yes, dont address the problem, band-aid fix it. :|
banning those that are sharing and getting caught, doesn't do anything. they aren't the ones making the wares.

Screw FOX. Cry me a river will you? No one cares about your cr@p.

"While that may be the case, the reasoning behind why consumers share files rarely is discussed. Perhaps if the movie industry actually lowered the prices of films, theaters could reduce the cost of admission. If consumers could actually afford to see a movie, perhaps then they would be least likely to hunt it down on torrents. Piracy is bad, but gouging the consumer is even worse."

An excellent point and exactly what I was thinking. Maybe they should look at themselves first. I'm sure if they stopped paying actors ridiculous amounts of money they could lower ticket prices.

some consumers may be in the wrong for pirating the industry except the induestry is also in the wrong for not listening to consumers

When "clear and balance" is a lie, how is it that your opinion matter?

Those guys don't get it : most people who pirate are people WHO CAN'T BUY.

They won't make more money with that kind of practice....
I i was in their place: I'd find a way to sell stuff cheaper or something: some money is better then no money.

I guess they pay millions (uselessly) for the CEO that claims these things....

Too bad you can't stop me Fox.

The government could try to step into telling ISPs who they can and can't have as customers, but I can guarantee it'll get sticky.

Not to mention that you could not stop one person from access to the internet while we have internet cafes, libraries, and schools. The reality of internet access is limitless to those with a computer. If they want access, they'll find it.

FOX sucks ftw.

I love how these CEOs are always coming with European status quo, but they always neglect to throw in the other side of the coin - that consumers have far greater protection over there as well. If the US government wants to change the laws on this or that, they better be prepared to satisfy both sides, not just the greedy media executives.

lol people who watch fox should have thier internet cut

I can also guarantee that this would be a breach of privacy for ISPs to monitor what you're downloading. Keeping track of bandwidth is one thing, but to mark down what people are downloading is another.

Not to mention that if it were possible to track illegal internet activity to the letter, and ISPs were to report illegal activity to the government as to shut down the customer, who is it to say that the ISP wouldn't just "overlook" it so they can keep a paying customer?... This sounds like something the government would have to go out of their way to track, not the ISPs.

For every person who gets banned, I'll double my downloads. I'll download garbage I don't even want (aka 99% of the movies that are put out) just to spite you.

I think that this legislation would be really annoying and dumb, but I know a lot of people that would stop pirating if it became law. Piracy is an illegal act of opportunity, if you take away the opportunity by enforcing strict laws across the board it may decrease.

I actually thing that the movie and music industry should push for legislation that would allow them to contact pirates and force them to pay for the stolen product at full price, and if the individual decides not to do so, they can sue everything they have.

Good Luck Fox.

This isn't exclusively fox stating this, Basically all film studios and music companies have been screaming this for years.

I think it should just be increasing fines for piracy. Start off with a $1k fine and increase it by 10x for the next offense after losing. The money from the fine should first go towards paying for a copy of each movie/music file that was being shared(only 1) and the rest of the money should go into funding a federal department whose job it is to track down piracy. I don't think they should have any outside funding after the first year though. If piracy is really bad they can have a large department to go after people, if/when there is less of it they have to lay people off. But of course this couldn't happen in our retarded bureaucracy.... oh well.

PFFFT! Put movie makers on level ground? How about we drag the recoding industry off it's high throne and put them on level ground where they can't insert themselves into politics and lobby around to sue people more than they're worth, and or pester until they get their way. Then maybe they'd stop cheating the consumer and earn their money for real.

The problem here is that the ISP's don't care as long as you pay your bills, HOWEVER, all of a sudden they care when they get a letter from the MPAA or RIAA saying they want XXX million dollars, or the names of people pirating on they're connections. This is the problem.

If only we could meet these guys one on one instead of them hiding in their office somewhere. They want to cut service because they don't like something some people do. I wonder what shit these people do in their spare time that's so perfectly justifiable.

