October 12, 2007 -
Earlier this year GamePolitics reported that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents the interests of U.S. video game publishers, had signed on with the Copyright Alliance, a new lobbying group created to promote copyright protection.
A story in today's Los Angeles Times details the new organization's first major event on Capitol Hill:
Under the crystal chandeliers of one of Capitol Hill's most ornate caucus rooms, the makers of movies, music, TV shows, computer software and other copyrighted products joined Thursday to show off their stuff -- and argue that people shouldn't be allowed to steal it...
The association lured congressional staffers with free gourmet sandwiches and DVD-size cookies to a room filled with big-screen TVs, laptops and glossy brochures. Capitol Hill aides took turns playing video games such as "Madden NFL 08" and "Super Mario Bros." at one booth. At another, they lined up for autographs from soul singer Isaac Hayes.
Said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-MI):
When you walk into this room, copyright becomes real.
MPAA President Dan Glickman explained the need for the alliance:
The issues are very, very big, and I think it needed the power of all the copyright industries in order to collectively impact Capitol Hill, the federal government and the intellectual establishment.
Gigi Sohn, who is associated with the consumer-oriented Digital Freedom, told the Times she was puzzled by the Copyright Alliance's approach:
Rather than figure out how to change their business models in ways that appeal to their customers, they're starting another Washington inside-the-Beltway advocacy group. I'm not sure it's the best expenditure of money.
Comments
The greatest example of an innovative game company was id Software/ Apogee on giving away the first episode of Wolfenstein 3D as Shareware.
I'm not even going to get into the issue of the ridiculousness of current copyright laws and the dreadful DMCA.
I just get this vision of Emperor Palpatine sitting in this caucus room telling all the attendees to give into the dark side and delicious cookies.
If they want any more copyright legistlation, they should drop all advertisement from Need for Speed, etc.
I think Copyright law is too strong as it is now. What more do they want? A pay-per-use model?
But seriously, after the bout between Sony and Immersion, copyright protection has definitely been proven to be an issue that NEEDS addressing!
But seriously, I see no reason not to pursue and prosicute pirates. They do hurt the industry. Nothing they do can be interpreted as "fair use".
What I am against is these entertainment groups trying to prevent me from copying my physical entertainment media to my computer so that I don't have to constantly handle the fragile disks. I should be able to copy my music from CD to my computer and my MP3 player without worrying about the RIAA coming down on me. I should be able to copy my DVDs to my media center so that I can watch the movie without the MPAA from trying to get me arested. I should be able to record TV shows so that I can watch them when it is convient for me. I should be able to use no cd cracks for my PC games without the ESA thinking I am stealing them.
Do you guys see where I am going with this?
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
I agree. There ARE fair-uses for piracy 'tools.' Just like any other tool, it's not the possesion of the tool that should be criminal, just how you use it. Take a hammer, for instance. Whack all the nails you want, but bashing someone in the head is just wrong. Same with cracked software and back-up/ripping software, copy all you want, just don't give away/distribute it.
As long as I've paid for the software, music, movie, etc. what I do with it should be no one's business, unless I am distributing it. But, unfortunately, with the ESA homland security mod-chip raids, it looks like possesion is intent. I really hate the continual comparisons between illegal drugs and technology from the authorities/lawmakers/activists.
I see what you did there, and I agree
The funny thing is, the MPAA is so against real nowadays pirates but they have so glamorized the word pirate. hmmmm
The US has some of the most ridiculous, backwards, and counter-productive copyright laws in the world. Greedy corporate pigs have laws that were origonally designed to ensure an artist recieve fair compensation for their work. The 14 year old copyright limit was slowly -- through powerful Washington Lobbyist firms -- increased to 120+ years so a handful of useless capitalist middlemen can continue to profit from doing absolutely nothing. It is one of the most unjust and terrible forms of supporting the rights of both consumers and artists.
Piracy can be defeated by making your products affordable and respecting the rights of consumers.
Exactly, they are still clinging on to outdated business models, that should have gone the way of the dodo with the growth of technology. I also hate the expanded copyright, they claim it's for encouraging taking risks and rewarding developers of IP, but when the copyright lasts 120 years after the death of the creator, that does nothing to encourage MORE development, all it does is stifle new uses of old ideas.
