Comments on: Piracy in China is smart, hilarious, critics say

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos finds that software pirates are getting better at marketing and aiming for a classier clientele.

[verbl800]

The quote is correct....

"Tonight, we dine in hell" is actually the correct quote from the movie "300". Thus, the journalist here is somewhat silly, as the quote on the DVD was correct. The others saying "we die in hell" are actually mistaken.

[Er|c]

Die in Hell?

Yeah, How do you do that? And then where do you go?

[jawil73]

Correct..

The quote is (from IMDB): "Spartan King Leonidas: Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!" Talk about stupid journalist... :-/

[hadaso]

The desire to see the real versions doesn't justify piracy???

The desire to see the real versions doesn't justify piracy???

So what does it justify? Does it justify mutiny?

There's a government there that is preventing people from freely getting information. The desire for freedom is the sytuff that justifies wars. People kill people to get freedom. Then if they succeed they celebrate it on the 4th of July or some other date, but you say it doesn't justify piracy?

I think even marketing tricks justify piracy. "Legitimate" versions are full of ads and other stuff like endless legal warnings that one cannot skip. This alone justifies getting a pirated copy without these annoyances.

[MSSlayer]

Haven't you heard?

Freedom is so 1900's.

Corporate profits are the most important thing now.

Privacy is the gravest sin one can now commit.

[jeromey.shannon]

You are a crazy person.

If you were a baker, and you sold cakes, and everyone came in and took bites out of your cakes, claiming they have the right to, instead of paying for them, does that justify piracy?
When you buy pirated software, you are paying criminals to steal cakes for you, so you can eat them for less money than buying them from the bakery and actually supporting the people that make the cakes.
These companies make movies. They want people to pay them for watching their movies. Or they won't have any money to make more movies. Same goes for TV, music, etc.
Unless you like eating stolen food, then by all means, dig in.

[sanenazok]

put it down

Put down whatever you were smoking and go read a book, maybe even take a walk. The founding fathers and the patriots who fought the Revolutionary War did so to secure freedom to think and learn. I don't think they would support your "right" to do what you please with motion picture-based entertainment products. If anything they would support people not having access to this garbage to begin with. Some of the best movies around are complete crap when compared with a good literature.

Actually when you think about it, prevention of piracy is all about copyright which the founding fathers put in the constitution. Same with government warnings - it is the spirit of the founders of the US that causes the government to give you a warning.

[skeptik]

No, plain and simple. But...

""Legitimate" versions are full of ads and other stuff like endless legal warnings that one cannot skip. This alone justifies getting a pirated copy without these annoyances."

No it surely does not. It DOES justify you making a copy of your purchased disc, which you can choose to remove the warnings if you want - and the software to do so should be legal.
You can tear the cover off a book you buy, you can throw away the case for a CD... the MPAA and RIAA seem to think that just because something is digital, it entitles them to control how you use it. That is a fallacy that needs to be corrected in our legal system.
Many casual pirates seem to think that not liking the packaging, price or quality of a product entitles them to steal it. That is a fallacy that needs to be corrected in our societal system.

[hellsyes]

Piracy and Dining

1. I agree. I thought it WAS "Dine in hell"
2. This doesn't justify DRM at all. All DRM does, as far as I can tell, is keep people from watching legitimate movies.

As soon as the <insert money-grubbing group of corporations with four-letter acronym here> come up with a new DRM or protection scheme, it gets cracked in a few weeks anyhow. I don't know the answer, but I know what the answer is not.. and thats DRM

[sanenazok]

Here's how the justification for DRM works

I didn't exactly understand it at first either, but it makes sense:

the author said that the DVD ripped copy was pristine, while the version pirated from a theater was unwatchable. This is why DVD releases should be protected in one way or another (like DRM) since pirated DVD's ARE competition for legit DVD's while bootleg movies aren't really competition for actual theaters. I'm likely to agree with the author. I've been renting DVD's since the late 90s and I'm yet to be stopped by DRM from watching or enjoying a movie...so I don't know what you're referring to exactly. Sure the DRM will be cracked, but at least it prevents some casual piracy...If there was no DRM they would have to make blank media extremely expensive, which would suck a lot more I think.

[hrm9876]

It's easier...

...to just use MAFIAA (Music And Film Industry Associations of
America) instead of <insert money-grubbing group of corporations
with four-letter acronym here>.

[paulej]

DRM is useless

I frequently go to China and have for years. While the author had not seen DVDs for sale on the streets before, they've been there for years.

They definitely have a well-refined piracy network. Isn't it interesting how the disc artwork and printed material is all ready to go by the time they are ready to produce the DVD? Isn't it amazing how they're able to have discs on the streets for sale within three days of a movie release? I remember when the Harry Potter movie was release before Thanksgiving one year (2001?), it was on sale in Beijing within a just a few days. For years, they have been extremely fast in getting movies from screen to disc.

DRM will not help. DVDs already have DRM! You are dealing with people who have the wherewithal to get around any kind of protection you might want to employ. In fact, based on the physical quality of the discs I have seen when visiting China, I would bet they're using the same technology to create DVDs as any of the companies hired by the movie studios.

The author mentioned that some movies were recorded in the theaters. This happens a lot. In fact, many people in China I know who buy these discs tell me that they often buy the early releases just so they can see the movie-- in spite of the fact that it might be recorded in a theater-- and then they buy the movie again once the DVD is released, since the pirates will immediately switch to providing the duplicated DVD to buyers.

DRM is not the key and will not stop these experts.

Piracy is not as serious in the US and, in fact, I do not even know where one can buy pirated discs in the US. While I am sure there might be some illegal sales here, they are harder to find, because the government controls it.

