New York Piracy Law Smells Fishy Says Pirates
A new anti-piracy law, proposed yesterday by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been criticized as pointless pandering to lobby groups, and ‘cronyism’. Worse, the bill is based on date from the widely discredited LEK study of 2006.
The new law proposes to make the recording of films in a cinema a class A misdemeanor with penalties of up to a year in prison, and a $1,000 fine for a first offender. Repeat offenders would be charged with a felony, and correspondingly higher penalties.
Unusually, however, the bill is unnecessary, as the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 (link) already criminalized this action, with much stronger penalties. The question then seems to be not what the act is about, but WHY?
Fortunately. The answer isn’t hard to guess at with some digging. Mr Cuomo, has, like the MPAA chairman Dan Glickman, strong ties to the Clintons. Cuomo was considering running for the US Senate in 2000, but allowed current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to run for that seat instead.
At the time, he was a Cabinet Secretary in her husband Bill’s, White House, serving as ‘Secretary of Housing and Urban Development’, during the same period that current MPAA chairman Dan Glickman was serving as ‘Secretary of Agriculture’. To some, that seems more than coincidence.
It is little surprise then, that the announcements for the law contain data from the MPAA’s 2006 LEK study as their only supporting evidence. A study which has not only been widely ridiculed (including by me), but which the MPAA has themselves undermined earlier this year.
Speaking out against the bill has been the US Pirate Party, calling it “a disgusting act of cronyism”. Ray Jenson, the Party’s operations officer , commented on the bill saying, “There can be no justice in this country, if a lobby group can effectively ‘buy’ former colleagues to propose laws like these.” The Party also hinted that they would soon be releasing a study, showing a more realistic view of the damage caused by ‘cinema camming’.
Whilst the law hasn’t been passed yet, the support shows that at least some of the millions the MPAA has pumped into its lobbying efforts have not been in vain. Meanwhile the chairman of the US Pirate Party, Andrew Norton, had this comment to offer. “In the end, no amount of laws will save the horse-and-cart that is the Entertainment Industry right now, from technological progress in this automobile age.”
The NY Attorney General’s office had not replied to calls for comment at the time of publication.Previously: Most Popular DVDrips on BitTorrent (wk18)
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Another failed attempt by the MPAA to stop file sharing.
“Unusually, however, the bill is unnecessary, as the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 (link) already criminalized this action, with much stronger penalties.”
Then wouldn’t this be a step down?
no, they can pick to use the stronger bill if they want, or think they can, whilst the new bill can be used to extend the potential reach. A state law never superceeds a federal law. It can be used instead, however. At least, thats my understanding of US law - IANAL
I think NY should be worrying more about the real criminals….Like their politicians.
[quote comment="377744"]no, they can pick to use the stronger bill if they want, or think they can, whilst the new bill can be used to extend the potential reach. A state law never superceeds a federal law. It can be used instead, however. At least, thats my understanding of US law - IANAL[/quote]
So they can be both used at the same time (i. e. additional penalties for violating both laws)?
no, that would fall under double jeopardy - same as you can’t use ‘murder’ and ‘assult with a deadly weapon’ and ‘assault’ on someone.
I think you’re right, but I know for sure that double jeopardy is going to court, being found not guilty, and being charged with the same crime again.
While I don’t like how things seem to be progressing who downloads cam rips anyway? Some of them are so bad…wait for the DVD rip people
data*
well, I know that Michael Vick was charged twice. state, and then federal. That happens all the time.
Do you remember the torrentfreak article about the Movie Screening Security Guards?
Well, well, well. Gee, why am I not surprised to see Glickman’s name associated with cronyism? This dirtbag with all the ethics of pond scum has spent a career ass-deep in influence peddling and coddling corporate criminals, including his time in the Clinton cabinet.
Here is a pathetic little man under whose leadership has not only steered the helm of the MPAA into active participation in outright criminal acts such as hiring hackers to break into torrent and p2p sites, proving beyond all doubt who the real outlaws are, but has publicly stated on more than one occasion his outright and literal hatred of filesharers. Jack Valenti had his faults and was certainly no friend of filesharers, but at least he never stooped to outright criminal actions when he ran the MPAA. Whatever respect and credibility the MPAA ever had under Valenti’s leadership, has been tossed aside like yesterday’s newspaper by Dan Glickman’s stewardship of the organization as he follows, and acts on, his obsessive hatred of filesharers that borders on clinical psychosis. Glickman is determined to crush filesharing by any means necessary, even when those means are illegal.
You can expect Mr. Glickman to continue his whining as MPAA continues to lose on all fronts in it’s war against it’s own customers.
Hey, Glickman! Tell us more bullshit about how the industry is losing so much money due to filesharing. There are currently, at the time of this posting, over 10 different cams of Iron Man floating around. You can’t go on the net without seeing multiple versions readily available. And yet Iron Man took in over $200 million USD worldwide in just it’s first two days. So tell me another fairy tale about Hollywood struggling to get by because pirates are bankrupting the studios.
If Dan Glickman was Pinocchio, even the biggest stretch limo in Hollywood couldn’t accommodate his nose, world-class liar that he is.
Hoist the sails and fly the Jolly Roger proudly, mateys. Yarr, there’s plundering to be done.
And an MPAA chairman to keel-haul.
Ramming speed!
The solution here: use a camera with a WLAN card and share directly from your cinema chair. No recording will be necessary with such a camera nor will the recording take place within the cinema.
[quote comment="377848"]well, I know that Michael Vick was charged twice. state, and then federal. That happens all the time.[/quote]
He was abusing more than one dog, a charge for each. I’m sure it would be the same deal (IE: 1 Charge P/ 1 Movie)
WTF MPAA WILL YOU GET THE FUCK AWAY!YOU ARE NOT GOING TO STOP FILE SHARING.
I’ve worked in a Cinema in the UK where they’ve used people to stop recording. When we showed the latest Potter movie for the 1st time there were two guys with night vision goggles in the screens and they wanted us to ‘remove’ phones from the paying public that could record video (which we didn’t because it would be illegal)
Movies I really want to watch I will go to the cinema to see and pay their pound of flesh. Movies I missed because I feel its not worth the cost of the ticket and would never concider buying on DVD (I do buy lots of DVDs) I torrent once the dvd is out.
If I was never going to give the MPAA money via a ticket/dvd in the 1st place they cannot claim that they lost it to piracy. Unless the MPAA belive all money is theirs by right and we humble plebs are just keeping it safe for them.
Evolve or Die.
[quote comment="377834"]While I don’t like how things seem to be progressing who downloads cam rips anyway? Some of them are so bad…wait for the DVD rip people[/quote]
Actually some are good too, but the quality of many should be a cause for rejoicing to the movie moguls as it’s free advertising, in that if someone enjoys it they’ll want to see a good quality version. Of course that doesn’t stop them wanting revenge.
#12 QFFT
[quote comment="378119"]#12 QFFT[/quote]
Translation?
Quote For Fucking Truth :)
Q.E.D.
This article amplifies the reason that the “US Pirate Party” needs to get another name.
Do they really believe anyone in Congress will take their comments under advisement (even if they are supremely correct) regarding an issue like this that is directed toward movie piracy?
They might as well be N.A.M.B.L.A. speaking their displeasure toward a Bill regarding acts of paedophilia for all the good it will do them.
Uhh… Let’s see if I got this straight. Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, which is a Law.
F.E.C.A.L.
Well, that’s aptly named.
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