Im sure everyone is awair that 'The Pirate Bay' (TPB) is down as a result of the swedish government. It does appear that things have been done legally, however it looks like they have confiscated servers that were unrelated - however, working for government i can understand how they would just grab everything related and ask questions later.

No charges have yet been laid (as far as i can tell) and the confiscation is to allow authorities to investigate. Swedish laws do not outlaw linking illegal materials (unlike the US and others) so torrent style sharing of copryrighted material is very gray. I have enjoyed the letters of complaint section where companies have attempted to impose US (or other) laws on swedish citizens, silly silly people. America does not own the world.

I have no real opinion on the situation with TPB nor am i in the position to judge Swedish law twisted with US pressure. But i do agree that the MPAA is being ridiculous. Movie companies are not making loses, people are buying dvd's and going to movies like never before and actors are being paid way too much! So whats the dealio? I have no sympathy whatsoever. If movie companies were filing bankruptsy i would! I also do not personally feel that downloading media is stealing as nothing has been taken, nor has a service been used without paying. I do not think people would buy 100's of songs or movies if they couldnt download them - they simply wouldnt bother. In a similar way that people wouldnt run windows 2003 server on their home server if linux/freebsd/openbsd/whatever wasnt available. Its free (or cheap) so people grab it, infact people are usually more inclined to buy something than take a freebie.

Its clear that viewers are fed up being told how and when they will or wont view television. They are sick of movies being months behind and tickets being overpriced! Sick of superloud ad breaks and once a week installation which are promptly moved to late night time slots or canceled! (thats if we aussies even see them).

Huray we can download and watch at our leisure! no ads, we can pause and watch later (much like a tivo) and content is delivered simultaneously world wide. Its surely a producers dream! Instant free distribution worldwide of high quality media!

There is obviously a need in the market place to leverage internet distribution technology and piracy is filling it. People are loving buying full dvd sets of series (and downloading them) much more than movies, for the very same reasons listed above. People *want* to watch shows as fast and faster than they are currently being delivered. Companies are clearly completely and utterly out of touch with the consumers and instead trying to dictate how the process of entertainment will work.

So really the answer to stopping it (piracy), is to drop the aging paradims of media delivery and start giving people what they want. Ad breaks may have to go, in favour of effective product placement (something that warner bros does very well). Shows may need to be only released to DVD - a good example is 'firefly' which was dumped and has proved vastly popular for dvd purchase, similarly dark angel and a great many other series. No more viewer surveys and shows 'not getting the ratings' as a result of more popular shows in the same time slot. Sales (or downloads) directly proportional to popularity! No fighting for peoples time, people will *make* time and watch the show!. Who cares if 'Eyes' doesnt fair so well, its making money enough to pay the actors and produce more episodes - rather than being dumped because NCIS has better ratings in that time slot. Isnt that what business is about?

There has been some uptake with the ipod video which as far as i can tell has been extremely successfull, However it is most likely driven by Apple's wanting to sell ipods, not movie and tv stations wising up.

Direct delivery is what people want! The technology has been proven for you, the market and technology is there AND people are willing to do the delivery for your product!