back to article Movie bosses demand Google take down takedown notices

Movie studios have taken the fight against piracy to a whole new level by sending takedown notices to Google asking it to remove links to their takedown notices. NBC Universal and 20th Century Fox are meta-fighting the Chocolate Factory because its search links to takedown notices on sites like Chilling Effects could be used …

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  1. Khaptain Silver badge

    "I probably shouldn't be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts," he said. "The demand is there. And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network." ®

    Glad to see that at least one of them has the balls to admit the truth for once.

    1. dotdavid
      Pirate

      "[Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network"

      Especially when that network isn't made available to most of the potential customers.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        They're shooting their own foot.

        I regularly buy DVD and Blurays of tv shows and movies, when they're available that is! make those tv shows available outside of US the same day or close to that as they air and i would be glad to take out my credit card and forget my torrenting ways, that's all.

    2. Anonymous Custard
      Coat

      Also kinda reminds me of Sir Terry Pratchett's response at being told he was the most shoplifted author in Britain.

      Or at least his response about being told about his supposed response about being told he was the most shoplifted author in Britain, to be slightly more accurate.

      <---Mine's the one with the coat in the pocket...

    3. Professor Clifton Shallot

      "Glad to see that at least one of them has the balls to admit the truth for once."

      Right - if they make good (or at least popular which is almost the same thing) products they will also make money - piracy does not prevent that.

      Acknowledging this fact however is not the same thing as saying piracy is perfectly okay and that all actions to oppose it are necessarily an abuse.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Acknowledging this fact however is not the same thing as saying piracy is perfectly okay and that all actions to oppose it are necessarily an abuse."

        It is and they are.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "...if they make good (or at least popular which is almost the same thing..."

        Is it?

        I find that a lot of the time huge popularity is a pretty good benchmark for total lack of quality: boy bands... chart music... reality TV... Hollywood fims... fast food... pissy lager... etc. etc.

    4. Alan Brown Silver badge

      He also commented that his only real issue with home piracy was the generally poor quality of the rips. (commercial piracy is another matter, as he pointed out)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        RE: Alan Brown

        Thing is it is not at all true though.

        The only rip that was ever poor quality was I think S02E02 when it was ripped from HBO Go a week early.

        (Marked as a webrip).

        Sky Atlantic puts adverts into HBO programs. (HBO afaik is advert free).

        Adverts are totally unacceptable to me under any circumstances.

        I pay for everything off Virgin Media (Except Porn and probably a few obscure foreign language channels that cost). If they offered HBO ad free like it is in America I might watch it. (As it stands I only watch BBC).

        I have thought about just getting Lovefilm and Netflix and removing the stuff that costs more and just buying boxed sets of what I actually like when they come out.

        If I lived in a cave I probably wouldn't mind waiting but I don't want it spoilt by hearing other people talking about it. (Except in stuff like Game of Thrones where I have read/bought the books anyway.)

        1. Rampant Spaniel

          Re: No adverts

          There was me thinking I was the only one lol. I get they make it cheaper, but honestly I'd be happier to pay extra not to have the adverts and just throw an extra couple of shows on a day to fill the gaps. Hulu seriously pissed me off with those (and the fact that quite a few shows just redirect you to other sites), just double the damn price and let me watch. At least give us the option, it would be really easy to do with web streaming as it wouldn't impact scheduling any. Hulu is cheap, triple the cost and stream all the major stuff directly and throw in offline viewing \ cacheing then I would be happy. Hell even more than triple if you throw in movies. I won;t break the law to get what I want, I'll just spend my money elsewhere. If you want my money sell me something decent.

    5. Dazed and Confused
      Holmes

      I'm suprised El'Reg didn't pick up on a story a couple of weeks back

      > And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales.

      Glad to see that at least one of them has the balls to admit the truth for once.

      There was a report out from the European Commission Joint Research Centre a couple of weeks back which the beeb covered under the headline "Music sales are not affected by web piracy, study finds" see

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21856720

      While a few people won't buy because they've seen it already, the interest that grows out of the pirated copies out ways the lost sales.

