|
|
This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Torrent Sites still going strong
|
|
|
Frank Cox
Film God
Posts: 2234
From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada
Registered: Apr 2011
|
posted 03-31-2017 07:01 PM
Amazon Bans Sales of “Pirate” Media Players, Will Destroy Them
quote:
Amazon is taking a tough stance against vendors who sell fully-loaded Kodi boxes and other "pirate" media players through its platform. The store now explicitly bans media players that "promote" or "suggest" the facilitation of piracy. Sellers who violate this policy, of which there are still a few around, risk having their inventory destroyed.
Streaming piracy is on the rise with popular media player Kodi at the center of attention.
While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, millions of people use third-party add-ons to turn it into the ultimate pirate machine.
In some cases, the pirate add-ons are put onto the devices by vendors, who sell these “fully-loaded” boxes through their own stores or marketplaces such as Amazon. While Amazon has never explicitly allowed the sale of copyright-infringing devices, they are not hard to find in its store.
This is a thorn in the side of major copyright holders, who have repeatedly complained about fully-loaded boxes.
Amazon appears to be well aware of the controversy, as it recently published an updated policy clarifying that pirate media players are not permitted on the platform. Merely ‘suggesting’ that devices can be used for infringing purposes is enough to have them delisted.
“Products offered for sale on Amazon should not promote, suggest the facilitation of, or actively enable the infringement of or unauthorized access to digital media or other protected content. Any streaming media player or other device that violates this policy is prohibited from sale on Amazon,” the company writes.
Amazon states that it is up to the vendor to determine whether their products meet these standards. Those who still cross the line are in for an unpleasant and costly surprise. Amazon states that it will destroy the devices without reimbursement.
“If you sell these products, we may immediately suspend or terminate your selling privileges and destroy inventory in our fulfillment centers without reimbursement,” Amazon writes.
In addition, if there’s proof that the vendors were engaging in illegal activity, any pending payments may be withheld or forfeited under the policy.
While the announcement was published without fanfare, it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Anti-piracy company Irdeto, which works with several major copyright holders on pirate streaming box cases, sees the new policy as a breakthrough.
“This first of its kind preventative measure aims to minimize the pirates’ promotional reach. It’s a policy I hope the other e-Commerce sites will emulate,” Mark Mulready, Senior Director Cyber Services and Investigations at Irdeto, notes.
Despite Amazon’s strong language the site still features many devices marketed as fully-loaded streaming media players. Some, including the one below, even use pirate sources such as Icefilms, Primewire and the Genesis Kodi add-on to market their products.
According to Irdeto, the media player software itself is not at fault. In a way, they are a victim of the pirates too, much like copyright holders. The pirate sources and the rogue vendors are the ones that create and maintain the problem.
This is also reflected in the legal cases that have been launched thus far over the misuse of Kodi players. Both in the UK and the Netherlands, test cases against sellers of “fully-loaded” devices are aiming to stop the phenomenon.
In the United States, the problem is also on the radar now. MPAA boss Chris Dodd recently said that finding a solution to the illegal use of Kodi is one of the main piracy questions the industry currently faces, so it’s likely that more enforcement actions will follow.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 04-02-2017 11:47 AM
quote: David Buckley
In the UK there has been a recent sucessful prosecution against a seller of so-called "fully loaded" Kodi boxes, which enables one to watch pirated content without going through any hoops. Link to Daily Mirror article that muses on the issue, which links to a report on the prosecution.
Edited highlights:
A man has been hit with a £250,000 bill for selling 'pre-loaded' Kodi boxes which could screen Premier League football to pubs and clubs.
Malcolm Mayes, 65, from Hartlepool, Teesside...
Ha! It's a small world...
I worked in Middlesbrough (just across the river from Hartlepool) from 2001-06, formed the impression then that illegal activity probably accounted for most of the region's economy, and see that it's still going strong! You only had to walk a block or two from my office to find pirated DVDs of anything you desired on sale ... except that you wouldn't walk a block or two from the office, because the odds weren't good that you'd get back to it in one piece.
Still at least they're just watching pirate footy broadcasts over there, and no longer stringing up poor, defenseless animals...
| IP: Logged
|
|
Randy Stankey
Film God
Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 04-02-2017 01:56 PM
Two words: "Due Process."
If Amazon actually goes through with this, they open themselves up for a big civil liability suit.
If they impounded the merchandise then called the FBI, it would be different but one person can not deprive another of property like that.
