Sorry sadistikdreams, I guess I just sort of assumed most people had seen the trend of my posts in Tilted Computers which tend to only pertain to one of two issues. My bad.
No, I am not against file sharing. In fact, as the Free Culture presentation hints to, I am moreso against copyright. At least how it's been for the past hundred or so years especially.
Regarding the MPAA finding people, if someone has used lokitorrent to download something, they had to register. That means lokitorrent has that persons IP address. Furthermore, lokitorrent, if I'm not mistaken, as most registration bittorrent sites do, kept track of user stats, i.e. share ratios. In order to do this, the tracker knows and records the IP address of every user that connects to the tracker and what file they were downloading. There is no extensive searching required - the MPAA has all the IP addresses right there. And they, like the RIAA, will probably file a lawsuit against thousands of IP addresses, just waiting for the looming day in court when it is finally (and ominously) decided that ISPs, etc can be forced to turn over the info regarding who belonged to what IP at what time, and all at their own expense. So, no, all of this really doesn't require a lot of work on the part of the MPAA.
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Originally Posted by ubertuber
So... You guys do believe that you should be able to download and enjoy music and movies without ever paying for them?
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No. I believe that people who commit crimes ought to be responsible for their actions, and people who do not should not be treated like criminals. Lokitorrent was a tool. Lokitorrent did not host any files. This is no different than a lockpick, which is LEGAL in the majority of places in the US. If you use the lockpick to commit a crime, YOU are responsible, but the lockpick seller can't be bullied into shutting down because people use their lockpicks for crime.
Also, I take issue with the public opinion war that the RIAA and MPAA are waging (quite successfully) to make people equate copyright infringement and stealing. They are and always have been two separate and unrelated crimes. Unfortunately, recently, the collective force of these industries has been making inroads into changing the law so that they ARE equated. If you look at the history of copyright (which is touched upon in the flash Free Culture presentation) this pretty much goes against the very concept of why copyrights were created (don't be confused, if you're not familiar, some of the language Lessig uses to describe copyright infringement is MOCKING the language the MPAA, et al use (such as stealing), not agreeing with it).
The fact is, going after the people who actually commit crimes is too difficult and costly for the MPAA and RIAA. Changing their business model to account for technological advancements is too scary (see the Betamax fiasco, as well as the cassette tape fiasco, oh and the record fiasco, oh oh and also the radio fiasco - what's going on now is NOTHING new). So, instead, they're using their muscle to bully people (including 12 year old kids and dead 80 year olds who have never touched a computer!) into compliance until they can use that same muscle to influence politicians (through compaign contributions, etc) to change the law, this way the government can take over the bullying for them.