Every writer wants to have his book turned into a movie. But what I see on this site wasn’t what I had in mind. As far as I can tell – without downloading a file from a very dodgy-looking site – this Web page offers a download of the movie “Free Ride.” But it seems to advertise it with random sentences from around the Web that just happen to contain the phrase. I see lines from my blog, my book’s Amazon page, and a review, amid other, unrelated snippets of text.
If you go to the site’s front page – the oddly named bcyccqbpud.blog.com – it seems to offer an array of pirated films. (Although, interestingly enough, none that seem especially popular.) It doesn’t offer any commentary or context – just what seem to be random lines from different Web sites. I suppose the EFF could argue that this amounts to absurdist poetry.
This isn’t especially surprising. (And I know it won’t affect me – I just find it ridiculous.) What worries me is that, under the interpretation of the DMCA that Google backs in Viacom’s case against YouTube, it might be legal. Should creators have to weigh fair use concerns before asking sites like this to remove their work, only to see it re-posted by an automated program? And, if so, how much less time will they devote to their creative work?
The simple offer of a film download (and that movie poster is from a real film) is obviously not a fair use. I would not hesitate to send blog.com a takedown notice if I owned that film (and were willing to admit it…).
I’m not sure what services like blog.com or wordpress could do to keep movie posters like that off their sites.
Posted by mtm | August 26, 2011, 5:23 pm>>>I’m not sure what services like blog.com or wordpress could do to keep movie posters like that off their sites.
I’d say it needs to be looser than having a person looking at every page and tighter than the DMCA as it exists now. But sites could use keyword filters to flag blogs for later review. Obviously, that wouldn’t work for common terms like “free ride” or movies that have entered the English language as phrases, like Star Wars. But it could be used to spot copies of Avatar, Conan, and some others. (I _don’t_ mean that it should stop these automatically, just flag the pages for human review.) I asked RapidShare about this and they said it was a freedom of speech concern – I guess for people who title their home movies “Avatar.”
Posted by roblevine1 | August 26, 2011, 7:28 pm“I asked RapidShare about this and they said it was a freedom of speech concern – I guess for people who title their home movies ‘Avatar.’”
I wonder if they managed to keep a straight face while saying that…
It’s depressing how well Silicon Valley has managed to convince people piracy=free speech.
Posted by Technotopia | August 27, 2011, 10:09 pmIt’s the oldest trick in the book: when you want to do something you kinda feel may be wrong, convince yourself that it is something indisputably right. No matter how outlandish and unrelated the reason is.
Obviously, it works for people who want to manipulate others as well. Politicians have been doing it for centuries.
The main problem we have today is that the people who should’ve been calling this out from the beginning: academia, the media, individual creators etc. have been equivocal about the matter.
Posted by Faza (TCM) | August 28, 2011, 12:37 pmhttp://www.aphotoeditor.com/2011/08/26/free-ride-how-technology-companies-are-killing-the-culture-business/#comments
“to sum up today’s lesson, “photography is a dying industry because photographers have been trained to detest and rage against DRM and property rights.” lol! and guess what! The photographers are WINNING in destroying their own and your livelihood while enriching the multi-BILLIONAIRE owners of the CLOUD!”
Posted by Dr. Elliot McGucken | August 28, 2011, 4:32 pmthe professor wakes up
today she will be keynoting the intellectual property summit hosted by a major social network. intellectual property law is broken as it cannot keep up with the technology.
the panelists, all of whom received A’s in their IP classes, will conclude the following
1. drm is bad
2. drm is evil
3. drm is broken
4. drm cannot work
5. drm breaks computers
6. property rights are bad
7. property rights are evil
8. property rights break property
9. artists prosper when they give it all away for free
10. piracy helped the music industry and newspapers, but because they tried to break their content with drm, their business declined
here is how dialogue goes with contemporary artists, creators, and photographers who all received A’s in their IP classes, as they were programmed by leftist hedge funds and the silicon valley elite to not only persecute, censor, ban, and protest those talking about property rights and natural rights, but to give up their own rights, while celebrating the silicon-valley multi-billionaire priests’ rights to profit form their very own content which they upload dutifully and freely.
photographer: dat sux i can’t make a living
dr. e: that would be cool if we had a social network with drm
photographer: zozozol drm is broken. drm sucks. drm is evil. property is bad. property rights are evil. drm breaks computers and content
photographer2: dat sux i can’t make a living
dr. e: that would be cool if we had a social network with drm
photographer2: zozozol drm is broken. drm sucks. drm is evil. property is bad. property rights are evil. u r a lozer fascsits lzozoozz loozer
photographer3: dat sux i can’t make a living
dr. e: that would be cool if we had a social network with drm
photographer3: zozozol drm is broken. drm sucks. drm is evil. property is bad. property rights are evil. artists make better livings by giving it all away for free. piracy increase revenue flow to content creators. intellectual property law stifles innovation and enterprise and breaks the creator’s bank account.
