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NEWS: Winny File-Sharing Software Developer Kaneko Acquited




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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:26 pm Reply with quote
I have to agree with the defense's argument. People are going to be reluctant to make anything new if they constantly have to consider all the things that others may do with it. Sure, file sharing programs get used to trade material illegally, but unless that was stated as a specific purpose of the program, it isn't really his fault. Probably the shadiest bit is the whole anonymous sharing thing, but again, unless it was something along the lines of "Hey, you're anonymous so start trading copyrighted material" it still leaves it up to the end consumer what they do with it. A person shouldn't be held responsible if someone else misuses their product.
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Daemonblue



Joined: 05 Jul 2006
Posts: 701
PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:48 pm Reply with quote
Actually the anonymity of it is what would make it appeal to the average consumer as well. Torrents, for example, are pretty open ended, and therefore it is fairly easy to get your ip from them, which, in turn, puts you at a greater risk for an attack from someone else compared to if you were anonymous. And don't say that all torrents are evil either, otherwise you'd be looking down on Linux and Blizzard (Blizzard's updater for WoW is partially torrent based). Everything can be used for copyright infringement, just look at VCR's...and as technology advances things will become more anonymous to protect the users.

Anyway, I say congrats to him for the legal defense, though money wise it's nothing compared to the 1.9 million dollar lawsuits the RIAA are pushing for, but hell, anyone wouldn't wanna pay that much for how their users used their program.
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alp227



Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 12:42 am Reply with quote
I agree with the defense argument that the developer did not actively intend to encourage piracy. Compare that to the pirate DVD street vendors in China.
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:42 am Reply with quote
i can't believe how long it took him to get acquitted for this. i mean i don't see how he could held responsible for what people do with the software. by that logic, Shawn Fanning should have been locked up.
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2251
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 8:25 am Reply with quote
v1cious wrote:
i can't believe how long it took him to get acquitted for this.

The wheels of justice turn slowly.

Honestly, I buy the "bad precedent" argument better than the "he didn't know" argument. (We're talking about file sharing on the Internet, after all.) There needs to be more personal responsibility in this world, not less.
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Gasero



Joined: 24 Jul 2009
Posts: 939
Location: USA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 8:50 am Reply with quote
File sharing software is very useful, and is a great innovation in technology.

The problem is that other industries are slow to catch up with the innovation of file sharing. Digital Rights Management has enabled some restrictions, but users just complain about it and put a negative stigma over it.

The problem is not the software, its the desire for people to acquire things without paying, especially when it's so easy. Not everything that is done through file sharing is illegal, but after it became so popular, 90% of it became illegal.
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Ktimene's Lover



Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 2242
Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert)
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:09 am Reply with quote
File sharing software also often leads to piracy/copyright infringement. Interesting how a man got lead off from doing something that is one of the main reasons the anime industry is hurting so bad.
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nadir-seen-fire



Joined: 05 May 2009
Posts: 90
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:10 am Reply with quote
Ctimene's Lover wrote:
File sharing software also often leads to piracy/copyright infringement. Interesting how a man got lead off from doing something that is one of the main reasons the anime industry is hurting so bad.

Huh, that statement is ridiculous.

A) Since when is Winny the reason the anime industry is hurt? There are dozens of file sharing programs in existence, torrents exist, direct downloads are also used spread over the hundreds of download sites that exist, IRC is also abused to transfer videos, and then there are the streaming sites where they get uploaded. A single developer working on developing a single file sharing program changes nothing.

B) IRC is used to chat and share things, torrents and file sharing are used to distribute free software and there are authors that even distribute their works over file sharing networks, freely licensed music gets distributed over the networks, download sites are used to upload your own files and allow others to be able to download them to their computer, and streaming sites let people upload there own works, and recently even allow anime creators to stream their works legally.

Honestly it's like blaming the person who manufactured a single gun, because someone else pulled the trigger. We don't put people into jail for manufacturing guns for sale, we put people in jail for pulling the trigger with it pointed at other people. Same goes for knives, axes, and so on, used in countless murders.

It's not the tool's fault, or the fault of the person who constructed that tool, it's the fault of the people who use the tool for bad purposes.

Blaming the person who makes the tool just harms the creation of good useful tools. The axe, knife, everything listed above has been used for a good purpose, because it has been abused for a harmful purpose does not make it's creator at fault for what it was abused to do.

If you're going to blame the creators of file sharing software, then the people that created the software abused to encode fansubs, rip videos off television, and time those subtitles are all equally at fault to.

I work for a company that is building a piece of software to help people build websites. If sometime in the future someone abuses that software to build a site that organizes crime, am I at fault?
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Daemonblue



Joined: 05 Jul 2006
Posts: 701
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:46 pm Reply with quote
A little something to add to what nadir has said, software retail losses in general are more attributed to rental services moreso than piracy. Now, I can't say that holds complete truth in terms of fansubs, but it's something else to think about. I believe the numbers for games in general were estimated at about 10% revenue loss from piracy and 40% from rental services, but then that's saying that all of the people that received a pirated copy of something didn't actually buy it later, which is simply not true.

Also, not that I want to soapbox against the RIAA or anything, it's just that they're kind of an easy target for stuff like this, but if you see an increase in price of CDs you can partly attribute it to them. There's a law that has been in effect for a relatively long time that basically puts money into their hands for every burnable CD that is produced, whether it's used to store music or not. It was something added in to help curtail losses due to piracy, while at the same time they're trying to get even more money out of people via lawsuites.
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4369
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 5:39 pm Reply with quote
Ctimene's Lover wrote:
File sharing software also often leads to piracy/copyright infringement. Interesting how a man got lead off from doing something that is one of the main reasons the anime industry is hurting so bad.


Especially here in the US where illegal streaming and fansubs are out in spades. Done a lot of searching and a lot of fanssubs of series are the most downloaded series,especially of one piece which is the most ilegaly downloaded series according to nebstv.

And i really believe that the're the reason co like Geneon are non existent due to fansubs and illegal streaming and file sharing which is why sites like veoh and youtube went legit or else suffering the same fate like DIVX's video site stage6.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:22 pm Reply with quote
Ctimene's Lover wrote:
File sharing software also often leads to piracy/copyright infringement. Interesting how a man got lead off from doing something that is one of the main reasons the anime industry is hurting so bad.


I don't get you.
First of all, I download lots of fansubbed anime. When it comes out, I'd buy the dvd if I'd enjoyed the series. How am I hurting the industry?
For someone who only watches fansubbed works, if there's to happen a complete disappearance of fansubbed shows, they'd just give up on anime or resort to free streaming/broadcasting/friends' dvds.

Now, you seem to be quite knowledgeable about stuff like this, and I really think it's about time you try thinking a bit harder about things like this.

No offense, but your mind is so closed to the outside world that it becomes unbelievable.

I'll always think of fansubs as free advertisement, and that it's the only reason they're still around.
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jsyxx





PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:48 pm Reply with quote
Anyone who thinks this man should have been convicted is a moron of the highest degree. What's next, we start imprisoning the manufacturers of knives because they can be used to kill people?
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Ktimene's Lover



Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 2242
Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert)
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:28 pm Reply with quote
J-Syxx, you have a point. Let's arrest all the tobacco and drug company workers.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:37 pm Reply with quote
Will you feed their families once that happens Ctimene's Lover?
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