The Pirate Bay Press Release On SOPA: We Are The New Hollywood - Polidicks

[release]from the history-repeating-itself dept Given its general contempt for the repeated attempts to close it down, you wouldn't expect The Pirate Bay to be particularly worried by SOPA. But in its very own press release on the subject, it goes much further: it flings the ultimate insult at Hollywood by claiming that not only are the two of them spiritual kin, but that The Pirate Bay is the New Hollywood. Here's why The Pirate Bay thinks Hollywood is exactly like itself: [I] Because of Edisons patents for the motion pictures it was close to financially impossible to create motion pictures in the North american east coast. The movie studios therefor relocated to California, and founded what we today call Hollywood. The reason was mostly because there was no patent. There was also no copyright to speak of, so the studios could copy old stories and make movies out of them – like Fantasia, one of Disneys biggest hits ever. So, the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they circumvented immaterial rights. They copied (or put in their terminology: "stole") other peoples creative works, without paying for it.[/I] And here's why Pirate Bay thinks it's the New Hollywood: [I] The reason they are always complainting about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did. We circumvented the rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient. [/I] At the end of its release, The Pirate Bay admits rather drolly: [I]Some facts (years, dates) are probably wrong in this press release. The reason is that we can't access this information when Wikipedia is blacked out. Because of pressure from our failing competitors. We're sorry for that.[/I] In fact its potted history of Hollywood is not so far off the mark. Here's a rather more rigorously-researched description of the battle between Thomas Edison, along with his Motion Picture Patents Company (MPCC) – basically a group of suppliers that tried to enforce a monopoly over cinema equipment – and Carl Laemmle's Universal Pictures that refused to knuckle under: [I]what ultimately did the Edison monopoly in was the assumption that its legal/technological dominance over the trade, and its moral stance, would trump the public’s demand for ever more creative motion pictures. Unlike the independents, the MPCC system did not invest in its network. Consumers would simply have to watch Edison Trust fare, the monopoly’s principals figured. They didn’t. Instead, they flocked to Laemmle and his fellow independents' "illegal" movies, which were longer and of better quality. Even the Trust's inner circle knew this. "We… pass on pictures we know will get us nothing but unfavorable comments and cancellations," one confided. "We haven’t the power to throw out the distinctly bad pictures, nor the courage, because as poor as they are, they represent a certain sum of money invested in negative production." Edison and his cohorts never understood that they were involved "in much more than an economic battle to determine who would control the profits of the nascent film industry," Neal Gabler writes. This was a conflict between an older generation of Anglo-Saxon Protestant inventors and a new generation of immigrants.[/I] The parallels with today's battle between the MPAA (complete with its "moral stance") and Net-based "independents" like The Pirate Bay (with its DRM-free content), are clear. Once again, this is not just about who gets the money, it's a conflict between the "older generation" of movie companies with their "legal dominance", and the "new generation" of digital immigrants like The Pirate Bay that give the public what they want. Call it Hollywood 2: The Sequel. [/release] From Techdirt. Well, isn't this interesting. But, after all, reality has a well known anti-Hollywood bias.

History comes full circle.

[img]http://www.facepunch.com/fp/ratings/winner.png[/img]

Now they just need to get some land in the Caribbean and put a giant sign that says "PIRATE BAY" somewhere.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/xN2Ud.gif[/img]

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;34371863][img]http://i.imgur.com/xN2Ud.gif[/img][/QUOTE] Didn't Filesonic say it was only taking down it's filesharing services temporarily?

Holy shit, the resemblance is uncanny.

Yar har fiddle dee dee?

[QUOTE=Katatonic717;34372244]Yar har fiddle dee dee?[/QUOTE] being a pirate is hobee do bee! yeah, i don't know the lyrics..

Oh captain my captain.

[QUOTE=GreenLeaf;34372260]being a pirate is hobee do bee! yeah, i don't know the lyrics..[/QUOTE] Being a pirate is all what you need,

So by this logic, Piratebay be advised: You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

[QUOTE=yannickgd;34372402]Being a pirate is all what you need,[/QUOTE] Alright with me* [editline]24th January 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Zezibesh;34371863][img]http://i.imgur.com/xN2Ud.gif[/img][/QUOTE] Totally saving that.

Haha, way to rub salt into the wounds Piratebay. Like a fucking boss :v:

I want to fucking high five the pirate bay right now. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it hollywood!

The difference is: TPB doesn't produce anything itself.

Shame companies can't understand that they should take piracy as competition, not criminal action. Compete, make your products better, include goodies and bonuses instead of shutting down the competition. Because you can't sustain monopoly in the world of internet, which is why they try to pass soap I suppose.

[QUOTE=Killuah;34372704]The difference is: TPB doesn't produce anything itself.[/QUOTE] Not like Hollywood produces anything worth anything.

