Pirating Movies, Audios etc

[MidasGirl]

Here's a question. Both from a legal and technical standpoint. If someone comes into your house with their laptop, connects to your wireless and pirates movies etc, doesn't that make you liable, should it ever become a legal situation? Also, if they say they are covering all the bases, do you think you can still get busted?

[Daffy Duck]

I think you may be liable to a certain degree. I'm no lawyer though. It depends on the evidence. If someone steals your Internet without your knowledge, I don't think you're liable. If you go into a Starbucks and hack into the government, is Starbucks liable? I hope not. I think there's a lot of gray area as well.

[MidasGirl]

Got it. Makes me nervous though. I may be a social rebel but I don't like to screw with the law.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Because some people choose to illegally download movies and songs for free, celebrities are stuck in a life of only semi-luxury.

Master P's son says all he wants for Christmas is an island in French Polynesia. Will he get it? I see an island without an owner.

Sure piracy is illegal and costs the people who created the thing you are downloading money, but I don't see it as a big deal. I don't usually pirate anything because personally I feel that if the item I am purchasing will give me value equal to or more the value I am spending to pay for it, then it is worth buying. Otherwise, I really don't need it.

[Lil Chris]

This really didn't become an issue until the digital age, in the time of vcr's and tapes, copying was certainly available. Yet, you never heard of piracy (except of coarse of the FBI warning and public display) it only seems to become an issue with mass distribution capabilities (ie. the internet and torrent sites, P2P services).

I remember the days of using the dual cassette deck to copy a tape and there was not even a second thought of doing it.

That also brings into question, let's say a bought an 8 track (remember those?) of led zeppelin and then records came out. I would have to buy it again. Then cassette tapes came out, another purchase, then CD's came out, another purchase. Luckily, no more purchases were required after that... Recording companies and artists had no problem taking my money several times for a song recorded once. I agree with Daffy, there is a lot of gray area, but mostly it applies to mass distribution and profiting from it...

[ar81]

If I rent a movie... isn't it making MPAA to lose money?

[Lil Chris]

Originally Posted by ar81

If I rent a movie... isn't it making MPAA to lose money?

I'm not totally sure, but I bet they make a small percentage.

[Trezker]

You should not be responsible for what others do on your network. You're just a service provider. For thousands of years we have had the common sense rule that the messenger is not responsible for the messagews he carries since the messenger is not legally allowed to know what it is he's carrying.

On the internet, it's also near impossible to detect when something bad is transmitted, even if you try your hardest to analyze traffic. It would also be a huge violation of human rights to try.

Also, consider wireless networks. There's a movement that wants people to open up their networks to share them anyone who happens to pass by. This is something good, to share your wealth and save resources.

Should you lock down your wireless network just because some stranger might visit a website that some other stranger doesn't like? With such a mentality we shouldn't allow hitchhiking or public transport either, they could be helping terrorists! That's fear talking, we should focus on love. Share your connections, and if you get sued you should handle it head on without shame.

If you lend your lawnmover to a neighbour it's not your fault if he mows down another neighbours flowers! There's no way you could know he'd do that.

[Dogs]

There's a dark part of me that wishes my American government would continue to overstep it's boundaries as usual, by implementing regulations requiring everyone who has any kind of home network set up to "hackproof" it.

Now, the very word there, hackproof, is inherently false, but bureaucrat's don't care about that kind of thing, because they don't know anymore about technology than anybody else.

That's why it would be possible for people like me to get paid very well, because everyone with a network would need a specialist to secure it, and maintain that security. I'm not the best, or the worst, but when the position is in high demand, I'd atleast be halfway up the ladder


Unprotected/compromised wireless networks are a big deal though. I've jokingly asked customers a couple of times, "Why did you order the internet? Your entire neighborhood consists of unsecured wireless networks with the same broadband service you just bought."

On that note - I'm sure there's a way they'd wrap you into the deal, but you're a small fish in a huge ocean, and there aren't too terribly many things trying to eat you, so your probability of being punished for harboring a pirate are extremely slim, though it's always possible.

It's kind of like driving in traffic above the speed limit. You're anonymous not because they can't see you, but because you don't stand out from the herd so much, though cops will still pull people over, and one of those people might be you, it's probably not going to be.


IMO, you're still breaking the law by harboring a pirate, and there is a way for them to legislate their way into your bank account.

[Dhaval Raja]

Why wait to get caught? Would you like it if someone come to your house and steal your furniture
It's the same

[ar81]

There is a way in which you will never get caught:
Do not consume payware material. Go for free material.
The reason why you become liable is because they make money with it.
So do not consume a product that may put you at risk of liabilities.

Free music:
OverClocked ReMix - Video Game Music Community
CTG Music Community

Commercial music is often crappy.
Non commercial makes you to be out of the box, and that is good.
You will not become a mainstream robot.

[Trezker]

And Jamendo.
Free and legal music downloads - Jamendo

There's plenty free music available.
There's also a fair bit of free games available, though not as much as I'd like.
The really hard part is Movies and "TV" series, I haven't found any good free source of this medium. Some things pop up sometimes but it's really rare.

[ragtag]

For free web tv and video blogs, check out Miro. It's a bit like iTunes, except for videos and FREE. Lots of interesting shows like (Ted talks, ROFL, Scam School and more), and it can search video sites like YouTube and others.

That said, one great animated free movie is Sita Sings the Blues. It's mostly made by one woman, over a few years...but looks really good and is very entertaining.

As for if you can be held accountable for someone pirating something over your network connection, I really wouldn't think so. Though, why take the risk when securing your network is pretty easy. Leaving your network open isn't the greatest idea. My neighbor did this, and he had on average of 10 computers using his connection, and the whole thing was terribly slow, not to mention the security issues involved.

There have been a few cases of arrests, both in the US and the UK of people for connecting to open networks, which I find kind of silly. In many cities there are free hot spots for WiFi, and most devices will happily let you connect to any of them. So if you find an open network, you have no way of knowing if it's open because the owner of the networks wants to share it, or if it's open because the owner is ignorant.

[Apirant]

People who does piracy will probably not be arrested any time soon. It's pretty hard to identify them, because even if you find his or her IP address and computer, you have to choose between the inhabitants of the house.

However, the people who use piracy to make money are the ones at risk of being arrested.

[ragtag]

That's simply not true. It makes no difference if you make money of it or not. While the likelihood of getting arrested is slim, there is still a chance. Such as this example shows. Though you're more likely to get a letter threatening to sue you unless you pay a sum of money ($500-$3000). An interesting example of this happened in the UK, where a German company bought the rights to a number of gay porn films, and then began sending a letter to people in the UK who had downloaded them. I guess they figured it would be easy money, as many married men secretly watch gay porn and many others are still in the closet. These would be forced to pay, or risk having the family life turned upside down. See here for more.

While I'm sure the movie and music industries are most interesting in catching the big fish, they don't seem to mind going after the little ones too.