning back. Even if the Internet were shut down, with the advent of 16 GB flash drives, people's entire music collections can be traded in the hallway of a junior high school.

If the Pirate Bay goes down, it will be replaced by something else. You can't stop P2P unless you shut down the internet. Lol.

And if by some miracle, Bit Torrent gets wiped out – everyone will just go back to News Groups – which is faster and more reliable anyway.

Someone walks across your lawn
Are you obligated to police the walker listening to possibly pirated music ?

Even if you paid for policing - fail and then to inquery, while on full pay ?
What is the remedy, - Clawing back of fee or wages on failure to perform ?

The existence of Pirate Bay is a moot point. As long as descpicable organizations such as the RIAA exist to dictate pricing and enforceme copyrights, then people will find a way to circumvent it.

I fully support the conceptual downfall of the RIAA. They are the mafia of the music and entertainment industry. The routinely try to convince us that paying even more for the reduced quality, limited copyright, digital format of music is somehow better than paying what was already too much to buy it from the stores. They pass along a very small percetnage of profit to the actual artists and then sue the crap out of little kids to scare people into conforming to their rotten system. The trend of widespread copyright violations is just an indication of their failed business model.

BitTorrent users technically do not violate copyright law unless there is profit made from the sharing. In 2002 they changed the law to cover electronic distrution but that also means that if you actually buy a movie or cd you can not put it on your computer or IPOD or portable movie players even if you own it. The simple act of transferring media electronically violates the new copyright law. So when people get all worked up about pirating online material one should also realize that the law itself in its new current form is unconstitutional. I also happen to agree with some of the opinions about producers and artists making too much money in the first place. Now you go to buy a CD is generally only has 10 or 11 tracks and now cost about $20. Seems like people like doing less work and asking for more money while other people in this country are losing thier jobs at an increasing rate. And tv shows are covered in a different way, and now due to TiVo one can record thier favorite shows and then put them on thier laptop to watch later. This is of course illegal even if you dont share it with anyone, but of course the industry doesnt want you to know that because then they might have to quit allowing people to TiVo and then cable companies would lose way to much business.

One small an minor note, If anyone that agrees that TPB people should go to jail well so should they if they have ever opened an attachment that was a media clip or a powerpoint of something funny or non work related. All of this is media that is protected by copyright laws and if not only did they open the attachment but forward it to other friends, then they themselves should be lining up at the police station waiting for thier picture to be taken and for thier maximum sentence to be imposed. People criticize file sharing without actually knowing what it really means. It is not just limited to movies, music, and programs but also to all media including radio clips, commericals, sports segments, bloopers.... pretty much anything is covered by copyright laws.
Now i am not saying pirating is right or should be allowed, but people need to realize that it serves a niche and can be used to create business. look at HULU, it was created because of file sharing and then getting in trouble with the industry so it agreed to run commericals (limited) and now they get paid by the industry to run shows. If not for file sharing many people would be without many of thier resources used to make life run better for all. And it is also a chance for first time users to check out a product. I know there are people out there that download free software or music and end up liking what they see and then going and buying the follow up items.
If not for music sharing half the artists that come out today would be unknown artists because its not thier songs that people are buying that makes them known but the ones that are current release before thier cd is out that expands thier popularity!

It doesn't matter, another site will pop up within a matter of days after TPB shuts down.

I think we have bigger problems to deal with. If there will be any solution, it all boils down to money.

Yay – this will leave bandwidth open for the legal uses of bittorrent.

What a brilliant move. I'm sure this will really stop piracy just like shutting down Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa. The entertainment industry is run by too many suits who just don't get it. They can shut down TPB, but then the masses will flock to isohunt or torrentreactor, or mininova. Shut them down too? The masses will flock to the next crop of sites. Sites like Hulu are a step in the right direction to allow people to get what they want for free on demand while still being able to pull some ad revenue.

It will not effect me much if thepiratebay were to go down.
I do use torrents as well, quite requently.

Somehow, the link ,in the chain of responsibility, is broken
Then again, U$ and corporations, do break all kinds of laws

"What happens to private contractors who kill Iraqis? Maybe nothing"
Might is right; how is Sweeden to be forced ?

U$ will dispatch secret FBI, CIA, Marines, carpet bomb Stockholm ?
The judge, with the wisdom of Solomon, will have to consider carefully
Hippie ordered Pig Shaved to Bald ?
But, only pay back fees and wages, received from the copyright policiers

Evolve or die. You can't litigate the evolution of the internet. Change your business model or else consumers will pass you by for something easier/cheaper/better. Certain entertainers now sell their own music online and have nothing to do with the RIAA. Why would entertainers give their hard earned money to a bunch of lazy studio fat cats in beamers? No reason to anymore...cut out the middle man. Long Live Piratebay!

The U.S. Constitution provides for copyright "to promote the useful sciences and arts". Unfortunately, it has become twisted by large corporations that believe they should have a government protected business model. Adapt or die. The world has changed. If you fail to provide what the market demands, some form of illicit distinution will pop up.

For musicians, look into using free distribution to promote your concerts. For software authors, aim to provide a valuable service instead of just a product.

This is going to get worse in the future. Faster Internet speeds will allow instant access to any information. Low cost 3D printers will enable people to create their own goods. Intellectual property needs to be re-evaluated to make certain it is working for us instead of holding us back.

This is just what the RIAA ordered. This will be a landmark case for certain. An example to be made for all to see. I'm sick of people justifying why its ok to take whats not theirs. In Principle, its this same mindset that makes for a corrupt financial economic downcycle. Greed run rampant, take all you can asap, and who cares about anyone else attitude is BS.

I use Bittorrent to Download Linux and other Open Source software.

Now who would benefit from Bittorrent being shut down???

There is more to this story than is being reported.

Anyway I have been a computer programmer for 30 years, something will replace Bittorent if they shut it down, If I HAVE TO WRITE IT MYSELF.

