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back to article TorrentFreak seeking copyright report’s mysterious author

A report that pump-primes the idea that Australia is a nation of inveterate pirates is starting to unravel, with a report on TorrentFreak questioning the bona fides of the report’s author. The study, which alleged the usual extreme extent of Internet piracy – a billion-dollar burden on the economy destroying thousands of jobs …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Heh.

    This is a strange one, this report that is going to be used to write new legislation cannot be seen by anybody and the people who wrote it sell houses....

    What made me laugh though was that the company registration document had a huge "Obtained by Pirate Party" watermark. Irony?

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Curious, curious

    So, uhm, the "legitimate" side of the debate keeps on whipping up shills and fronts and straw men, cozying up to government and getting laws passed to make them even more "legitimate". And the "illegal" side of the debate keeps on releasing information into the public the "legitimate" side would rather they did not.

    My hands are itching to repeal the laws that let the scum be legal, for this sort of thing alone.

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  3. Gordon Barret

    Numberical

    Hmm, interesting - according to the registry Sphere Analysis's nature of business is "CONSULTING SERVICES ANALYSING NUMBERICAL DATA".

    And they can't even spell.

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    1. Code Monkey
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Numberical

      It's a perfectly cromulent term. You just need to embiggen your word repository.

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      1. g e
        Reply Icon

        Come come, Mr Bond

        Surely you have heard of my Orbital Numbness Calculatron ?

        I bid you Adieu...

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  4. David Hicks

    If you have to go to these extents

    In order to get people to not just throw out your data, or give it a veneer of respectability, then you must already know you're peddling bullshit.

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  5. kurkosdr

    These guys are ridiculous

    These guys are ridiculous.

    So, they try to "inform" the public (people like my aunt) about the perils of 'piracy' and how it hurts jobs.

    Then, some nephew like me tells them how the only ones that lose money are rich bastards who don't need so much money anyway, and how all content that typically costs 1$ A PIECE can be found for free.

    Wasted effort...

    And the hole thing with legislation? Shareaza.sourceforge.net is still wildely available, and so is uttorrent, and so is piratebay, so has all this legislation actually prevented anyone from downloading anything. NO!

    Wasted effort.

    These RIAA/MPAA guys soon will have to get real jobs, just like the people who copies books before the invention of the gutenberg machine eventually had to, no matter how they tried to prevent it.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Cue The Muppet Theme

    Are these people really this dumb ?

    It would appear so and are making themselves to even more stupid every time a stunt like this is pulled.

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    1. Dagg Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Black Helicopters

      RE: Are these people really this dumb ?

      No, they just need to fool politicians who are that dumb!

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  7. AndrewG

    All I can say is....

    I never used to download DVD's until I got tired of wading through 10 minutes of rubbish about the perils of piracy that I couldn't skip past.

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    1. g e
      Reply Icon

      Whilst feeling accused

      all the way through it.

      You wouldn't steal a car...

      No. It has a fecking alarm and, when I steal it I permanently deprive the owner of it. Which, incidentally, IS the definition of 'steal', isn't it ? Learn to speak honest English, too, you mendacious manipulative, greedy bastards.

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      1. Code Monkey
        Reply Icon
        Joke

        You wouldn't steal a car...

        I would if I could download it.

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  8. squilookle
    Stop

    I know I'm not spelling out a detailed plan that's ready to use here...

    ...but rather than going after people who download stuff with heavy handed (and often frightening) legal tactics and propaganda, the industries "affected" should engage with the people doing the downloading and find out why they do it.

    Maybe they could learn something that they can apply to their business model that would cut down piracy more effectively than their current methods.

    I lost respect for the industries crying about piracy (or more accurately, my lack of respect for these industries was confirmed) a few years back when they had adverts linking piracy with terrorism etc, that didn't give the sources of their figures, so you couldn't even check on them.

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  9. Blarkon

    Still but

    Find me some Aussies with computers who haven't downloaded copyrighted material and I'll be more suspicious than I will of a report that claims that most Australians do.

    Dunno what the end-game is here, but I know in my suburb the last video shop is in the process of closing up. There were four here five years ago. Given that Australia doesn't have NetFlix, Hulu or any other easy to use digital video rental technology, it isn't too long a bow to draw to figure that most Aussies are "provisioning their digital entertainment using alternative methodologies".

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    1. kissingthecarpet
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Video shops lost out to DVD sales long before downloading

      That is all.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      That's strange

      Don't know where you live, but there are 6 video store in my area, all doing very well.

      My favourite video store is often so busy it's hard to move around because of the number of customers - which is strange if we believe that everyone is home downloading the movies.

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  10. JaitcH
    WTF?

    Sphere Analysis is likely a dummy company, ...

    financed by the record and film industries, with a fancy name so people will actually believe they are real. Wouldn't be the first time, either.

    Fake companies go with their fake claims about millions of jobs lost.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    sphere analysis ?

    think balls

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  12. Adrian Esdaile
    Paris Hilton

    Given their address...

    of Oxford Street Bondi Junction...

    I guess their busines plaque on the street must read:

    Sphere Analysis :

    Media & Copyright Consultants

    Thai Massage

    Rooms by the Hour

    Executive Services

    (Happy Ending Guaranteed!)

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  13. Neoc

    "Sphere Analysis"

    "Because our reports go 'round in circles"(tm).

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  14. -tim
    Alert

    Isn't everyone?

    If you sing "Happy Birthday" without a license, you are a pirate.

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  15. FozzyBear
    Megaphone

    Why Is it

    That I always seem to visualise a little child with their fingers in their ears going

    “la,la,la,la,la,la,la,la I’m not listening”

    every time one of these so called analytical reports are published .

    I guess they are trying to make a very important point, but I just keep reading “We are very scared; we are losing a lot of money from our normal gouging pricing practices. We need to the government to support us so we can keep our primitive business model so we can continue to gouge the public. We absolutely don’t want to take advantage of any new business opportunities because this will require us to change. Aren’t you listening!

    “WE FEAR CHANGE”

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  16. Brett Weaver

    Of Course...

    I hope we can now rely on Lewis Page to address this issue ..

    He can tell us how we are all being ridiculous and ignorant even caring about it!

    So what if a 70 year old grandmother gets bankrupted because she has to fight a spurious court case over her grandsons internet use? Its not as bad as someone being murdered is it?

    Comparisons like the above help us put our worries in perspective and Lewis is the expert at these.

    Lewis knows that the authorities always act with our best interests at heart, are absolutely far thinking and competent so his defence of Sony and their ilk should make for authoritative and soothing reading.

    We know in the future that any article by Lewis will be the reference work on the subject and will reflect the only right thinking on the subject. This will be regardless of anyone having other opinions, knowledge or experience. So I look forward to him taking this issue with his usual even handed approach.

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