More than two years ago, Amazon sued a network of websites that sold pirated DVDs of Prime Video exclusives such as The Rings of Power and The Boys. The defendants, believed to be based in China, never showed up in court. This week, a California federal judge awarded Amazon $6 million in damages and granted a broad domain transfer request, targeting registrars and registries.
…did they sell the pirates DVDs ON Amazon? That would be funny, and mildly ironic on how Amazon has zero accountability for all the counterfeit jank junk they sell.
“Since Amazon has never released some of these Prime Video series on DVD…”
It’s almost as if the answer were right there…
So, companies should be legally forced to produce DVDs?
Also, piracy is one thing. Selling pirated content is another.
Some of this has the color of people feeling entertainment is a human right or something.
I always try to pay for my media in whatever way supports the creators the best.
But if Amazon won’t sell the format I’m buying, I’ll gladly pay someone who will. And laws made by Amazon soley for Amazon’s benefit do not obligate me to become some kind of detective when I buy a DVD.
So sure, no one should force Amazon to produce DVDs, but Amazon shouldn’t be able to stop others from producing what they refuse to produce. There’s already laws about abandoned products that could be applied.
This is just Amazon using their money to be a bully.
This whole thing wouldn’t be an issue if copyright was a reasonable length, like 5 years.
No, but they shouldn’t be allowed to sue for physical piracy on products they do not produce physically.
If someone goes to the trouble of designing and printing box and disc art for a product the rights holder won’t do, that’s a problem on the rights holder side.
There’s a demand for physical, fill it, and make the pirate product irrelevant.
No, but they shouldn’t be allowed to sue for physical piracy on products they do not produce physically.
This is nonsense.
I can’t just go and sell physical copies of Stardew Valley because the person who makes the game does not sell physical copies for XYZ platform.
Just like I can’t go and sell digital copies of something I don’t own the rights to just because it’s only available in physical form.
Y’all are doing that thing where you feel you have the right to other people’s labor. And going further and saying you have the right to profit from other people’s labor because they didn’t package their labor the way you want.
For gaming, lets say you have a title region locked to Japan but someone sells an unlocked pirated version.
Should they be able to sue for a product variant they very well could make but are choosing not to?
There’s the whole “no harm” rule, if they aren’t being harmed by selling to people who are not and never will be their customers…
I don’t think someone has the right to sell someone else’s product without permission. It’s as simple as that.
Note that this is differentiated from piracy. Y’all are muddying waters and sabotaging the cause when you entertain the idea that selling bootleg dvds should be equivalent to someone downloading something from the internet with no money changing hands. Regardless of constructed reasons related to availability.
Can it really be an infringement if there’s no physical source though? That’s the question.
Say someone does an online comic strip, I download the images, re-format them for print, and sell a print version.
There is no physical version to bootleg, the only reason a physical copy exists at all is because I put the time and effort into making one.
Same with the “Calvin peeing on things” car stickers. King Features and Bill Watterson could absolutely produce those themselves, but don’t. Watterson refuses to license the character for anything.
At the same time, they also haven’t gone after the people who are producing them.
So, companies should be legally forced to produce DVDs?
I will admit forcing a form factor is ill advised, but it should be possible to purchase a legal and permanent copy of said production in one form or another. Even if that is digitally, so long as it can be downloaded and doesn’t need some sort of online/phone home solution to play it.
Forcing the copyright holder to sell on DVD would be problematic. Why not just permit others to offer it in a format that is apprently in demand (e.g. by reducing copyright to 5 years, instead of ~5 billion)?
Pirating is indeed one thing (on boats… stealing, with violence and murder). If you say “unauthorised copying” instead of using the music industry’s propaganda term then maybe nuance is easier to see.
Fuck Amazon.
$6m is such a small potatoes drop in the bucket for them (Amazon)… Fuck them (Amazon) and everyone who supports them!
The sum doesn’t mean anything to Amazon (whether they lose it or gain it), but it probably means a ton to the people they sued.
If they are based out of China, then Amazon won’t get a single cent out of them. They will be back up with a new name and website soon.
I certainly hope so!
It probably doesn’t because they are not gonna pay it.
Blue Origin burns 6m in a couple of minutes just in fuel.
Which “them” are you talking about? It sounds like you mean the bootleg sellers, which implies you support Amazon. Mind you, I have no problem supporting the creative types making the content - it’s the absurdly large corporations milking customers for all they can that I have difficulty wanting to support.
Sorry, definitely fuck Amazon!
