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The Senior Executive Vice President of the RIAA (wow, what a long title), Mitch Glazier, has published a blog post on why TPB is “one of the worst of the worst”. The piece gives us ample information on just how delusional the recording industry really is, and shows why they must be stopped.

In the very first sentence Glazier uses the phrase “copyright theft”. It’s an interesting concept – if anyone in history ever stole copyright, it must be the record industry. At least they tried, as in the Swedish TPB case where they sued over a record they did not have the copyright to.

A small lesson to Mr Glazier: If someone steals something, you don’t have it anymore. If you copy it, both have it. This means: If someone steals your copyright (aka “copyright theft”) you don’t have the copyright anymore. I’m having a hard time to see that happening though, since copyright isn’t really physical.

The jobs that you say are being stolen in the US are somewhat physical though. And if someone steals them where do they go? Maybe they just aren’t needed anymore! That’s what technology does! Sorry, it’s 2012 not 1912 – do you want to forbid robots as well, since they steal jobs?

Let me quote the title of Peter Sunde’s latest piece in Wired: “It’s evolution, …”. If you search for it, you’ll find the rest of the title for that piece. It might be illegal for me to put that in print since a new censorship law was passed in Syria. Since you apparently think that US law should control people around the world, shouldn’t we follow laws in Syria as well?

Yes, Glazier is upset that TPB moved away from a US-controlled domain name. He doesn’t seem to understand that there is a worldwide problem when one single country tries to take control over a global infrastructure. TPB has no connections to the US so why should the US be able to control it?

It’s a very undemocratic procedure which obviously the RIAA is supportive of. Apparently “escaping US laws” means not being born in the US, not living there, not working there or not wanting to kiss your ass.

And Mr. Glazier, talking about the countries in the EU that you have forced ISPs to block TPB (and other sites) is interesting, as the European Court has just decided that these types of censorship are just that – censorship, and should be treated as illegal. Could we see your view on the matter, as the RIAA is clearly supporting illegal censorship?

The RIAA wants the tech industry to sit down and talk to them. Fuck that. You’re not in charge. If you want the help of the tech industry, ask for it. You’ll probably get it since most tech people are nice. You’re not in charge anymore and that’s probably why you’re pissed off.

Plz stop calling yourself “the creative community”. You’re not a community, you’re a coalition of some of the richest companies in the world. And the only thing you seem to be creative with is your accounting procedures.

The recording industry is like a kid screaming for candy. The problem is that the kid has diabetes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The situation gets even more complicated when one realizes that ‘pirates’ are often legitimate customers too. As previously highlighted, music pirates are the ones who spend the most money on legitimate music. In a way, speaking out against pirates is speaking out against one’s biggest fans.

So how does a content creator approach such a multi-layered species when he or she spots one in the wild?

If we look at Chris Baker, app developer and owner of the The Fucking Word of the Day website, confrontational politeness might turn out to be a good choice. Yesterday, Chris spotted a potential pirate on the xSellize forums, who posted the following request:

“Can someone please crack The F-ing Word of the Day app. Please.”

Although many content creators would have cringed upon reading the message, perhaps tempted to shout the pirate down, Chris opted for a more peaceful reply to the poster “HiDefinition”.

“Hello! I’m the creator of the *** Word of the Day website and more particularly the F-ing Word of the Day App. First of all, this is a huge compliment! As a person who pirates content, I’ve always placed the moment people are pirating MY goods as the exact time of my arrival, as it were.”

Chris Baker goes on to explain that, although he has a decent job in New York, he’s by no means rich. The app and website are his pet projects and he works on them during his free time in the hope that the public might learn something. Then he continues with giving the prospective pirate his virtual blessing.

“What’s my point in all this? Go ahead and pirate the app. It cost me 1500 bucks to have programmed. It’s not even a month’s rent for me. But if you think the site is cool, and you want to pay for one eighth of a Stella Artois for me, hook me up with 99 cents. The rapture will be here soon, I could use the drink.”

The above might not have been the response HiDefinition had been hoping for, but it did make an impact. Suddenly, the prospect of getting a pirated App without paying didn’t seem as appealing as it did before.

HiDefinition replied:

“Wow, I wasn’t expecting the developer to comment. Sorry, about that. You know I was only looking to get the IPA for free only because I have no credit, credit cards, or any kind of banking services. However, your attitude has seal[ed] the deal for me. It might end up costing me a couple extra dollars in nominal fees to figure out how to pay for it but I’d be glad to contribute towards that Stella fund raiser you’ve got going on.

“Besides, I really appreciate your response and I fully support your work. I hope no one actually cracks your app [and] for sake of respect, consider my request revoked. Thanks again Chris and have a good one bro!”

It appears that with his polite reply, Chris eliminated at least one potential pirate. But that wasn’t the end of the matter. Instead of eagerly waiting for HiDefinition’s 99 cents, Chris offered to buy the App for him, asking for a positive rating in return.

