MPAA Threatens To Disconnect Google From Internet 468
An anonymous reader writes "Over the last few months, Google has received more than 100 copyright infringement warnings from MPAA-affiliated movies studios. Most are directed at users of Google's public Wi-Fi service, but others are meant for Google employees. The MPAA is thus warning the search giant that it might get disconnected from the Internet. Although the copyright holders use strong language, these notices are simply warnings, and typically do not lead to legal action."
Re:How strange (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I think it's time (Score:5, Interesting)
You know, they could do this. They could just stop indexing everything MPAA related (i.e. their homepage). That's more or less a death sentence on the internet these days.
Illegal Threats? (Score:4, Interesting)
Isn't there a term for this? 'Legal Battery' or something? I think if Lawyers could lose their licences to practice over pulling these kinds of stunts then they'd think twice before sending these letters out... or else expect to get paid in advance to do so.
Re:I will be very honest (Score:5, Interesting)
What amazes me is - this is precisely the same crap the Cult of Scientology [arstechnica.com] keeps [chillingeffects.org] doing [slashdot.org].
Has anyone ever noticed how many MafiAA bigwigs are also Scientologists? Anyone think there might be a connection?
friendly advice to the *AAs: (Score:5, Interesting)
REV 13:4
Re:I will be very honest (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not illegal to quote PUBLIC GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS - So ruled the Supreme Court of these United States
US District Court, Central District of California
Fishman Case # 91-6426 HLH (Tx) Continued
Exhibit B
Dismas House, Room 324
141 N. W. 1st Avenue
Dania, Florida 33004
ON CONTROL AND LYING
____________________
THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can
write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you
can control anybody is to lie to them. When you find an individual
is lying to you, you know that the individual is trying to control
you. One way or another this individual is trying to control
you. That is the mechanism of control. This individual is lying to
you because he is trying to control you - because if they give you
enough misinformation they will pull you down the tone scale so that
they can control you. Conversely, if you see an impulse on the part
of a human being to control you, you know very well that that human
being is lying to you. Not "is going to", but "is" lying to you.
[last sentence is underlined in original]
Check these facts, you will find they are always true. That person
who is trying to control you is lying to you. He's got to tell you
lies in order to continue control, because the second you start
telling anybody close to the truth, you start releasing him and
he gets tougher and tougher to control. So, you can't control
somebody without telling them a bunch of lies. You will find that
very often Command has this as its greatest weakness. It will try to
control instead of leading. The next thing you know, it is lying to
the [illegible]. Lie, lie, lie, and it gets worse and worse, and all
of a sudden the thing blows up. Well, religion has done this.
[Following sentence is underlined] Organised religion
tries to control, so therefore must be lying. [end underline]
After a while it figures out (even itself) that it is lying, and then
it starts down tone scale further and further, and all of a sudden
people get down along this spring-like bottom (heresy) and say,
"Are we going into apathy and die, or are we going to revolt?"
and they revolt, because you can only lie to people so long.
Unfortunately there is always a new cycle of lying.
L. Ron Hubbard
Technique 88
Next week: DHS siezes Google domain name (Score:5, Interesting)
http://ipwatchdog.com/2009/01/19/riaa-attorney-appointed-to-top-doj-position/id=1594/ [ipwatchdog.com]
there once was a time (Score:5, Interesting)
when they made movies that were seen in cinema houses, which people bought tickets too. how quaint and historic
oh wait!
that's not history: the most profitable movie ever made, "avatar", just made a mint, less than a year ago, excluding all dvd sales. they made a massive profit in these quaint historic relics called "cinemas"
the cinema house is not a historic relic. it still works as a solid revenue generator and business model. i'm certain some strange gollum like creatures are happy watching movies alone in their cold basement on a 17 inch screen, but most of will go drive or walk to the cinema and pay to see movies, even with the cell phones and babies and expensive popcorn, its still a superior experience. they've even done sociological studies that all the oohs and aahs in the theatre alongside you in the dark heightens the movie going experience: we're social creatures, that someone else is crying or laughing or afraid heightens your enjoyment. it's the same sociology that drives people to go to church: shared emotional experience equals enjoyment (i know, this is probably the wrong website to talk about this social phenomenon)
cinemas, in other words, with the latest in IMAX tech, with their huge screens: you can't recreate that at home. cinema is a solid business. they said cinema houses were dead... in the 1950s. tv was supposed to kill them, it didn't. vhs tape was supposed to kill them, it didn't. and now the internet is supposed to kill the cinema. guess what: it's not. profits have been going up and up and up, no dvd sales, no internet streaming or cable deals needed
the mpaa is not protecting its existence, its protecting its dvd cash cow (which is already dying) and other cable deals/ internet ways to stream movies
but if they limited themselves to revenue just from theatres, and DID THEIR FUCKING JOB and protected the movie files form being pirated/ stolen from cinema houses... guess what? they would still make plenty of money to fund plenty of moviemaking from cinema houses. imagine that!
