I think it's been blocked here for a few years actually. I at least know one friend who keeps bitching and whining about it. It's easier to just buy it though, at least for me. It's just go down into town, grab whatever movie, album, book or game I want and then head back home. Or if I buy stuff online it's usually just 4 clicks and it's bought.
There are so many torrent sites, not to mention that the pirate bay recently changed their domain name to thepiratebay.se. Who's to say that they can't change their domain name again? Plus, there are easy ways to bypass this.
I have no problem with the fact that it is Pirate Bay that is being blocked. I think the defense that it doesn't actually host any of the content being pirated is a bit silly. It's purpose as a website is clearly nothing but to enable piracy. At the same time, it seems like the more sites that get blocked for the right reasons, the closer we get to a site being blocked for the wrong reasons.
Good for them, I'm strongly against piracy so anything to hassle the pirates is a good thing in my book.
On a side note, Pirate Bay have been blocked for several years here in Denmark. Not that I care, I don't pirate stuff, and if I really needed to, I know both how to bypass it and other places I could go...
EDIT: I just searched for Pirate Bay on Google and the first site that came up was "thepiratebay.se" which isn't blocked, so yeah, the pirates didn't care at all, they put up a new side and continued onwards.
EDIT2: thepiratebay.org also redirects to the .se site so the Danish block doesn't do anything anymore.
I don't really like what people use the pirate bay for, but I don't think any government has the right to block it. I also find it kinda funny that the UK did it before the US, I guess they didn't need to pass an acronym to get it done!
Good for them, I'm strongly against piracy so anything to hassle the pirates is a good thing in my book.
On a side note, Pirate Bay have been blocked for several years here in Denmark. Not that I care, I don't pirate stuff, and if I really needed to, I know both how to bypass it and other places I could go...
EDIT: I just searched for Pirate Bay on Google and the first site that came up was "thepiratebay.se" which isn't blocked, so yeah, the pirates didn't care at all, they put up a new side and continued onwards.
The problem is it's NOT a hassle to pirates. There are so many other websites to use out there, and if you're watching American TV shows, chances are you have a hotspot shield of some sort installed anyway. This won't work and will only lead to harsher censorships being imposes, such as ACTA or SOPA.
The best solution will always be simply to make everything more accessible. Why can't we simply watch episodes of South Park on the official website, like the rest of the world can? Why can't I watch Game of Thrones anywhere online or buy DVD's? We're pretty much forced into pirating certain things, either because we can't get them any other way, or because it's much easier. Services like GOG.com and Netflix prove people will pay and most will even prefer to do this.. if we're given the option.
It isn't banned per se, it just won't connect you to TBP if you type in http://www.thepiretebay.se from that particular ISP. There are literally dozens of trivial ways to circumvent the "ban."
Good for them, I'm strongly against piracy so anything to hassle the pirates is a good thing in my book.
On a side note, Pirate Bay have been blocked for several years here in Denmark. Not that I care, I don't pirate stuff, and if I really needed to, I know both how to bypass it and other places I could go...
EDIT: I just searched for Pirate Bay on Google and the first site that came up was "thepiratebay.se" which isn't blocked, so yeah, the pirates didn't care at all, they put up a new side and continued onwards.
The problem is it's NOT a hassle to pirates. There are so many other websites to use out there, and if you're watching American TV shows, chances are you have a hotspot shield of some sort installed anyway. This won't work and will only lead to harsher censorships being imposes, such as ACTA or SOPA.
The best solution will always be simply to make everything more accessible. Why can't we simply watch episodes of South Park on the official website, like the rest of the world can? Why can't I watch Game of Thrones anywhere online or buy DVD's? We're pretty much forced into pirating certain things, either because we can't get them any other way, or because it's much easier. Services like GOG.com and Netflix prove people will pay and most will even prefer to do this.. if we're given the option.
I think that's gong a bit to far but yes, the correct answer is to make things easy to consume.
@SethPhotopoulos: I don't think so, Game of Thrones is the perfect example too. If you want to watch it here at the moment, piracy is literally your only option. That's pretty stupid.
I'm not saying anyone should do this, but the point was it's not hard to see why they do.
Good for them, I'm strongly against piracy so anything to hassle the pirates is a good thing in my book.
