MPAA Chases Uploads, Ignores Open Sales of DVD-Rs?

rbrander writes "Go to TVBoxSet.com and find a remarkable sales site for box sets of TV shows, including not only surprisingly cheap deals, but offerings not found elsewhere. For example, they have a set with all ten seasons of 'JAG'. The problem is that the production company is only up to season 4 so far. Google "tvboxset" and find every link below the first is to a complaint or news website complaining of the scam. Those who do shop at the site get a product that appears to be a DVD-R recorded off of cable. The really odd thing? They're still in business! A story at the Montreal Gazette about the scam is six weeks old. Now what's in it for the content industry to beat up private citizens with $220,000 judgements or scrambling to get DeCSS sites shut down within hours, while corporate scammers openly sell pirate DVDs for months on end, unopposed?"

They're safe because they are identifiable

[tech10171968]

Personally, I believe they're getting off scott-free because TVBoxSet.com is a company, but P2P networks and their filesharers are not. It's easy to compete against another company (like TVBoxSet.com), especially one which allegedly offers questionable content; on the other hand, with P2P, how in the world does a company compete against free? I may be wrong but I can't think of a business has yet figured a way to do that (Microsoft is presently trying to answer that question as it pertains to GNU/Linux and FOSS). Seems to me that , correctly or not, they don't percieve a much of a threat to their bottom line coming from TVBoxSet.com as they do from some kid with a torrent client.

The #1 reason

[jonwil]

The payouts they can get for one copy of a given film or TV show being shared over BitTorrent are higher than the payouts they can get for many illegal DVDs of the same film or TV show.

They don't Go After Them!!!

[1mck]

I actually received a pirated DVD from EBay, and I contacted all the right authorities such as EBay, Universal Pictures, the local Police, the Sheriff, and the FBI. Guess what happened??? Diddley squat!!! Months later they were still hawking their pirated DVD's with the soundtrack, and even added in more movie stills, and bigger banners to suck everyone into buying their crap! I can honestly say that I'll never use EBay ever again because of this, and as far as the warnings that everyone sees at the beginning of every movie...what a load of crap!!! Ooooohhh, they went after some woman, but these Assholes get to make money off of innocent people buying stuff in good faith, and all of the right people are contacted, and made aware of it....give me a break!!!!

Re:Wow!

[Duncan Blackthorne]

I wouldn't at all be surprised if they're just going to these pirate operations, threatening them with criminal and legal action, then quietly making a deal with them to cut them in for a share of the profits.

Oh ye untraveled masses..

[Anonymous Coward]

In Subic Bay, you can actually get pirated DVD's in the stores. Camcorder rips where you see shadows walking across the screens, 12 in 1 movie collections on 1 DVD, Screeners, etc. And the companies that are doing this have mailboxes, corporate offices, etc.
In Bahrain, you can get DVDs of hi-res screeners for about 1-2 Dinar (about US$6), professionally boxed with mailing addresses and a complaint line.
In Dubai, your 'reputable' pirate DVD's run you about 10-20 Dirham (err, about US$5?), are full resolution, have Arabic subtitle options.
In Singapore, just about any boot sale has high-quality "Real" DVDs for Sing$10 (about US$5) that are made in China on the same production lines as the real products. Look for one of the festival 'temporary malls' that pop up near the MRT stations every so often.
In Japan, just about any shop in the 'low-rent' district has them for about 500Yen (about US$4), but they are 'under the counter'.
Malaysia? Pick a street-seller.
Brunei? "Why you buy only one movie per disc?"
Oakland? At the top of the escalators coming out of the BART Station near the 'porn-store' district.

There is so much Movie/Music piracy out there by commercial enterprise, there is no money or impact in the MPAA/RIAA/etc pursuing it. They want the headlines, they want the court cases, but they want to target things that can lose instead of just fold and reappear.

 

Why they are in business

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

It's really very easy to understand why TVBoxSet.com is in business and the MPAA seems to not care.
1) They operate out of the Philippines. I don't know how strong or weak copyright law is in the Philippines, but it could be that these boxed sets are legal there.
2) Not that many people know about them, so sales really aren't all that great.
3) From everything I've read about them (I knew about them a long time before this article on Slashdot), the quality is bad. The MPAA may know that and figure that the product is so bad that letting people buy crap teaches a better lesson than fighting it publicly and making sure that a lot more people know about the website than do right now. Right now not that many people know about the website and a lot of those who bought product from it aren't real happy. Unhappy customers work in favor of the MPAA.
4) Going after file sharers is low hanging fruit and doesn't involve the complications and risk and cost of dealing with foreign legal systems. I can't speak about the Philippines as I have never been there, but I can tell you from personal experience that if this was happening in certain parts of the ex-USSR that any court case would not at all be about laws but it would be all about the bribes and whoever paid the highest bribe would get the decision in their favor. The local guys would have huge advantages over the MPAA. The local guys would have access to the judge to pay him off, they would be able to hire hitmen to kill any attorneys working for the MPAA in the country, and so on. The MPAA might be afraid to try to bribe the judge or believe it or not, actually get outbribed by the locals. It happens. The locals could pay a big bribe to the judge and then get him to rat out the MPAA for trying to bribe him, even though he got bribed already by the local guys. Fighting such a court case in a place that has strong rule of law and low corruption is one thing. Fighting such a case in a country where justice goes to the highest bidder in something else.