Switzerland Remains 'Extremely Attractive' For Pirate Sites, MPAA Says (torrentfreak.com) 135
While the European Union has worked hard to strengthen its copyright laws in recent years, one country in the heart of the continent chooses its own path. Switzerland is not part of the EU, which means that its policies deviate quite a bit from its neighbors. According to Hollywood, that's not helping creators. From a report: Responding to recent submission to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the MPAA has identified several foreign "trade barriers" around the world. In Hollywood's case, many of these are related to piracy. One of the countries that's highlighted, in rather harsh terms, is Switzerland. According to the MPAA, the country's copyright law is "wholly inadequate" which, among other things, makes it "extremely attractive" to host illegal sites. "Switzerland's copyright law is wholly inadequate, lacking crucial mechanisms needed for enforcement in the digital era," MPAA writes. [...] The European country has plans to update its laws, but the proposed changes are not significant improvements, Hollywood's trade group notes.
So in other words... (Score:5, Funny)
The allegation is that Swiss copyright laws are like their cheese?
Re:So in other words... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So in other words... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, not at all.
The methods Hollywood uses to guarantee there are no profits are the same methods used by Switzerland to guarantee there are no copyrights.
Re:So in other words... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, we adhere to copyright law. We just do not want to criminalize the entire population of our country for minor stuff and the legal system / prisons are non-profit.
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No, not at all. The methods Hollywood uses to guarantee there are no profits .
If they want fair protection they should pay their fair share in taxes
Re: So in other words... (Score:1)
Americans hate the MPAA just as much as others. But how are their laws lacking
Re: So in other words... (Score:1)
Americans are cool, their government, not so much.
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Quite the paradox, ain't it? I mean, since the government is (re)elected by those "cool" Americans, that seems like a strange thing to say. If they were really "cool", I doubt they would have been so passive about this disaster in the last election.
Re: So in other words... (Score:2, Insightful)
Problem with USA happens to be the lobbiest controlling those that are elected. Its corruption at its finist, but made to be legal, just like the NCAA with their unpaid atheltic employees.
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well when the choices are hillary and trump, what other outcome did you really expect?
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I'm starting to wondering if we did elect Putin.
No, you elected the CIA [blogspot.com].
Re: So in other words... (Score:1)
MPAA wants others to do their job is all. ISP dont need to assist MPAA, go after the domains, servers, etc.,
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good job (Score:5, Insightful)
Switzerland seems to be one of those rare oddball countries where the government actually works for the benefit of its citizens. Not the benefit of some other countries' citizens, or for the benefit of whoever gave out the most bribes to the politicians.
Utterly shocking if you're from place with a corrupt government like the United States or the EU.
Now before you liberals all go into rapture, note that the Swiss government will kick out illegal immigrants because they have determined (correctly) that having too many illegal immigrants does not benefit Swiss citizens.
Re:Good job... Real democracy (Score:5, Interesting)
Switzerland seems to be one of those rare oddball countries where the government actually works for the benefit of its citizens. Not the benefit of some other countries' citizens, or for the benefit of whoever gave out the most bribes to the politicians.
Utterly shocking if you're from place with a corrupt government like the United States or the EU.
That is because Switzerland is a "direct democracy". You see, the people actually vote on things. All it takes is 50,000 citizens (or 8 of the elected politicians) to call for any recently enacted or changed laws to require a direct vote by the citizens (a simple majority yes/no vote). It makes it kind of hard for special interest groups with big pockets to get to all but 50,000 people in the country to prevent a direct vote.
Re:Good job... Real democracy (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand in 2009 they voted to include alternative medicine (i.e. pseudo-scientific snake oil) in the constitution. Maybe someone from Switzerland can say how much effect it has had; AIUI it was effectively nullified by the fact that politicians didn't change the rules on funding treatments to remove the "proven effective" requirement.
Direct democracy can be great, but can also result in nonsense, so it's important to have strong checks and balances. Problem is that people get very upset if they vote for something a a check or balance frustrates it, e.g. Brexit.
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The 5 forms of alternative medicine voted in 2009 were included in the basic healthcare coverage for a trial period, pending evaluation of their effectiveness. I think homeopathy got included in the basic coverage due to the “placebo effect” actually having some value, with the majority of medics prescribing it knowing it’s basically fresh water but still obtaining good results. About the others I have no idea.
Furthermore, that inclusion concerns the basic coverage mandated by law: most pe
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It also makes it easy for extremists to get their point across as the complete set of legislation that affects people is so large and complex that no reasonable person can understand all the issues. This is the primary reasons representative democracies exist.
Direct democracies like all systems have benefits and downsides.
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Yeah sure, Monaco and Lichtenstein are fine too.