photographer4: dat sux i can’t make a living
dr. e: that would be cool if we had a social network with drm
photographer4: zozozol drm is broken u loozer lzozozl. drm makes ocntent less valuable lzozozo. drm can alwys be broken. drm punished the honest, just like locks on doors punish honest people as sometimes they ar elocked out of their own homes and cars you loozer lzozozlzl drm sucks. drm is evil. property is bad. property rights are evil. artists make better livings by giving it all away for free. piracy increase revenue flow to content creators. intellectual property law stifles innovation and enterprise and breaks the creator’s bank account.
Expert Hedge-Fund Funded Lawyer: Property rights are not a moral issue, but a legal issue, and as there is no such thing as Natural Law, might makes right. Ergo, it is not only your right, but your duty to upload all you content freely, and it is our right, via the power of billions of fiat dollarz, to profit from your content and work.
The Prominent Intellectual Property Lawyer takes the Podium and Preaches on How He Gave His Book Away for Free as a Download.
The Audience Fawns and Gasps, as Their Lord Levitates.
He Receives Millions from Inflated Tuitions/Unprecedented Student Debt, and Millions More from Giant Search Engines/Hedge Funds, as He Holds His Book High Above The Crowd–A Book Which Would Have GBrought In a Couple Grand Via Royalties, And He Says, “Look! Behold All That I Have Given You Freely! Now Go Home, and Upload All Your Content Freely! Do As I, And Give It Freely to the Commons!”
The Crowd Tweets pictures of The Book, Mashing it at Mashable, as the Messiah Ascends into the Cloud, Where he takes his Throne Amongst the Lords of the Cloud Who Protect Every Penny and Profit From the Abolition of Rights For Artists, All Wearing Vinatge Hipster DMCA T-shirts
Posted by Dr. Elliot McGucken | August 28, 2011, 6:55 pmthere’s always that success story about
the photographer
who uploaded a billion photos
to social media
and now profit
from the photography book
they now sell
50 pages for 50 dollarz as it is print on demand
they get to keep one dollar from each sale
which allowed them
to buy fake reviews like the major publishers
who they must compete with
on the big bookselling site lzozlzlz
and the extra cash they make
allows them
to quit
their third job
which they happily tweet
to their
friends.
they get their own panel at sxsw and a mention in wired
and all the indie artists rush home to upload all thier contet on social media and make a book
but they wonder
how did the author get so many positive reviews? and they buy the 4 hour work-week, as three jobs is more than 4 hours lzozlzlzozz
Posted by Dr. Elliot McGucken | August 28, 2011, 7:38 pmthe fanboy blogger
logs into his wordpress blog which is linked to
ping.fm
which tweets his thoughts and ideas to
facebook
which are well liked with buttons and plussed with buttons and approved
by the hedge fund managers and legal scholars
who follow his blog
and fund it
he recently gave his book away
and yet he notes that people still buy it
case closed
information wants to be free
photography wants to be free as photography is information
somebody suggest drm is good
the fanboy fires up his blog
the anonymous hedge fund owners all comment anonymously
the well-funded legal scholars chime in
they destroy the pro-drm indie artist and cite radiohead who
give their albums away for free
made their career and name in an era
where a major label signed and developed them
but that doesn’t matter
because property rights are sooooo 1997
and the fanboy blogger is invited to speak at TED
and with his google adsense check
for blogging about how blogging makes money for pro bloggers
like himself
he buys
a new pair
of skinny jeans
for TED where
the title of his talk will be
“Photography Just Wants to Be Free, But Greedy Photographers Won’t Share It With Social Media Share Buttons.”
Posted by Dr. Elliot McGucken | August 28, 2011, 7:57 pminformation just wants to be free,
which is why
google owns over
772 patents
lzozozlzlzozo
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=google&FIELD1=ASNM&co1=AND&TERM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXT
Posted by Dr. Elliot McGucken | August 28, 2011, 8:06 pmDoc. I am having trouble recognizing the afore mentioned photographer from the many photographers I know but then they are a smuck free bunch. Part of the trouble might be that in some sense we are all photographers but some of us do have a problem with how the world works. I think I might know of the hedge fund guy.
The guys at google are a smart bunch and if they wanted their image search to be accurate in depth or for that matter adequate they could use the IPTC Photo Metadata that all good photographers add to their images. Then searches would pull up pages and pages of accurate returns. The chances of that bunch of photographers giving their images away free is remote.
Posted by alangallery | August 29, 2011, 2:40 pm