France Unveils Plan to Cut Internet Service to Pirates

[zekrahminator]

While the RIAA and CRIA (the respective American and Canadian anti-piracy firms) work hard to shut down piracy sites and sue every old man and college student with a pirated "all your base are belong to us" clip, France has a slightly different approach to getting pirates off the map. The SNEP (Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique) recently unveiled plans to cut off internet to anyone that ISPs decide are pirating. ISPs will give their customers "three strikes", and then their internet is cut off. The SNEP believes that this is a much easier and fair way to eliminate piracy, as opposed to the RIAA's infamous search-and-sue methods. French president Nicolas Sarkozy claims that this is a "decisive moment for the future of a civilized Internet." While this move received much fanfare from the various artists and media industries, politicians aren't so sure this is a good idea. Some politicians feel that this move is "very tough, potentially destructive of freedom, anti-economic and against digital history." The main incentive behind this maneuver is to counter the 40% drop in music sales noted since 2002.

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[[I.R.A]_FBi]

all this is going to do is move from digital piracy to physical piracy, anyone who knows someone with a copy just goes over and copy it. simple.

 

[Woah Mama!]

Great, I hope no other country takes this move. If the French didn't love porn so much then you'd probably get warned just for looking at that too.

 

[trog100]

its being suggested that the main reason for the drop in legit sales is more down to all the restrictive crap u have to put up with buying legit.. not only is piracy cheaper its also better.. makes sense to me..

trog

 

[pt]

all this is going to do is move from digital piracy to physical piracy, anyone who knows someone with a copy just goes over and copy it. simple.

like the good old days with a diskette
*gets nostalgic*

 

[Darknova]

HAHAHAHAHAH, oh god, that's hilarious. Shoot themselves in the foot why don't they? Not only will they piss off all the customers, but also the ISPs they force to do this as they will lose money because of it.

 

[burtram]

and you could still buy a wireless usb network adapter and mooch off some ones unprotected internet. or if they have areas like around here, my neigborhood has a free shared wireless we could use if we wanted to.

 

[Ravenas]

its being suggested that the main reason for the drop in legit sales is more down to all the restrictive crap u have to put up with buying legit.. not only is piracy cheaper its also better.. makes sense to me..

trog

Well, I don't know how much "better" it is, and I don't really know what you're saying by piracy is "better". Thing is, you saying cheaper is you replacing the word stealing to make piracy sound better in your eyes and everyone elses. Stealing isn't a good thing, and MOST people don't like to do it (it's part of living in a cooperative society).

The reason music is stolen is because music is too expensive, even at 9.99$. There are far too many people getting in music simply because they want fame yes, but many just love the money (and the status that money and fame give you).

I think albums should honestly be like 3.99$ or 4.99$ (maybe cheaper). In that case I would get all of my music legit. At that price, I also think music as a WHOLE would be much much better. This would be mainly due to the fact that artists are having to write better songs to sell more albums because the albums arn't the price they once were.

That's my opinion.



P.S. - No offense, but why do you put your name at the end of your posts, its not like we don't know it's you

 

[KennyT772]

Exec "Hmm why are sales down?"
Employee "Um sir? ...maybe because no one likes Jessica Simpson?"
Exec "Horseshit! They love listening to her! It has to be them damn pirates..."

 

[SpeedyVT]

Frankly its not piracy thats to blame on the low sales for record companies... its the constant bad cds coming. If no one hasn't realized it almost every song now sounds the same. Originality and creativity is what fuel artistic markets.

 

[JC316]

all this is going to do is move from digital piracy to physical piracy, anyone who knows someone with a copy just goes over and copy it. simple.

Isn't that what started it all? I mean, honestly, my friend bought Doom, I and his 15 closest friends installed it and played it, then I bought Duke Nukem and the process went on. Everyone did it then and no one lost money.

 

[Ketxxx]

I'd still like to know how you can (essentially) copywrite a set of 1s and 0s.

 

[KennyT772]

Isn't that what started it all? I mean, honestly, my friend bought Doom, I and his 15 closest friends installed it and played it, then I bought Duke Nukem and the process went on. Everyone did it then and no one lost money.

They are complaining because they see it's widespread, acceptable use of piracy. Even piracy for personal gain. Anything on the internet is theoretically trackable, so non internet savvy execs are wondering why people are stealing in front of their face without them being able to catch them.

Back when it was copying a disk, no one knew either way. It also wasn't very public. Today the RIAA makes our front page at least once a week.


What companies are turning a blind eye to is economics. People will only pay for an item they 1. can afford, or 2 that they cannot get anywhere else.

When there is no longer any reason to buy the real thing why in the hell would you pay out for it?