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Germany is officially enforcing border controls between Austria and Germany right now, but it's mainly checkpoints at the Autobahn. Especially around Salzburg
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Surrounded by mountains yes, but those mountains are covered in roads and railway lines which are easily travelled. Plus there is very little in the way of actual border checkpoints, you can usually just drive across unchallenged. Switzerland is part of the shengen zone, where borders controls are only really enforced at the periphery of the zone.
When it comes to difficult borders in europe, you'd have to hand it to the UK which is surrounded by water and is not part of shengen. If you've already managed to
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From neighboring countries, it's trivial to drive into Switzerland, hike into Switzerland, take the train into Switzerland, fly, etc. I've lived here two years and never had my papers checked at the border when traveling within Europe, whether by foot, car, train, or plane. (Yes, you read that right, they generally don't check ID at airports.) The problem is, once you're here, you need to register to do virtually anything, from buying a cell phone to getting medical care to getting an apartment or job. Ever
Re:Good job (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly, copyright law was intended to benefit society as a whole by encouraging creation of works with the notion that after a while these works would fall into the public domain for the benefit of all.
Copyright now has become so corrupted that the benefit to the people is lost, by the time anything reaches the public domain all those who were around when it was created will be dead. It's not surprising that people are not keen to support such a system.
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Exactly, copyright law was intended to benefit society as a whole by encouraging creation of works with the notion that after a while these works would fall into the public domain for the benefit of all.
Exactly this is it. As a Swiss citizen I'll vote against any further extensions of author's rights.
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Utterly shocking if you're from place with a corrupt government like the United States or the EU.
Oh the EU? Which of the 28 countries specifically are you talking about? There are many fine examples within the EU of governments that work happily for citizens rather than the other way around. Yet calling them all "EU" just dilutes your claim.
note that the Swiss government will kick out illegal immigrants
You'll find that most countries kick out illegal immigrants including the US and pretty much every country in the EU. Though given your assertion that this seems to be somehow unique you may have simply exposed your own racism on the issue.
Clearly we must invade (Score:4, Funny)
Clearly we must invade. If only we could find someone with skill in mass media to develop a propaganda campaign.
Re:Clearly we must invade (Score:5, Insightful)
According to Hollywood, that's not helping creators.
Since when were copyright laws about helping creators?
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Originally they were. And they stayed that way up until approximately the 1980s, and the arrival of the internet.
Actually, no. As various people correctly pointed out on e.g. torrentfreak, copyright originally was created for the benefit of the greater public. That creators benefited was just a means to an end.
These days it's still just a means to an end, but the big publisher cartels have won instead. And to them, indeed, it's all about control, control, control. Control of the means, control of the creators, and control of the public. If there was ever a goose with golden eggs enshrined in law, it's what the publish
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Gibraltar (Score:3, Informative)
I guarantee Gibraltar is orders of magnitude more liberal with copyright. It’s a total free for all on everything and the government is happy to just play a long. The northern part of Cyprus too is a lawless area with a lot of pirate TV stuff.
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Re:Gibraltar (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a huge difference between a lawless place, and a place with laws that are liberal with copyright. Switzerland is not the slightest bit lawless.
Gibraltar isn't a country (Score:3)
Yes, but Gibraltar is not a country. It's just a British enclave in Spain. It has it's own gov't and laws, but it's still not a country.
It's legal to download (Score:5, Informative)
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Currently there are no relevant rights of use left.
Yet here in the Netherlands and several other EU countries we are still paying for them [wikipedia.org]. That's right, there's a tax on every blank CD, MP3 player, cell phone and hard disk sold, to compensate the music and film industry for what has been dubbed "home copying" of copyrighted material.
The tax was introduced to compensate the industry for downloading of copyrighted material, which was legal or at least condoned at the time. When downloading was made illegal, the tax was lowered a little but remained in pla
Torrents? Re:It's legal to download (Score:2)
How is this handled in Switzerland?
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Translation (Score:5, Insightful)
Switzerland hasn't implemented the draconian copyright laws that we suckered the US and Canada into by painting them as the biggest sources of piracy, so we're going to paint Swiss people with the same brush.
Re: Translation (Score:1)
They talk about this a lot. The Swiss probably favor a piecemeal approach. Surprised Hollywood is complaining and not the software industry.
Re: Translation (Score:1)
Canada?
Canada has very liberal piracy laws. You can do anything so long as it's not making profit.
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Ghostbusters.
One word: Waaaaa. (Score:5, Insightful)
Even as a copyright holder myself, I recognize that copyright law in the United States is completely and utterly broken. Only in the United States could it make sense to have:
And if those media execs still think that HDCP is a good idea even after crazy mounds of evidence to the contrary, there's no way they'll *ever* be smart enough to realize just how stupid it is to waste time chasing after pirate sites. Stopping profit loss from piracy by going after pirate sites is the technological equivalent of trying to end world hunger by hiring fifty people to fly around the world, and, upon seeing a locust, land the plane, put on boots, and stomp it to death. You will never win that way. You will only look silly.
