Motion Picture of America Association (MPPA) has long been fighting a long battle with some BitTorrent sites which allow people to download movies.
While the controversy about the copyright issue has not yet been resolved, claiming that the present laws regarding this has many loopholes, MPPA claims that some BitTorrent sites are stealing copyrighted materials which has allegedly caused billions of dollars of revenue loss by film producers worldwide.
According to the institution, sites which allow people to download movies (without any royalty or agreement with producers) are committing a serious crime of piracy, adding that with the advent of computer media, piracy has taken into a different form which is now Internet-based.
The association’s website stated that it is making an initiative to make selling, distributing, and downloading movies via Internet legal. (This would probably mean that movie producers will receive royalty for each downloaded content.)
One of the most popular BitTorrent sites, isoHunt, has been sued by MPPA and Canadian Recording Industry (CRIA) over alleged illegal distributions of media contents. According to Gary Fung, founder of the site, sharing and distribution of movies may not necessarily mean copyright infringement since this trend is the inevitable consequence brought by the Internet media.
To paraphrase the founder’s defence, he said that his company is maximizing the use of the Internet, adding that this medium of communication has irrevocably changed the economics of sharing.
While this reason may be accepted by web-centric consumers who enjoy free and discounted movie contents, this may not sound plausible for people who have a full grasp of the exact definition of copyright law. (note: this doesn’t mean that the author is accusing that Fung is selling copyrighted materials ilegally, since the case has not yet been concluded)
Copyright law is very easy to understand: Anyone cannot reproduce copyrighted materials as long as he doesn’t have permission to the rightful owner. This law covers any kind of digital media including the Internet.
Not following the copyright law may result to negative ramification: Movie producers will lose money, until no one is no longer interested to make films—much to consumers’ disappointment.
One could infer from your post that Gary Fung’s site, isoHunt violates copyright. You don’t say so explicitly but I thought I would clear it up here. His site does not violate copyright because he doesn’t reproduce copyrighted works.