The Happy Ending of Internet Piracy

[karapetkov]

How to defeat Internet piracy?



Let’s start with the premise that Internet piracy is technically, economically and psychologically invincible. The reason for this is the nature of human beings, the Internet and digital technology. I have an in-depth analysis on why Internet piracy is invincible in the full version of this article. I have written it a bit like a story. Check my extensive arguments there, if you like:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=122043


Given that invincibility, what can be done?!

The Short Version:

If piracy is invincible, the only way to defeat it is to actually legalize it, regulate it and incorporate its technology [p2p] in a new and superior home distribution system of the future.

Let’s call this system Electronic Media Distribution System [EMDS].

What does all that mean?

Fundamental principles of the eventual EMDS:

• Link the very use of Internet access to a monthly payment of an EMDS tax. Whoever wants to use the Net, has to pay the EMDS tax. No exceptions whatsoever! No EMDS tax – No Internet. Fixed by law. If this rule is not applied, the EMDS won’t work. [Remember that we’re fighting something invincible].
• Every consumer pays the same tax - no differentiation! If this rule is not applied, the EMDS will again not work.
• After that, every user has the right to legally download every song or movie that he wants. Unlimited times. The same as in the pirate network, but – legalized, regulated and pre-paid.
• The money from all the user’s taxes goes into the EMDS gross profit – the budget of the System. There we have categories for “Movies”, “Music”; sub-categories for “Singles”, “Albums”, “Shorts”, “Features” etc. For example 50 % for movies, 50 % for music, etc. Or whatever is appropriate. Whatever.
• The downloads for every song, album, movie or whatever are counted by a very secure system.
• The products that have been downloaded most times, get the most money from the EMDS gross profit. For example: a movie is released in the EMDS and it has 6 % of all movie downloads for that month. The result is that it takes 6 % of the gross profit that has been accumulated in the “Movie” category of the EMDS for that month.
• The EMDS system is administered and controlled by the 1. Entertainment Industries themselves [not state owned or regulated, which would be communist-ique], 2. Unions of EMDS users [acting as counterbalance and protecting the interest of consumers]; 3. The Internet Service Providers [ISPs] who technically provide the Internet access; 4. The Government, whose judiciary system would intervene if some fraud has occurred in the process.
• These four parties form the EMDS committee. Full accord of all these parties is needed for every decision concerning the system. They also monitor and control the download-counting process for frauds and mistakes. Every party has a right of veto over any EMDS tax increase or whatever change to the system. The monthly EMDS tax is formed by the committee.
• The EMDS is nation-based. Every country [or every state in the US or wherever] would establish its own EMDS system. EMDS systems in different countries [states] will be coordinated among each other, which means, for example: Local [legal] release of “Die Hard 5”, in the Bulgarian EMDS [whose tax is appropriate for Bulgarian salaries, etc.]. Whatever % “Die Hard 5” takes here – it goes to the authors\companies. The same as current home video distribution but- 1. Easier to administer and control; 2. Easier to use; 3. Possibly cheaper for the common consumer; 4. More profitable for the Industries; 5. [Almost] Perfect .

Direct consequences of the eventual EMDS system:


1. Points 1., 2., and 3. [above] annihilate the very temptation and need to use pirated material and thus - annihilates piracy by actually legalizing its technology. This annihilates the demand for pirated content.
2. People get to download freely and legally whatever they like. Their average monthly expenditure for the EMDS tax will be equal or slightly smaller than what they currently spend on CD\DVD purchases and rentals. The reasons for that are: 1. Every Internet user pays the tax; and 2. This tax is the same for all home users.
3. The gross profit that the Industries will have to share will be bigger, guaranteed and – most importantly – progressively increasing, because: 1. The number of Internet users will rise; 2. The EMDS tax will be gradually increased over time [the process is controlled by the EMDS committee]; 3. More countries will eventually establish their own EMDS systems; etc.
4. The money will go where it should – to the most successful authors\companies – those that have been downloaded the most – a fair and just system for distributing profit.
5. The artists\Industries are saved and piracy disappears :nads:.

These and many other reasons and consequences you can read in the full version of this article, here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=122043

The article is huge, but to fully understand what I mean, you have to read all of it.