The bittorrent scene will not fall. At least not from this. TPB is a PUBLIC tracker people. Garbage files, garbage speeds due to all the leechers. Find a good PRIVATE tracker and learn to share.

Once Again I will Mourn the Loss Of The Pirate Ship.Of Course I DL/U/L Stuff On There.In This Economy I simply Cannot Afford To Buy ANYTHING.We Simply D/L A Movie,Watch It Then Delete It.We Are GLAD Not To Have To Pay For Some Of The Crappy Movies Out There.Weather You Agree Or Disagree With The Torrent Sites,They Will NEVER Be Completely Shut Down.My Hats Off To The Pirate Bay.I Am A Member And Feel NO REMORSE For The RIch/Overpaid Hollywood People.Pirate Bay Members Simply SHARE.Perhaps I Will Open A New Site....Not All Of The Pirate Bay Files Are "Clean",There are MANY Virus Infections.One Simply Needs A Good Knowledge Of Skills In Order To Use The Programmes/Files.I Am Proud To Be A Part Of The Torrent File Share System.No We're NOT "Thieves".

Just a mere speed bump in the Piracy downloading age.

Napaster> Kazaa> Limewire>Bittorrent> Next one

Give it a couple weeks and another method will be possible.

Sorry to say, but the greedy corporate America is one step behind.

And to the person saying an Itunes song is 99 cents if cheap, yes ur right but times that by 1,000 or 5,000. What does that equal- ALOT of MONEY. $20.00 for a DVD, and $13 Movie theater ticket prices?? Give me a break.

Good riddance.

yawn! It's not going away. Another point, why aren't we talking about how the sale of used DVDs/games are hurting the industry? Are they getting profit when I sell my DVDs at gamestop? NO, they are not. It seems that the industry is lumping their losses all to bit torrent. Last I checked, the industry doesn't get any profit from redbox. Why aren't they going after that? Why aren't they going after Gamestop or pawn shops? How about we use these legal resources for putting violent criminals away rather than some kid downloading Shrek.

BitTorrent is not a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) protocol like past systems (napster, morpheus, limewire, etc etc etc). Thus the reason why attempts to sue/try trackers have rarely worked.

Also because they're trackers, they're not containers of the "questionable" content being traded, if TPB goes down, its not taking anyone with them...

I remember when supernova got shut down and pretty much the same comments kept going around. This will barely slow down downloaders, if at all. Oh, and to that film industry person, some of us can't afford to even buy used software, or it is no longer in circulation, so this is our only way of acquiring it. $0.99 a song? No thanks, I'll listen to my music for free either by downloads or by using pandora.

Ha: They said this about emule a year or so back when a major server was shut down. It effected stuff for like a couple of weeks. Then everything was back to normal. It will be the same with bittorrent.

Frankly, I don't see a difference between downloading a tv show or recording it on TiVo and cutting out the commericals

if watching a tv show is free, then why is downloading and watching it somehow bad?

the entertainment producers are stuck in an old business model and are mostly mad because they haven't figured out out to make money off the consumer created model.

well, here's a clue – set up a torrent site and charge by the download or monthly access

you get the long tail marketing from your entire library

I would care more about the "copyright evils" of Pirate Bay when the recording and movie industries refund me for all the music and movies I purchased or rented from them that turned out to be total crap.

I haven't bought a CD in over decade, the only music I listen to is what's aired locally or on my XM radio. Movies, I've seen a few. But not until I've downloaded a screening version first to see if it's worth it. My DVD collection is in the hundreds, but I don't buy the DVD until I first see it on TV or in the theater. Or, if I miss it in the theater, then I'll download it first. Again, if it's good, I'll get the DVD. If it's crap, no one has lost out on anything. I still have my money, and the Entertainment industry has one less dissatified customer.

What about TV shows? They air for free on TV, why can't I download them, watch them when it suits my schedule and on the device I want to use?

People need to understand what truly started this mess... Years ago, I worked in a profitable NON-Corporate music/video store that served the people for what THEY wanted. Not what BMG or Musicland or Sam Goody or any other chain decided was the norm for the people. As the demise of cassette tapes began with the influx of the CD, the general consumer only wanted one thing from the suppliers – Drop the price to an affordable respectable amount and give me SELECTION. They did no such thing… Instead of lowering the price of cassettes, they raised them in an attempt to make even more profit on the dying media as well as overpricing the new CD format with pennies on the dollar going to the artists for royalties and, left us with fewer titles available. When the Cassette was gone and CD’s hit the $19.00 range, the MP3 revolt began. My point is there are so few top 10 hits or shows people care about when they are on a P2P site of any type – after you have your favorite 3 or 40 top 10 hits, people want what is hard to find if not impossible in the retail world and those are the gems we all seek when file sharing…

The music industry shot themselves in the foot back then when they could have jumped on a huge new idea for marketing and distribution. They did not because so many “middle man high dollar suits” in the entertainment industry would be cut out of the loop of a massive overpriced and corrupt industry. All the artists want is royalty for what they are due and just as the U.S. needs new direction, so does this industry. Cut the unnecessary and bloated middle man out… give the artist the royalties they deserve and charge a respectable consumer enticing price for a quality download service. Software, copyrighted image files, poetry, art, games… it does not matter – It’s all media that could be managed in an ethical and profitable way, on line with unlimited resources, and until that day comes, P2P will just shape shift into another form as more and more people revolt…

A revolution against the gluttonous market of our current entertainment industry as it continues down their own destructive path. Good riddance – I’ve seen the past become the future. Electronic media will overcome and those who try to suppress new technology and not embrace will fade into the abyss of a great “one time opportunity” missed.