On a side note, Pirate Bay have been blocked for several years here in Denmark. Not that I care, I don't pirate stuff, and if I really needed to, I know both how to bypass it and other places I could go...
EDIT: I just searched for Pirate Bay on Google and the first site that came up was "thepiratebay.se" which isn't blocked, so yeah, the pirates didn't care at all, they put up a new side and continued onwards.
The problem is it's NOT a hassle to pirates. There are so many other websites to use out there, and if you're watching American TV shows, chances are you have a hotspot shield of some sort installed anyway. This won't work and will only lead to harsher censorships being imposes, such as ACTA or SOPA.
The best solution will always be simply to make everything more accessible. Why can't we simply watch episodes of South Park on the official website, like the rest of the world can? Why can't I watch Game of Thrones anywhere online or buy DVD's? We're pretty much forced into pirating certain things, either because we can't get them any other way, or because it's much easier. Services like GOG.com and Netflix prove people will pay and most will even prefer to do this.. if we're given the option.
Yeah, agreed. I've previously pirated shows out of convenience and accessibility, but I'm still paying Netflix $8 or 9 a month to be able to queue up an episode of an old show on my tablet to listen to while I fall asleep.
This focusing on individual sites is really pointless. Are you going to fine and arrest half of your computer literate population? No. Are you going to get them to stop doing what they're doing by stopping one website? hell no. Nothing is going to stop this short of cutting off internet access for a whole country, and even then (Looking at you, China), that's not going to stop the spread of digital content. The genie is out of the bottle, things will never go back to the way they were. Old media paradigms need to evolve or die.
@SethPhotopoulos: I don't think so, Game of Thrones is the perfect example too. If you want to watch it here at the moment, piracy is literally your only option. That's pretty stupid.
I'm not saying anyone should do this, but the point was it's not hard to see why they do.
Doesn't mean it gives you the right to pirate. Game of Thrones isn't a need. It's a piece of entertainment. I know it happens but I don't see the point in making an excuse for it. I don't care if you do or don't do it but I just don't like the excuses.
I think you said you were in the UK. http://store.hbouk.com/?pagemax=all&v=hbo-uk_shows_game-of-thrones&ecid=EMC-HBOUK-000383
Good, fuck it. It's a fucking website designed to let you break the motherfucking law, any asshole who thinks this is bad needs to grow the fuck up. JUST BECAUSE IT'S INCONVENIENT TO PAY FOR SHIT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S OK TO PIRATE IT. IT'S NOT HARD TO BUY A DVD OR A VIDEO GAME.
@Brodehouse said:
Stores also put the glass in front of the games. Makes it harder to get without paying someone money!
This is my new favorite quote.
The idea that anyone is forced into pirating anything that hasn't been totally obliterated (like mad old games that are crazy rare, or difficult to find and impossible to buy new) is silly. People don't pirate rare NES games, they pirate the latest games and movies that are available on four different digital stores, and pretty much all retail stores, and can also be shipped to you from some other stores, and some of the retail stores.
Good, fuck it. It's a fucking website designed to let you break the motherfucking law, any asshole who thinks this is bad needs to grow the fuck up. JUST BECAUSE IT'S INCONVENIENT TO PAY FOR SHIT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S OK TO PIRATE IT. IT'S NOT HARD TO BUY A DVD OR A VIDEO GAME.
High though your horse may be, I still ask you to dismount, good sir!
While it's true that TPB is used mostly for illicit and/or grey-area downloading, there's still a nontrivial portion of users who use TPB for legitimate purposes.
But that's not what this is about, really. Censoring one website is the first step on a slippery slope that has the potential to destroy the free internet we know and enjoy today. To use a hyperbolic example, imagine someone linking a Youtube video containing copyrighted content on Giant Bomb. Worst-case scenario: Giant Bomb is censored for facilitating piracy. Again, this is a pretty far-fetched example but the issue isn't as simple as you make it out to be.
@SethPhotopoulos: I didn't realise they released the DVD's. A few weeks ago a lot of people were making a pretty big fuss about how it was totally unavailable.
@MordeaniisChaos: Again, it actually is in a lot of cases. The UK doesn't have most of the digital streaming services there are over in the US and the rest of Europe is even worse off. Not to mention the huge delay in TV shows/movies being released over here. If they make it so difficult for people to watch something, people are going to pirate. Chinese style censorship isn't the solution.