I consider this text as a kind of open-source and non-profit material. My intention is to help. Anyone can criticize or add suggestions to it. I haven’t written this to profit from it but if some part of it has any value - > I wouldn’t want anyone else to individually profit from it either. I’ve already sent it to many institutions in the USA, UK, the EU and my own country. Let’s see what happens.

Being an aspiring artist myself, I’m only looking for solutions to problems.

Everything that I’ve written comes from my own personal experience, my personal use of pirated content and observations on the Internet, piracy and everything else. I’m no expert in hacking, cracking, wacking, smacking or any one of these. I’m just trying to express my POV and hoping that it might help.

And a final word:

All this, is already happening. Millions of people in the world [incl. me :evil:] are already using this system, the number of piracy using users WON'T decrease [read the article to see why]. There’s nothing that can stop this, it’s progress. It’s just that the artists\Industries are currently not profiting from it.

That’s it.

And that’s the shortest I can make it.

Best regards.

 

[TwistedLincoln]

karapetkov, you've been a productive and helpful member of this community, so don't take this too personally...

MODS: lock this thread please. It's clearly political. And as much as I'd like to debate it, I won't start a debate I know will be cut short by thread-locking...

So I'm gonna restrain myself from responding to the actual post... for now. If the powers that be decide the thread should stay, however, I'll most certainly respond...

 

[karapetkov]

karapetkov, you've been a productive and helpful member of this community, so don't take this too personally...

MODS: lock this thread please. It's clearly political. And as much as I'd like to debate it, I won't start a debate I know will be cut short by thread-locking...

So I'm gonna restrain myself from responding to the actual post... for now. If the powers that be decide the thread should stay, however, I'll most certainly respond...

Thanks for the comment.

Maybe it's political and it should be locked, but can you suggest any un-political solution to the problem?

Problems don't get solved by themselves. And this is about legislation, so...

I don't know, whatever you like...

I will surely try to help and establish something similar in my country.

Don't understand that I want to interfere with US politics or your life. Just sharing an opinion. For your country - it's your call.

But if similar solution happens in the US, it will spread everywhere for sure. That's why I post this here also.

I want it to happen.

 

[Josh W]

I think it's a reasonable discussion.

 

[Jon Starr]

Well it also relates to Movies and media content, so it's hard to say if this is acceptable.

-------

I didn't read the whole thing, but it makes sense. It's like paying for a TV service. You're allowed to watch whatever you want on TV, and it can be the same for the net.

This way, being legal, you can DL content directly from the campany websites or second party web-sites. Then whoever regulates the money, gives them the money they earn because of the DLs.

I think I understood it that way.

But I like the idea. I'm against piracy, even though I can be hypocritical sometimes, dling the occasional song or tv show. I have debates with other people who feel dl illegally is okay, and I often win, or at least leave them with a "well I don't care" additude, which seems to be the problem.

 

[TwistedLincoln]

Ok, so much for restraint. Here's why I am STRONGLY against such a plan:

1)

• Link the very use of Internet access to a monthly payment of an EMDS tax. Whoever wants to use the Net, has to pay the EMDS tax. No exceptions whatsoever! No EMDS tax – No Internet. Fixed by law. If this rule is not applied, the EMDS won’t work. [Remember that we’re fighting something invincible].

So everyone pays the tax, regardless of if they intend on downloading media or not. So the grandma who just wants to get online to email photos of the grandkids pays an extra tax. Bad.

Also, what about public-access internet? No more free internet access at the library, I suppose. You'll have to pay a small tax each time you go there. And while we're at it, why not go back to the days of paying for the internet per hour. It'll be easier to tax that way. Better dig up your "1,000 hours free" AOL discs...

2)

• After that, every user has the right to legally download every song or movie that he wants. Unlimited times. The same as in the pirate network, but – legalized, regulated and pre-paid.

So I can pay the tax and get an OC3 line, download as many things as I like, and just give copies to my friends who don't have internet? Somehow I don't think this is what you meant. See my next point...

3)

• The downloads for every song, album, movie or whatever are counted by a very secure system.

By "very secure system", I assume you mean some form of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). DRM is inherently evil, as it restricts what a lawfully paying customer can do with the products they've purchased. And don't say that under your plan everything is downloaded free -- you pay for it up front via the tax, even if you want to or not. So even if I don't want to download anything, my tax dollars are now going to go to support a DRM enforced system of tyranny. Nice.

