Filesharing Pt.1 - The meaning of filesharing and TPB trial
Filesharing Pt.1 - The meaning of filesharing and TPB trial
Demons Halo | 6900 Reads | Filesharing Pt.1 The meaning of filesharing & TPB trial
Well first of all I'd like to start this article by announcing to you guys that this is the first article in a series of 2 or 3, which will discuss filesharing and its affect on today's society from an experienced user’s point of view. You might see the stuff you read here as obvious, but this article is setting the base for the next coming ones, so be patient.
This article is mainly about filesharing, and since TPB is one of the world largest trackers, it is assumed that the TPB is the filesharing community's face outward. 5 days ago, the Swedish court found TPB guilty of a crime we've never heard of before. Providing a service which allows filesharing of copyrighted material. The punishment for this crime was decided to be 1 year in prison and 30million SEK (~3 million €) for the 3 guys behind the site and a 4th guy who is the owner of the ISP used by TPB. The sentence was decided by the Swedish court only, even though the crime was committed on a worldwide scale. As a fan and a daily user of TPB I must say that this is an outrage for me, but as a writer I must be as objective as I can in order to make this article fair for both sides.
What is the purpose of filesharing? And why did TPB get convicted?
I'm sure that some of you guys care and follow the details of this particular case, others might just read this to see what TPB trial is all about. Whatever your reason for reading this article is, there is something I'd like to share with you before I answer the questions.
As a filesharer I must say that being able to download music/games/movies/books/etc, whether it's legal or not, is not about stealing, NO. It is about educating yourself although many may not realize it. I'm writing from a personal point of view, and I take full responsibility for my opinion, when I say that if not for filesharing our generation would have been dumber and more incompetent. Watching different movies and listening to music is not just about entertainment. It is about interpreting your senses and making sure you understand and even parse the inputs you are being given. Some of you might think:“ooh that is some deep bullshit…”. Well if that is how you feel then I’m sorry for you, but if you want to know the true meaning of filesharing then keep reading this article and judge it at the end of it.
File sharing opened my eyes and I'm sure it has done the same for many others. Movies and books are altered realities, illustrated on screens/pages for us to interpret our own ways. As a friend of mine ones said: "In movies you might see your past, your present and your future, but one thing is to remember: Every human is unique, we all understand our surroundings in different ways, so for you that movie might have resembled your image of the hidden future, but for others that movie might be the exact image of their past", So understanding what filesharing really is takes a bit of outside the box thinking.
Quote: "In order to see the true value of something, you must try to live without it". – My uncle.
In order for me to understand the value of filesharing, I had to live without it for a while. So as a graduation project, me and my friend tried to survive without touching a computer for 60 day, not even for paying the bills. Surprisingly enough we made it through, but even though we did one thing became crystal clear to us. If you are a young guy used to use the internet on daily bases, you won't be able to have a normal life if you quit using it. To understand why, try it yourself and see what I mean.
Most of the people around the net do not understand the meaning and the value of filesharing because they are simply born into it, which remakes the whole experience into something casual. The main purpose of filesharing is not being able to download music or movies, it is that you can have access to other people’s creative minds within seconds, and in result you’ll mix them together with your ideas and create something new, improving the inputs you've just received thanks to the internet & filesharing…
By now you are probably wondering what does this have to do with TPB breaking the law? and what about the questions I was going to answer? Well there is a pattern actually. I won’t be able to cover it all in this article but I’ll try to include the rest in the Pt 2.
TPB is a service like many others. See it as a road network. You, the user, are a car driver on his way to a certain destination. Now what TPB does is that they point the roads out to you so that you can reach your destination, which is what the internet is all about, LINKING people’s information together. TPB got sued for doing just that, they got sued for letting you drive on their roads to a certain destination that is in legal terms "copyrighted". I have personally never heard of any kind a Road Administration Agency being sued for letting a killer drive to the victims’ house. If you have heard of such case please post a comment with your source of information, cause I’d love to see that trial.