Torrenting is more complicated than your simple description – Pirate Bay would be a loss but not the end. I agree, downloading current movies is a bad thing and tends to cause fewer current movies to be made, but me downloading ZOMBIES IN LEDERHOSEN isn't really a threat to the industry.

have you ever noticed, now stay with me on this, that when ever RIAA files a lawsuite, file sharing popularity increases with it? it is almost as if providing free advertisment to free copies of copyrighted works through these lawsuites drives up demand for music downloading.

you know, how a torrent site like the pirate bay being advertised in the news as a location to obtain free music some how lets people know to get free music, go to the pirate bay?

you probally wront want to provide quality entertainment, not the garbage out there now, that the consumer wants to buy, DRM free, while demonstarting how file sharing exposes computers to viruses and hackers, which could either steal your credit car numbers or destroy your $1,000 computer? you know like how getting a free version of a $0.99 itunes song could cost you thousands of dollars in the long run?

no no, if you did that people might buy the song saving you millions in legal fees. thats way to conviniant.

A lot of pirated software, ebooks, text files are shared using BT tech

File sharing is the scapegoat for companies who aren't making their shareholders enough money. The worldwide economic downturn was not caused by file sharing. It was cause by a bunch of greedy banks, short sighted car companies, and other such BS. File sharing was going on while the economy was doing well too. People aren't losing their jobs because people are downloading. People are losing jobs because people are scared to spend money on a new car or house because they don't know if they are going to have a job. How about we blame any other economic downturn on file sharing...Oh wait, this is the first one to happen since file sharing has been around. The guy that commented on here about working in the film industry has it backwards. People aren't spending $10+ to see movies in the theater or but them for $15+ because they have less disposable income, not because people are downloading the movies online. Plus if they didn't make garbage like The House Bunny and Disaster Movie, maybe people would go watch or buy them. DVDs are a dying format...Blueray is not going to last. Companies need to keep up with the times. If they make a movie available for download online, it won't cost them anything to distribute and if you charge $5 people won't mind paying it. You could even have advertisements on the download site. I was an art major in college and I get it, why don’t they?

Where software piracy is concerned; I think it's about time the companies and corporations stop whining about the money they're losing and figure out a way to protect the value of their products. I'm a one-man software developer who has spent many hours figuring out ways to protect my software products from reverse engineering and the illegal distribution of product registration keys. Whether my product gets copied across portable flash media, burned onto discs, or distributed via torrents and FTP sites, it doesn't matter. I am responsible for making sure my product is protected, just like I'm responsible for locking the door to my house or my car. If I'm too lazy or short-sighted to protect myself, then I'm just asking to be robbed.

I pay for cable, how come I can't watch a TV show I'm already paying to see when I want to?

Also, I think that there is a very good consequence of all this piracy, thievery, or whatever you want to call it.

If everyone downloaded then at some point making movies that cost $100 million-plus to make, or albums that have millions dumped into them, or TV shows that pay their actors hundreds of thousands of dollars PER EPISODE wouldn't make any sense. At some point in the inconceivable future, the "entertainment industry" would cease to exist. Universal Studios would go out of business, as would Warner Brothers, etc.

All that would be left in this mess wouldnt be the businessmen – I'm sure 50 Cent would have stopped recording music as soon as he realized he couldnt make millions at it – all that would be left would be the people who do it because they love it. Artists. Creating art. And they would go on creating art, whether or not they could make millions at it, or indeed, any money at all.

Some of the best music I've ever heard has been written and recorded for less than a thousand dollars, or in some cases, completely free (Beethoven being a personal favourite). People will always pay to see art in its truest forms, be they concerts, art galleries, plays, or showings in a theatre.

By allowing the entertainment industry to collapse, we would be weeding out all the cynical businessmen who either do it just for the money, or exploit other peoples creations, and then we'd be left with just artists, who go on creating art because it's what they love.

While this may bring ThePirateBay down and put a dent in file sharing in the short term, in the long term file sharers will just adapt the technology to make it harder to track them.

The title of this post is sensationalist. Even if the Pirate Bay is shut down, it does not mean the end of the BitTorrent protocol. This is just one (rather large) tracker. All we are talking about is one particular source of a lot of the pirated media and software out there. But this does not "kill" the protocol. There are many legitimate used for BitTorrent. Some commercial games use it as a means of distributing patches. Linux distributions have been using BitTorrent do distribute ISO files and save bandwidth overhead for years. Did the death of the original Napster "kill" MP3s?

I'm with Karl...one of the advantages of bt is that nothing is being stored in a central place. If you shut one site down, everyone will just find another tracker, and life will go on. (TorrentSpy was pretty popular back in the day, and their getting shut-down had little to no effect on bt usage overall). I use bt for legal trading of audience-recorded concerts, and I don't see this having any sort of effect on any of the sites I use. "The death of BitTorrent?" is overly dramatic. Get perspective.

@Liquid Sound: I love the "virtual information / software should be free" argument. Do you think that that "virtual information" just magically appears on the CD/DVD? And just happens to arrange itself in such a way that you can put the disc in your PC and have useful video processing / AutoCAD / accounting / photographic or whatever software? People write that "virtual information", people with bills to pay and families to feed.

If you want free software, it exists. If you don't want to pay for software that you consider overpriced, then you have the option of not using it. And yes, some commercial software is ridiculously overpriced, especially considering how much was recouped a decade ago – e.g., M$ Office. But there's a difference between "should be less" and "should be free". It costs money to develop professional software, therefore it costs money to buy it.

As far as your statement that the government should redistribute wealth, there are many governments in the world that operatre on that philosophy; the U.S. does, but usually I think in the opposite direction that you're advocating. Regardless, you should be able to find your version of utopia somewhere in the world, without much difficulty.

Does everyone realize that Pirate Bay actually does not contain any actual copyrighted material? They are a tracker and host no movie, TV or music files whatsoever.

Eric

The Pirate Bay sucks big time ! .........I hope they sink , all that place is is a haven for thugs and thieves who not only rip off businesses , they post comments and slander people too . .... Stealing and Slander is Wrong.

