U.S. Joins Hollywood in War on Piracy

Section_Ei8ht writes to mention a Washington Post article about a new joint initiative between the U.S. government and the entertainment industry. The government will now be aiding efforts abroad to stop copyright infringement. They cite the recent Pirate Bay fiasco, as well as the problems Russia is having with the WTO as a result of their thriving IP black market. From the article: "The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate U.S. companies lose as much as $250 billion per year to Internet pirates, who swap digital copies of 'The DaVinci Code,' Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free."

Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

...who swap digital copies of 'The DaVinci Code,' Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free

Gee, you should be PAYING THEM to download that crap. Eew.

$250 Billion? With a B?

[Pedrito]

The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate U.S. companies lose as much as $250 billion per year to Internet pirates, who swap digital copies of "The DaVinci Code," Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free.

These 3 products have a value of as much as $250 billion? Wow, these guys really are making too much money. Guess I better go download some more movies.

Grand Theft Auto

[nEoN nOoDlE]

So first the government wants to ban the legal sales of Grand Theft Auto here in the US and now they want to ban the illegal download of Grand Theft Auto overseas? Are they for or against the game? Or do they just not want anyone to have it?

Since the war on terror worked out so well

[PIPBoy3000]

It sounds like they're going to be moving to the war on piracy. I expect we'll be carpet bombing Stockholm before the elections.

Re:Stupidity in action

[Anonymous Coward]

But we have reports that those countries have weapons of mass distribution!

There's No Business Like Show Business

[Nefarious Wheel]

Politics is show business for ugly people.

Re:Stupidity in action

[Umbral Blot]

So ... we should have a war on Fox? Now I'm really confused.

Re:Every time you read this sort of story...

[BandwidthHog]

I think they’ve now claimed losses due to piracy that exceed the revenue of their industries.

Are they even trying anymore?

Re:Unbelievable

[buddachile]

What's wrong with infringing on the sovereignty of other nations? Isn't that what empires are supposed to do?

Re:I love contributor links...

[Jherek Carnelian]

Hopefully I was correct about all this, but the claims I have made above were made in many long-standing high-score comments in the last discussion about this subject, and not refuted, so hopefully peer review will have made me sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Heh. I just mailed them a link to your posting. Now your credibility is down the pooper.

Hmm.

[Shawn is an Asshole]

I thought the US already did a good job at stopping piracy [wikipedia.org]:

While boats off the coasts of South America and the Mediterranean Sea are still assailed by pirates, the advent of the United States Coast Guard has nearly eradicated piracy in American waters and the Caribbean Sea.

(Wikipedia's article on Piracy [wikipedia.org].)

Re:$250 Billion? With a B?

[soft_guy]

They figure it this way:

How much money would we make if we sold 10 copies of Grand Theft Auto to every person on earth? How much money did we actually make? The difference between the two figures is how much we lost due to piracy.

Pitty the MPAA

[darkonc]

When Bush says that your war is on the side of good and right, you know that you're in trouble.

Re:Unbelievable

[sxpert]

you don't... you all drive at snail 55 mph pace on the highway, hence, no need to pass ;D