4)

• Entertainment Industries themselves [not state owned or regulated, which would be communist-ique], 2. Unions of EMDS users [acting as counterbalance and protecting the interest of consumers]; 3. The Internet Service Providers [ISPs] who technically provide the Internet access; 4. The Government, whose judiciary system would intervene if some fraud has occurred in the process.

So basically the entire internet community will rise up and react if fraud occurs. Right. This happens all the time now.

5)

• These four parties form the EMDS committee. Full accord of all these parties is needed for every decisionordinary users concerning the system. They also monitor and control the download-counting process for frauds and mistakes. Every party has a right of veto over any EMDS tax increase or whatever change to the system. The monthly EMDS tax is formed by the committee.

So the internet providers, the government, and a union of union of users are going to determine the tax. Nice. Based on my experience with government and unions, I'd expect the tax to go up every time...

6)

• The EMDS is nation-based. Every country [or every state in the US or wherever] would establish its own EMDS system. EMDS systems in different countries [states] will be coordinated among each other, which means, for example: Local [legal] release of “Die Hard 5”, in the Bulgarian EMDS [whose tax is appropriate for Bulgarian salaries, etc.]. Whatever % “Die Hard 5” takes here – it goes to the authors\companies. The same as current home video distribution but- 1. Easier to administer and control; 2. Easier to use; 3. Possibly cheaper for the common consumer; 4. More profitable for the Industries; 5. [Almost] Perfect .

So what happens when the DRM is broken (and it will be), and people simply download their media from other countries? Or are you planning on walling off the internet so that people can only download content from servers located in their jurisdiction?

7)

1. Points 1., 2., and 3. [above] annihilate the very temptation and need to use pirated material and thus - annihilates piracy by actually legalizing its technology. This annihilates the demand for pirated content.

The technology is already legal. How it's used simply isn't. That won't change. People will still rip DVDs and put them on bittorrent, etc. The only difference is that they'll also be paying higher taxes. Or would your plan outlaw any other file sharing technology other than the official one?

8)

2. People get to download freely and legally whatever they like. Their average monthly expenditure for the EMDS tax will be equal or slightly smaller than what they currently spend on CD\DVD purchases and rentals. The reasons for that are: 1. Every Internet user pays the tax; and 2. This tax is the same for all home users.

What if I still want to buy physical products, that come with physical rights, and no DRM? Guess that will do away in this system, as no media outlet is going to want to distribute anything that way once your plan is in place.

Also, you mention that all home users pay the same -- are businesses taxed differently? What about home businesses?

9)

3. The gross profit that the Industries will have to share will be bigger, guaranteed and – most importantly – progressively increasing, because: 1. The number of Internet users will rise; 2. The EMDS tax will be gradually increased over time [the process is controlled by the EMDS committee]; 3. More countries will eventually establish their own EMDS systems; etc.

What happens when internet use reaches everyone? Oh, I guess the tax goes up.

10)

4. The money will go where it should – to the most successful authors\companies – those that have been downloaded the most – a fair and just system for distributing profit..

The money should go where it should -- in the pockets of the consumers, who get to decide themselves who to give it to through the free market economy.

11)

5.The artists\Industries are saved and piracy disappears :nads:

Nothing changes, except taxes go up, and freedom goes down.

12)

All this, is already happening. Millions of people in the world [incl. me :evil:] are already using this system, the number of piracy using users WON'T decrease [read the article to see why]. There’s nothing that can stop this, it’s progress. It’s just that the artists\Industries are currently not profiting from it.

Well I for one can say that I will do everything in my power to make sure something like this NEVER happens in the US. We're lucky that government has mostly stayed out of the internet.

Your plan is essentially communism --

"There’s nothing that can stop this, it’s progress. It’s just that the artists\Industries are currently not profiting from it."

So we're just redistributing funds from the internet user, regardless of their intent to use the artist's content or not, and giving it to the artists/instustry simply because we think they deserve it more. Reminds me of another quote: "To each according to his need, from each according to his ability"

I can't in good conscience end this post with a quote from Karl Marx. So I'll end it with one from Gerald Ford:

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."

See, I told you this thread was political rogar-Happy(DBG):