Two points –

1) The record companies created this mess when they said vinyl, at 7.99/copy with up to 12 tunes per album, was "obsolete" and forced the Compact Disc (in digital format) down everyone's throat. For $18/unit. They made no adjustment on artist or writer royalties for the additional unit price, and got addicted to the windfall. So yeah, 99 cents a song is a rip off. Did you get any art work? DId you get any physical product that cost them money to produce? No. It should be 10 cents max. Put it this way, if the RIAA agreed to the price, it's a rip off. And not fair to the artists either.

2) The whole idea of royalties, payment per unit sold, for writers is beyond absurd and outdated. It made sense when you sold music by the sheet, but all it is now is a glorified lottery where someone hopes to get rich quick by cranking out a ditty and getting paid for it for the rest of not only their lives, but their children's lives. Simply put, copyright law needs to be revised to be shorter, not longer, going to the public domain after a reasonable time, not remaining in some estate for perpetuity. Do you get paid again and again by your employer every time someone uses your idea? NOBODY should be entitled to get paid over and over and over and over and over again for creating an idea that is as non-consequential as a 4 minute collection of verses, chorus and a middle eight. The problem, of course, is it's not right for these companies to keep all that money either. and how did they get all that money? by selling a product that is SIMPLY TOO EXPENSIVE! Reduce costs, staff overhead, etc. and charge a reasonable fee. Period.

It has to start somewhere. It's not the public's fault their private business model is broken and outdated.

Why does everyone act like the only thing BitTorrent is used for is illegal downloads? There are plenty of content providers who use it to distribute their own content; creators of Linux operating system variants use it to transmit installation disc images.

There are many, many legitimate uses for BitTorrent– not just hypothetically, but that are actively used.

So why it it always presented as just a tool for piracy?

That's like implying that an automobile's only purpose is to aid and abet bank robbery, since most bank robbers leave the scene in an automobile. Trying to ban BitTorrent is as reasonable as bank owners trying to ban automobiles.

Let's be clear....

Piracy is Piracy, not theft... the original is left intact.

Theft is removing the original.

At no point is anyone copying music/movies trying to pass it off as their own.

So artists, simply get enough up front for the art being sold to cover your worth, or distribute it yourself in some manner. Distributors find another way to make money.

Here's a free copy of the song, but the first minute before it plays there will be an advertisement in front of it everytime you play it. The first x# of plays it has an advertisement that comes up on your iPod, player, etc screen or as an overlay voice.

Want to share it? Great, it can be shared for free with the same advert playing with it.

OR

Before the song can be played, force them to input a paypal, credit card # or other item. Everytime it's played you get a penny charged to your account.

Share the crap out of the song, just make sure you take your credit card out, so your friend doesn't run up your bill for playing the song. From there they have to put their CC# in to hear it.

Sure identity theft may go through the roof, but then business will get better for ID protection, lots of new jobs, and bam the economy is fixed!

yes its true that the pirate bay server host most of the worlds torrents. But if they do go away permanently, we will improvise, adapt and overcome, you will never see the end of bit torrent, or file sharing, there are millions of other sites and we are ready to take up the slack......I personally upload tons of stuff, but i straight up refuse to use the pirate bay.....im partial to smaller sites that have tighter communities.

We will find a way....
we always do.....
this will not be an exception.....
Die RIAA

Theft = the removal of property so that it is not in the possesion of the original owner. Note that one person gains (theif( while the other looses something (original owner). For something to be stolen something must be lost to someone else. Since the information on the internet stays where it is then no information or medai is actually stolen, it's only copied. Copying something is not theft.

This is why people who are normal moral and upstanding indiviuals don't feel any form of guilt when downloading a pirated movie. They pay a few to thier ISP and feel entitled to any free data availible to them on the internet.

The argument made by the RIAA that piracy = potential sales doesn't hold water as many people wouldn't nessasarily purchase the media if it were not made availible for free.

The problem is that a capitalist mindset isn't compatible with the idea of alturism and sharing. Subsiquently the media producers are forced to utilize the state to enforce their market veiw of the world.

Downloading media files off the internet is not wrong or immoral despite what the MPAA or RIAA may say. The onus on them is to find a new market model which can generate revenue in a new reality. I for one will continue to download media at my whim and share it with whom I see fit. I will also continue to buy and purchase the media I feel warrents the purchase (I have quite a movie collection both digital and physical).

Fileshare is here to stay. Responsibility lies in the beholder. Think about it: Sony is a joke, they advocate for ability to copy when they introduce beta, now they want to plant rootkits on your computer, sue fans and limit copyright uses, going as far as stopping Sony films from Xbox live and Netflix. Metallica sues its fans! I Won't buy Sony and I Won't buy Metallica. Two former favorites. I favor fileshare as it harbors many out of print and long forgotten classics. Sad thing is I actually bought that Velvet Revolver CD too with the rootkit. Last Sony BMG label to ever purchase.

I live in Sweden, they had a pressconference yesterday telling the media that whatever the outcome of this trial will be Piratebay will live on, it have a life on it's own. According to Peter Sunde the TPB server ain't located in Sweden anymore, this is really a trial against the founders of TPB not the site per se. When it comes to the money, "whatever the outcome will be, they won't get a cent." – Peter Sunde.

Also, the trial will approx take 4-5 years so don't hold your breath,
Bittorrent is probably obsolete and replaced by then.
So death of Bittorrent? no
Death of filesharing? Filesharing can't be killed.

