Actually this time I agree with MPAA - penalties must go up.

Let's do the 'three strikes and you are out', you do not pass Start but you go straight to the 'old sparky'. MPAA should have strict copyrights on the execution which should be arranged to play weekly on the tube like episodes of Aprentice, with the whole 'you are fired' thing...

Now, something like that would make our lives exciting again...

I agree with nonoitall.

They should stop wasting their time worrying about the poor quality copies that are being recorded by videocameras, and look at the sh*t that they themselves are churning out.

The only reason nowadays I would download a film before seeing it in the cinema is because I wouldnt want to pay £7-12 ($11-20)(London Prices) to see a film that is the most predictable and just another attempt to gain profit.

Hehe again nonoitall indeed know's it all :Þ

But thing is there are people who buy it regardless of the quality. You don't know the quality of it before you buy it. Anyway, more people than record it, put it on the internet rather than sell it.

-Mike

Arrrrg! Enough already! I am on the verge of never watching a movie again...

All the money, time an resources spent and committed to fighting the evil menace piracy has gone way out of hand.

Is it wrong? Sure it is, but does the "Industry" realize none of the good boots come fm the US anyways?

What a retarded waste of time, money and of our judaical system.

It must really be nice to work 3 or 4 months a year (Actors), make millions for it, be backed by a group of snivelling idiots (MPAA), who will sue a 12 year old (mixed metaphor, ... reference RIAA), adn not have any talent at all, save the ability to fake being someone you're not (what an actor does). Don't get me wrong, I love movies, music, entertainment, but this world has gotten to the point where we Idolize entertainers, .... what about people who make life better, Doctors, Scientists, etc. You don't see a guy who replaces a kids face after a pit bull bites it off getting a star on the "Walk of Fame".

The Entertainment industry as a whole is too full of themselves, they even treat someone who isn't one of "them" as a nuisance.

(Somebody want to help me down off this soap box?)

It must really be nice to work 3 or 4 months a year (Actors), make millions for it, be backed by a group of snivelling idiots (MPAA), who will sue a 12 year old (mixed metaphor, ... reference RIAA), adn not have any talent at all, save the ability to fake being someone you're not (what an actor does). Don't get me wrong, I love movies, music, entertainment, but this world has gotten to the point where we Idolize entertainers, .... what about people who make life better, Doctors, Scientists, etc. You don't see a guy who replaces a kids face after a pit bull bites it off getting a star on the "Walk of Fame".

The Entertainment industry as a whole is too full of themselves, they even treat someone who isn't one of "them" as a nuisance.

(Somebody want to help me down off this soap box?)

Same here. I dont waste time downloading movies only to see terrible picture quality and sound. I would rather pay to see it or just wait till the movie is released on DVD. I cant say much about the stiffening of the punishment laws though b/c i am not going to proclaim myself as a saint. I do download other things. LOL

in recent news today the MPAA has won it court case to have dvd recorders banned,camcorder banned, tapes banned, picture phones banned and also any recording device including paint and paper . they have hailed there recent banning good for the film industry and think the consumer will benift with the porduction of better quality dvd from retail outlets.

i bet they would love this to happen and have it writen on there walls as the company motto

I don't think it will ever stop no matter what the penalties.

A lot of the time, these copies end up on DVD and sold from the back of a car boot or even a bicycle near where I work.

They employ immigrants to trek around selling copies and taking the risks, and they probably get handed the camcorder to start with.

The people at the top never get their hands dirty, they live off others desperation like leeches, and god knows what else they are doing to make money.

The end users thinking their getting a bargain 9/10 times get a crap film with no comeback at all.

I suppose I am trying to highlight that the problem is not just limited to film the sharing community who just get a buzz from sharing, there is also a darker side that this helps sustain.