As for the question why TPB got sued? I have to be as objective as possible while answering this question. TPB owners knew about the illegal activity that was going on, and they did nothing to stop it. To be more accurate, TPB response in most case was: "HEY, talk to the driver, it's not my thing to decide where he is driving, I can't cut off the road just because you want me to". What the lobby (as they are called in Sweden) wanted was to censure the site, Only allowing the stuff that they find appropriate, which TPB owners found totally stupid and ignorant. Now some might think:"HEY, TPB are stealing, or at least they are setting up an environment where people can steal without being judged for what they do". This way of thinking is not dumb at all I must say, In fact it's quite accurate, because that is the case if we look at it from the user’s perspective, which is that there is a place where you can steal stuff and get away with it. But in order to understand the illegal filesharing problem a little bit better, we have to look closer at the main source of the accusations that are being fired by the lobby against the filesharing community.
The problem with illegal filesharing is not TPB uploading stuff for free, NO. The problem is that things evolve and get better and better. First books, then radio, TV, VCR, floppy, CD, Mini-disks, DVD-CD, HD-DVD, etc.
As you can notice, things evolve and gets better. The year 2009 is a digital year where everything is controlled using a computer. There is no need for Discs anymore, and there is certainly no room for VCR, floppys, etc. everything is digitized now, so the problem the Music/movie/game industry are having is not a problem of legal bases, it is a problem of transitioning. The industry today refuses to make the transition from a preexisting analog world, to a digital world where everything is easier, faster and costs a lot less.
As a backup of what I'm saying, one of the witnesses in the TPB trial, DR. Roger Wallis, presented a research which has changed the view of the “digital world”/profit ratio. He stated that the amount of money generated and given to the entertainment industry is still the same, the only difference is that the transition has made the record companies lose money while the artists earn a whole lot more now. You might think: “oooh, sad news for the industry owners =( “ 2 days into the trial, SF (the largest movie disturbing and theater owner in Sweden) fired a report saying that in 2008 they managed to generate a record profit more than any other year before. This backups the fact that filesharing leads to free PR, which in return lead to more profit for the movie industry.
What is the point of this article? You might wonder. The point is that a free torrent (which means flow) of information in all shapes (books, tapes, CD's, torrent-files, etc), is what evolved the human race from living in caves to what we are now. It is this ability we have to interact with each other combining our ideas into something new that has only existed in fantasy before. Think of how much the world have changed during the last 50 years comparing to any other point in history. It is the chaos of the information flow that makes our society evolve faster and faster for each year. So Instead of trying to censure the internet and hold it back because of some greedy men’s wish for a conservative constant immobile society, we should embrace and make this flow of information even wider, Not by breaking the law, but by making sure that we use the right methods to preserve the internet while companies still make a reasonable profit out of the new digitized society.
Plz drop a comment on this article and let me know what you think ;)
cheers
//D.H.
spyware 14 years ago
You seem like a very sad little kid. Rated "good" for your efforts, but please understand that you have many roads to walk before your attempts to write meaningful articles on the subject of freedom of information will result in something useful. Kudos for trying, though.
ghost 14 years ago
"It is about educating yourself " - I agree though not because of music and movies. There are many books that I could have never bought and read with out file sharing networks.
" blah blah Road Administration Agency blah blah" - I like that analogy
Overall you had a few good points but most of it was boring and long winded.
Rating: Average
Demons Halo 14 years ago
as I said most of the stuff in part 1 are obvious and nothing more than what I feel about this particular case. Although this was originally written in swedish, so translating it took away a bit of the content quality. haha sorry btw, I should have kept it short instead of going all the way. I'll keep that in mind for next time ;) thnx for the votes so far =D
ynori7 14 years ago
Conciseness is a virtue. If it's not, it should be. That was very long. It was an interesting topic, but it was too spread out and your did not stick to your original thesis. Plus there were quite a few grammatical issues. In conversation those are fine, but in a paper you should spend much more time proofreading. I'll give this a 'good' rating for effort.
htmldesigner 14 years ago
good effort on this article could have been said in fewer words, but overall it was ok.
ghost 14 years ago
Companies already do make a fine profit, they just want more :)
It was a pretty good article, but your point didn't seem consistent.
ellipsis 12 years ago
Industry is controlling the internet as well as governments. I rate as "Good."