The MPAA Puts a Death Warrant on BitTorrent

[James Fee]

<i>"Criminal actions have already been filed in Europe, including the seizure of seven Net-connected servers, with their operator still wanted by French police, a representative of the French government said. "These people are parasites, leeching off the creative activity of others," said John Malcolm, the MPAA's director of worldwide anti-piracy operations. They "serve as traffic cops connecting those who want to steal movies with those who have a copy and want to provide it." </i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/bittorrent_logo.png" /> <br /><br />I can't begin tell you how myopic the MPAA is. Talk about missing the purpose of software. How about they sue all users of Windows, Mac OS, Linux and UNIX for using an OS that allows sharing of "copyrighted material". Personally, I would think the piracy in Asia would be a bigger issue than the small amount of people "sharing" video over BitTorrent. I guess they feel it is better to attack the people actually buying DVDs from you rather than those buying them illegally. :roll:

[Montego]

I don't have cable or even an antenna, but I have a large legal collection of DVDs. When I visited my brother last spring and watched cable TV I wasn't shocked, but I was very disappointed in just how bad it is. I think I've made the right choice, but there are a few shows I would like to see.

About a month ago I discovered bittorrent and downloaded some shows of Enterprise, and the west wing. They were in mpeg1 format and look fairly good playing from my computer to my DLink DSM 320 media player.
I had never seen these shows before, but lI ike them enough that I will probably purchase them on DVD (Enterprise is due to be released in May, I believe). I have no intention of downloading past seasons of these shows, but I will probably continue to watch the current season as I find them.

So, I know what I'm doing is illegal, but I'm eventually going to pay for them and the companies will make a profit. If not for Bittorrent, I would never have seen them.

When good legal services appear that allow me to download some TV shows for a reasonable fee I will use them, just as I do for music now.