That's ridiculous. Of course of it is.
The copyright mafia has gotten everything that they've asked for from the US legislators for decades. Time and time again they've asked for the copyright terms to be extended up to the point where the creator can be dead for a century before the works come into public domain. They asked for the DMCA, and they got it. They asked for completely unreasonable sanctions for copyright violations, and they got it.
Of course lobbying the legislators is the best expenditure of money.
Better copyrights AND trademarks rather than something stupid like USA-only software patents though.
Have my babies.
I love the direction some of the awesome musicians are taking. You can get the new Radiohead album from their website at a price you yourself deem appropriate. There's no minimum. Nine Inch Nails, another progressive rather than passive band practically released their entire album online at no cost too.
I'm so off-topic.
Indeed. Heck, you missed the band Throwdown in your list:
http://torrentfreak.com/steal-our-album-bury-the-label-071009/
Back on track, while I fully support taking down those that pirate stuff for profit, (i.e. those that sell pirated movies, games etc) I cannot sympathize with the Copyright Alliance and it's members. Past experience has shown that their idea of enforcing copyright is to stifle fair use, hold back innovation, invade privacy, compromise consumer security, and wreck the lives of people who are having a negligible impact on them.
I'm not sure I even agree on going after pirates...
If a player is willing to hack open his console (and potentially destroy it) to allow the ripping of rented / borrowed games, they're going to do it regardless of the legal ramifications. Furthermore, it's questionable how many of the games they rip would actually be purchased anyway.
Of the dozens of games my college room mate ripped to his XBox, he played maybe one or two of them longer than a week -- generally because they were bad games, not worth more than a rental anyway (which he had paid for). Maybe it was because his modded box didn't network very well post-soldering, but the games he played on the box he generally bought at retail anyway...
Firstly, I do not condone piracy, I've bought and paid for almost everything I've got, with very few exceptions. The only time I'd consider getting anything from download are items not readily avalible to me in the us, most if I cannot import them due to inavaliblity or cost.
I belive that IP holder do have a right to defend there Ip against pirates.
That being said, I don't think that they' have done it in the right way.
First, the DMCA should have been called the DFCUA, or the Digital Fuck the Customer Up the ASS bill. The bill does not serve the consumers in a fair manner, but instead panders to the Media Mafia in all forms, which is why the bill is facing stiff legal attacks from groups like the EFF.
2. Fair use must be presrved and maintained for consumers, above all else.
3. The industry, in part, created this problem itself, and while I belive that piracy would still exsist to a degree, I feel it would be far less prevelant if the industry had not put things like DRM, region lockout, and other items that block consumers from using there legitamitly purchased media in place. Had they respected that fact that an import market exsists and not tried to prevent people from playing imports on there systems as a way of supposedly "Combating piracy" a large amount of piracy would not have been started to begin with.
4. Another problem is that much of the media that comes out overseas never gets released in america, and as a result, a market formed for importation of it. Had those games been made avalible to all consoles, across the world, from the start, piracy would likely not have developed to it's current level, as many of the devices used in piracy, were first created to allow the playing of imports. I know, I'm a major importer.
So anyway, it's just my opinion, but I think that if the industry stopped being STUPID, and started dropping some of the dumber aspects of it's anti piracy crusade, such as the RIAA lawsuits, Region lockout, regional exclusivity and barriers to importation, piracy would be reduced cause the industry itself would not be driving it's own customers to piracy in the first place.
Hit it right on the nose. Disney I'd say is the worst offender. Their "oh noes, buy it now, or it goes in the vault for years" policy has probably resulted in more piracy while it's "in the vault", since parents search desperately for a copy.
Same thing with releasing movies across the pond nearly a year later. Again, piracy fills the demand the publishers refuse to. Price differences. Encourages the black market. Etc.
Put too many restrictions on a product, while building up demand, and you inevitably get a black market willing to do what the distributors won't... fill that demand.
Apple and others showed that people are willing to pay. So if the content distributors won't provide, the black market is more than willing. Simply making certain actions illegal won't stop that. Never has, never will.
The industry needs to wake up and realize that the tighter the restrictions, the more people get turned away, because just trying to enjoy that product becomes a hassle.