I agree with Rurapente. I have to download a TV show that isn't made in the U.S., isn't shown in the U.S., isn't accessible online to anyone outside the country the show originates from, and there's no DVD to buy. There's also no current plan to ever show it in the U.S. I have to download it or invest in a satellite system that can access this particular channel.

i used P2P to steal movies and music cuz i was to poor to buy them in the store.

fast foward a bit, i used BT and P2P to download 1 song that i liked to avoid buying an entire CD.

now i use netflix to watch my movies.
i use internet radio stations to listen to music.

i agree it hurts the industry to pirate music and movies but i also agree that corps are greedy and try to milk every penny from its old movies that no one is willing to pay to see.

while browsing movies and i see a movie i havent seen in a long time but i would like to see again just once,im not paying 20 bucks for a dvd so it can sit on my shelf for a year or two to collect dust.

thr advantage of digital media is that it doesnt take up physical space.
when i want to get rid of it,i just delete it.

no one wants to just throw away a dvd cuz they paid somethin for it and want a lil money back to get rid of it.

that is why im a huge fan of netflix and will stay a customer for as long as it is up.

I second nina's comment. Don't want to have people steal your stuff? why not sell it *in the medium* that people use. I don't want to spend the $2.00 in gas to drive to the local video store to rent a film for $2.00. But I'd still pay the $2.00 to get the film.

And frankly, the folks at i Tunes basically did that. Buy the song and then download it. Seems the same is happening at netflix.

The "entertainment industry" could certainly afford some kick-ass servers and other infrastructure improvements. Example: drop a server in Boise to assist the local community in buying your products. You'll provide good employment for the very IT types that are sitting at home getting "into trouble" because they don't have jobs.

And to you 21 screen cineplex theatre owners, convert one or two of those excess screen rooms into restaurants. Stop charging $5.00 for $0.50 of popcorn. Offer a real meal in a sit-down restaurant down the hall from the theatre. My wife will demand – DEMAND – I take her out to such a place at least once a month.

Here are some clues:

1) Bits are cheaper to ship than things. Get used to it and stop trying to "license" your products. Sell them to customers instead. Sell them legitimately and (most, but I grant you not all) will buy them legitimately.
2) Provide value and the money will come. Don't make crappy movies or music and then complain when you get 0.02% market share in sales.
3) The economy will not be better for many years, and you can't legislate profits. Sorry 'bout that.
4) When you look out for yourself, no one else will. When you look out for others (example: employ people with a current business model), others will look out for you.
5) As my wife says "a bored engineer is a dangerous thing". I suspect the moon shots and other space activities have kept a lot of engineers from getting "into trouble" with missiles, atomic bombs, and conventional weapons. The US didn't use lawyers to try to keep these people "in line". Take a hint.
6) And to you in the advertising arena, make your ads good, and stop putting 12 of them in the commercial breaks every 15 minutes. Pick one ad. Your ad will have more impact and people will actually watch it.

I go to the movies, download it, and then buy the dvd when it comes out. Hollywood gets my money twice, so why i cant i have a digital copy in the mean time?

Playing a movie, music or using files that are copyrighted without paying for them is theft, end of story. Saying that using copyrighted material without paying for it is like telling a little white lie. The intent is to decieve and to take something that is not rightfully yours.

That being said, the movie and other industries should be seriously looking at what happened to the music industry when electronic distribution caught on. Either they will adapt and learn to provide a high quality service on-line that people will pay for, or they will fall in the same way the music industry.

I buy everything and do not use any pirate site. So it may surprise you, I still fully share your hatred of RIAA, because they do not allow me do anything even with the things I have legally bought. They have made it impossible to rip the funny part from the DVD I bought and put it in my computer. I cannot put my VHS into digital format because my camera says it is proprietary ( yes, proprietary but I bought it and paid already for it). Then, as a world citizen that lives parts of my life on both sides of Atlantic, they have this crazy 'DVD region' system designed to harass innocent and honest people like me.
I do not steal anything from these RIAA b-rds myself but I am very happy if somebody does. They fully deserve it.

Right now, you can go on P2P networks and download almost any song you want. Yet– iTunes is BOOMING.
There will always be a small core group just intent on not paying for the product... but Steve Jobs made it MORE convenient for people to PAY for music than to steal it. And people ARE willing to pay for it!
The RIAA stonewalled, dragged it heels, declared music will NEVER move online and proposed all sorts of unworkable draconian solutions for almost a decade before Jobs could convince them to give it a try. "No, seriously. Just give them MP3's with no DRM. They'll pay for them, just watch."
And we did.
This is where Television is today. Kicking and screaming, grudgingly moving their content on to websites... just as consumers move OFF of websites onto cell phones and personal media players.
BitTorrent isn't so popular because it's free (though that doesn't hurt,) it's because people WANT unchained content.

I buy DVD sets of shows I love– and never crack them open. I download them instead so I can watch them any way I please. I HAVE PAID FOR THESE SHOWS, but it is ILLEGAL for me to circumvent copy protection to rip them onto my computer or cell phone.
Screw that noise. Laws that stupid should be violated as flagrantly as possible until the court is EMBARRASSED enough to put its foot down and stop the criminalization of Fair Use.

The last estimate I heard was that 40% of the US population has downloaded music, TV of movies. At maximum penalties, they can all be sent to jail.
When a law is passed that turns 40% of the population into criminals, it is the LAW that is wrong.

"95 Percent of Online Music Downloads Are Illegal"
Corporations, with enormous legal and obbying capabilities
Versus the addicted to a tune teenager.
Get them hooked young, not to smoke, but to a beat

Solution is to eliminate the corporate legal entity
Sue person to person - Make it fair

can we agree on renaming Hollywood to Hyperbole ?

how many of the nay sayers here against bit torrent are on this CNN comment forum spamming for MPAA ?

mainstream media is where common public sentiment is generated, MPAA knows this and so fills any popular comment section with torrent bashing.

look people this is not about freedom of file sharing, this is about BIG money. and I totally agree with earlier post stating that Hollywood wouldn't have sold many more copies if file sharing were put down. just the ranting of an eight year old CEO.

last question, why are Hyperbole heavy-corp so STUPID to not see that if they put their own stuff online for a cheap price they could actually make money from this ???

arrogant idiots

Omg we have moved already

Rapid Share
Mega Video
Z Share

Theres enuff file networks to move about on.

