Going after fans has never been a good way to combat piracy. Everyone, except maybe Hollywood, seems to know it. Yesterday the guys over at The Movie Blog picked up a story from Yahoo about the MPAA's new plan to indoctrinate Boy Scouts with anti-piracy laws. It sounded a little bit creepy, kind of like brainwashing to me. It's the MPAA's own version of Jesus Camp.
But today Yahoo has some good news in the war on piracy. The city of New York has come up with a novel approach to combating it: They're going after the pirates.
They report that nearly 40 percent of the world's pirated movies are recorded in New York theaters, and Mayor Bloomberg has had enough. The city will start using public nuisance laws to prosecute the owners of buildings where movie pirates organize and sell their counterfeits. The idea seems to be to take way the places where pirates hide, and in doing so make them easier to catch.
That's not all though. Bloomberg plans to push the New York state legislature to enact stiffer penalties against scumbags who sneak cameras into theaters. He wants it made a felony for repeat offenders.
I'm all for it. Go after the pirates! Cut this stuff off at the source, don't attack the people downloading and buying them. There's too many of them, that'll never work, and you'll only end up prosecuting some poor little old lady in Akron, Ohio. These are the real criminals. Go get them.