Filesonic pussyed out.

It's a little ironic how TPB actually depends partly on Hollywood material BUT I do support them for taking such a bold stand, high fives and medals for them

Read their press release a while ago, it's really awesome.

I think we need to get a message out to the whole world. Piracy is NOT theft. Services and products have degraded so much that its simply easier to resort to piracy than shelling out hard earned money. As someone said earlier in this thread, you should take piracy as a competition. Do like valve does and try to provide a better service and better products to MAKE people part with their money. Seriously, I hate pointing out valve in every piracy case, but they are the only people who seem to have gotten it right. Every other company just does their damnest to ruin pirates, while only hurting their customers in the process. If people would just learn to compete with the pirates for better services.:rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Solo Wing;34372872][B]Piracy is NOT theft. Services and products have degraded so much that its simply easier to resort to piracy than shelling out hard earned money.[/B] [/QUOTE] That's quite selfish. The people making games and movies are doing it to earn their money. Imagine an independent game developer spending years of hard to on his game just so that he can earn a little bit more money, is it then alright for everyone to pirate it? [editline]24th January 2012[/editline] I don't support any of the stupid DRM/SOPA bullshit, but I don't support piracy either.

[QUOTE=Katatonic717;34372244]Yar har fiddle dee dee?[/QUOTE] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GXoZsgNHquM[/media]

[QUOTE=Swebonny;34372937]That's quite selfish. The people making games and movies are doing it to earn their money. Imagine an independent game developer spending years of hard to on his game just so that he can earn a little bit more money, is it then alright for everyone to pirate it? [editline]24th January 2012[/editline] I don't support any of the stupid DRM/SOPA bullshit, but I don't support piracy either.[/QUOTE] While I don't support all reasons for pirating, there are quite a few good reasons to pirate. But whatever your stance, you can't call it stealing or theft, because it isn't. It's copying at most.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;34372937]That's quite selfish. The people making games and movies are doing it to earn their money. Imagine an independent game developer spending years of hard to on his game just so that he can earn a little bit more money, is it then alright for everyone to pirate it? [editline]24th January 2012[/editline] I don't support any of the stupid DRM/SOPA bullshit, but I don't support piracy either.[/QUOTE] If the developer made a good game people would buy it to support the developer; if the developer made a bad game, then no one would buy it regardless of if they could illegally download it or not. Sure, there will always be people out there who illegally download everything, but there are also plenty of people who are willing to pay for quality products. [QUOTE=Miskav;34373013]But whatever your stance, you can't call it stealing or theft, because it isn't. It's copying at most.[/QUOTE] I couldn't agree more, I hate when companies talk about the number of illegal downloads in terms of what they lost; they didn't lose shit. One of two things happened, they either gained a customer who they wouldn't have had otherwise or nothing at all.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;34372937]That's quite selfish. The people making games and movies are doing it to earn their money. Imagine an independent game developer spending years of hard to on his game just so that he can earn a little bit more money, is it then alright for everyone to pirate it? [editline]24th January 2012[/editline] I don't support any of the stupid DRM/SOPA bullshit, but I don't support piracy either.[/QUOTE] I've never pirated an indie game and I'm not planning to. Games from publishers like Ubisoft, Activision and the likes are a completely different story though.

[QUOTE=Swebonny;34372937]That's quite selfish. The people making games and movies are doing it to earn their money. Imagine an independent game developer spending years of hard to on his game just so that he can earn a little bit more money, is it then alright for everyone to pirate it? [editline]24th January 2012[/editline] I don't support any of the stupid DRM/SOPA bullshit, but I don't support piracy either.[/QUOTE] I think what he's getting at is that a lot of companies are giving their customers a worse service than just giving them the software/movie/etc they're buying, so that you're paying for an inconvenience if you get it legally.

[QUOTE=soad_jonas;34373040]I've never pirated an indie game and I'm not planning to. Games from publishers like Ubisoft, Activision and the likes are a completely different story though.[/QUOTE] Basing what you pirate on who developed or published it is stupid. Big developers can make good games just the same as indie developers can make shit games. [QUOTE=Rents;34373063]I think what he's getting at is that a lot of companies are giving their customers a worse service than just giving them the software/movie/etc they're buying, so that you're paying for an inconvenience if you get it legally.[/QUOTE] It reminds me of that one image showing all the shit they put before they show you the movie compared to the pirated version. It's all about not driving your customer away.

[QUOTE=Rents;34373063]I think what he's getting at is that a lot of companies are giving their customers a worse service than just giving them the software/movie/etc they're buying, so that you're paying for an inconvenience if you get it legally.[/QUOTE] Day -1 DLC. Today many games are made with dlc in mind, not with content filled game in mind.