I've ripped my DVDs and burnt a private copy, just so I don't have to sit through commercials I can't skip. I've ripped my CDs so I can listen to the one or two songs I like, and don't have to pop the CD out to skip the 16 I don't. I've used a PVR that filters out commercials, because I would have gone to the kitchen or bathroom anyway, and 9/10 the ads aren't targeted at me anyway.
Yet I'm branded a criminal by the industry, because some syndicate in Thailand has disc pressing machines that crank out 10,000 copies a week. I get punished with insane amount of restrictions, restrictions that don't affect that guy in Thailand because he got some hackers to remove the restrictions for him, so really *I'm* the only one stuck putting up with the hassle...
What i am talking about are those people that openly and illegally distribute copyrighted material. These are the people that need to be shut down.
But given that, I believe that the populous would do a better job at policing that than the government. When people really like a game, they will shun those who want to pirate the game. If someone comes onto a forum and asks how they can get a free copy of the game, the will tell them to screw themselves and buy it if they really want it. If someone comes in offering the game for free to those who want it, they tell them to go screw themselves.
Now I think that these industries need to rework their business models. The game industry needs to move more to the shareware side of things. That is the most successful business model for gaming out there. Here you get part of the game for free. You get to play it and see if you like it. If you do, you pay to get the rest of the game. This model would even kill the used game industry (not that I am for that) if they wanted as there would be fewer trade ins on games that were over hyped and underperformed after being bought.
Music and movie industries can do similar techniques. Its not that hard to change.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Now if the RIAA stops sustaining it, odds become better that this all changes soon, anyhow.
Like that quote from Star Wars: "The tighter you squeeze your fist, the more star systems will slip through your fingers" Or something like that.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
@Conejo:
[quote]maybe the ECA should start up a Copyleft alliance…[/quote]
Isnt the Digital Freedom campaign ( http://www.digitalfreedom.org/ ) something like that?
But so are allot of things these giant corporations do, but it seems that no-one wants to highlight that.
Until there is some way to loosen their hold on government and make them actually reasonably accountable, I see no reason why we should tackle an issue that's only on one side.
Either Tackle both problems, or go away.
We don't need to give these behemoth's more power.
When you walk into this room, copyright becomes real."
That has got to be one of the phoniest, most disingenuous line of tripe I've ever heard. I hate politicians...
I agree that the best way to combat piracy is to improve the quality of non-pirated options.
I completely agree with your Disney analogy and I'll go one farther. Nintendo. This is where I'm torn on the virtual console. On one hand it gives people a chance to play old games that haven't been available for years but on the other hand, the price for the games are really high (in retrospect). It is the whole virtual console (or lack thereof or the lack of backwards compatiability) that has lead to the rom movement in the first place. The emulators and roms movement really tried to allow people to play games that were made unavailable due to either physical restrictions (NES's not being made anymore to replace old ones) or regional restrictions (biggest examples: Rockman and Forte, Final Fantasy's 2,3,5). Of course the companies sit on these copyrights forever and then they wonder why people download this stuff. Then about 10 (in terms of at least NES and SuperNES emulation) later, Nintendo comes out and says "here we have your old games". Now even this raises some questions, why should I have to spend 5 more dollars to play Super Mario Bros. that I physically have and bought at a bargain bin for 75 cents just to play it on the Wii? I find it ridiculous that the entertainment industry is making us consumers pay double, even triple for the same piece of work but on different formats. Perhaps the industry should be looking at these considerations.
Here's a little story. My brother and I wanted a PC copy of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, for a simple reason, to mod it and have a little fun with it. So we saved the money, I went to Gamestop, and got it. Now, what we didn't know, DID NOT KNOW is that we needed a DVD drive to even install the game, which only one computer in the house has, and due to parental paranoia, we can't use it. So, I went to take the game back. Lo and behold ,thanks to anti piracy laws, I am stuck with a PC game I cannot play. So, since we already bought a copy legally, and, I am sorry ECA, we torrented it so we could play it. We were prevented from playing the game due to hardware issues, so we did what we had to to enjoy it even though we cannot use the hard copy. Again, I apologize, I know [piracy is bad, but we do have a legally purchased copy of the game.
Also, the reason I hate Hayes is not for the simple fact that he left South Park, but for the reason he did it. Putting his name behind this crap just makes him an even bigger asshole.