To China's credit, I have seen the police cracking down on these sellers, too. Several times, I've seen people selling pirated movies and music pack up and immediately start running within seconds. It is absolutely amazing how fast they can pack up and leave. About 30 to 60 seconds later, one to five police officers will walk by. My guess is that the pirates have people standing guard and they have some means of alerting each other when they spot the piracy police.

Hilarious is an appropriate adjective.

[shanedr]

You should have more sense

DRM as you've discovered does absolutely nothing with preventing piracy. All DRM does is make it difficult for those of us who wish to store a movie on our hard drives so we don't have to sort through all of our discs in order to play the movie.

Only one thing will stop piracy - chasing down the pirates and prosecuting them.

[ethana2]

My solution

...Is to make it so easy to make one's one quality content that we have no reliance on the industry anymore and they are faced with the decision to reevaluate their business models or file chapter 11.

The first industry on my list is software. Tell these poor Chinese people that Open Source software exists; that they don't have to decide between a month's salary, digital powerlessness, or the label of a criminal. Screw Microsoft and anyone else who would deprive these people of infinitely replicable goods for the sake of a few dollars. Information demands freedom, and I will fight for the sake of all who are hardest pressed to need such freedom, like the penniless citizens of Beijing.

Software, music, books, and movies are the intellectual air we breath. It's a shame people feel they must depend on corporate entities for it. If people were expected to fork up $2.00 for every thousand liters of air they took into their lungs, I think you'd see a lot of stealing happening there, too.

But I'm just a democratic socialist that gets worked up easily. You may direct the flaming to my email: [e-mail], to ease the server load of these fine people at cnet. I'll assume they're not using IIS...

And despite my somewhat harsh tone and radical idealism, I wish you all a nice 24 hours, whether or not you feel compelled to be diurnal. ;)

[Chika73]

Valuation is the problem!

My take is this...

Valuations have gone way overboard. And free market today means entrapping the consumer by blowing up numbers, getting more criminals on board (read co-sponsors, associates) so everyone can make more money - all gas.

I am in marketing, communications and I know how this **** works... someones whim and fancy. Someones market valuation and targets have been set... because he wants to upgrade to a new Prius this summer. How is it that studios, manufacturers are able to give hefty discounts during Christmas sale? Benevolence?

A 200 million dollar movie (which turns out like crap) gets marketed with a budget way over, bcos some one has seen dollar signs... and it turns out crap after I end up going to theater spending hard earned 20$ on the ticket...useless!

I buy a pirated version - check it out and if i really see its worth then I decide to pick up an original disc, or second hand DVD, or at a discount sale, or just let it go... who needs a personal copy of crap because it was marketed well.

The business models are changing... MySpace threw up a Lily Allen and many more follow. Piracy might not be the solution, but DRM isn't either.

You cannot weed out piracy as long as anyone is asking why the hell am i paying so much for this crap? what is it? let me try it before i buy it? Free market anyone?

[George Riddick]

Piracy in China

Hi Michael,

I enjoyed your piracy post, but here is my slightly different point of view:

1. Your piracy rate for China is way too low. The people calculating these rates don't count some of the most flagrant and damaging categories of copyrighted material. My estimate would be closer to 96% than 86%.

2. Russia's rate is equally high. Unfortunately, many people consider it a slap in the face to their new American "friends" to steal their property (and then sell it back to them on the streets). And no one thinks Bill Gates deserves to pocket another 20 billion.

3. Asia isn't alone. The piracy rates in Brazil are also off the charts ... and who's really doing anything about it?

4. Finally, and I think this is the biggest ocntributor by far, both our largest technology companies, and our government, take hypocritical stands when it comes to piracy. Even our college students have noticed this in droves.

People who live in glass houses cannot afford to be caught throwing stones. The walls break down everywhere just the same ... whether it's in Asia, South America, Europe ... or right here at home!

For more on copyrights and piracy visit our web site at www.imageline2.com

Keep up the interesting work.

George Riddick
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.

[e-mail]

[iseasygoing]

Piracy in China what do you expect?

What do you expect, these stupid old hippies and yippies that are now fat old billionaires running corporate America think the world is flat and some grandiose whole earth catalog. Idiot Yale education that has no concept of history or geography, they forget that Yale was built with Drug money profiteered when the Brits hooked China on Opium,the smugglers funded Yale and the idiots running Corporate America and the 90 day attention span have no idea that to the Chinese 90 days is nothing and they think in terms of what is good for China and as for the US and our sycophantic CEO class it is no wonder that China is stealing America blind. So what is the communist party in corporate China doing? They are doing exactly what American corporate culture does, they are stealing and the attitude towards intellectual property is screw it, not their problem. When a nation like the United States allows stupid old greedy hippies in three piece suits to sell us on the idea that FREE TRADE is like some modern day flea market economy then this stuff will happen. The one thing the idiotic old Yippies and Hippies do not comprehend is FAIR TRADE, if they did they would not be taking down billions for companies they did not start selling ideas they did not invent and the US would not be the largest supplier of SCRAP METAL in the world sucking up to China who these idiots from Yale and Harvard would not have pumped up China with economic steroids and turned them into a economic Juggernaut
The problem with China is they are acting like they have a Harvard or Yale education and not like they have a GOOD education. So put that in your pipe and smoke it! We have gone from the Greatest generation leading things to the Stupidest generation leading things and don't trust anyone between 59 and 74 with anything that has to do with common sense they don't have it. Look at the mess this country is in, SCRAP METAL IS our number 1 export!