Gluck With it We dont die we Multiply !

Good riddance! Every time I've had anything to do with a .Torrent file, my Norton antivirus popped up and warned me that my computer was under attack. Somebody please shoot that pirate fleet right out of the water.

58.4% of all statistics are made up

Lame excuse for being a thief # 1: "But they charge so much!"

Lame excuse for being a thief # 2: "I can't get it if I don't steal it!"

Lame excuse for being a thief # 3: "There, like, shouldn't be any restrictions"

Lame excuse for being a thief # 4: "It's the company's fault!"

If you can't or won't spend the money, if you can't see it, do what you wish you could with it, then here are two words for you:

Go without.

The entitlement attitude in this country is out of hand, the world doesn't owe you anything for free. These guys aren't Robin Hood, they are not heroes to be admired. All I see are weak justifications for stealing other people's work.

I read one of their arguments will be comparing it to making cars that go faster than the speed limit. Well, what happens when a person is caught going faster than the speed limit?

Filesharing can't be stopped, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be fought, especially when it is done so blatantly and with arrogance like TPB.

If ThePirateBay goes down they will just be considered martyrs fighting the good fight. I find it amusing that the RIAA and other agencies still haven't figured this out yet. I mean, remember Napster? They got shut down and what happened? People download elsewhere. Yeah PirateBay may have 50% of the torrent users, of that I don't know. But what I do know is that if/when they go down, people will move on to other sources. File sharing will never go away. Its just too convenient and there really is no way to stop it.
All this is is an act of desperation, plain and simple.

And what is so bad about sharing movies and music anyways? If we can exchange and share information so freely over the internet, why not entertainment? What is it that I am stealing by making a copy of something and sharing it? I am not taking credit for work that someone else has accomplished. All I am doing is sharing that work with others. Why should we have to pay $18 for a crappy cd with one decent song on it? Or $20 for a movie that was over hyped and is absolutely horrible? Your only options are to suck it up, pay $0.99 for songs, or get them for free. Hmmmm

Downloading torrents will never be stopped. Good luck

PirateBay will not go down. When their place was raided and 200 servers were seized the site went down for a couple days but was back up using servers at different locations around the world. It will live on.

I was reading one of the few anti-PB comments by "i hope they go down", it was quite amusing. For example as a money savings idea he offered that we shoud "by a used copy". We can't because that would be illegal. All software is sold for use on one machine ever, it is illegal to put it on your destop PC and your laptop. It is illegal to format the hard drive and crush your old PC and install the software on a new PC you got for Christmas.

As you see, the current copywrite laws are old, out of date and even draconian. They were written for printed books, not software. If you buy it, it is not yours.

PB is acting no differently than the Library of Congress card catalog. Indexing where you can go obtain a book and get full use out of it without ever paying the author for his hard work. The public library system is illegal copywrite infringement we all take for granted, and consider a good thing.

Notice that RCA announced they will no longer sue for infringement? The lawyers took all the money and the music industry got nothing.

Someday the world will catch on to technological advances, but until then the lawyers will all suck us dry.

I am a downloader (although not really into torrents). I get the fact everyone bitches about how the actors and directors get kind of money hungry, but what about the other people? What about Key Grip and all those other people you have no idea what they do in the credits? And the artists that slaved countless hours for the dvd cover art? Sure, the actors don't really hurt from downloading, but they do. The few things I have ever torrented I have either bought or intend to buy, and it's really only for a copy on my ipod (this whole "free digital copy" is bull because they usually only work on windows media player). If you like it, be nice to the little people in the system and buy the stuff.

When most people are tagged as criminals, by non-human legal entities;
Corporations, with unlimited legal resources, become the heroes ?

Who makes the rules ? only a few Guilt Peddlers ?
In a dictatorship, what does public opinion matter ?

Why don't you all pay for the service like you should? What is wrong with our world when people are upset because they are being told they can't steal anymore? Would you all walk into a cornerstore and stuff candy in your pockets without exchanging money? Would you be upset if someone told you it's wrong to do so? Man oh man our society believes we all deserve what we take. Sad...sad.

So you're saying that writers and actors don't deserve to get paid? That they should work for free because you want to download without paying for it? Once everybody stops paying for entertainment, how do you propose these shows and movies get made? Oh I see, other people are supposed to pay for it but you are unique and special and don't need to pay, right? I bet you think it's okay to shoplift, even though it drives up the price for other customers. In the olden days when people stole they would cut off their left hand. Maybe it's time to bring those days back.

This is so funny. Pirate Bay isnt really a torrent host either. This is what makes this even more fun. They are a hybrid meaning yes they host torrent files but they are most considered a torrent search engine just like isohunt and demonoid. Yes Pirate Bay and Demonoid host and are trackers but 80% of the torrents found on these three sites are just files to get the item wanted. None of the copyrighted or ripped media is stored on a torrent site, it is actually all on the sharee's PC at home in the basement/bedroom. So if you all wanna sue someone sue yourself for allowing any Joe Dirt to buy your product off the shelf cuz that's where it orginally came from.

On the second of the day of the trial nearly 50% of the charges against The Pirate Bay were dropped.

The prosecutor was unable to prove that the .torrent files used as evidence actually used The Pirate Bay’s tracker. Many of the screenshots used at the trial clearly state there is no connection to the tracker. Additionally, prosecutor Håkan Roswall didn't adequately explain the function of DHT which allows for so called "trackerless" torrents.

This has resulted in prosecutor Håkan Roswall having to drop all charges relating to "assisting copyright infringement", so the remaining charges are simply 'assisting making available'. Everything related to reproduction will be removed from the claim.

This is old news, is CNN running out of stuff to report?

