Federal agents and Hollywood team up to stop internet counterfeiting

1. 79

   sabrebIadeposted 13 years ago

   Federal agents and Hollywood team up to stop internet counterfeiting and piracy.
   Bridget Campos
   
   At a news conference on Wednesday at one of the soundstages of Disney Studios, U.S. officials announced a recent raid against pirating movies and internet counterfeiting, called �Operation in Our Sites.� According to the Hollywood Reporter, they seized nine internet domain names of web sites offering first-run movies, often within hours of their release in theaters.
   
   The seized domain names are tvshack.net, movies-links.tv, filespump.com, now-movies.com, planetmoviez.com, thepiratecity.org and zml.com; including ninjavideo.net, and ninjathis.net, which generated revenue from ads and donations.
   
   U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators and the Department of Homeland Security seized assets from 15 banks, PayPal and advertising accounts and moved on four residential search warrants in four states.
   
   The government cited data from the Motion Picture Association of America which claims that the U.S. film industry loses $25.6 billion each year to piracy, reported by The Wall Street Journal.
   
   http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/fed … 06-30-2010
   
   And you wonder why the conspiracy theory people think Hollywood and the US Gov are run by the same "Shadow Government"?
   It looks like the entertainment industry has Homeland Security as their lap dogs now.
   
   Was the Taliban running Ninja Video?
   Was watching 3 year old re-runs of "The Big Bang Theory" threatening our freedom?

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   1. 88

      WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I love how people can pull a conspiracy theory out of the most innocent or legally just event.
      
      How would you feel if someone stole your work without paying for it? If someone took one of your best performing hubs and claimed it as their own and thereby stole all your traffic?
      
      It's not a conspiracy, it's a smart move on the part of the government and the entertainment industry. Just like any fraud or embezzlement case.
      
      Just because the people who create the movies make millions, doesn't mean they don't deserve to get the profits.
      
      As to the remark about three year old programs. The article points out that many of the sites were running movies within days of their release - that's a bit different than a three year old program.

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2. 79

   sabrebIadeposted 13 years ago

   And the movies shown just after their release were crappy cam vids that were not even worth watching.
   
   And why is Hollywood using the Department of Homeland Security for this?
   The FCC I would understand.
   
   And yes I know that sites like Ninja video were killing profits.
   Look how badly Avatar did.
   It only made what...a little over $2 billion?
   Poor guys.

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3. 86

   IzzyMposted 13 years ago

   I doubt if pirate copies of movies affect the companies anywhere near as badly as they make out.
   I download pirate copies for private use, simply because a) I have no money to go to the cinema, and b) even if I did, living as I am in a foreign country I would not be able to see that movie in English.
   How have they lost out? I would not have gone to see them anyway.
   I know loads of people in the UK who watch pirate copies of movies, but ALSO go to the cinema on a regular basis. If you can afford it, watching a video on the big screen is completey different to watching it in the house. Avatar is a prime example.

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