Comments on: PayPal, IFPI and Police Collaborate To Strangle Pirate Music Sites

By: PayPal, IFPI and Police Collaborate To Strangle Pirate Music Sites | DigitFreak

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:31:25 +0000

[...] Source: PayPal, IFPI and Police Collaborate To Strangle Pirate Music Sites [...]

By: Visa, PayPal, MasterCard Continue to Work with Copyright Groups | News Agregator Example

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:53:55 +0000

[...] MasterCard and Visa who need a appropriation bank providing a tradesman with payment services to furnish evidence of suitable licenses to sell song or stop providing those services to a retailer,” according [...]

By: Visa, PayPal, MasterCard Continue to Work with Copyright Groups : YOU GO USA

Visa, PayPal, MasterCard Continue to Work with Copyright Groups : YOU GO USA — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:56:16 +0000

By: gameboy

gameboy — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:17:00 +0000

Ukash. Nice payment method.

By: Newton Antony

Newton Antony — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:48:00 +0000

ummm EVERY major US company bends backwards to appease its own governing government, not a big surprise there, but how scam sites like ebook and file lockers scam millions LEGALLY thru paypals ” no digital returns ever” policy ; is a reason to be HEAVILY concerned, just my 2 cents.

By: PayPal, IFPI and Police Collaborate To Strangle Pirate Music Sites « Where My Files At

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:49:40 +0000

[...] Source: Torrentfreak.com [...]

By: PayPal contra los sitios de descargas musicales | Dynamyza.com

PayPal contra los sitios de descargas musicales | Dynamyza.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:02:23 +0000

[...] esto fue cuando impidió que WikiLeaks continuara utilizando sus servicios y, ahora, se suman los sitios de descargas musicales a la lista de posibles [...]

By: Visa, PayPal, MasterCard Continue to Work with Copyright Groups | Torrents & File Sharing News

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:39:22 +0000

[...] MasterCard and Visa who require the acquiring bank providing the retailer with payment services to produce evidence of appropriate licenses to sell music or cease providing those services to the retailer,” [...]

By: Squirrel_lord_2000

Squirrel_lord_2000 — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:50:00 +0000

The sites may be legal in their own countries but they violate American law so the government can legally ask American companies not to do business with them. Paypal could probably avoid the whole issue by blocking US accounts from donating to such sites but since using them IS illegal in the US (whether or not it SHOULD be is an entirely different matter) Paypal or Visa or whoever could be sued for profiting from illegal activities if they allow Americans to donate. It’s probably a lot easier (and cheaper) to just not do business with those sites than it would be to try to ensure that only people living in countries that had legalized file sharing could donate to them would be.

We can argue all day about whether music piracy should be legal or whether non-commercial file sharing is actually piracy or not (and we almost certainly will), but under US law it is considered piracy and as such it’s illegal for a US-based company to profit from it whether the website itself is legal in its home country or not. I don’t think Paypal are the bad guys here… they just don’t want to be sued for profiting from illegal websites (and since they take a cut of each donation they ARE profiting). If the government could show any American donations there’s a real chance Paypal would lose the suit since it’s illegal (or at least a violation of civil law) for Americans to download from such sites. Other countries in which Paypal operates and in which file sharing is considered piracy might also be able to sue. Paypal MIGHT win since the sites are legal in their host countries and you could argue that donations don’t prove illegal activity (paid subscription sites would be pretty much a guaranteed successful lawsuit) but no company is going to want to risk taking something like that to court… they’re in business to make a profit, not be social activists.

As to whether it SHOULD be illegal in the US to use foreign websites that are legal in their own countries but would not be legal in the USA (those involving file sharing, gambling, and so forth)… well, it doesn’t really matter. Business don’t care if the law is good or bad, or if it makes sense or not. They care if something is going to MAKE them money or if it’s going to COST them money, and trying to fight government agencies on behalf of websites that are accused of promoting copyright infringement is a lot more likely to cost money than it is to make it. I’d certainly have a lot of respect for a company that was willing to take such a stand, but I can’t really blame one for refusing to do so.

By: AlertPay ftw

AlertPay ftw — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:50:00 +0000

I’ve read through these comments and it seems as though hardly anybody knows about AlertPay. Demonoid curently uses it.

With this current PayPal situation I’d say AlertPay is going to see a major jump in business soon. It is basically a clone of PayPal; albeit a clone that hopefully will resist coming under scrutiny by the MAFIAA