      It's just like the biggest beneficiary of the piracy of MS Windows and DOS for years was MS. The reason that for so long that there was no competitor to MS Office was the competitor to a legal copy of office was an illegal copy. Presumably the reason they took so long to even start making it more difficult to filch is that they were well aware of this.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pirate

        Re: I'm suprised El'Reg didn't pick up on a story a couple of weeks back

        out ways != outweighs

        Otherwise, you're right about WIndows and piracy.

        1. Dazed and Confused
          Headmaster

          Re: I'm suprised El'Reg didn't pick up on a story a couple of weeks back

          > out ways != outweighs

          Very true, one day I should learn to either proof read my postings or pay someone else too, but hey.. there you go, life's too short.

          1. Gannon (J.) Dick
            Pint

            Re: I'm suprised El'Reg didn't pick up on a story a couple of weeks back

            Does it matter where I steal my postings ? Isn't there some symbol on the stuff that has already been proofed ?

            beer-friday is too short.

          2. Adam 1

            Re: I'm suprised El'Reg didn't pick up on a story a couple of weeks back

            > or pay someone else too,

            Hmmm

          3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

            Re: I'm suprised El'Reg didn't pick up on a story a couple of weeks back

            one day I should learn to either proof read my postings or pay someone else too [sic]

            I personally don't feel any need to hire a proofreader for my posts - Firefox's built-in spellchecker catches most typographical errors, and I write enough that my error rate is reasonably low, and my usage nearly always matches some variety of preferred, except where I deliberately deviate. But this did make me think that an interesting project might be to set up a proxy server that, for any non-secured form submission containing a textarea, would submit said textarea as an Amazon Mechanical Turk job for proofing. There could be some heuristics on the backend to reject any revised text that contains suspect or excessive changes. Open the proxy only to registered users and charge back for the MT charges plus a profit margin.

            Voila - automated paid proofreading for web forum posts.

            I don't know if anyone would actually use it, and if there is any demand something like it may well already exist (I wouldn't be a bit surprised). But while it's not as interesting a use of MT as, say, Matt Richardson's Descriptive Camera, it's a mildly entertaining idea. Particularly if the back-end automated approval system implements some interesting language-processing techniques.

    6. graeme leggett Silver badge

      according to the BBC he has qualified his comments

      "I am 100 per cent, completely and utterly against people illegally downloading anything," he told the Sydney Morning Herald."

  2. Tomas K.

    This is a reasonable request

    Any source of means to pirate should be removed from the Net. As facilitators of piracy (see The Pirate Bay and others), are being prosecuted for their crimes, people are coming to understand that these online links are in violation of copyright law, and should be removed.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Trollface

      Re: This is a reasonable request

      ← You forgot this.

    2. Simon Round
      Pint

      Re: This is a reasonable request

      @Thomas K

      Interesting stance you have regarding the lawfullness of online links.

      Should links to Product manuals in PDF format also be removed at the original manuals will most likely have copyright notices in them? Even though they may be linking to the original manufacturers website?

      If you start making online links illegal then suddenly everything on the internet become illegal and we may as well just pull the plug!

      Right. Now I've got my popcorn. I'm ready to watch the arguments on this one.

      Beer because it's Friday.

      1. LaeMing
        Boffin

        Re: PDF links

        Simon Round: "Should links to Product manuals in PDF format also be removed at the original manuals will most likely have copyright notices in them? Even though they may be linking to the original manufacturers website?"

        Interestingly, my university legal dept. insists that we DO get permission for this sort of thing. Every manufacturer for our equipment has said 'certainly, you may' except for Sony, who have a more "IT'S OURS NO YOU CAN'T" attitude (which is, sadly, not surprising to me at all).

    3. NukEvil
      FAIL

      Re: This is a reasonable request

      Looks like SOMEONE forgot to check the "Post anonymously?" checkbox. Now I know who to blame all the past and future "Piracy is illegal, and people that do it should be removed from society" posts on.

    4. Aitor 1

      Re: This is a reasonable request

      I have reported you.

      Why? Because you came here to troll.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Because you came here to troll.