If you stop to consider the real problems we face in the US does this petty crap even register on the radar? The MPAA and it's greedy "owners" want to clog our legal system with this nonsense? I can't believe they can stop counting long enough to even worry.

this is bull

saying that most of the recorded movies from movie theaters comes from new york is a pile of bull most movies from cameras come from europe and from japan and china not from new york yes new york has the highest rate of illegal dvd sales but what would you expect considering most houses in new york are in the millions of dollers and most of the people that live there can barely afford going to a movie yet less rent one

I was looking for a comment like johnodd4's. Definitely for one thing the MPAA needs to realize the majority of cammed movies and TS/TC'd come from Europe and Asia, not the Americas. Let's just remember that the TC'd Star Wars Episode III was from Russia :)

It's kind of like a 2-way street, but with not cross-walk. You could just go to the movies, pay for food, sit down, and waste 2 hours away before realizing that the crap you just ended up watching is non-refundable, or, you can wait 4 hours, make a home meal, watch a crappy copy of the movie, then purge the sh!# from your computer after you've been heavily violated.

To tell you the truth, if a person could actually afford to go to the movies, and have a camcorder, then the motha f*cka needs to go to prison.

Thank God the government is spending its time and resources nabbing EVIL movie and music pirates! I know, if we had done this years ago, September 11th would never have happened. And had P2P been shut down, we wouldn't have had to invade Iraq and cause the death of countless people on both sides. And... had people just never used BitTorrent, then there wouldn't be a proliferation of drugs on the streets. AND... if not one took a camcorder into a movie theater, then teen suicide and teen pregnancy would be at an all time low! Not to mention the homeless rate, the unemployment rate and the inflation rate would all be down!

WHAT THE F*CK?!!! We have so many REAL problem to deal with that I think any politician that entertains such idiotic legislation should be locked up for abuse of office! I wish people would pay attention to the REAL issues, and not the lame "THE SKY IS FALLING! SKY IS FALLING!" rheoteric being spouted off by fat, rich executives who are worried about their place in American's Top Richest people poll.

Why is MPAA wasting their time? Those cam movies look and sound like garbage. It was popular in the beginning because it was the "new" thing. But now, you couldn't 'give' that crap away. It's not worth the headache, literally.

ookam...I agree with you. There are more important thing to worry about. Just for example Bush admitted to having been warned by his people that their was going to be a terrorist attack in the US prior to 9/11 but he did not make it his top priority. Things like that we should be worried about, not piracy. Put things like that on the backburner.

"So what do we do, let those drug dealers out cause there is someone worse."...Someone with a camcorder....??

Remember...The Hollywood crowd needs those drug dealers..

An added note. My local news media just reported yesterday that the worst year for movies was 1985. Ticket sales dropped 18 percent over a 6 month period. There was no internet file sharing then. There was no selling of DVDs on the street corner then. There were pirated(copied) VHS movie tapes available but sales was low. In 1985, the entertainment industry had no one to blame but itself for the low ticket sales.

Today, they have someone else to blame for their own failures.

just have to ask as any one sued sony or mpaa for hacking computers last i checked that was a criminal act too. so why is there not some 12yr old kid walking around with $ 000.000.00 in there pockets. and if you own a vcr like i know everyone has even the mpaa people they all have taped a movie to watch later when they had time to watch it so why don't they start with them self. law is to all men not to one man?

IMPORTANT POINT!!!!!!!

O.k., they want to arrest, fine, imprisson, charge, take away our birthday, etc for making copies of there movies right?? .... why don't we all get together and sue them for making copies of movies, and re-selling the crap to us, .... KING KONG .... re-make of a great movie, haven't seen the new one yet, ... but ... WHY?!?!?!? yeah, new special effects, new stars, ... we're going to compare their take on it to the origional. I've seen one "Re-Make" lately that I thought was pretty good, .. Herbie, but it wasn't really a re-make, ... and Lindsay Lohan made it worth watching, ...(I feel like a dirty old man now) ... anyway, my point is, they are running out of decent ideas, and trying to freshen up movies that were great to begin with, and "RE-SELL" them to us, ..... come up with some new ideas folks, then you might be able to keep some of the business the was generated by greats like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Clarke Gable, Cary Grant, .... the actors that people wanted to see, ..... ooooh, saw Morgan Freeman on 60 minutes the other night, he basically said what I'm saying, he want's to be an actor that draws fans, not fans being drawn to that movie, just for the sake of ... it's a movie. ..... Morgan Freeman I'd say is one of the best in the last 25 years!!!! sorry, a little ranting goin' on here.