Chris then concluded:

“I hope this comment thread goes down as one of the more unexpected things that happens to you online. I like the unexpected. And I like making people happy, even when something stupid like learning vocabulary is involved.”

The thread is memorable for sure, and shows that the blazing guns strategy might not always be the best one, especially not for indie content creators. This doesn’t necessarily mean that ‘pirates’ should be cuddled, but it might be a good idea to try a more balanced response every now and then.

TorrentFreak got in touch with Chris, who shared his remarkable encounter on Reddit, and he told us that he expected people to pirate his app and that it’s not a problem.

“I knew people would try to pirate my app and I’d rather have people trying to pirate my app than not pirate it. If no one is trying to pirate you, you’re irrelevant,” Chris said.

In fact, Chris admits that he too has pirated software since he was eight or nine. Whether it is the moral thing to do is not up to the developers he believes, it’s something every ‘pirate’ has to decide for him or herself.

“The morality of pirating an app will be a topic that gets debated forever,” Chris told us. “If a starving kid steals a loaf of bread to feed himself, is that wrong? If a starving designer pirates a copy of a 700 dollar version of Photoshop, is that wrong?”

“A creative storyteller could produce narratives that make you see both sides to each story,” he concludes.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

“PirateDate will allow singles to share and assist their social connections in finding potential dates, while getting recommendations and referrals from their friends,” explains the article. “Pirate Date is utilizing Meezoog’s technology to provide users with ‘social proximity’ measurements, that allow people to efficiently filter their cyber connections.”

TechCrunch went on to question why people would want to join this new dating service, once the type of Pirate Bay user is taken into consideration. The torrent site, they argue (probably correctly) is more oriented towards men than women, a sentiment shared by some Digg commenters.

“Registered users: 12,000,000 dudes. 6 women,” notes one. But not all feel this situation is a problem. “lol that’s a better male to female ratio than most dating websites,” adds another.

Another user couldn’t resist taking the apparent file-sharing connection to the next level. “Wow, 50 guys hammering the same girl. I mean, it works for BitTorrent, right?”

But joking aside, are The Pirate Bay crew really diversifying into new markets? Well, not exactly, but they are prepared to benefit from them so they can support their site.

It’s taken a little while, but in 2010 The Pirate Bay brand is one of the most recognizable on the Internet. Many millions of people use the site on a daily basis and hardly a week goes by without it appearing in the news, and not just geeky news either. The Pirate Bay’s brand went global and mainstream a long time ago.

What advertisers and marketeers need are a good way to generate interest and for those who don’t mind being associated with the self-styled baddest site on the planet, The Pirate Bay can generate that in truckloads.

For their part, what The Pirate Bay needs is a steady stream of income to keep the site running. In the main they are achieving that with advertising but it appears they are prepared to consider creative partnerships if those deals make sense.

So, although it may seem that The Pirate Bay crew are launching an online dating site, in reality they’re not. What is actually happening is another company is launching a dating site which uses the branding and marketing power of The Pirate Bay in order to penetrate the market.

Just as PirateShops and PirateChat are linked from the site’s massively-visited homepage, in due time PirateDate will be too (outside of Scandinavia), alongside another familiar product – iPredator. Even though it doesn’t use the site’s branding, this VPN service draws a huge amount of publicity purely because of its connection to, and promotion by, The Pirate Bay.

So while the site clearly has a great use as a file-sharing location, it also has considerable strength with certain advertisers and marketeers. Other companies have also picked up on The Pirate Bay’s popularity and successfully boosted their own profiles – who can possibly forget Hans Pandeya and Global Gaming Factory?

As The Pirate Bay generates value in its brand and the awareness it creates, it also becomes a problem when the inevitable chancers come along. In late 2009, Swedish company Sandryds Handel took the opportunity to hijack The Pirate Bay’s logo with the aim of using it to sell USB drives.

Will the future see The Pirate Bay enforcing protection on its trademarks and other rights, or will anyone be allowed to come in and do as they please with its image? Do the site’s owners even care as long as they’re making enough to keep the site going? Time will tell.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Futuristic Sex Robotz was founded by Coaxke and PC Speaker during a Keystone Ice induced drunken haze in late 2004. They dish out the cold, hard truth with skill and creativity unlike anything the internet has seen before. Gangsta style…

The album “hotel coral essex” covers topics like the MPAA, the BitTorrent site Empornium (cheggit!), and World of Warcraft.

Rating: 4/5

Featured track: Fuck The MPAA

website: futuristicsexrobotz.com
Download album: torrent

Track List:

01. Van On Fire
02. Welcome To The Internet
03. Back In The Day
04. Law & Order
05. Fuck The MPAA
06. The Positronic Pimp
07. Hey, Ladies
08. WoW
09. Dishwater
10. LiveJournal
11. Back To The Future
12. Don’t Make Us Kick Your Ass
13. Empornium
14. If I Ruled The World
15. Checking Out

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.