

Piracy Advert Used Stolen Music - boyter
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/News/309432,piracy-advert-used-stolen-music.aspx

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pbhjpbhj
Surely the MPAA are on the hook for this. It doesn't matter if they bought it
legitimately as they'd still be infringing - in the same way the MPAA can
claim that your download of a torrent of a movie [made by employees of one of
the companies it represents] is infringing despite the torrent site not having
informed you that it's not a legally acquired work.

If the argument "we didn't know" works for them then surely that sets
precedent for everyone else. If it doesn't work then damages of 10¢ for every
instance of infringement of the work would seem reasonable. That's for every
DVD they make with it on, for every showing in a movie theater, for every use
in advertising ...

though it looks like the MPAA have already set a damage level of $30k per
instances [TorrentSpy case as reported at arstechnica]. Now last week the top
ten selling movies [which may not be all MPAA ones of course, nor carry the
infringed work, but this is just for scale] had sold collectively about 15
million units in the US. From that I'd expect damages of the order of 30k * 10
* 15M = 4.5 trillion, or 25 years of the MPAA's total revenue [as reported on
their website] to be reasonable. /tongueincheek

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pyre
What we really need to do is make take these things out of the realm of the
tech press, and into the realm of the main stream media. Make sure that every
person in America, from the average Joe to the Congress-critter on Capitol
Hill, knows that the MPAA/RIAA are hypocrites when they talk about IP rights
to benefit all IP holders. They care nothing to the rights of others, and will
run roughshod over everyone that they can, so long as they aren't called on
it.

Not only this, we need to make sure that the execs at the MPAA, the RIAA, and
the studios/labels that they represent feel personally embarrassed over these
incidences.

 _Then_ we might see some change. Otherwise, we're just rah-rah-ing ourselves
while they take what they want.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
No they won't. The populace doesn't care. Even on issues that affect _far_
more people, they're relatively mum. Most people don't have strong opinions
about the *AA, and there isn't enough controversy to justify any sort of news
coverage.

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digitalengineer
It's even worse. When the artist complained during a TV interview [the Dutch
MPAA board member] Gerrits suggested that the composer should sign his track
over to High Fashion Music, a label owned by the board member himself and one
that would take 33% of Rietveldt’s royalties for its trouble."