For example, you walk into a high end clothing store (compared to windows/games for us) and find a woman inside. You tell her there is one camera in the entire store, so if she stole something she most likely wouldn't get caught. She can either pay you for the $600 item (top end vista) or she can steal it and walk out the door.

What would almost any woman do?

Media companies need to lower the cost to what people will pay or they will just keep stealing it regaurdless of it being theft. Its been proven $16 for a cd or $20 for a movie is just too much these days. Digital recording is cheaper by the day, so why aren't cd prices coming down? Many people would rather just download a DVD rather than shell out $20 in America's tight economy. Hell my parents ask me if I can get a certian movie for them. Unless buying a CD/DVD becomes less costly (in time/money/ease of use) than downloading it, piracy is here to stay.

 

[Shyska]

I'd still like to know how you can (essentially) copywrite a set of 1s and 0s.

The same way you can do that to lets say new electro engine - it's only a heap of metal and some plastic after all...

Copyright is a good thing and I'd like to see it enforced - imagine the world where one must buy album to listen to. No one would buy crappy albums anymore, artists would release better songs, because if they launched one crap shoot, they would loose a lot of audience and so on Prices would drop or in some cases material would become free to promote concerts etc... my dream world

 

[Kreij]

@Kenny

So you are saying that if you cannot afford something it gives you justification to steal it?

What about ethics and morals?
What about the fact that someone put in their time and talent to make a product so they could earn a living? The fact that the person may now be rich because they have made a product which is highly desirable does not in anyway diminish their right to continue to profit from their efforts.

There is no justification for stealing someone's work. None.

 

[KennyT772]

@Kenny

So you are saying that if you cannot afford something it gives you justification to steal it?

What about ethics and morals?
What about the fact that someone put in their time and talent to make a product so they could earn a living? The fact that the person may now be rich because they have made a product which is highly desirable does not in anyway diminish their right to continue to profit from their efforts.

There is no justification for stealing someone's work. None.

What I am referring to is the want factor of the human mind.



Would you like a new video card? New processor? What about more ram?

What if those were simply a click away..It is illegal to do but you could just click and your computer be faster. It is all stealing, but how easy it is and the relative cost helps people decide to just download vs purchase. You and I both agree there are always things people want, and will do anything to get. With no perceived crime, ease of use, and lack of drm bullshit in most peoples minds its cheaper and easier to just pirate. Right or wrong? I have not said a single thing on the subject.

Media companies need to rethink their stratagy. Many many people have issues with DRM screwing them over. People hate it, some refuse to buy products with it. What do they do when they still want the product sans DRM? Pirate. When you want to have a song you just heard on the radio, you can either drive to a cd store, buy it on itunes, or download it for free. Now that itunes has mostly DRM free songs available things are a little different, but what if your player doesn't support AAC or whatever file itunes uses? Then people download it from p2p program of choice (just as easy as buying it, but without the DRM restrictions).

If there was a place I could go an download clean MP3 songs for $1 each I would pay for every single song I have, but there isn't. I will not pay for DRM laced songs that tell me what I can and cannot do by force. So here I stand borrowing friends CDs and paying them for the right.

 

[Kreij]

I understand that people want stuff. I also understand that they are unhappy with the DRM and other anti-piracy measures that are often used (I have a couple games that I simply will not load again because they use starforce).

However, to make the leap from "I am not happy" to "It's OK to steal it" just doesn't wash.
If the people want DRM free music than they need to speak with their wallets. If artists stop selling music because of the draconian DRM measures that the publishers are using, you can bet that the DRM will be a thing of the past.

Look, for instance, at how the outcry from gamers has nearly eliminated the use of starforce.

As the old addage goes, two wrongs do not make a right. If the media companies are doing the wrong thing it is up to us to do the right thing, and stop buying their crap, not steal it.

 

[KennyT772]

Thing is Kreij, stealing it is not buying it and still having it.

Many people who do not want to feel as if they stole it will go say buy the game, and then download the cracked version. Bioshock comes to mind. Even reviewers started using the cracked version simply because of the DRM.

I do agree that people need to stop buying this shit though, we are heading down a path where we may one day need to pay for the air we breath.

 

[Kreij]

Many people who do not want to feel as if they stole it will go say buy the game, and then download the cracked version. Bioshock comes to mind. Even reviewers started using the cracked version simply because of the DRM.

I completely understand this and have no problem with it, as the person has honestly tried to comply with what the seller is asking. When that becomes impossible I feel that they have the right to make their purchased product work for them.

I do agree that people need to stop buying this shit though, we are heading down a path where we may one day need to pay for the air we breath.

That is what I was getting at ... if we stop buying crap we will soon not have to "go get the cracked version" because the purchased version will work.