Illegal downloaders in federal court’s crosshairs

[snails]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

By the time the gov catch up there will be other ways to download movies. As for myself. I mostly download movies that I already watch in the theater. Already paid for it so why should I pay another $20 to $30 again? If it is $5 then sure I don't mind paying for it.

There are tons of apps on itunes and google play store that stream movies/TV shows for free even websites that streams them.

Here is the thing $20 to $30 dollars for DVD is expensive and to be honest not a lot of people have DVD/Blue Ray player. It makes more sense for movie company to start a streaming service like Netflix or lower their prices.

i plug my s4 into my tv and rent movies for like 5$ on playstore.. unless the movie cant be rented

works quite well though!

[El Bastardo]

Originally Posted by duy-

if they just made it easier for the user to access, piracy wouldn't be a huge deal. Apple makes downloading music ridiculously easy and cheap, makes me more inclined to just hit 3 buttons on my phone and own the songs I like to listen to. I'm sure netflix would be it's movie / shows counterpart but it doesn't give you that unlimited access of whatever you want. imagine if piratebay became government owned, then started charging 99cents per download, no accounts, automatically to your Internet bill, would you still use it?
Posted via RS Mobile

How is it not easy to access? Goddamn. During the days of VHS and DVD if you wanted to see a movie and drove across town to Blockbuster only to find all the copies were rented you had to get back in your car, drive over to Rogers Video to see if it was there. If it was gone you had to go to that skeezy neighbourhood store with the sticky floors and the smell of sour meat as a last resort. Then when you were done you had to drive that shit back there.
If you find that pressing more than three buttons on your phone to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is a challenge, you clearly don't remember the days of standing in line at the video store where a child in a stroller is screaming its head off because mommy wouldn't rent all of the videos her precious little snowflake wanted. You don't remember getting up to the counter while the stoned teenager tries to figure out how to make the computerized rental system work. You don't remember getting home with the copy of the movie you really wanted to see, popping it into the DVD tray, only to find it doesn't work because someone has scratched "Peter s Tara 4 EVA" into the silver side.

I remember having to drive 45 mins to the next town over to buy a CD on release day because my shitty home town's only music store didn't order it in time.

Dude, you can literally pay a fraction of what you would have to invest in time and transportation costs to go get your media. You can wake up, sit on the couch in your goddamned undies, and buy only the tracks you want from an album on release day instead of being burdened with a shitty $15 piece of plastic full of filler tracks and two radio hits.

How much easier does it have to be for the user to access? If spending 5 solid minutes (literally 300 seconds) pulling out your credit card or debit card, loading the URL of the media provider, and transcribing your information into their purchase submission form is too difficult for you, I feel bad for the medical support worker who has to change your bedpan.

[Iceman-19]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

By the time the gov catch up there will be other ways to download movies. As for myself. I mostly download movies that I already watch in the theater. Already paid for it so why should I pay another $20 to $30 again? If it is $5 then sure I don't mind paying for it.

There are tons of apps on itunes and google play store that stream movies/TV shows for free even websites that streams them.

Here is the thing $20 to $30 dollars for DVD is expensive and to be honest not a lot of people have DVD/Blue Ray player. It makes more sense for movie company to start a streaming service like Netflix or lower their prices.

Lol, you can get a DVD player for like 20 bucks at Walmart, and a blue ray player isnt far behind. I have my ps3 for blu rays, but I don't actually own a single blu ray. I have netflix.

[twdm]

All you have to do is make your WiFi unprotected. They can't prove that it wasn't your neighbors stealing your WiFi and downloading it.
Posted via RS Mobile

[Iceman-19]

I dont see how they can legally charge someone for more then market value of whatever it is that was downloaded. If someone was distributing them for an income, I can understand, but if you downloaded 3 or 4 movies to watch at home? Whats their arguement, loss of income I suppose? Ok, 120 dollar fine. WOW THAT WAS WORTH THE LITIGATION.

[godwin]

Unless you rent or own your place of residence out right, the lien on your dwelling while the case drags on, say a decade, will cause havoc on your life.

