Mastodawn

Vishus Jul 28, 2023

Countless Screaming Argonauts

Everyone: Let's use this worldwide communication network to download all the movies and TV show we could ever want.
Hollywood Execs: But that would be piracy!
Everyone: So what?
Hollywood: If you pirate these movies, the people that make them won't get paid for doing so.
Everyone: So if we get the movies through you, they will get paid?
Hollywood:
Hollywood: I never said that.

Countless Screaming Argonauts Aug 1, 2023

This post has now been shared enough that I'm seeing screenshots of it reshared on Facebook (by people who aren't on Mastodon).

Jim Ryan Aug 2, 2023

@nickwedig Heheh I came over here when I saw that someone had posted it in one of the Facebook groups I'm in. 😂

Gurbintroll Aug 2, 2023

@nickwedig I think that means you've won at Mastodon!

bigiain Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig Also Hollywood: Let's use this worldwide communication network to download all the words everybody else has ever created, and feed them into our tools to make movies and TV shows without needing writers.
Everyone: Hang on, wasn't it you guys that made sure all those words you're using are covered by that same copyright rules you tall us makes downloading your movies illegal?
Hollywood:
Hollywood: Copyright laws are for _us_, not for _you_!

Thunderstrike Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig Years ago when Napster was the big controversy, Jay Leno did one of his Jaywalking segments where he ran into the drummer for a big-name band (at the time) who was living in a tiny studio apartment in a not-great area of New York, and when I dug into how musicians (do not) get paid by record labels I realized it would be okay to burn the whole industry to the ground.

Andreas K Jul 28, 2023

@tstrike78 @nickwedig The Industry had no problem with napster. It had a problem with napster with being not owned by them.

Now when you realize that Spotify nowadays is mostly owned by the big labels, you realize that they basically control how much they pay to their artists at will: they literally control the “costs” of distribution, hence how much is left over to distribute to the artists.

LisPi Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig Sounds like doing away with the middleman there would be a good idea.

Hawkmoon Jul 28, 2023

Same for music.

bassplayer Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig Too many streaming services and not enough competent writers to go around.

LonesomeDove Jul 28, 2023

@bassplayer @nickwedig or.. the budgets from producers drive down creativity.

Consider the clone world of Hallmark movies.. quirky guy/ gal returns home or forced to SmallTown USA .. gotta be white (historically) and grossly cute & hetero

Or action movies .. white domestic terrorists take over WH or similar .. threaten global security blah blah blah .. single champ saves world

Or political thrillers .. see above - first it was USSR, then China, then ME, then home grown.

bassplayer Jul 29, 2023

@usanchor There will always be the heros Journey its been around forever the problem is todays writers are bad or are hamstrung by studio interference. Gradual over reliance on formula writing seems more producers milking the current popular thing like reality shows or super heros. My wife likes the Hallmark movies, it's not my thing. I'm not mad she watches it. That would be like getting mad at someone liking music you don't like.

Finley Ⓥ Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A WORKFORCE

Chris Hall Jul 28, 2023

This is the lesson we’re learning from the #SAGAFTRA and #WGA #Strike.

Also, Strikes work, goddammit. We need more.

From @nickwedig

https://dice.camp/users/nickwedig/statuses/110789131676244975

Nobody Important (@[email protected])

Everyone: Let's use this worldwide communication network to download all the movies and TV show we could ever want. Hollywood Execs: But that would be piracy! Everyone: So what? Hollywood: If you pirate these movies, the people that make them won't get paid for doing so. Everyone: So if we get the movies through you, they will get paid? Hollywood: Hollywood: I never said that.

Dice.camp

Qybat Jul 29, 2023

@Xopher It remains to be seen remains to be seen if the strike works. It depends how sociopathic the collective population of studio management is: If they hold out long enough, eventually the strikers will realise that they can't buy food and are going to be evicted from their homes, and they will have no choice but to come crawling back and beg for crumbs.

A hundred years ago the studios would have hired undercover agents to find strike leaders and beat them up. Can't get away with that now.

Fernby Films Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig oh perfect!

olaolarolla Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig who's the 'real' pirate now brah...

researchagain Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig Well said! 😅

Nicole Parsons Jul 28, 2023

What is it called where the workers aren't paid for their labor, the benefits accrue only to a tiny moneyed elite, they orchestrate Civil Wars to keep, scaremonger feverishly about worker uprisings & rebellions, and they convert the law into a vehicle for maintaining that system?

Hmm...is it slavery?

mupan 📚Aug 5, 2023

@Npars01 @nickwedig At least exploitation. @MaryMarasKittenBakery

Rod Hilton Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig the moral argument against piracy has collapsed.

your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦Jul 28, 2023

@rodhilton @nickwedig 🗣️ 📣 LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!!!