If the huge drop in piracy after the rise of the iTunes Music Store taught us anything, it is that piracy is not caused predominantly by people being unwilling to spend money, but rather predominantly by content owners refusing to take it, and doing everything in their power to maintain tight control in ways that consumers can't deal with. If you create content that people want and make it available in a form that people are willing to pay for, they will do so. If you don't, they'll pirate it. And no new laws will ever change that, no matter how draconian. At best, you'll just force it further underground, where you can't track it or earn ad revenue from it.
The cause of piracy problems isn't Switzerland, but rather the content distributors' unwillingness to work together to improve access to content, coupled with their irrational fear of allowing any single outlet to gain enough power to drive prices down to levels that consumers find reasonable. They need to quit looking for countries to blame and start looking in the mirror.
Re: One word: Waaaaa. (Score:1)
At least you live in a country where they probably wont sever your right hand for stealing copyrights
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Exactly. These idiots don't understand the 3 types of consumers:
1. Buy it,
2. Pirate it,
3. Ignore it.
If content isn't legally available I just ignore it. Yeah, as kids we used to pirate the fuck out of everything. As adults we support the content producers like so they can continue to produce more.
While I don't agree with it, I can understand why some pirate. Of course these aren't mutually l exclusive and there ARE exceptions. If you bought it AND you pirate then is it really piracy??? No.
This just proves t
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If content isn't legally available I just ignore it.
If you ignore it, then years later you create something that's too similar, you run the risk of it still being considered accidental infringement.
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Interesting.
Would you referring to example of where Fogerty was sued for copying his own sound?
* https://mentalfloss.com/articl... [mentalfloss.com]
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That and Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music, the "My Sweet Lord" case.
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I have no problems paying for content when the content I want is available at a reasonable price, will play on the playback devices I have and doesn't require me to go out of my way to acquire it.
I regularly go to the cinema to see movies and I am more than willing to pay for that (saw Bohemian Rhapsody the other day in fact and planning to see the new Fantastic Beasts when it opens on Thursday and even went out of my way to go see The Lion King as part of a Disney Classics thing even though I already own i
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And no, none of the content I want is available via the streaming services that I could purchase.
You're not looking hard enough then. I found all three available for rent/purchase on Vudu in under 3 minutes:
https://www.vudu.com/content/m... [vudu.com]
https://www.vudu.com/content/m... [vudu.com]
https://www.vudu.com/content/m... [vudu.com]
Not sure why you'd want to watch Johnny Mnemonic though; the short story is so much better, and can be finished in under 20 minutes.
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Except that Vudu is unavailable here in Australia.
They would say this even if its not. (Score:2)
Sovereign (Score:1)
A sovereign nation with borders doing what it wants.
Outstanding.
Screw the MPAA (Score:2)
one good thing from trump (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:one good thing from trump (Score:4, Interesting)
Unluckily he just put the copyright shit in NAFTA2, and he is planning lots more of the same as he isolates countries and pushes new trade deals.
If you don't want to subject yourself to foreign c (Score:2)
...stop exporting your copyrighted works if you're gonna bitch about foreign laws.
I can't be arsed to pirate things anymore (Score:2)
I do kinda miss eMusic. When it was cheap I could pull 7 albums for $20/mo. I probably only liked 1 enough to listen to more than once, but I didn't mind paying $140/yr for 12 good albums. But I needed to be able to pull 84 and sift though them. Some of my favorite stuff I didn't like much at first and then it grew on my. Ensiferum was like that. In Flames to
The EU hates Switzerland too (Score:3)
While Hollywood wants the whole world to obey whatever IP regime benefits the studios most, the EU wants all other countries to "harmonize" with the Union's high tax rates. Switzerland manages industrial prosperity on much lower tax rates, and governs mostly at the cantonal (county) level, which reduces centralized bureaucracy. Brussels has never liked having a safe, stable-for-centuries adjacent country that Europeans can just take a train to and make a suitcase of money disappear.
Switzerland prides itself on an engrained neutrality that allows it to trade freely with every part of the world while avoiding the entangling alliances that have caused so many European wars. This also means staying out of international trade agreements that it feels threaten its freedom. That's why it could be the first organizer of international copyright a century ago with the Berne Convention, while at the same time staying out of the Hollywood cartel.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Poor things... (Score:2)
Multi-billion dollar industry whines it's not making enough. Film at 11.
The MPAA has never helped "creators" (Score:2)
The only thing they care about is distributors. Well, guess what, the Swiss government asked some actual scientists for an analysis whether "piracy" harms creators and it found a small positive effect instead. As a result, downloading for private use is legally tolerated.
As a Swiss national... (Score:1)
... I have waited a long time to post something like this.
Up yours, US of A.