Originally Posted by twdm

All you have to do is make your WiFi unprotected. They can't prove that it wasn't your neighbors stealing your WiFi and downloading it.
Posted via RS Mobile

[godwin]

Read the article, it is not the gov, it is companies going after the address for the illegal down loaders. The gov is just enabling and getting revenue via court costs and of course income tax via Voltage.

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

By the time the gov catch up there will be other ways to download movies.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by Iceman-19

Lol, you can get a DVD player for like 20 bucks at Walmart, and a blue ray player isnt far behind. I have my ps3 for blu rays, but I don't actually own a single blu ray. I have netflix.

I mostly use my pc tablet to watch movies and there are no DVD drives. I do have Netflix and rent movies on Itunes but if ti is cheaper to buy I don't mind it but pay $20 for a movie on itunes...... no thanks. Another reason is if I download a movie it generally takes less than 20mins even with Itunes it takes longer.

[godwin]

I don't think there is much litigation there, the proof is there and it is case managed by a judge, for most people they would rather pay the fine (up to $5000), than go to court and get their lives messed up... especially how real estate obsessed and over leveraged people are in Canada.. a lien pretty much means foreclosure.

Originally Posted by Iceman-19

I dont see how they can legally charge someone for more then market value of whatever it is that was downloaded. If someone was distributing them for an income, I can understand, but if you downloaded 3 or 4 movies to watch at home? Whats their arguement, loss of income I suppose? Ok, 120 dollar fine. WOW THAT WAS WORTH THE LITIGATION.

[Iceman-19]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

I mostly use my pc tablet to watch movies and there are no DVD drives. I do have Netflix and rent movies on Itunes but if ti is cheaper to buy I don't mind it but pay $20 for a movie on itunes...... no thanks. Another reason is if I download a movie it generally takes less than 20mins even with Itunes it takes longer.

Im not arguing that at all. 8 bucks a month for Netflix, or a 5 min download. Still beats paying 20 bucks for something that may suck balls. I think the tv and film industry needs to step their game up. A lot of shows/movies these days are terrible drivel, not worth a penny. Its aimed at the mindless americans that have been raised to suck back their bullshit and say thank you more please. If you have any IQ at all, its awful, and not worth a penny of my hard earned income.

[Iceman-19]

Originally Posted by godwin

I don't think there is much litigation there, the proof is there and it is case managed by a judge, for most people they would rather pay the fine (up to $5000), then go to into court and get their lives messed up... especially how real estate obsessed and overleveraged people are in Canada.. a lien pretty much means foreclosure.

Yes, and as I was saying, they cap it at $5000, and I can't see the average joe getting hit with that for downloading a couple of that production companies movies. As I said, how can their figure to get more then market value out of their case? This is Canada, not the USA. You can't get bullshit like emotional damage in a case like this, we aren't fucking stupid up here. Joe Blow downloads 2 movies, that sell for $20 each at Future Shop. So the company is going to spend THOUSANDS of dollars to get $40 bucks out of Joe?

[godwin]

The company won't, but the law firm would. I am sure they would do due diligence on the background of the downloader. Remember who ever first file the lien has preference on how the foreclosure will be done. A few thousand $ for a potential ownership of property that they can flip, in Vancouver? Yes please!

Originally Posted by Iceman-19

Yes, and as I was saying, they cap it at $5000, and I can't see the average joe getting hit with that for downloading a couple of that production companies movies. As I said, how can their figure to get more then market value out of their case? This is Canada, not the USA. You can't get bullshit like emotional damage in a case like this, we aren't fucking stupid up here. Joe Blow downloads 2 movies, that sell for $20 each at Future Shop. So the company is going to spend THOUSANDS of dollars to get $40 bucks out of Joe?

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by Iceman-19

Im not arguing that at all. 8 bucks a month for Netflix, or a 5 min download. Still beats paying 20 bucks for something that may suck balls. I think the tv and film industry needs to step their game up. A lot of shows/movies these days are terrible drivel, not worth a penny. Its aimed at the mindless americans that have been raised to suck back their bullshit and say thank you more please. If you have any IQ at all, its awful, and not worth a penny of my hard earned income.

Exactly if it is cheaper I wouldn't mind paying for it. Not to mention there are some good shows such as GoT for example and the procedure don't seem to care at all if people download their shows.