If I might take this a step further,
a number of years ago a group of fans began to do a fanmade remake of the SNES classic Chrono Trigger, arguably one of the greatest RPGs of all time. That series has not even been in distribution for years, and these guys wanted to pay tribute to a great game. Before they got halfway finished they received a cease and desist from Square threatening legal action if this did not halt and all files were not deleted. The IP has not bee in any form of distribution for years, yet Square felt threatened by a free fanmade remake.
So even the fans of some games suffer.
I agree with you on the limited distribution and such. But the great thing is that you don't have to buy the game on the Virtual Console. As you said, you can go to the game store and Mario Brothers for $.75 rather than $5. That is how I am playing my cards. If the game I want is cheaper at the store, I will buy it there. There are several games that I don't already have that I want to get and I will muy them on the VC because that is where they are the cheapest.
Also no that the patents on the original NES have expired, you can find a plethora of NES clones that play the real games plus imports. So have at it. There is nothing forcing you to buy the VC version other than convience.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Another example besides that could be NEo Geo. Sure the system was a huge failure, but some great games were released for it, and you can get them via emulators.So they wish to punish us for playing games even on machines that made little money.
Fortunately, I think for every ten money grubbing lawyers and publishers that seek to enforce copyright on twenty year old games, you have a company like iD that remembers where it came from. Look at how much came from their open source release of the Quake 3 engine! Look at how many improvements and mods have been grafted onto the FreeSpace 2 engine!
There is also another one out there. A group of people were making a kingsquest to go along with KQ VI.
It was called KQ IX, however serria came in and told them they were not allowed to do that.
Fortunatly though They said they could still make the fan game, just they couldn't call it IX. It did however spark a bit of hope that serria was going to make a IX though after the dismal failure of VIII it doesn't seem likely.
Now here is another problem i see. I recently got portal, and paid 20 dollars for it. Beat it in 2 hours. That means i was pretty much paying 10 per hour of entertainment for the game.
The game in brick and motor stores costs $50 as well, but i get a cd a box and a manuel (sometimes.)
Then there is also these things were i could buy a game on steam or other sites for like $50, and all i get is a download. WHY Does it COST THE SAMEto get a digital download of a game when im GETTING NOTHING?
Thats something else that annoys me. When games dont come with a fxing Manuel. You get this fricken box with a cd/dvd in a paper little holder thing.
It was always my most favorite thing to do when i couldnt play the game, was the read that manuel and learn how to play the game.
Id sit in the car reading the manuel as my parents did their thing. Now you cant do that anymore.
And another problem is putting the game i not a DVD or even a jewel case, but that slip of paper. It's almost like they hope your game gets destroyed so that you have to buy another one.
Guess the ESA doesn't know its Nietzsche.
When one fights monsters, one should be careful lest one becomes a monster oneself.
Okay a tad over dramatic, but the point is the same.
Before the system can work it needs to deal with companies stealing others ideas and this needs to be dealt with, as far as consumer issues drop all copy protection and focus on thos that sell it and smack the hands of thos that distro it(small fines), you do not force a mother of 2 to pay 200K in fines over 20 fing songs........ 20$ each maybe but thats pushing it.
until the corporations start paying high fines when they do not properly gain the right to use the CP/IP the consumer is in danger of being raped by them.
The game industry is becoming neo hollywood,just as shallow only you pay about 5$ an hour , look at halo 3 with tis 10 hour at best SP side and they want 60$ for it, they do not spend enough time making a game do not put detail into it and then and try and sale it for 3X its real worth, for me the game industry is sliding down the hill over priced, uncaring about defective or "broken" much less bad games.
This industry group is just going to lobby for more ridiculous restrictions on copyright and actually fight the needs of the consumer. Just like all the other industry lobbyist groups pushing bad copyright law.
However people who engage in the sell of copy righted works are pirates, the rest fodder for the corporate movement to make all consumer activities something they can profit on, just wait till 80%(already half way there now) of your rights are only a right if you can pay for them.
Shame this is an issue the ECA doesn't care about.
@PHOENIXZERO
"So are they passing off their HUGELY inflated numbers when it comes to losses also?"
Its easier to do that than have to admit to their shareholders that they are actually losing money with their outdated business models.