Independent media joins the anti-piracy fight

For a while now the major players in mainstream media have been vociferous in their calls for tougher laws to curb the prolific practice of illegal downloads.

Recently a team of senators moved to grant the US Department of Justice the authority to terminate websites that specialise in illegal content sharing, namely music, films and software, also known as torrent sites. The piece on infoTECH spotlight details the terms of the proposal and the extent of the powers the legislation will give the Department of Justice.
One clause I found particularly noteworthy within the act is its proposed extension to overseas perpetrators. According to two senators, Patrick Leahy and Orin Hatch, "The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act will give the Department of Justice an expedited process for cracking down on these rogue Web sites regardless of whether the Web site's owner is located inside or outside of the United States."

The Bollywood industry in India has apparently decided to solve the legal matters of shutting down file-sharing sites by simply ignoring them and hiring 'cyber hitmen'. The teams of internet geeks target the sites when films are illegally uploaded for sharing and, if a warning isn't heeded then the site is taken down. Read the comments from the site hired to take the pirates down and the analysis from an expert here.

Now a smaller, yet arguably a potentially more potent, voice has entered the fray, demanding that people start to pay for what they play.

A group of independent film makers have joined forces and filed lawsuits against tens of thousands of individuals, according to an article on ZDNet. The filmakers, including the producers of Hurt Locker,  complain that as their releases are most often straight to DVD, the proliferation of pirated copies are putting them out of business.

The group is also apepaling to google, which it says it compounding piracy and profitiing from it by placing advertisements of illegal file-sharing sites on its pages.

It's arguably easy for an illegal downloader to dissmiss the pleas of huge corporations that churn out derivative box office hits and chart-topping music. The adverse effects to a film fan if independent players are being put out of business, however, if obvious. It's pertinent to assume that the independent film-seeker could be more appreciative of the art, and perhaps more likely to change their behaviour to safeguard the future of their entertainment.

Eitherway, it's unlikely the pirates will take any action against them, whether sanctioned by law or not, without putting up a fight.

A website based in the US, 4chan.org, has openly declated cyber war against Hollywood and others it says is responsible for targeting file-sharing sites. Whilst originally targeting the aforementioned 'cyber hitmen' of India, these guys are going after others to protect the illegal sites such as Pirate Bay that they say are being targeted by large corporations. The fight goes on.

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