Right Thinking From The Left Coast
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The Big Chill
by Lee

As you know, if you want to watch movies or TV in China you have two options—you buy a pirate DVD or you download a rip from the internet.  I’ve been looking for the film We Own the Night for quite some time, and finally DVD rips are showing up online, so I went to download one.  Sometimes BitTorrent is really slow, so I use NZB files to download from the Usenet.  I did a Google search for we own the night nzb and a number of sites were returned.  However, there was some text at the bottom which I had never seen before.

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 2 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.

Chilling effects indeed.  Protecting IP from pirates is one thing.  Penalizing a search engine for enabling it is another thing entirely.  This is like driving drunk and killing someone then blaming the bartender, or suing the taxi company who drove the guy to your house where he murdered your wife.

I’m all for protecting IP, but this is not the way to go about it.

Posted by Lee on 01/28/08 at 10:27 PM (Discuss this in the forums)

Comments


Posted by Manwhore on 01/28/08 at 11:09 PM from United States

Can you travel freely to Hong Kong from China with your visa?

Posted by Lee on 01/28/08 at 11:17 PM from Australia

Yeah, I’ve got a permanent residency visa, I can come and go from the country as much as I like.

Posted by Manwhore on 01/28/08 at 11:33 PM from United States

When I was there last year, I could only enter china twice, once a day each time on my visa.

I was actually taken back by Chinese laws on porn, but I thought it was funny to see pussy openly sold.

Posted by syddelish on 01/28/08 at 11:34 PM from United States

I don’t often download movies/songs/whatever that I don’t own. For me, it’s easier to buy them and have an actual copy.

But that’s just me…

However, here is what TorrentSpy says when I ran a simple search on their site (may not work for people not in the USA).

It’s almost like Scientologists and AmWay run the Intertubes nowadays. People are so afraid of being sued that they won’t even give you access to someone else that might give you access to someone else that might know this other guy that could give you access to this other guy that will give you access to this guy that might allow you to do something almost illegal.

Posted by Lee on 01/28/08 at 11:48 PM from Australia

Here’s what it says when I try and access it.

Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website.Torrentspy’s decision to stop accepting US visitors was NOT compelled by any Court but rather an uncertain legal climate in the US regarding user privacy and an apparent tension between US and European Union privacy laws.

Posted by syddelish on 01/28/08 at 11:52 PM from United States

Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website. Torrentspy’s decision…

Maybe they’ve blocked access to people in China and are too lazy to update the verbage to include people in China.

Posted by syddelish on 01/28/08 at 11:58 PM from United States

Besides, it doesn’t change my point:

Scientologists and AmWay run the Intertubes

so much that

People are so afraid of being sued that they won’t even give you access

You can interchange “Scientology” and “AmWay” with “RIAA” and “FCC” and get the same results.

Posted by on 01/29/08 at 07:09 AM from United States

TorrentSpy is the site that necessitated my downloading and installation of Vidalia (as alluded to Lee on the You Pig, Part 2 thread).  For the very reason specified in that verbage.

Posted by dwex on 01/29/08 at 07:11 AM from United States

There is maybe some help coming on DMCA. Rick Boucher has been working (unsuccessfully) to get DMCA toned down. If he gets on the committee, maybe he can get this legislation moving

Posted by on 01/29/08 at 07:17 AM from United States

Maybe they’ve blocked access to people in China and are too lazy to update the verbage to include people in China.

It’s actually because you linked directly to the explanation page.  A better test would be for Lee to try searching for something, which is where/why the message comes up.

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