Dedrater

Piracy Surcharge Set To Force 40,000 Households Offline | TorrentFreak

This is just the start of things to come and if it does then I will be on a VPN 24/7 getting my monies worth, I will then distribute what I download to everyone I know and encourage them to do the same.

Stealth

iTrader: (4)

LMFAO... Ok goverment has said we need to foot the bill to cover piracy... Do you honestly think that the industries suffering from Piracy are going t oget teh surcharge from our goverment??

Doubtful, it's just another way for them tax something new....... It's only a matter of time before they tax oxygen.... C$nts!

robby

A ago there was an article in the papers saying poor households were missing out on the internet so our government were giving out thousands of vouchers "free" so layabouts could get a free computer and free internet.
I expect a lot of those will be downloading movies/ etc but can you imagine them contributing to the bill !!!!!!!!!

warrenm2

They're cvnts! - Simples

Dedrater

Indeed, I will do car boots and give DVDs/CDs out free on a promise they will not buy anything legal.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

I think I may download 100gigs worth of films tonight just so I get my moneys worth

Dedrater

You ITU G.992.3 people **** me off

Takes me four days to pull that off, my potential customers may take issue

Edit: Scratch that, a whole week!!

Leslie

Not as far as they are concerned. I reckon it will be as Stealth said and that they will coin it from us as yet another cheating tax.

les

GC8

What a shower of bast*rds.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

£25 a year surcharge to force 40'000 users off the Internet, wtf.

StickyMicky

So you pay £25 a year and then everything is legally free on the internet?

Sounds like a ****ing damn good deal to me!
This will legally save me a fortune!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Point is though if more people were honest and didn't steal music, films and software etc. we wouldn't even need to be having this discussion.

richie001

iTrader: (3)

But Piracy being going on for years(before the net)but we never had surcharging on video recorders etc.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

No mate, if the music and film industries were more honest and didn't sell their products for stupid prices, less people would pirate them and they would make MORE money.

I mean, £12-£15 for a CD? Give over.
£12-£20 for a DVD????????? Come on.
Firstly, they cost pennies to make, and secondly, we are STILL getting ripped off on the £ for $ rate: a CD costing £15 here costs $15 there.

Who are the real robbers? Not the pirates.

boxst

There is a levy on blank cassettes because of piracy. Or at least there used to be years ago.

Steve

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Ah OK then, good point. I 'm off to the Ferrari dealer to steal one as it's my right. I think they are robbing b******s charging 100K for their cars so I'm having one.

It's theft which ever way you look at it.

Markus

It's a nice easy way to tax people, hence why the government will do it, and I'd say it's nothing specific to the current lot in power, if any government thought they could get away with this, they would do it.

I think Alcazar's point is somewhat valid, from the viewpoint that the film and record industry has not changed to adapt to the digital age, whereas other industries have done so.

I recall there being an anti-piracy video in which a scenic artist was going on about how piracy would mean he'd have no job, and no ability to feed and clothe his family, blah, blah, blah. I've a friend who is in the film industry who is a scenic artist, and I finally remembered to ask him his views on piracy, to get the inside view as it were. I relayed the contents of the ad to him and he just laughed. He said if it was as big a problem as the vid made out then he'd have been out of work a long time ago.
He said that we're talking about Hollywood here, who make seriously stupid amounts of money on films. He said that the revenue from films mainly goes on marketing, which does cost a lot, but they still make a shed load once the marketing is done, plus the marketing for home/rental sales is taken out of the initial profit the cinematic release makes.
We then got onto the region coding of DVD's and he wasn't aware that it existed, but before I mentioned the real reason for it, he proffered that it was another money generation tool for hollywood, thus allowing them to charge different rates in different areas for the same film.

What I think they need to do is to stop being so greedy, and to realign it's pricing structures. Drop £10 from the price of a CD and £15 from the price of a DVD. Who knows, you might find sales increasing, as people decide it's not worth the additional hassle to download movies. A harmonized worldwide price is also needed, obviously we'll allow for currency fluctuations to be added in, but not trying to rape consumers won't be acceptable. A worldwide release of a DVD would be a good idea too, as if it comes out in the US sooner than the UK, then people will want to see it now, rather than waiting, but if it's available everywhere at the same time it'd help.

I know that this won't eradicate piracy, I'm not that foolish, but perhaps it might lessen it somewhat. If people don't feel like they are getting ripped off then perhaps they'll pay for the movie rather than download it.

Leslie

I really don't see how it can be fair that those who don't download illegally have to be charged for those who do.

The music firms should find their own way to protect themselves rather than sit back and take our cash.

Les

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I wonder just how many people can say hand on heart they have never downloaded anything they haven't paid for?

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Just because someone downloads a film or album, it doesn't mean that they would of actually bought the thing. Film and record companies are just pulling a figure out of thin air. Plus if the ISP bans you for downloading thats actually real money they are losing not the made up cash the film and record companies have lost.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

But Les you could say exacly the same thing about the police, should those that don't break the law pay for the police to stop those that do?

Leslie

Somewhat different circumstances. We need the police as an insurance policy for our own protection since we know that there are those who will either attack us or rob us.

The music industry is subject to those who will rob them but they should then engineer and pay for their own protection in the same way that we do. Why should we pay them for their losses if we are not guilty of robbing them?

Les

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

What? And charging us a HUNDRED times more than what a CD/DVD costs to make isn't?
Plus charging us 40%+ more than the Yanks pay for the same stuff?

Ever wondered why wnaks like Cowell can have the fortune he has? Not to mention pop-stars.

Ferrari are charging what the market will bear/what their product is worth. The rise in theft of music etc just shows that THEIR product is overpriced for most people

There's theft, and there's grand theft. What the music/film industries are doing comes into the second category.

Dedrater

Not to mention that the music/film industries keep bleating on how Pirates are making them bankrupt, but then this year they have made record profits, billions and billions of pounds.

It is pure greed, all they want is total monopoly of the market back, the days before Internet and CD burners. Where what they should be doing is coming up with new fresher ideas to deliver the music/films we want, in a delivery system that suits ever changing life styles.

Trying to charge is 99p for one music track and then tell us we are not allowed to burn this to a cd is not the way forward.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

LOL at this tosh. The rise in theft of music etc. is nothing to do with price, just that it's much easier to steal it now than it was 10 years ago.

None of you here would walk into HMV and lift a DVD, but lots of you would download the same movie from an illegal torrent site because it's easier.

You can kid yourselves all you like about the reasons why, but the reality is two wrongs do not make a right. The trouble is the Internet generation don't even see it as wrong - it's all part of the 'game'.

The thing is it is not always the big boys that get hit. I have written commercial software and had it stolen - the people that took it told me to sue them if I didnt like it. Nice eh? But I guess that is all OK as maybe I overpriced it as far as they were concerned

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Really the tax should be on portable hard disks....