Your favourite booster Jul 28, 2023

@blogdiva @rodhilton @nickwedig
Thanks, now I heard it too. :)

Good thing that Swiss law allows downloads for private use anyway.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/sci-tech/downloading-and-uploading_what-the-new-swiss-copyright-law-means-for-consumers-of-pirated-online-content/45305402

What the new Swiss copyright law means for consumers of pirated online content

Rather than penalise those who download content that infringe copyright, the amendments target hosting providers.

swissinfo.ch

Matt Moore Jul 28, 2023

@rodhilton @nickwedig I’m not sure there ever was one

Mycotropic Jul 28, 2023

@mmoore @rodhilton @nickwedig I have a physical copy of all 3000 movies on my Plex server and I'm okay with doing that, that said this thread is persuasive.

Rev. GothAlice Jul 28, 2023

@rodhilton @nickwedig And the argument for "piracy" as preservation has only skyrocketed, as production companies shift their content between streaming providers to maximize profits, giving the shaft to consumers who can't (and aren't) paying subscribers of literally every service.

Sure, I haven't been given a perpetual license to X media, but they sure as hell can't stop me. (2TiB+ of YouTube archived so far…)

Rev. GothAlice Jul 28, 2023

@rodhilton @nickwedig Ultra-classical example: a B&W German archive of the first animated film, Prince Achmed. A sequel to Aladdin. The actual story, not Disney's variant.

Qybat Jul 29, 2023

@alice @rodhilton @nickwedig There are a few communities around dedicated to that sort of archival work, but because of their illegal nature they all operate in semi-secrecy, and it's rarely possible for a public archive to survive for any length of time. That makes actually finding things difficult. Someone, somewhere, has that old comic from the 80s you want in their personal collection - but good luck ever finding it. Perhaps one day copyright will be abolished and all the collections united.

Rev. GothAlice Jul 29, 2023

@Qybat In fact, I probably do have that comic. The last two or three months I've been "deep archiving" rather substantial comic collections, and have some non-comic works dating back more than 100 years. (Sister asked me for a medieval manuscript on textiles and clothing manufacture, and within 48h she had it. She couldn't believe it.)

Up here in Canada we have "fair dealing", which is a little better than "fair use", but… non-commercial personal development is hard to argue if you share.

Qybat Jul 29, 2023

@alice Imteresting. I too have a large collection. Propose exchange? I also have some software used for lossless or near-lossless reduction of file sizes through recompression that might be of use.

Rev. GothAlice Jul 29, 2023

@Qybat Some JPEGs I'm processing go from 2.3MiB to 40KiB (blank pages are dumb, or mostly-blank with tiny logo centred on them).

Do you have 50TiB handy?
… it's … uh … a rather substantial collection. But at least I have gigabit fibre, so it shouldn't take /too/ long. (It'll take too long. Exercising offsite backup restores can take a week or two, and there are things like a copy of Wikipedia, every Popular Mechanics, Encyclopedia Brittanica, Project Gutenberg, &c. in here. Plus multimedia…)

Rev. GothAlice Jul 29, 2023

@Qybat The multimedia is a touch more problematic, since much of it (other than the aforementioned first animated film) are under rather strict modern copyright.

🤔 Checking… 27,423 songs totalling 76.9 days playing 24/7. 409 movies (officially; so not able to share most of these) totalling 245 days played 24/7. 5,261 television episodes (officially for most; some exceptions) totalling 105.8 days 24/7.

I used to decrypt iTunes video media in the name of preservation, but that's gotten harder.

David Jul 28, 2023

This is my argument for choosing streaming services like adblocked YouTube and others.

In a world where ad revenue goes to creators my preferences would change.

In a world where streaming subscriptions displace instead of double charge with ads my preferences would change. But the lack of pay for creators has corrupted this system in many ways.

LeBonk Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig
It's amazing how willing people are to just take these arguments at face value and not internalize the obvious reality that they literally just want to use the arm of the law to force you to give up your money and your freedoms. That's it.

Саша Морс, here we go again...Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig yo ho ho

The Werewolf Jul 28, 2023

@nickwedig OMG... this is the right wing 'You might still be in poverty, but at least you have a job and you aren't working on your parent's farm' argument they use to justify exploiting workers in China and India!

I hasn't seen it framed that way before.

Brilliant!

Kristoffer Lawson Jul 28, 2023

Also Hollywood: oh and did we tell you that you can’t buy or rent that movie online that you want to watch. So yeah.
The BBC: What a great idea!

Clinton Anderson SwordForHire Jul 29, 2023

@nickwedig There is no such thing as piracy as long as "purchased" doesn't mean "owned".

Iron Curtain (Chiptunes)Jul 30, 2023

@nickwedig I think one of the writers of the Daily show said that about then-president Sumner Redstone: "When you're not paying him, you owe him $350 million. When he's not paying you, _he's not paying you_."