LokiTorrent (http://www.lokitorrent.com) was shut down yesterday by the MPAA. On the site it says:
“You can click but you can’t hide.”
“This website has been permanently shut down by court order because it facilitates the illegal downloading of copyrighted motion pictures. The illegal downloading of motion pictures robs thousands of honest, hard-working people of their livelihood, and stifles creativity. Illegally downloading movies from sites such as these without proper authorization violates the law, is theft, and is not anonymous. Stealing movies leaves a trail. The only way not to get caught is to stop.”
I’m not objecting to people getting paid to make movies. I haven’t downloaded a movie in a long time, but I do have a problem with the MPAA employing draconian measures in an attempt to stifle what clearly is a viable means to propagate their content.
I also have an issue with them referring to the downloading of a movie as “stealing.” It’s not stealing. It’s copyright infringement…which is entirely different. Loss of alleged, potential, future revenue is not theft of a tangible, existing asset. The most that they’ve lost in potential income is either 8, 20, or 28 dollars…on average. That’s assuming that you’d have gone to see the movie in the first place (8 dollars), you liked it after you downloaded it and bought the DVD (20 dollars), or you saw it in the movie theater and bought the DVD (28 dollars).
The MPAA’s goals in all of this seem unrealized. Every time they shut down some site, 3 come up in it’s place. I’d also point out that every single case of some torrent site getting shut down has resulted in a settlement. None of them have ever gone to trial. Hmm…I wonder why that is? I’m going to say that the corporate fear mongering is all they really have. They’re just too greedy to figure out a new business model that works with their customers as well new as distribution mediums.
I really like “You can click but you can’t hide.” Ha! I think it should be something else….
If you click a torrent…the terrorists have won.