Lot's of people only keep their cable for sports and live events.

[PeanutButter]

And this is why you should use a VPN or proxy. Not even for just piracy, but for your anonymity.

Private Internet Access is having a sale right now. 12 months for $31.95 USD. They're amoung the cheapest VPNs who provide amazing speed and service. They also have an iOS and Android app, which is just gravy.

I just got a VPN and can't believe I haven't been using one all these years. The security and anonymity it provides is amazing.

[doritos]

what about all hundreds or thousands of porn we have?? oh noes. I download music from youtube.

[PeanutButter]

Originally Posted by twdm

All you have to do is make your WiFi unprotected. They can't prove that it wasn't your neighbors stealing your WiFi and downloading it.
Posted via RS Mobile

The only way they could prove this is to get a court order to seize your computers and routers in the house. All they would have to do is check the MAC addresses and they could find out who was downloading what.

And, just because you leave your wifi unprotected doesn't exempt you from legal action, you can still be held responsible.

[Acura604]

Scare tactics

The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, which had intervenor status in the case, said it was "quite pleased" with the decision and expected Voltage wouldn't see any financial incentive in going after downloaders, particularly since it must pay TekSavvy's "substantial" costs.

CPPIC Director David Fewer said his read of the decision is that the court would not be eager to assign penalties at the higher range of what the Copyright Act allows.

"If Voltage is asking for figures in excess of ($100) I think the court is going to shut them down pretty darn quickly," Fewer said.

"And if that's the case I think Voltage is done because this is no longer a viable business model. And that's what the whole copyright troll thing is about, it's about using the court process to get settlements that are in excess of what you could get for (actual) damages to scare people into settling."

Fewer said he was happy that the court will vet any letters that Voltage sends to alleged copyright offenders, since they're typically designed to scare people into settling a case.

"A lot of people just pay the settlement rather than deal with the uncertainty and the anxiety of the claim and the model is predicated on that," he said.

"Certain people are risk averse and it's cheaper to settle rather than to hire a lawyer to deal with it, even if you are innocent."

Lawyers for Voltage did not immediately respond to an interview request.

[KingDeeCee]

Originally Posted by m3thods

As someone who downloaded pirated software quite a bit back in the day and later found himself in the software industry, I don't find myself downloading software anymore. I've either found open-source projects that provide for my needs, or pay for software that I need and use.

For movies though, like many of you have said- I would never buy a movie that I was going to watch potentially once. If I download an unknown movie and end up loving it, it'll find it's way in my library.

I wonder why HBO doesn't raise a stink regarding their highly-pirated shows. GoT is consistently the highest-pirated show these past few years, yet I never hear about them going after seeders. If anything, they seem to almost take it as a badge of honour, as one of you suggested.

I guess I'll stop downloading movies soon. Sucks for studios as I'll pretty much end up watching movies that appeal to me, or are "must-watch" blockbusters.

I believe they don't raise a fuss because they make most of their money from DVD/Bluray sales. They "let" people pirate in hopes that their show is good enough to turn a profit through dvd sales. I know I pirate GoT and True Detective. One which I already buy on release day (GoT) and the other I plan to buy once it comes out. Take this with a grain of salt. I read/heard this somewhere years ago.

I may be a minority of a minority since I enjoy collecting blurays, but I almost always end up pirating a movie even if I already own it because it's so much easier to torrent a film than to rip it. I've slowly stopped torrenting movies since I usually end up going to a theatre if the film is really good or I just wait for the bluray release. The only time I do torrent a film is if I want to watch it on my computer instead of the TV.

[noclue]

Isn't the fine $5000 per incident? So if you are caught pirating a TV show from ABC networks, a movie from Pixar, and a game from Disney interactive, you can get fined for $15,000?

