Stephen Fry, the popular actor, author and current gadget blogger has spoken out about piracy this week, defending non-commercial piracy and berating the media watchdog groups, who he claims are going about it all wrong.
The lashing, made at the iTunes festival, started with Fry giving a history of music copyright.
Fry started by saying, according to the BBC, “that my business - the film business, the television business, the music business - is doing the wrong thing,” in regards to arresting and criminalizing file sharers.
He then mocked the “preposterous” MPAA ads that claim “You wouldn’t steal a car” by saying he can’t believe the industry would be “so blind… as to think that someone who bit-torrents an episode of 24 is the same as someone who steals somebody’s handbag (or car)”.
Fry himself admitted to downloading an episode of the popular series House, which stars his old friend Hugh Laurie and admitted as well to downloading a few episodes of 24.
The actor also acknowledged that commercial use of pirated material should lead to prosecution, as profiting off the thievery of others work is unjustifiable.
Finally, he added that he truly believed that if prices of digital downloads fell to “fair levels,” most people would pay for their music, and piracy would no longer be the “problem” it currently is.
Result for: music copyright
The giant Chinese search engine Baidu has been sued again, this time by a local music industry group, marking the second time in the last month that the search engine finds itself in legal trouble.
The Music Copyright Society of China and one of its officials, Qu Jingming accuse Baidu of “providing music listening, broadcasting and downloading services in various forms on its Web site without approval, and through unfettered piracy, earning huge advertising revenue on its huge number of hits.”
The group goes as far as to say that Baidu’s piracy led to the shut down of many up and coming legal online music providers. The group filed the suit in Bejing Court yesterday and alleges that 50 songs were illegally traded. The group wants monetary compensation.
Updates as they become available.
Result for: music copyright
BT, the largest broadband service provider in the UK, has begun threatening “pirates” with disconnection from the Internet if they are found to be sharing copyrighted music over file sharing networks.
An anonymous broadband user forwarded one such email to TheRegister and the letter indeed showed that the woman was being threatened with disconnection for the unauthorized sharing of “Biology” by Girls Aloud. The sharing occurred using the file sharing program Ares in May and she received the letter this week.
Geoff Taylor, the chief of UK record industry trade body the BPI said in a statement, “Establishing partnerships with ISPs is the number one issue for the BPI, and we are beginning to form positive working relationships with BT, Virgin Media and most of the other major ISPs.”
It was still unclear whether BT has signed on to the so-called “three strikes” procedure agreed upon by the record industry and the government. Accused users will get two warnings for infringing music copyright and the third strike will be disconnection from the Internet.
Taylor added, “Everyone agrees on where we need to be, and we are working closely with our colleagues across the music community, the more progressive ISPs, and government to get us there.”
BT did not comment but did say if the BPI provides evidence against BT broadband customers, those customers can expect similar threatening letters.
You can read the full BT letter here.
