
Illegal Downloads 150x More Profitable Than Legal Sales - vaksel
http://torrentfreak.com/illegal-downloads-150x-more-profitable-than-legal-sales-091009/
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harpastum
So this company is suggesting that it's _better_ to allow your customers to
break the law and then threaten to sue (making money from the settlement),
rather than have them use legal channels?

It's a scary world we live in.

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monos
yes, it's _better_ for DigiRights since they sell the software that will help
you track down the law-breakers.

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ramanujan
The premise that 25% of people pay up without questions seems highly
questionable. The only source for this is the company itself, correct?

Edit: why the downvote? Take a look at the direct quote from the article:

 _However, not everyone who receives a letter will pay up, but DRS says that
an impressive 25% of all recipients do without asking questions. This figure
is much higher than most people assumed previously._

Why would one take such a surprising number on face value, especially from a
company with such a shady business model?

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markpercival
I buy the 25%, only because it was based on responses in Germany. This is the
country where I get yelled at for jaywalking at 3am and some subways work on
the honor system. Germans are ridiculously honest.

In fact, now that I think about it, 25% seems low. What's happening in
Germany?! Pretty soon, when I visit, I'll be forced to pay for my subway
rides. Clean up your act Germany!

Kind regards, A dishonest American tourist

~~~
jacquesm
I jaywalk all the time (well, not all the time, but you get what I mean) in
Germany and I have never ever been yelled at. But it is uncommon, at least in
the smaller towns. In bigger cities nobody would bat an eye, but you'd better
be careful because unlike say Amsterdam it is not the expected behaviour.

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mdemare
True, I've been yelled at in Amsterdam for not jaywalking.

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noonespecial
Why bother with tracking the downloads or caring at all what the user does?
Just get a list of all internet users everywhere, send a nastygram insinuating
that they've done _something_ illegal, and send a bill. Some percentage of
people will pay. Those interweb thingees are mostly just used for piracy
anyway, right?

Random threats of lawsuits are _infinitely_ more profitable than no threats at
all.

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boredguy8
I never thought of it quite that way before, but that's a really good point.
They're functionally the WoW Accoung Phishers of the music industry.

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dkokelley
This commenter nailed it: _"It’s ’speculative invoicing’."_

Also, the title is a bit shady. It's 150 times more profitable per instance,
but only 25% (according to the company) pay up, meaning that it's really only
37.5 times more profitable.

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ugh
I think you need to qualify the title. $0.60 is what you get for every legal
download, 150 times that is what you might get if you happen to catch someone,
find out her address and if she then also pays.

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nvasilak
" According to the company they get to keep 80% of the money, leaving 20% for
the copyright holders."

Yup, they really have the bands best interest in mind.

I don't understand how all of these companies who blatantly rob the money that
should be going to artists think they are any better than the pirates.

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lucumo
Artists have a choice in doing business with them, they don't have a choice in
copyright infringement.

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monos
DigiRights "developed" the technology to automate those "requests for damages"
letters, so they are marketing it as being very profitable - no big surprise.

DigiRights, the company making those claims is highly suspicious. my parents
actually got a letter from them. well their ISP got the letter wrote to my
parents something like "digirights says you downloaded XYZ (porno movie). we
didn't tell DigiRiths who you are, but please: stop it."

i doubt DigiRights is acting legally in austria, where i live. this is
currently being viewed at.

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billswift
According to wikipedia,
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_tim...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times)
, "May you come to the attention of those in authority" is an escalation of
the better known curse "May you live in interesting times". Today it's a
depressingly common threat, too.

It looks like RIAA and the other mobsters are going about it wrong, maybe they
should be hitting up more people for smaller amounts.

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jacquesm
The trick of a good parasite is to let the host live and be a small enough
nuisance that the host won't kill the parasite.

The RIAA is getting dangerously close to the 'squash' button.

A few more 100K+ verdicts and I'm sure they'll achieve their goals of
irrelevance.

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patio11
_The trick of a good parasite is to let the host live and be a small enough
nuisance that the host won't kill the parasite._

That is indeed the pirate's dilemma: how do I steal all my music, movies, and
videogames while making sure Content, Inc. doesn't move to a business model
where all the value is on their servers and you can, at best, rent access to
it. It has already happened in China, and looking at the PC game sales charts
in America it is pretty much complete there, too.

Oh, those weren't the parasites you were talking about? My bad.

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gritzko
Nothing is new under the stars. I heard, VHS rental services in US made more
from late fees than from the rental itself.

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monos
i'm not saying they do that, but one could:

    
    
      * buy cheap copyright like 1940s movies
      * make divx files, name after non-existing pornos
      * anonymously seed to major torrent site
      * startup your auto-legal-threat-software
      * collect money
    

this might be legal?

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adrinavarro
And just because people is sometimes stupid. This is embarrassing.