[white rocket]

Originally Posted by El Bastardo

How is it not easy to access? Goddamn. During the days of VHS and DVD if you wanted to see a movie and drove across town to Blockbuster only to find all the copies were rented you had to get back in your car, drive over to Rogers Video to see if it was there. If it was gone you had to go to that skeezy neighbourhood store with the sticky floors and the smell of sour meat as a last resort. Then when you were done you had to drive that shit back there.
If you find that pressing more than three buttons on your phone to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 is a challenge, you clearly don't remember the days of standing in line at the video store where a child in a stroller is screaming its head off because mommy wouldn't rent all of the videos her precious little snowflake wanted. You don't remember getting up to the counter while the stoned teenager tries to figure out how to make the computerized rental system work. You don't remember getting home with the copy of the movie you really wanted to see, popping it into the DVD tray, only to find it doesn't work because someone has scratched "Peter s Tara 4 EVA" into the silver side.

I remember having to drive 45 mins to the next town over to buy a CD on release day because my shitty home town's only music store didn't order it in time.

Dude, you can literally pay a fraction of what you would have to invest in time and transportation costs to go get your media. You can wake up, sit on the couch in your goddamned undies, and buy only the tracks you want from an album on release day instead of being burdened with a shitty $15 piece of plastic full of filler tracks and two radio hits.

How much easier does it have to be for the user to access? If spending 5 solid minutes (literally 300 seconds) pulling out your credit card or debit card, loading the URL of the media provider, and transcribing your information into their purchase submission form is too difficult for you, I feel bad for the medical support worker who has to change your bedpan.

That was an amazing trip down memory lane . While I agree with what you are saying I still feel that since I paid those dues in the past I have earned the right to maximize my dollar by using existing systems that allow me to view something before I pay for it. It's a self-justifiable prophecy. LOL! I have seen hundreds of movies in the theater that weren't worth 1 penny afterwards and honestly would like some of the time spent watching it credited back to me. And for CD's, like woah! Anyone ever purchase a Ninja Tune disc in Canada in the 90's? That shit was like 40 bucks or more. Some I bought more than once due to thieves.

Take it all in jest as I pay for Netflix, full cable including Movie Central and Super Channel and rent movies online as well.

[stewie]

This might be a stupid retarded question aimed at music downloading....but what's the deal with those "YouTube to mp3" sites?
Pop in the YouTube URL and it converts everything for you and saves it.

That stuff count?
Posted via RS Mobile

[godwin]

As I have said before.. yes it might be scare tactics.. but if you are a home owner, they put a lien on you and you go to trial for say 5 years.. and you have to figure out how to pay off your 20 year mortgage when it comes due for renewal.. could be between that 5 years. Even if your income is 100k a year, you better have enough savings to pay off the property.

Originally Posted by Acura604

Scare tactics
.

"Certain people are risk averse and it's cheaper to settle rather than to hire a lawyer to deal with it, even if you are innocent."

[godwin]

I think it is per lawsuit and up to the distributors in Canada on how to slice and dice on how they are going to sue.

Originally Posted by noclue

Isn't the fine $5000 per incident? So if you are caught pirating a TV show from ABC networks, a movie from Pixar, and a game from Disney interactive, you can get fined for $15,000?

[godwin]

You would be amazed even with VPN services, how lazy and incomptent people are.. eg using ISP's DNS etc.

If you use VPN, make sure you test whether the connection is leaking before go nuts on it. Personally I only use L2TP.

Originally Posted by PeanutButter

And this is why you should use a VPN or proxy. Not even for just piracy, but for your anonymity.

Private Internet Access is having a sale right now. 12 months for $31.95 USD. They're amoung the cheapest VPNs who provide amazing speed and service. They also have an iOS and Android app, which is just gravy.

I just got a VPN and can't believe I haven't been using one all these years. The security and anonymity it provides is amazing.

[willystyle]

Originally Posted by Lord Disick

Good.

They should now go after all the illegal iptv boxes been sold in south Asian stores which not only air pirated south Asian channels but also english channels and movies. It's not fair to content producers who are already struggling to make a buck have their hard work pirated and have others profit from it.

Those IPTV boxes are legal in it's hardware and OS, as anyone can put together an Android IPTV box with the right hardware, and Android OS is Open Source.

The legality issue strikes in its content, which the manufacturer have no control of as anyone can make content for an IPTV box. It is also difficult to punish these content providers as the content often resides in a jurisdiction that doesn't infringe the copyright laws of the host country (ex. Netherlands). Last, but not least, as an audience, STREAMING copyrighted/non-copyrighted material in Canada is LEGAL.

No I don't own these boxes.