If you support TPB, buy a t-shirt, and wear it proud to your nearest record store, Best Buy, Sam Goody, FYE, and so on...

here in denmark they shut down the acces to the site but it takes 2 minutes to get in anyway . it can´t be stopped .
besides if the inventors get konvicted many others would fill their shoes , remember that in our part of the world we don´t have long jail punishment in cases were nobody gets hurt

If they close down The Pirate Bay, I bet it'd take less than a year for something better to come out.

Remember Napster? They shut it down and look at where we are now.

American copyright laws do not apply to the rest of the world – as much as US companies may wish them to. Deal with it.

Putting TPB on trial is a scam. They don't host any copyrighted materials. Prosecutors in the case realized that today.

If these companies what to sue someone, sue all the individual users out there who are sharing copyrighted materials.

Also, the ators and writers already got paid. they got paid when theyfinished the movie. It's the producers and directors taht would suffer from downloads. The only problem is, they make the most money in ticket sales, not DVD sales.

Actors get paid when they sign the contract. Writers get paid when the script gets accepted.

There's no real theft going on.

Still can't stop the signal.

When Weird Al wrote "Don't Download This Song" (available for free download on his website) he was making fun of all the stupid lawsuits. In the song, he took the position of the artist losing money, trying to stop the downloading. He asked "How else can I afford another solid-gold Humvee? And diamond studded swimming pools: these things don't grow on trees. So all I ask is everybody please don't download this song..." If Weird Al, a music artist, thinks fighting illegal downloading is a joke, why should we fight it?

 
Evil Corporations, and Marketers, fraud the morality,
Devil is in the asymmetrical, - Steal a newspaper; Get legally hammered
Steal $50 Billion; Get house arrest for a while
Fraud the World Economy to Depression, Saint Allen Greenie you are
Protected Automakers, flying to bailout beggings, in private jests ?

Selling Sugar Water, with Proprietary Spices (Coke and Cola) is the model
Expect the world population to guard Cash Cows with a fence not erected ?
Constitutes, lack of due diligence !

Public is cheated, competition is stifled, by the distribution method
Few watch decades old sports games; preference is for the new
Yesterday’s news, sold as current, protected by the manufacturing of Public Guilt
Prevents competition, innovation, and progress

Knowledge, paid for, and guarded by, your taxes, is hidden,
Behind Dollar$ closed institutions - Watch; Colbert-Lessig

All it takes is a number, no matter what is done, the numbers will never go away so file sharing, legal and illegal shares is never going to go away. Fix the problems that cause it in the first place.

To the guy in the industry... I do have dish service, most of what I watch is still done on the PC. I can watch it at my convenience, and without commercials. So, if I am paying for something I rarely use, perhaps I would pay someone else instead if it took into account why I watch it the way I prefer to? Yeah, so the industry wants it their way, I want it my way, I can have it my way, so which way am I going to get it?

Talk some sense to someone in the industry to look at other ways to provide what people want, rather than wasting money on trying to shut down something that has not been able to be shut down for 30+ years, file sharing.

I pay for netflix, digital cable, sirius radio and pay to watch/listen to them all online. So no I don't feel bad for DL'ing a movie that I've already paid to watch or song I hear 20times a day. That being said most of what I dl is anime which you can't even get in the US untill like 2-3years later and then it has horrible american voice actors and not subs.

Well, even if they (The Pirate Bay) are convicted it is all to late to close down torrent sites. The music industry has been to slow and to lazy to follow the technological development on the Internet. The torrent sharing communities are here to stay. Even, if the industry succeed to close ALL of the sites (which is not likely) the file sharing will continue, but in coded form..

Anyway, they haved sued the wrong part, to sue TPB is the same as sue Google or ebay. Its not the TPB that put up the copyrighted material, its the users. If you find a stolen car on ebay, will you sue ebay then? If you Google pirate bay or some other torrent network, will you sue google then?

I'm a music artist "on the side", so I'm never going to be rich *or* a significant victim of BitTorrent. But I just wish people would be accountable for their actions.

There's no argument that closing one door opens another, and I don't believe it will ever be possible to prevent people from downloading copies of things for free, and the music/film/etc. industries need to accept that.

But please don't insult everyone's intelligence by playing word games to convince us you're not stealing. The law is, you were supposed to pay for what you took, and you didn't. Whether someone else is rich enough not to care doesn't change that. If you steal something from a mansion, it's still stealing. Are other people greedy? Of course. But don't act like a martyr in the process. If you're too cheap to pay for someone else's hard work, just say it and move on.

Hell, *I'll* say it. That's why I usually opt for freeware when I need a particular software application. But at least there the creator(s) of the product had their say in the matter.

Rationalization is human nature, but we can rise above it too.

Stealing from thieves ? Absolutely not !
Somehow, a song, blowing in the wind, garbage or not, you pick up

The chain of responsibility, of ownership, broken where ?
Internet litter, by Evil corporations, not thrashing their garbage
Good fences make good neighbors

People feel cheated by the Corporate Corrupted Government

Who cares, I download piles and piles of movies but I still go to the movies. These people are already absurdly rich I dont care about the rich artists losing a few dollars.

Why does it matter how rich these people are? Should it be legal to rob Bill Gates or defraud him out of millions through some phony charitable organization that you set up just because he's got dollars leftover? ridiculous!
You're stealing their intellectual property plain and simple. I've never in my life seen a legitimate argument in favor of allowing "file sharing"

what is this guy talking about? like pirate bay shutting down is going to bring all of the intertubes to a grinding halt! it's already happened. in 2006 during a police raid the pirate bay was shut down for a few days, three i think, maybe a week. point is, i was using bittorrent then, and didn't notice a darn thing. pirate bay shuts down, someone else picks up the slack.

Too bad for the newbs.