        I think you might be unaware there's this word in a dictionary (see "irony")

        1. Allison Park

          Re: Because you came here to troll.

          how much is the toll for your bridge?

    5. Ross K Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: This is a reasonable request

      Any source of means to pirate should be removed from the Net. As facilitators of piracy (see The Pirate Bay and others), are being prosecuted for their crimes, people are coming to understand that these online links are in violation of copyright law, and should be removed.

      You're talking through your arse.

      Unless you're some kind of superhuman international IP lawyer you can't tell me with 100% certainty that it's illegal in every country on earth to host a site that provides links to trackers based elsewhere.

      Here's another downvote to add to your growing collection...

    6. J.G.Harston Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: This is a reasonable request

      "Any source of means to pirate" ?

      So, any method of communication between humans.

      You first.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    "But, in a cruel twist of fate..."

    I think you meant to say, "But, in a wonderfully satisfying bit of irony..."

  4. Frankee Llonnygog

    Microsoft also?

    Well, Microsoft needs to have a word with Bing as it hosts plentiful links to notices on Chilling Effects.

    Remind me who owns Bing?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Compromise

    Keep the text but redact the links, like government documents with black bars over them?

    1. Kevin Johnston

      Re: Compromise

      Unfortunately the various Government departments keep forgetting they need to 'Replace' the text with a bar and think that black text on a black background is good enough

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Compromise

        Are you sure that such actions are done "forgetfully"?

        Mine's the one with the foil lined hoodie.

  6. John Colman
    Pint

    Streisand meets Inception

    So now, having first drawn attention to the dodgy links, "Big Media", to borrow an Americanism, are now drawing attention to the links to the dodgy links. Next we'll see them fire a broadside against the blogs that cover the story for pointing out the existence of the links to the dodgy links, thus drawing attention to the links to the links to the dodgy links...

    Barbara Streisand would be proud!

    1. 4.1.3_U1

      Re: Streisand meets Inception

      Well it seems to me that blogs posting links to content elsewhere keep getting taken down all the time. The taking down of MU last year doesn't seem to have had any effect other than that there are more file hosts and more blogs all the time.

      Everything changes, but everything stays the same.

  7. ecofeco Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Teh Stupid

    Wow. Just... wow.

    The beatings will continue until moral improves, eh?

    1. dotdavid
      Headmaster

      Re: Teh Stupid

      Morale. The companies doing the beatings don't know the meaning of the word moral.

  8. ElReg!comments!Pierre

    "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales."

    And that is the crux of the matter. "piracy" does not negatively impact sales, and never had. Quite the contrary in fact, as Microsoft could tell you...

    People download illegally, or get passed "pirated" copies, and then if they like it they go buy the DVD with the good-quality images and all the nice bonuses. The thing is, ordinary people only have so much money to spare on entertainment if they want to be able to eat and pay the bills. They won't spend more, and they usually don't spend less. "piracy" in this context ensures that your product is widely known and appreciated, and thus that people will spend their disposable cash on it rather than on the competition's.

    The real reason why Big Media _has_ to be seen as being "tough on piracy" is that piracy is the argument they use to hide the beancounting dirty tricks that allow them to hide profits and thus not pay taxes. "Pirates ate my profits, honest".

    1. Darryl
      Pirate

      Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales."

      Yep, basically you could reword his quote to say something along the lines of 'If it's a good product, you don't have to worry about piracy affecting your profits.' which leads to 'If you're not making any money on this product, then it's probably because it's crap, not because of evil pirates.'

      1. skeptical i
        Devil

        Is the converse better? [was: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales."]

        "Sorry, boss, our offerings apparently suck so much syphillitic moose bung that no one even wants to STEAL them" doesn't sound like ringing product endorsement, does it?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

      "People download illegally, or get passed "pirated" copies, and then if they like it they go buy the DVD with the good-quality images and all the nice bonuses"

      Well I dont,

      I download reasonable quality compressed DVD rips, I dont have no truck with that la-de-da high def or BLUey bollocks.

