BPI Threatens To Sue the UK Pirate Party Over Proxy 60
Techmeology writes "The BPI has threatened to sue the Pirate Party for allowing people access to The Pirate Bay through its proxy service. The leader of the Pirate Party UK, Loz Kaye said his party would go to court over the issue. Kaye said that he was determined to defend his party's principles even in the face of an expensive legal battle."
Non news (Score:4, Insightful)
BPI being douchebags again. (or is it still)
I wonder what it's like going thru life knowing a majority of the population who know you exist... hate your guts and would like to see you on fire.
If i were a religious sort.. that might bother me. Karma will eventually demand payment.
Re:Even if the proxy goes down.. (Score:5, Insightful)
There are are hundreds of other TPB proxies out there. Taking one down will cause issues for 1 or 2 days until people find another proxy site.
There's a big list of TPB proxy sites here: http://proxybay.info/ [proxybay.info]
Yes, but it's important that BPI sue people on a regular basis so that this information stays in the news.
Re:Non news (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm on your side, but please realize that the views of the /. community do not necessarily reflect that of the entire population, who may or may not "hate their guts" or even care much about them, provided they're even aware of BPI or the MAFIAA cartels.
I come across this all the time here, where a large but closed community of like minded people assume that just because common themes and trends are repeated by a number of vocal ( possibly a minority) of the community that that reflects the view of the population at large. It's easy to fall into that fallacy. Peace.
Re:Non news (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know what you're thinking, but easily more than 50% of the global population cannot stand the MAFIAA or the BPI. SOPA/PIPA really woke people up on the matter. All you have to do is explain that BPI supports SOPA as an arm of the RIAA, and the connection is made. So no, you are mistaken.
Please, today, go out and ask that 50% of the global population what SOPA/PIPA were all about.
Apart from technology enthusiasts (a very, VERY small amount of the population), chances are the BEST answer you'll get is "that bill where Congress wanted to shut down Wikipedia!", assuming they even remember the whole ordeal at all (which is a pretty huge assumption), INCLUDING those who contacted their Congresspeople. You won't get "that bill sponsored by the record labels and movie studios where they wanted to introduce truly Draconian regulations to restrict the internet and...". In fact, most of those answers won't go anywhere NEAR the RIAA/MPAA.
Re:so um (Score:4, Insightful)
actually, that probably on the horizon.
Re:Non news (Score:3, Insightful)
Absolutely correct. It is also entirely predictable human behavior too. This is because laws are tools for control which are accessible only through a high individual barrier to entry. A person must dedicate a significant part of their life to affect change and be part of the process. It is a specialization. Furthermore, as with all public choice equilibrium equations, the cost of the law is wide, but shallow; it often targets all people but it only affects them slightly(or with low probability as with legal action for piracy). On the other side, the benefits are extremely concentrated; the beneficiaries are both a minority and the privilege they receive are significant.
So the incentives for human action are minimal for those being targeted while the incentives for those who perpetuate these laws are high. In other words, for you or I to stand against a single group of people whose entire income depends on some set of laws, we would have to have motivation equal to that. However, we do not. Those of us that get involved in politics (or more loosely the philosophy of politics) in order to oppose people who would use state violence to profit have a sort of masochistic bent that is outside of strictly material economic incentives. We have some sort of itch we cannot ignore(call it dedication to morality, truth or whatever). However, most people aren't and cannot be like that. The vast majority of people cannot spend so much time on each little thing that threatens to take another drop of blood. There is no way one would expect that a majority of people would even know about SOPA and all the recent variants(some of which have passed in european nations by the way).
If you doubt this, if you don't think the game is stacked against us, just consider how many laws are active in the US. The federal register is over 100,000 pages. How many of you who care so much about SOPA, how many of you know the number of people the FDA kills each day by threatening innocent people into withholding treatments from willing patients in the US while the very same treatments are saving lives in Europe and other nations? How many of you know what laws enacted in the 1980s began to force money from workers into the stock market, changing it from an institution of knowledgeable investment into casino that has distorted the fundamental incentives for all businessmen to the point where stocks themselves drive corporations rather than productivity? How many of you know of the violent government monopoly and subsidization of sugar production has lead to the collapse of the industry and the installment of fructose corn syrup as a replacement which is a significant source of the obesity and health problems this country is so famous for? I could fill pages full of just references to the near countless number of laws that all have disastrous consequences to us but my point is not to show how well read I am on such matters. I want to show you that it is not sensible to expect most people to be aware of and combat the things that harm them when the costs to do so greatly exceed the benefits. The incentives for those who lose in these laws is to simply take it. The incentive for the beneficiaries is their entire means of living. Public choice demonstrates that things like SOPA will continue to creep into the law books, bit by bit.