Well one thing about using an old movie to remake it and release it again, the people have to get permission from the guys who own the right to the original king kong movie. Sometimes they have to pay them money for a certain percent off the remake of the movies profits. If they dont they would be a huge lawsuit by the original makers of the movie. Same goes with music. One company can be sued for using the same beat for a song with first getting permission or compensating the company for the right to use that specific beat for a newer song.

King Kong, the original used to be in public domain until the studios, using their buddies in congress, extended the copyright to 99 years. Those that had copyrights that expired could pay $1.00 to get the extension.

With the MPAA efforts to plug television's 'anologue hole' to stop the recording of video from TV, will the police, upon discovering someone is recording said TV signal, be able to arrest one on the spot ?? Will the undercover police be on the lookout for anyone purchasing blank video tapes or memory chips and arrest them because they 'may' be used to record movie screens or TV transmissions??

I remember that way back in the 60s, a rumor was floating around that one could get high smoking dried bannana skins. The police staked out grocery stores and arrested anyone that purchased more bannanas than the police felt was needed. So, if you were a little, old lady buying a large amount of bannanas to make Christmas salad for a church social, you would be arrested and booked for felony bannana possession with intent. Sounds funny, but it happened. All charges were dropped for everybody after it was shown that it was just a rumor but it still shows how ludicrus these idiots can get.

In a more facitious vien, I wonder when the polititians will allow the studios to sue people who don't go to the movies ??? Or maybr pass an "entertainment protection tax" on the general public to be paid to the studios in order to keep the studio's big wigs from loosing their Carribean vacation mansions.

I vaguely remember the stuff about the banana peels (I was very young in the 60's).

Side Note, any 'Brits' in here? if I remember right, you have to have a license (or purchase a permit type thing) to own a TV in the UK, is it still that way over there?

Can you imagine how much lower movie ticket prices would be if the MPAA stopped suing everyone? Wouldn't it be amazing when they noticed that there was an increase in ticket sales at theaters? Sadly, the liberal courts in America are the ones allowing this abuse of our legal system. I wonder how many judges have made, or possessed a copied audio tape?

"Side Note, any 'Brits' in here? if I remember right, you have to have a license (or purchase a permit type thing) to own a TV in the UK, is it still that way over there?"

The 'telly tax' pays for the government run television system..........

Well i tyhink i agree with what everyone is saying and can't be bothered to type it all out again...heck i wouldnt want to get nabed stealing your authentic creative work..thats PIRACY!! OOOooooooo
BTW the banana rumor is true they do it very poor countries where they cannot afford marijuana, you just have to dry your inside banana peels for a few days :)

"Can you imagine how much lower movie ticket prices would be if the MPAA stopped suing everyone? "

This wouldn't have any effect on ticket price. The suits are self supporting as the lawyers get their percentage after settlement and the remainder goes into a pool to be shared by the movie and music studios. Most of the esculation in law suits and the inclusion of any type of suspected random video/music download is due to the lawyers realizing that they have got a cash cow and they, just as the studios, are going to milk as much money from this situation as they can. It is this same reasoning that the studios used to push the politicians to tax all blank tapes, CDs, DVDs, and other media and distribute the tax reciepts to the studios because maybe, possibly, could be, someone could use the same blank media to store pirated entertainment files. Remember, as far as the studios and lawyers are concerned, you are guilty until proved innocent, but they want your money anyway...