      The quality is perfectly adequate

      Then I store it forever on my NAS

      I dont buy the DVD cos I dont want loads of cardboard and plastic cluttering up my living space.

      The bonuses are a waste of time too, I dont want to watch stuff with someone talking all over it no matter who they are. Deleted scenes? theres usually a good reason they were deleted. And if I do want them I'll get it on youtube.

      Unfortunately the content creators gain nothing from me, Although I did buy a DVD of "Serenity" i saw in a bargain bin cos I figured in that one instance it would be nice to be legal.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Windows

        Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

        I agree with you entirely. Except that i do download bluray/HD content and that requires the (ever increasing)5Tb of storage i have here using plex straight onto my TV. I use Usenet, i use torrent, i use P2P to get my wares....

        Oh, and i dont feel the need to hind behind a cloak of anonimity...

        As i have said before, i am a 5% freetard....

        Apparently....

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

        "People download illegally"

        Really? Is there some new law I should be aware of? Please find me a single case where someone was prosecuted specifically for downloading pirated material illegally?

        As far as I know it is not, and has never been illegal to download copyright infringing content.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

          "As far as I know it is not, and has never been illegal to download copyright infringing content"

          Correct - it is only illegal to distribute it.

          1. Dave Bell

            Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

            But the way BitTorrent works gives the lawyers the chance to accuse the downloader of also distributing.

            There's a can of worms in that.

            1. Danny 14

              Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

              Newsgroups or file lockers are immune then (dcma immune ones of course or youll need to he quick)

        2. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

        You might think it does for you, but statistically piracy actually increases sales: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/21/study-pirates-rejoice-illegal-downloading-doesnt-impact-digital-music-sales/

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

        I up voted you because I agree with you, mostly.

        Just so that you know I'm a socialist not a capitalist and have little trust of or faith in corporations, but corporations face a double-edged sword on this. If corporations allow unlimited piracy of the content they've created and own then why would anyone pay for it? So, a person might say that they, the corporation, should have earned enough from advertising to cover their costs and earn a nice profit, but why would most or many of us watch the show that has advertising when the the same show without advertising is also available?

        Then there's also the issue of why we feel we deserve to just have these for free. When I was young we had three TV channels that were often a little fuzzy because of interference and technical what not stuff. Everyone got the same channels and had access to the same shows providing that you could afford a TV and an antennae. The industry (and TV show production) has changed a lot since then and many of the shows worth watching are on speciality channels that are part of a package, we pay extra for them if we want them.

        The "we pay extra for them" and farther above the word "deserve" brings up other issues. There's a whole sociological argument as to what's fair and that really just as human beings we all deserve these things. For instance, as a middle income wage earner (well I used to be but apparently now that I have children my income which I would have previously considered enough puts us in the lower income wage level) and I can't afford to have the speciality channels that I'd like, or think that I'd like, although I do pay for one for my children.

        The whole wage thing brings up another aspect of corporate profiteering through outsourcing, the reducing of wages for the same job or wage freezes. All of these further exacerbate the problem of "illegal downloading" as more and more of us can't afford to pay for any extras. On the other hand, many of us watch far to much TV and or spend too much time on the Internet, guilty as charged on both counts, and we would probably all profit from visiting the library, going for a walk or other such activity that costs little to nothing.

        To summarize, corporations should be allowed and expect to earn a reasonable (what's reasonable?) profit for producing things people want and people should generally be able to afford to pay for the things they want, otherwise the system is broken.

        IMHO the system is broken and we need to re-evaluate how the whole system works. No easy answers are there?

        haha, now I have to laugh at my long and winding rant. It didn't start like that and I should really walk my dogs.

      5. Donn Bly

        Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

        "Yes it did?" No, even in your case it did not negatively impact DVD sales - because you would not have gone out and bought the DVD of the movies anyway.

      6. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: "And it certainly didn't negatively impact DVD sales." YES IT DID

        And in other news, scientists have determined that anecdote does, indeed, constitute proof, and that people who base their entire argument on personal anecdote are not nitwits incapable of critical thought.

        Unless they feel the need to use block capitals for emphasis, of course.

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