More Lawyers Trying to Shakedown 'Pirates'

A group of U.S.-based lawyers has disingenuously established themselves as the "U.S. Copyright Group" in an attempt to shakedown BitTorrent users who have downloaded obscure, independent films too shitty to make money legitimately. The same can be said of lawyers, but I digress...

This group of shysters is nothing more than a group of attorneys working for a handful of nobody filmmakers - both groups nothing but a bunch of talentless hacks - who are seeking to force individuals into settling out of court "to save money." They have also bought a disingenuous domain name, "savecinema.org," which suggests the collective is non-profit - which it obviously is not. Further, several ISPs have cooperated with them, at the tune of $60 per user revealed, thus creating a financial incentive for other ISPs to follow suit.

The truth is that studies have shown people who download movies and music illegally are almost twice as likely to purchase the actual product as those who do not. But, beyond even that, the harder truth is that the entertainment industry is one which has become accustomed to making billions of dollars, and simply refuses to be content making hundreds of millions; without the pointless packaging and other, useless "features," the entertainment industry would not be able to command the extortive mark-up on its inferior product. Still, at just under $1.00 a pop through Amazon, iTunes, and similar services, entire albums cost more digitally than traditionally, so this is more about the lawyers making money than the entertainment industry.

The Cyberculturalist stringently urges individuals and ISPs not to cooperate with the "U.S. Copyright Group." People like these are the real pirates. While The Cyberculturalist does not support the illegal sharing of copyrighted material, we also do not advocate corrupt legal endeavors - and we're just not cynical enough to throw our hands up and say, "Well, they're all corrupt, so what can we do?"

Netflix costs less than $10.00/month, and Hulu and Fancast are free. You can also find streaming media on most TV stations' sites, and many bands make singles available for free download as publicity. Many of the better companies also make artists' videos available on YouTube and social networking sites for the same reason. You really don't need to illegally share material, even if you are poor!

Regardless, you sure as hell do not have to pay the "U.S. Copyright Group" a single, red cent.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010