A Case of Bad Reporting or MPAA Scheme?
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: editorial, 60, minutes, mpaa | Themes: Digital Entertainment
- 3. A Case of Bad Reporting or MPAA Scheme?
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3. A Case of Bad Reporting or MPAA Scheme?
I honestly don’t know if accused movie pirate Gerardo Arellano is really somehow connected to organized crime. I also don’t know if organized crime is behind the selling of pirated DVDs out of car trunks. The 60 Minutes expose provided no evidence.
I do know this: there is no motivation whatsoever for organized crime to be distributing movies via BitTorrent technology. No one makes a penny off of file transfers via BitTorrent (except maybe the company called BitTorrent, Inc. which has a legal business selling certain videos). Studios which rent and sell movies online do so through stores such as iTunes, which provide convenience to customers and income to studios. But there is no organized crime department at iTunes, there is no way for organized crime to profit from online file transfers. If BitTorrent movie pirating is as successful as CBS News and the MPAA claims it is, organized crime would be competing against itself: selling pirated movies on the street, while at the same time giving them away for free on the internet.
Grandma and grandpa are getting misinformation and don’t even realize it.
CBS News reporter Lesley Stahl and producer Tom Anderson should be embarrassed for having aired this story. They implied that organized crime is behind internet file sharing. They never talked to anyone for an opposing point of view (BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen, or the Electronic Frontier Foundation would both have been excellent choices). And they never mentioned the fact that the MPAA spends millions of dollars on lawsuits in which they end up collecting only thousands of dollars in settlements, in what I can only describe as publicity stunt litigation.
As the late Walter Cronkite rolls in his grave, I’m left wondering what happened here. Have CBS News and 60 Minutes reached a level of incompetence that makes it impossible for them to know that organized crime does not give away stolen goods? Are they so out of touch with technology that putting pieces of a file back together, something which WinZip has done since the early 1990s, sounds like brain surgery?
Personally, I find it hard to believe that CBS News and 60 Minutes have become this inept. Unfortunately, the only other possible conclusion, is that what I watched Sunday night was a biased, intentional, and unforgivable 12 minute long Public Service Announcement for the MPAA.
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it does sound stupid, organised crime giving stuff away for free, those are everywhere they are called CAM's or TS
They ran a simular story in Australia about 6-12months back, on our program A Current Affair, except instead of the Mexican Mafia, they were saying that Terrorists were profiting from Pirated movies and software.
Its just a bullshit scare campaign from the Music and Movies industry to try and scare people into not downloading stuff.
Unfortunately you'll often find that when mainstream media talk about a subject that you know about, their level of knowledge is abysmal. Makes you wonder how reliable they are on the subjects that you don't know about....
Typical of the mainstream media. They could go to the trouble of researching their stories or providing multiple viewpoints, but they know their audience. They know that the majority of their audience is ignorant about technology beyond how to use email, so they're not going to waste their money providing an in-depth look at a technological matter.
But tying Internet piracy to organized crime is just ridiculous. Torrent piracy consists of a bunch of computer nerds providing content for no profit beyond the perceived size of their e-penis.
Seriously! I love toms hardware! I didn't think you were into comedy, but I just finished watching the clip! Wonder what she would call TCP/IP technology!?! That was seriously entertaining. Thank you!
Shows you how technically literate the MSM really is.
Well, i dont really think that Mafia boss would do jobs on its own.. at least not in movies...
It's not just CBS and 60 minutes, it's pretty much all the news outlets nowdays that cater to the lowest denominator instead of journalistic integrity.
My advice? Ignore the (mainstream) news and current affairs. Seriously. I did this 5 years ago (when I was 21) and let me tell you it has done me the world of good. Less bullshit = less stress = more time for useful things.
Typical mainstream media crap. You are suprised? I have known this for years, they arent mainstream anymore they are the "Fringe" media. I know I will probably get some hate for this but its true. Fox is much more balanced, they typically give you multiple views from multiple people/sources. Helps to get an fair and balanced news.
Its true. Only old people watch 60 minutes.
All the mainstream media, as others put it, are owned by huge corporations that also have interests in the movie business as well. Of course they use one outlet to help protect the profits from another. News, at least in most countries, is controlled by money (BBC is actually pretty good because it's subsidized).
When I watched it, I just kept thinking - they're whinging about all this money they're "losing" to the pirates. Its total BS. The people who buy bootleg dvds / share this media over the net were never going to pay the price of a cinema seat or an official dvd purchase. This industry needs to get their heads out of the sand and move into the 21st century. Hell, joining the 70's would be a good start.
On another note, where is Axxo?
in my country a new seat for a new movie cost around 500 money units (Rupees), pirated movie cost 100 units, 512 kbit/s unlimited ADSL is 2000 units, original movie DVD around 1000-2500 units
and my monthly salary around 12000 units,
average daily living cost exceed 400 units.
what an i going to do? either download or buy pirate.
Wrong Mr. Celeste. Organized crime is the number one purveyor of trojans and other malware. You think all your precious little torrents are free of malware? There is tons of money to be made by slipping trojans into movies and other torrents. After the empire of bots is completed they sell the rights to control the computers to others.
I love how our generation will say anything to justify the theft of intellectual property.
I didn't know that people still pirated with cams at theaters. All the pirated movies I've seen in the last fewyears have been digital promotional DVD copies of the movies sent to the theaters. Good theater employeess take the copies and sell them to pirates for a couple grand and its distributed at flea markets, and the police watch and buy those movies too.
I think it was intentional scary campaign. Probably trying to move public against bittorent and internet piracy. Actualy torrenting is easier if you don't need to hide it, then if everyone thinks you are mafia and earning milions out of it.
Darn, still can't speak/write. x_X
Wrong Mr. Celeste. Organized crime is the number one purveyor of trojans and other malware. You think all your precious little torrents are free of malware? There is tons of money to be made by slipping trojans into movies and other torrents. After the empire of bots is completed they sell the rights to control the computers to others.I love how our generation will say anything to justify the theft of intellectual property.
If by "organized crime" you mean merely that the people put malware on the Internet are "organized criminals" you'd be right--but clearly that's not what and who CBS meant. They meant actual mafia that has existed for years...not new upstarts.
Unfortunately you'll often find that when mainstream media talk about a subject that you know about, their level of knowledge is abysmal. Makes you wonder how reliable they are on the subjects that you don't know about....
+1 to that
This story makes no sense at all, it's obviously a scam.
IMO the worst thing is the lack of professionalism of journalists these days, they often present poor stories, with lost of holes in it, and some times completely biased
one more thing, i was always told that journalists should be impartial...
But here, as is becoming generalized, Lesley Stahl reacts to the story expressing (literally with the facial expression) her opinion.
TH editors are always criticized about giving opinion on news... Seems like CBS's 60 min, a supposedly good news program is doing worse...
sorry for the double post