FOOLS. Industry is incompetent beyond measure. First came music industry v. Napster. out of its ashes sprung many downloading programs like limewire, bearshare, etc. Then came torrents. The next wave could have been extremely cheap, legally purchased downloads, but Industry has rejected this notion. Idiots.... Downloads require pennies to offer as compared to initializing production lines to produce DVDs. Charging the same price for a download as a purchased piece of tangible property shows their lack of market demand knowledge. greedy greedy greedy.

So is burning a CD illegal?

usenet will never die!
A lot better too

Marky, what the heck are you talking about...Sure they were taken down for a day or so but it was ruled that the police did so illegally. Now they are on trial but half the charges were dropped the first day. All the prosecution has is a "Making available" charge but thanks to people like Jim Keyzer, the police officer who was working for the police and Warner Brothers at the same time to get evidence for this case, it will be dismissed in no time.

Hey jake heres a legitamate argument.

How about the fact that its legal to purchase all the equipment i need to download and burn. They give me all the means I need to do it.
So why shouldnt I use all the resources that I have legally purchased for what ever I want.

I think it would be hilarious if the music and movie industry set up their own P2P site to replace Bit Torrent. They could set it up to "download" the purchase price of the content from the recipient's bank account.

Same thing, right?

Now THAT'S sticking it to the man!!!!!

  
Do you accept the tyranny of non-human legal entities,
Greedy Cheating Corporations, lobbying for laws that people reject ?

I would say the best way to stop internet piracy via bittorrent is to get ISP's to charge US$0.001 per kilobyte uploaded. When you get that first bill for the 1 gigabyte you uploaded you'll quickly shut down that bittorrent.

Yarr, maties! Bring forth ye pieces of eight! We're going to summon Calypso, and show these coorporate bastards what-for! Show them what happens when ye mess with pirates!

But, seriously, with the massive amount of information streaming around the internet, pirating software/videos/etc is an IMPOSSIBLE task to stop. Why, youtube alone hosts THOUSANDS of movies that infrige copyright. Even with their daily tuesday "Slash and Burn" tactics, it doesn't even EBB the flow of illegal viewing a fraction.

These guys just want to put on a show by making a big deal over some folks who had a really good idea(Which had really fantastic market value, but they opted not to go for it because FREE MEDIA INTERNET).

-Hack the Planet

The real Pirates are the Government Financial Planners, Lawmakers
Sailing the Economy; Past the edge of Depression

Enabling other fraudings, case in point;
GM CEO, Wagoner - after destroying General Motors,
seriously wants to continue using his talents to Pirate your Tax dollars

"What some people don’t understand is that the majority of people that pirate software never had any intention of buying the software in the first place if they weren’t able to pirate it. They will instead go to a freeware alternative, even if it has less functionality."

Smartest thing posted in all of the comments. I don't download much at all, and what little I do (a song here and there, perhaps an old game) I would never bother paying for. If it wasn't available online I just wouldn't get it, so I don't really see who I'm hurting in the process. This might seem like a stretch in justification, but it's true. Heck, I'm 100 times more likely to stream a song on youtube/the artists facebook/etc than to buy it, I hate to say it but if I can't get it for free it's not worth my money; I've got bills to pay >.<

If they removed every torrent site right now I guarantee it wouldn't get me to their stores.

i totally agree with the first comment, that even if they shut down the the pirate bay its a long way to go for them to shut down all the torrent downoading....so yeah even if it shuts down the users wont be at a loss and the amount of torrent traffic wont decrease so why bother?

to: i hope they go down
You are an idiot without a vision, if there will be no sharing there will be fewer and fewer ppl that watch your stupid movies and without an audience you have no reason to make any movie at all. You make movies for us not for yourselves ! It's kinda time to realize that.

Most thieves are made out of necessity rather then out of evil will. Cut prices on DVDs, CDs more ppl will buy and less ppl will download – its as simple as that.

For all the crap movies I see I'm glad I didn't have to pay for all of them, they should pay me for watching and wasting my time

... and what right do anyone have to spy on me, what I do in my home is my business! I pay for my net and I want to use it as I choose. Get the f... out of my home ! Soon you will be forced to buy toiled paper because if you wipe you a... with a leafs you made someone lost his dollars. This world is a mess...

"McLuhan - medium is the message" and "global village"""
The fraudsters want to spy to control - regulate in every way

PIII; "Intel processor has probably gained more attention for protests
over the company's decision to insert an ID number into the chip"
Intel backed off, due public protests.

There is a discrepency, - The controllers want to identify,
with a branding iron, fence in, all the domesticated humans.
The wage slaves, no privacy at work, or afterwards, at play or at home.

The controllers and the controlled, want the opposite
U$ is a demoncracy ? not a failed state ?

stealing doesn't become OK just because alot of people do it, musicians (other than the big name studio supported rich guys) are struggling to find ways to make a living, for those of you who don't know it is really ridiculous!! we're talking people with families not just kids, drop your prejudicial preconceived notions, playing bars SUCKS! and everyone is getting this idea that they should get your music for free online, how are you supposed to make a living? its getting to the point you make more selling band T shirts, I'm serious! imagine if every one decided YOUR occupation should be free, "yeah I'd like to pay you for building an addition to my house but all my neighbors are getting theirs for free, I think you should just GIVE me your time, training and hard work" imagine its impact on YOU, how is it different for a musician who wants to post music for download and get paid for their WORK?? if your not happy with the commercial studio producer crap generally available then SUPPORT musicians by paying for their work like you want to get paid for YOURS

 
Honesty and tough love for the teenage girl downloading past the
limits of her allowance. - Bailouts for the undercapitalistic bankers,
needed to support $5.1 million personal bonuses ?

Each according to his need, the capitalistic creed ?

I Love the pirate bay TPB is absolutely amazing. Yes, I download movies from others, also games, and programs, whatever I want!!! How should that be illegal???? IT's no different than when my buddy buys a movie and then loans it to me to watch.. FTW, I love TPB!!

dude, srsly? almost a year later?