They want to the power to slam somebody with a perma-ban without due judicial process. What recourse does someone have if they are not the actual sharer but have been used by a hacker to route the files instead? None if Fox, MPAA, and RIAA have their way. And all at government expense. Now who is robbing who??

The big movie and music companys are always first to say it hurts independent film makers, but independent film makers are nearly always the first to thank piracy for boosting exposure to there film and generating them more money from people then going and buying products relating to it.

It was a good article until the last sentence "Piracy is bad, but gouging the consumer is even worse."

What a stupid comment...

So, stealing a (car, movie, pack of gum) is bad, but not as bad as if I think it's priced too high? Huh? Who's sticking a gun to my head and forcing me to buy it?

Gouging is when you have NO CHOICE... and even when it is real gouging, it is NOT in the same ballpark as STEALING.

You pirates will one day pay a price for your stealing, in this life or the next. Doesn't matter whether you're stealing from the rich or the poor, the good or the bad, stealing is stealing, period.

Please, at least, just admit it. Don't make up such silly justifications as "gouging is worse." How pathetic.

Again, the government cannot force them to track their customers anymore than a gun salesman can track their own. They can report their sales and who they're customers are, but they can't force a company to blacklist their customers and report little johnny. This will result in a very disputeable Big Brother case.

Not too mention that you can only track the connection, not who is actually on the other line. People steal wireless all over the place and they expect to be able to track exactly who was doing what? The realism of this just isn't there.

Jim Gianopulos, you hapless, overpaid idiot, exactly what is to stop me from pirating to my hearts content using someone else's wi-fi? Hell, if I cared, I'd find out where you live and pirate terabytes worth of crap using YOUR wi-fi connection? Oh, what's that? Your wi-fi connection is encrypted? Ok, so it takes me a day or two to break that (less if you're using WEP). All that means is that you won't have an alibi when your Internet gets disconnected.

Seriously, though... all this kind of idiotic legislation would do is encourage people to take wi-fi borrowing/hijacking to a whole new level.

I love how Fox ,along with nearly every other corporation, claims piracy is the biggest threat to the film industry while providing no references or proof for that accusation. Try making a couple films that don't completely suck for a change, then maybe you'll make some money.

Umm!, I didn't see Twilight in the theater, I shared it, and yet it made Domestic Total Gross: $192,769,854, and $192,227,954, for a total of $384,997,808. Not counting rentals, dvd sales, and residuals. Hmmm!, maybe I should share more just to help the studios out.

Can't win against piracy. When will they learn?

Just like repeat intentionally miss-informative news stories should get your airtime cut?

P2P & Bit Torrent is so 2001...

Much better, safer, more anonymous distribution methods out there now people.

Here! Here!

I guess they missed the Memmo.. 2 tickets to see movieX= $20, 1 popcorn + pop=$15, Hastle of going to movie, gas, aggravation and shitty seats=$5, Waiting the 3months and rent it for $1 at the red box, SOLD!!!!!

Piracy is not even close to being the number 1 killer of the motion pictures profit.. HORRIBLE MOVIES that cost $40 for 2 people to see. VERSUS we have Blueray at $79 (walmart) 1080p tv's at $400 and basic sound surround at $150= MUCH better experience.
First movie companies want us to SEE IT,
Second RENT IT
Third Purchase it.
Im sorry, but $40+$1 (rent) + Purchase $20,, sorry pal, but $60 for a movie , is kinda too steep for meh.. I rather just rent the thing for $1.. ON TOP OF THIS, HOW ABOUT MAKING SOME KILLER MOVIES instead of some of the garbage as of late

I think this is funny. We have a bad economy with job losses and the CEO tries to hit it home saying that because he loses a few dollars it hits everyone. What a load of crap. What, did Mr CEO have to get a smaller personal jet this year because of the "losses" caused by piracy? Exactly, BS.