HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Ah yes, the insidious cost of ringtone piracy:

https://youtu.be/GZadCj8O1-0

Rob Reid did a funny 5min TED Talk on this called the 8 Billion dollar iPod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0

He used the same premise when he wrote the comedy sci-fi book Year Zero, the story of naive aliens accidentally pirating all of Earths music and the legal consequences thereof, i.e. owning the citizens of Earth literally all the money in the universe leading to the ruination of their delightfully hedonistic utopia. A quick and hilarious read.

⬐ logfromblammo

Maybe we should execute an international copyright convention that specifies that the public domain is only free for Earth people. We could own two entire universes someday.

⬐ xbkingx

Pffft Preemptive market inclusion never works. We tried with the 'World Series', and all we got was a few stray Canadians. Miss Universe? Still no aliens and we can't even get a Miss Antarctica.

<--- encoding subspace transmission --->

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From: Infiltrator 72a9

To: Glop Flirbstekker

Glorp, stop downloading that Earth music immediately. They've figured out a loophole in Protocol 3 that could make the Level 7 event on Stlafft look like a Level 2! I don't care how much you like Roy Orbison. Stop immediately!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0

> “Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials,” Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said in the statement.

I can't keep myself from giggling and thinking about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0

The affiliate program was for people pushing content, not specifically copyrighted content. Mega made money on site visits and account premiums

This is no different then Apple making a fortune off the ipod. The original iPod did not have a great store attached to it, it was simply a device for playing MP3s.

Wonder where all those MP3s came from?

Holding Mega accountable for the users actions is like saying Apple should pay the record companies for songs that were pirated on the ipods they sold, and continue to sell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0

⬐ tptacek

Huh? Apple never paid anyone a dime to put an infringing music file on their own or anyone else's service. Mega can't say the same thing.

⬐ bathat

Hmm... some of your other comments read like they were written by a PR firm, (take that as you will) and in this one it seems that you are being deliberately obtuse. At best it seems like you are arguing a technicality.

I'm not in any way defending the actions of MU, its founders or staff, but it had only be established that such devices were legal a year or so before the iPod was released. At the time there was no way to legally purchase MP3- or AAC-encoded music from any of the major recording labels, so the idea that selling those devices (and distributing an MP3 encoder with iTunes for free) was inducement to infringe copyright on a massive scale wasn't so obviously without merit.

⬐ tptacek

A PR firm. It's like you can't even get your mind around the idea that there are people who don't see this issue your way.

Relevant (copyright math):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0

⬐ signalsignal

It is obvious people are being hurt and lives are harmed by the stupidity of copyright laws in this country.

Youtube link to Rob Reid's TED talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZadCj8O1-0

⬐ badboy

I really laughed watching this video.

Too bad the content industry does not get it.