Yes, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments are supposed to be aimed at the Government's actions against Citizens but if one Citizen (or Corporate Entity) deprives another of their civil rights, that is considered a tort... and a big one at that!
Not even a security guard at Walmart can deprive a person of goods or property, even if the security guard saw a customer steal something with his own eyes. The guard CAN detain the person, impound the goods then call the police but they CANNOT take unilateral action.
I bet that Amazon is basically counting on the "violator" to knuckle under. Most small-time crooks won't have the money or resources to fight their case. They are, essentially, bluffing and grandstanding.
If some spiteful A-hole decides to get an ambulance chasing lawyer, Amazon could get their ass handed to them in court!
Amazon is being REALLY stupid about this! Even if they are only just saying it for show!
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 04-02-2017 07:26 PM
quote: Randy Stankey
I bet that Amazon is basically counting on the "violator" to knuckle under. Most small-time crooks won't have the money or resources to fight their case.
Or, just as likely, because small time crooks are still crooks, and as a general rule, crooks don't want to draw the attention of law enforcement to themselves, which they'd risk doing by taking Amazon to court.
The problem for Amazon will be if they mistakenly identify someone as a crook and destroy inventory, etc., that does not actually facilitate doing anything illegal. The negative publicity that would result from that would drive a lot of third-party sellers that use Amazon as a storefront away.
quote: Article
While Amazon has never explicitly allowed the sale of copyright-infringing devices, they are not hard to find in its store.
I once bought an HDCP stripper from Amazon. This was not to do anything illegal with: I simply needed it to connect a BD player to a video scaler that could not decrypt HDCP itself. Every second of content that has been passed through the HDCP stripper box has been fully licensed and cleared for playback.
It's certainly true that this device COULD be used to facilitate piracy, but, like hundreds of thousands of other products that Amazon sells, it also has entirely legitimate uses. Is Amazon going to stop selling, and destroy their inventory of, anything that could possibly be used in any sort of crime?!
| IP: Logged
|
|
Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 04-03-2017 02:18 AM
I would go as far as to say that stupid stuff like HDCP actually enables piracy instead of defying it.
Stuff like HDCP is being used on so many cheap appliances out there, it will always be a matter of time until someone cracks it. All the content that's being protected by HDCP is already out there, in unencrypted form...
So, what is HDCP good for? Primarily frustrating the "little man" when he tries to connect two incompatible components to each other in an otherwise totally legal way.
It's the same frustration of the little man that loses his music collection on his iPod, iPhone or whatnot player, because DRM never allowed him to make a proper backup or he/she transferred the music between too many devices. Or even worse, the company they bought the music from decided to shutdown their licensing servers. Those who downloaded the same stuff illegal, don't have any of those problems.
It's the same frustration that hits you, when you get an "unskippable" copyright notice in 20 languages on the DVD or Blu-Ray you're watching. Or the 10 seconds of threatening with jail you get when you watch a 20th Century Fox release in a theater anywhere in Europe. I'm the good guy already, I actually paid for your content. Don't screw me. Thank you.
| IP: Logged
|
|
Frank Angel
Film God
Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
|
posted 04-03-2017 07:50 AM
I believe that the last time the MPAA went to Congress plying the members with wine, women, and song (mostly women and I'll be a few young men too) to get the Copyright Law "amended", or possible it was two Copyright Law revisions ago -- you know, what they do each time some studio has one of it's big hit titles about to go into Public Domain and they scramble to find ways to get Congress to rewrite the law to prevent the dreaded Public Domain status or in some way to get some better advantage they want, didn't they add a provision that made breaking ANY protection scheme on ANY software or hardware in and of itself illegal? It rightfully raised a row because people who wanted to make a "protection" copy of a disc or software the purchased, all of a sudden became criminals. In the early days of programs coming on floppy disks, the company would TELL you to make a protection copy. All of a sudden that went out the window and the MPAA's claim was that optical discs are so stable a medium that you never would need a back-up copy. Tell that to Laserdisc owners. Anyway, my recollection is that the studios got that passed.
A few years back, a tech I know had a box full of video chips that he got from China which broke the HDCP protection. That new amendment made using that chip or any other "jailbreak" hack illegal. It made the hacks which allowed someone to be able to strip the protection off DVDs years ago illegal. Which would mean that just the use of those hacked Firesticks would be illegal, theoretically even if you didn't watch a copyrighted movie with it.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
This topic comprises 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic