DVD Streaming, U.S. Marshals, and E-parasites. Oh my!

Didn’t content owners learn anything from the MP3 player?  Give people what they want, and charge them a fair price for it. Make lots of money. No, instead lets desperately cling to the way things are until they collapse. Then Apple as a middleman is far more prosperous than you as the content owner. Good idea. The strategy for content owners has not changed since 1982, when MPAA President Jack Valenti testified that the invention of the VCR was “to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.”

Movie studios win lawsuit against Zediva http://bit.ly/uvtMDK  Zediva’s founders thought they had discovered a legal loophole for online viewing of movies by having customers rent DVDs physically located in the Silicon Valley. That way, Zediva wouldn’t have to wait for licensing deals with studios, which often withhold newer movies. *** U.S. District Judge John Walter in Los Angeles disagreed. He issued a permanent injunction Friday prohibiting the company from continuing its service.

Apparently shaking people down en masse for purported violations is not as profitable as it used to be.

Marshals ordered to seize $63,720 from Righthaven – News – ReviewJournal.com http://bit.ly/slriCS  U.S. marshals have been ordered to seize $63,720 from Righthaven LLC, a company that files copyright infringement lawsuits, to fulfill a judgment against the company. Lance Wilson, the clerk of federal court, this week signed a writ of execution that was requested by lawyers for Kentucky website poster Wayne Hoehn, who obtained the judgment for legal fees after winning a lawsuit Righthaven filed against him.

Copyright Troll Righthaven Teetering on the Brink | Threat Level | Wired.com http://bit.ly/sYHC0R

It is all about the brand name.  Taking a page from “big content,” copyright defenders in Congress rebrand PIPA the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act" or the E-PARASITE Act.  Cause if we say it enough ordinary citizens will have no sympathy for pirates, smugglers, or the e-parasite and we can slip this bill through.  The only problem is that under this act, you the ordinary citizen are easily converted into one or all of the above.

PROTECT-IP/E-PARASITE Act Gets A White House Petition | WebProNews http://bit.ly/rHeAjf  The bill would essentially require service providers to block access to certain sites, dependent on the accusation that they promote copyright infringement. The Senate-introduced PROTECT IP Act stated that the target of the new laws were sites that were “dedicated to infringing activities. Once the bill got into the House and was given its fancy new name, the reach was greatly expanded to target any “foreign infringing sites.”