Apple joins motion picture industry anti-piracy group

Posted:
in General Discussion
Apple TV+ has joined the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a coalition of entertainment companies and streaming services seeking to stamp down internet piracy.

Credit: Apple
Credit: Apple


ACE was founded in 2017 by the Motion Pictures Association and 30 companies in the industry, and now includes members such as Netflix and Sony Pictures. At the time of its launch, it represented a novel partnership between legacy movie studios and streaming services.

Apple will join the group's governing board alongside Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and NBCUniversal, Variety reports. According to ACE Chairman Charles Rivkin, the governing board "determines the strategy and where to spend the budget" for the group's anti-piracy efforts.

ACE goes after illegal services that offer unlimited live TV and film content for a price that undercuts legitimate platforms. Those platforms often claim to have legitimate rights to pirated content.

The organization investigates both piracy platforms and sellers of hardware that can aid in it. It also files lawsuits, and in the past has notched significant wins against piracy platform operators. ACE says that 9 million households, and about 23 million individual users, subscribe to a pirate TV service.

"It's an ongoing fight but I'm really proud of the way ACE has been advancing and protecting content creators," Rivkin told Variety. "When you shut down these illegal sites what happens is it drives traffic to legitimate sites."

Apple's cooperation with the organization represents a growing bond between the company and legacy studios, and will likely draw Apple further into industry-wide efforts to crack down on pirated content.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    This is good unless it results in another round of DRM attempts. DRM is simply a way to make consumers life difficult and has done little to reduce piracy. CableCard, DAT copy bit, Sony's rootkit, SecuROM, HDCP, DVD CSS -- this partial list has been nothing but trouble.
    Oferelijahgrazorpitwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 10
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    I could see anti-trust issues for Apple here. Everything should be free from them and they should distribute my home movies *wink *wink*.

    linkman said:
    This is good unless it results in another round of DRM attempts. DRM is simply a way to make consumers life difficult and has done little to reduce piracy. CableCard, DAT copy bit, Sony's rootkit, SecuROM, HDCP, DVD CSS -- this partial list has been nothing but trouble.

    Piracy makes it hell for honest people sadly.
    lollivermacseekerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 10
    What is a “piracy platform operator”? Are they talking about torrenting sites?

    The article states ACE has notched significant wins against some but no examples. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 10
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    What is a “piracy platform operator”? Are they talking about torrenting sites?

    The article states ACE has notched significant wins against some but no examples. 
    Torrent sites, various hardware providers, software providers — think Kodi add-ons, IPTV, Android APKs — things like PopcornTime and other services that offered streaming TV shows and shit. 

    https://torrentfreak.com/tag/alliance-for-creativity-and-entertainment/
    ihatescreennameswatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 10
    What is a “piracy platform operator”? Are they talking about torrenting sites?

    The article states ACE has notched significant wins against some but no examples. 
    In short it means anything that they claim can be used to do something that in their books will make them lose a lot of money (because somehow they calculate every past, present, and future, download/view as a bluray not sold).

    This is probably going to end up being a PITA at a later date.
    elijahgrazorpit
  • Reply 6 of 10
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member
    svanstrom said:
    What is a “piracy platform operator”? Are they talking about torrenting sites?

    The article states ACE has notched significant wins against some but no examples. 
    In short it means anything that they claim can be used to do something that in their books will make them lose a lot of money (because somehow they calculate every past, present, and future, download/view as a bluray not sold).

    This is probably going to end up being a PITA at a later date.
    Exactly, when the vast majority of people who download movies from a "piracy platform operator" just wouldn't watch the movie if they had to pay for it, so it's actually not a lost sale at all. I would never pay for a movie, it just seems like a waste of money to me. I just don't watch them. But somehow the MPAA etc have managed to convince judges/senators that every time a movie is downloaded it's a lost sale as you say.

    Again true, case in point the 4K HDCP stuff on Amazon Prime Video only works on Windows. But if I download the video from a torrent site (which is legal, as I have already paid for it via Amazon Prime) I can watch it in 4K on any device I please. That results in the likes of the ACE assuming that's another lost sale, when in fact it's already been paid for. How long until Apple blocks torrenting apps on macOS?
  • Reply 7 of 10
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,753member

    linkman said:
    This is good unless it results in another round of DRM attempts. DRM is simply a way to make consumers life difficult and has done little to reduce piracy. CableCard, DAT copy bit, Sony's rootkit, SecuROM, HDCP, DVD CSS -- this partial list has been nothing but trouble.
    Yup, at some point the video has to be decoded and after that point it's possible to capture it. HDCP decoder boxes for example just it between the HDCP content and non-HDCP display, and decode it so that people can do with the content as they please. The efforts are pointless, because there's *always* a security hole somewhere or other and as the software can be decompiled, a hole (or compromised key) *always* gets found. Some systems had ways of updating the keys from a list of compromised keys on discs, but that broke legitimately purchased (but compromised) players and so was none too popular.
    razorpit
  • Reply 8 of 10
    elijahg said:
    svanstrom said:
    What is a “piracy platform operator”? Are they talking about torrenting sites?

    The article states ACE has notched significant wins against some but no examples. 
    In short it means anything that they claim can be used to do something that in their books will make them lose a lot of money (because somehow they calculate every past, present, and future, download/view as a bluray not sold).

    This is probably going to end up being a PITA at a later date.
    Exactly, when the vast majority of people who download movies from a "piracy platform operator" just wouldn't watch the movie if they had to pay for it, so it's actually not a lost sale at all. I would never pay for a movie, it just seems like a waste of money to me. I just don't watch them. But somehow the MPAA etc have managed to convince judges/senators that every time a movie is downloaded it's a lost sale as you say.

    Again true, case in point the 4K HDCP stuff on Amazon Prime Video only works on Windows. But if I download the video from a torrent site (which is legal, as I have already paid for it via Amazon Prime) I can watch it in 4K on any device I please. That results in the likes of the ACE assuming that's another lost sale, when in fact it's already been paid for. How long until Apple blocks torrenting apps on macOS?
    Not talking about a specific situation, but… Generally it's not even remotely legal to get a movie from a different source than the one you paid to; and when you are using BitTorrent you are also uploading the movie, meaning that you are actively supporting other people (illegally) getting the data.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 10
    BeatsBeats Posts: 3,073member
    What is a “piracy platform operator”? Are they talking about torrenting sites?

    The article states ACE has notched significant wins against some but no examples. 
    Torrent sites, various hardware providers, software providers — think Kodi add-ons, IPTV, Android APKs — things like PopcornTime and other services that offered streaming TV shows and shit. 

    https://torrentfreak.com/tag/alliance-for-creativity-and-entertainment/

    The law is so passive about piracy that people are handing out business cards advertising Kodi and loading their devices with hundreds of stolen movies. IT's disgusting.

    If the government/cops did their damn job, piracy wouldn't be so open. I know plenty of people who proudly watch content illegally and shame theaters and purchases.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,408member
    Beats said:

    If the government/cops did their damn job, piracy wouldn't be so open.
    Clearly, it's not as easy as you make it out to be.
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