big brother IS watching us
my home phone rang this morning with a little surprise for me. it was a representative of bt who asked me to confirm that i have a broadband service with them. when i said he did, he told me they had been contacted by paramount movies (as far as i can see there is no entity of this name, but who am i to split hairs) to say i was sharing a movie of theirs, an inconvenient truth. he asked me to remove it from my pc because if they didn't they could take further action.
at the moment i'm feeling a little bit scared but also i'm feeling a little bit indignant. i am far from what could be called a serial downloader - i have 6 movies on my hard drive which i did not purchase. would i have purchased them if i hadn't downloaded them. in the case of the older ones - no, i could have simply recorded them on dvd the next time they are on tv. would i have paid for an inconvenient truth and the other more recent films on my hard drive (all three of them). of course i would have.
the bottom line is that there is no legitimate service for me to avail of to download this movie and watch it legally. if i'm mistaken on that i'd love to hear about it.
wake up paramount, it's 2007 and this is how your (potential) customers want to watch content. apple is selling the apple tv box from its' irish store - what content from their pcs do you think that people are going to watch on their tvs? have you people learned nothing from your friends in the music industry?
in the late 90s, like a lot of other people i know was a heavy user of napster in its freewheeling days (thank you, shawn fanning). i mostly used it to grab old classics that i owned on vinyl or tape although i did grab some stuff that i didn't own. i also discovered new artists through napster and if i downloaded them and liked the album i generally went out and bought it.
today, i have purchased about 20 albums from iTunes, have a monthly subscription to e-music and have also used a couple of other legitimate music services. and that's form someone who had all but stopped buying new music for a couple of years between the closure of the free napster and the launnch of decent paid-for services. my point is that because i started using illegal services when there was no alternative i was happy to pay for the commercial services when they came along. particularly when i recently bought the good, the bad and the queen on iTunes for €9.99 but paid the ridiculous sum of €19.99 for a cd version in a shop as a present for a friend. i also use mp3 blogs to hear new music but again after downloading something i like i buy it.
i'm reminded of the recent comments by consumer electronics association president gary shapiro at the midem conference when having a debate at the midem conference. "I don’t make you look evil - your lawsuits against old people around the country make you look evil"
in the meantime the coward in me removed the bit torrent client from my pc. given what i do for a living i certainly don't want to be a martyr to the cause and get dragged through the courts on this one. did i remove the offending copyright material? if you really want to know mr paramount lawyer you'll just have to come and find out.
POST NOTE: this all comes after the balcony tv debacle. while i might be caught bang to rights that smacks of heavy-handed behaviour by copyright holders which is just plain wrong.
It is also worrying that Paramount tracked a small-timer like you and contacted your ISP. Its not like you were sucking down 100s of movies and distributing them.
Posted by: Paul M. Watson | February 15, 2007 at 05:26 PM
I am surprised that BT would put someone onto this kind of case because for a rights holder to make a case, they normally have to show a pattern of downloading. Yours doesn't seem to fit the mould.
My provider knows I run an open wifi node so any activity spotted at my IP address could be coming from the white Garda Traffic Corps vehicle parked alongside my house.
Posted by: Bernie Goldbach | February 16, 2007 at 07:44 AM
Not as surprised or worried as I was guys. I just get the feeling that in more and more cases the ISPs, site publishers etc. are just rolling over and giving the big media firms whatever they want. That movie was only on my hard drive for 6 days when I get the call and other than sharing it as I downloaded it with a Bit Torrent client, I'm mystified as to why they chose my IP address to target.
Bernie, I have WEP on my wi-fi network so don't have the same plausible deniability that you have. I would be worried about running an open network in a crowded urban environment although my neighbours aren't!
Posted by: John Collins | February 16, 2007 at 01:08 PM
the bottom line is that there is no legitimate service for me to avail of to download this movie and watch it legally. if i'm mistaken on that i'd love to hear about it.
Coming soon:
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/03/06/hints-from-itunes-7-1-appletv-games-and-international-movies/
Posted by: EWI | March 07, 2007 at 12:59 AM
Thanks for the tip. To me it seems that the movie studios are getting tough in advance of doing deals in Europe.
Posted by: John Collins | March 07, 2007 at 10:05 AM