Accessibility is the way to minimize piracy. I say "minimize" because piracy is like bacteria - if you let it run rampant it will really sicken you, but you can do some work and live with no real reason to worry about it. No matter what you do, though, you'll never rid yourself of it completely.
Also, "block Pirate Bay?" Rather laughable notion.
Well, walling off TPB is a stopgap solution at best, one more dedicated users will find a work-around for, and banning it will only lead to a redoubling in their efforts. It won't be as easy for the lookie-loos anymore, but it's not going to go away, and they'll just find a new site to download things from.
Meanwhile, while I do everything legit on principle, I do still think that accessibility is the proper response to piracy, as it's the only thing that'll slow the tide of piracy.
The idea that anyone is forced into pirating anything that hasn't been totally obliterated (like mad old games that are crazy rare, or difficult to find and impossible to buy new) is silly. People don't pirate rare NES games, they pirate the latest games and movies that are available on four different digital stores, and pretty much all retail stores, and can also be shipped to you from some other stores, and some of the retail stores.
It's a shame then that the stuff that's hard to get hold of using legitimate methods is also usually difficult to get via pirating. On many occasions I've found myself scouring the internet looking for a rare music release that's been discontinued, or an old unsupported PC game with no results whatsoever. I want a blu ray rip of a film from last year? Easy.
Making things accessible and affordable will stop piracy. The game industry is already starting to get this, the (Non-RIAA) music industry is also starting to get this. I'll be the first to admit I used to be a huge pirate. Now I own over 200 different games on Steam and have a subscription to a music streaming service. Make it easy to access and don't make it obscenely expensive and people will pay.
The MPAA (and the RIAA) and the people they represent don't get it. Making people have to jump hoops (or wait for unexplained reasons in the case of most non-American countries when it comes to content) will just discourage people from getting a service and send them toward piracy. Just look at the recent rumour that Hulu may require a cable subscription, most people will cancel and go back to piracy rather than get a cable subscription they didn't want in the first place. In recent days it has been seen that the MPAA and cable companies are actively trying to stop technological progress so that they can control everything (See their opposition to the Google Fiber Optic internet initiative because they claim it enables piracy). All this will do is discourage people from buying their services. I certainly wouldn't if I was American.
Posted this as part of a PM conversation but its suitable here:
I have to admit sometimes the 'pirates' do a great job. I've had a couple of old pc adventure games that wouldn't run, just no longer supported, and I found that someone had gone in and made a really stable release with bug fixes and all that.There was also that Star Wars thing, you may not have heard about it but someone made HD versions based on the original films without the more recent changes Lucas made. They used the footage from the blu rays, dvds and laser disc versions, it seemed like a crazy amount of work. In this case its not at all to do with money, the big fans of the series would rush out and buy those copies if they could, I even heard that some people made donations to the guy.
There isn't any good excuse behind torrenting the latest, greatest but I do believe that there are some issues with the media industries concerning availability and support, as well as this trend of failing to meet with the consumers taste (eg SW blu rays). Piracy won't die out, its too late and this banning of sites seems to be very easy to work around. I think for anything to change those issues I mentioned need to be addressed.
Anyway, I think sites like GoG and Steam are the things that will contribute the most to stopping piracy. Blocking a site like that will only lead to people finding ways to circumvent the block and then pirating it.
I love how all these things do is act as a free advertisement for the site. I'm not in the UK, but I oppose censorship in any form so I poo poo on the folks that made this happen and feel saddened by the people that think it's ever ok to allow censorship.
I agree and disagree with it. While I am against piracy of games, music and movies I feel sometimes that TV shows can be pirated. Why? because how is it fair that because I live in Australia, that means I can't
- Watch the latest episodes on TV because the TV stations are up to a older season
- Watch a TV I want because it isn't being aired here
- Watch the show online, legally, because they block out my country.
I will buy the DVDs/Blurays when they come out eventually, but for the time being what am I supposed to do?
It makes keeping up with the new season of mad men slightly more difficult. Now if I could pay to be able to download the episodes as they air in the US I would do that but right now this is the only way until the dvd's come out. The dvd release trails ages behind the tv showing, and I do buy those when they're released.
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