so basically: fuck you mpaa. stay in your cinema house, and don't mess with the internet. assholes
This is the USA (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:They're serious? They can't be serious. (Score:5, Interesting)
Just speculate for a minute - let's assume they pull their Evil Puppet String, call someone on the Purple Phone, and Voila, Google is faced with a cease and desist from doing business on the net. Just here in dreamland, suppose it is as easy as what Egypt pulled.
Would that be enough for the revolt to kick off real change? Would the frog finally notice it's been boiling?
Re:Next week: DHS siezes Google domain name (Score:5, Interesting)
>>>RIAA and MPAA have managed to get a 'man inside' the DoJ and to harness the power of federal government to protect their interests under the guise of movies and songs being a national security issue
Or as Thom. Jefferson wisely foresaw ~220 years ago:
"Copyrights of this sort can be justified in very peculiar cases only, if at all; the danger being very great that the good resulting from the operation of the monopoly, will be overbalanced by the evil effect of the precedent. And it being possible that the monopoly itself, in its original operation, may produce more evil than good." - He must have used a crystal ball to see RIAA and MPAA colluding with the government to protect their assopoly,.
Re:Next week: DHS siezes Google domain name (Score:5, Interesting)
If, all of the sudden, Americans woke up one day and found Google (mind you, Amazon, Facebook, and a few other web presences would have a similar effect) gone, they would go into a frothing mad rage. As soon as one person pointed a finger at Hollywood or the DHS, you'd have a God damned holy war on your hands. We Americans are certainly passive little government lap dogs as long as we have a steady soma dose of useless crap pumped into our veins via T.V. and the internet. But if you cut off that IV, you will learn really quick like just how much rage a bunch of pissed off house wives that can no longer access their lolcats pictures can generate.
Go Google Go (Score:5, Interesting)
Answer #1: Attention world please find attached a list of materials MPAA members or agents have directly released to the internet. We belive these are now considered free use to all.
Answer #2: Discovery request. The MPAA is requested to turn over all authorship and ownership rights documentation on all material the MPAA claims to have authority over. Note we are Google. We mean ALL. We will take paper napkins and scan them if needed. We want all physical mail and all email correspondence between the MPAA and members for the last 100 years or life of claimed copyright, which ever is longer. Note we are Google the amount of material is not a problem to us. Have a nice day.
Replace the MPAA (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead of fighting the MPAA, Google could replace the MPAA.
Google could approach each major studio and make a very clear case.
We control the disemination of information in a major way. We control the distribution of content in a major way. You haven't figured out the online model yet. And while the RIAA was busy chasing Napster, Apple came along with iTunes and took over the music industry. What if we decided to start purchasing the rights to distribute films, and completely eliminated your current distribution system?
We have the backbone to distribute them to theaters and invidual consumers just the same. And the people who would jump onboard first are the guys like James Cameron, Steve Speilberg, George Lucas, Chris Nolan, etc. that love to push innovation and new technology. The big blockbuster films that provide the bulk of your profit would disappear overnight.
Or you can beg right now to be kept in the loop and cut a similar deal with us now, where we allow you to continue to distribute to theaters and just use Google to help distribute to video on demand, Google TV, etc. in the future.
More evidence of MPAA thuggery (Score:2, Interesting)
This is more evidence that MPAA are thugs and they want to destroy the internet. Just because you want to destroy the internet, doesn't mean you can actually do it, or at least not without the help of a Republican president.
Re:Don't make me laugh! (Score:5, Interesting)
Google's response: removing all search results for MPAA-backed content. MPAA collapses. Job well done, boys. "Suicide by Google" is certainly an interesting way to finally snuff yourself out.
Re:I will be very honest (Score:5, Interesting)
Then again, you can control people by telling them someone else is trying to control them, and that only by following you will they be truly free. You can also say the same thing over and over again in a mind-deadening cadence until the victim's brain short circuits.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)