Actually I am quite sure that the guy - ridiculous as he may be - is right, at least in part. The DMCA is an American law which does not apply to Sweden citizens or companies. However, mirroring copyrighted material is a violation of several international copyright treaties which do apply to Swedish companies too. If I'm right, it is a bit unprofessional of the law-firm not to do their research properly, though.
But, as Bruce mentions here, the main point is that it is not economically a good idea to take down companies like that. The cost is just too big compared to the benefits. This eventually leads movie makers - and software companies - to creating campaigns designed to scare people off in stead of pursuing the matter correctly. This is usually done be picking on some little guy just because it is cheap to set an example this way - the little guy doesn't have the funds to defend himself in court. It is a byproduct of the Internet, but for me it makes the big companies loose any moral advantage they might have had in my book. I remember a case where some big DVD consortium sued a young Norwegian (17 yo as far as I remember) for discovering how the DVD encryption worked and publishing his code to a BBS - the lawsuit was for many million USD. The main reason for people being interested in this encryption was, incidentally, that noone would release info on it so opensource OSs would be able to play DVDs. Fortunately, in the end, some internet free speech organization took it upon itself to defend the poor kid and afaik they did win the lawsuit. My point is just that the reason so many people pirate games, music and movies is that they don�t feel they own the publishers anything. When you have no sympathy for the guy you are buying stuff from you don�t mind cheating him out of a few bucks. I'm not trying to defend pirates, but I do understand some of the feelings behind it. Anyway, this is in no way comparable to myg0t, as they are just lamers with one goal - to annoy everyone else. There is no justification at all for doing destructive cracking like that. If they don�t like the game, they should just stay away. In a way I find it quite sad that people exist with so much time on their hands and so little creativity that they would rather spend their time annoying other people than building something. They are obviously not stupid (some of them are not, anyway) so why don�t they just create in stead of destroy? Hmm, this email got a bit long - maybe I should just go back to work in stead of whining :-) // Morten -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bruce "Bahamut" Andrews Sent: 25. oktober 2004 08:10 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] server crashed again Yar well, while they have no idea what they're on about, the cost of pursuing the matter would be far too high to get any real benefit from it for Movie companies, so game developers are probably in the same situation. Unless they sorta made a large alliance and took them down together... :/ - Bruce "Bahamut" Andrews Eric (Deacon) wrote: > In a bold display of creativity, Bruce "Bahamut" Andrews wrote: > >> I've mirrored (temporarily) an email sent by dreamworks in an attempt to >> shut down a site in Sweden mirroring Shrek 2 - as you'll notice, the >> laws do not apply, and dreamworks are basically stuffed. >> www.bahamutns.com/dreamworks_response.txt > > > For those who have not read it, the reply, which is wholly inaccurate > and outrageously ignorant goes as follows: > > >>>> > As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United > States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe. > Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here. > For your information, no Swedish law is being violated. > > Please be assured that any further contact with us, regardless of > medium, will result in > a) a suit being filed for harassment > b) a formal complaint lodged with the bar of your legal counsel, for > sending frivolous legal threats. > > It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are fucking morons, and > that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons. > > Please also note that your e-mail and letter will be published in full on > http://www.thepiratebay.org. > > Go fuck yourself. > > Polite as usual, > anakata > <<<< > > That reply is so typical of punkass kids with no clue, internet tough > guys who feel invincible behind their glowing screens. If anything, I > would put the screws to this intarweb clown in order to prove a point, > take over the thepiratebay.org site, and post a summary of the whole > ordeal. > > -- > Eric (the Deacon remix) > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
