On copyright, documentaries & pirates. Arrrrrrrrgh. |

Copyright law and what to do with it. A hard nutshell to crack. A discussion that has been going on for decades and one I do not really want to share my opinion on as different parties state different facts which make it hard to draw a line in it all.

I remember how when I was a kid tape and VHS cassettes used to be pirated on a large scale and were sold on local markets. I saw Napster and other services come up later on in life and I saw some of these services disappear as quick while others became larger than life. Evolution and revolution at the same time one might say and interesting times none the less.

Piracy, whether music/video or designer handbags, is something that will always be around in my opinion. What everyone must realise though is that creative people deserve to make a living. A liner note which our younger generations can hardly grasp as they never really grew up to value music for instance.They love music, they talk about & share it with their friends and they especially also download it. Logical in my opinion as they’re growing up in a digital environment with unlimited access to something with no value due to that reason.

Kids nowadays do not grow up in record stores. Flicking through hundreds and hundreds of records, looking for that one album cover to draw their attention, ordering limited edition releases from Japan, … They just can’t value the carrier which a CD or vinyl is for some older generations.

Now I do not want to blame everything on the kids, as older generations also download huge volumes. But I do want to explain that current tactics fighting piracy do not work in my opinion. One must educate people and learn kids how to appreciate creativity. And that’s the hard part as one does not have the impression that they are hurting someone with a harmless download.

As stated, a long discussion and one with mixed opinions …

Now I stumbled upon the following clip. Its a clip in which director Simon Klose explains why he needs your support to finish the documentary called TPB AFK. This stand for The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard. Its a documentary on the notorious filesharing website The Pirate Bay, a long-standing enemy of the movie & music industry. In this documentary Simon follows the three founders of the site, and their reactions to being found guilty of being accessory to crime against copyright law and fined over 3.6 million dollars.

There’s already over 200 hours of footage saved up and there are plans to record more during the founders’ appeal against their previous verdict, which is set for less than a month from now, on 28 September, 2010. In three days, the director already raised over $30,000 on to pay for a professional editor and use of an editing suite in putting together the full length feature.

The court case, the political parties that have been started across several continents, the threats which get hilarious answers, … all interesting and something which many have been following up close for a long time now. All I can say: crazy Swedes. Hope they’ve got a stay out of jail for free card .