For adults of a certain age – whose formative years included uncountable hours of mashing primitive controllers in pursuit of 8- and 16-bit pixelated glory – there are few things as nostalgic as Nintendo and Super NES games. So, it’s not surprising that on the internet – where nothing ever... Read more
Well, another holiday season has come and gone, and we’re feeling a little blue – though not for the reason you might be thinking. Sure, we’re bummed that it’s going to be another year before we get to pull out the menorahs and the Christmas ornaments and the Kwanzaa kinaras.... Read more
When I was making my way through the independent film world of the ’90s, there was film piracy. It was hard work then – though not as difficult as making the film itself, mind you. A pirate had to set up multiple VCRs to dub one scratchy VHS tape to... Read more
In 2007, I made a tiny, speculative science-fiction film called The Man from Earth. Scripted by the late, great writer Jerome Bixby, it tells the story of a history professor who reveals to his colleagues that he is a 14,000-year-old Cro-Magnon who has walked the Earth for millennia. I had... Read more
Art piracy doesn’t always make for the same big headlines as other forms of copyright infringement, but make no mistake – it is a very real problem, and the numbers are staggering. A fervid interest in art-collecting as a financial investment has whipped up the buying and selling of fine... Read more
Mobile applications – the fun, useful programs that tell you how to get home, give you awesome bunny ears, introduce you to the love of your life, and let you text your friends across the world, and are cheap (maybe 99 cents) or even free – are being pirated like... Read more
Dear Summer Movie Fan, I am writing this to you because it seems to me that you may not care enough about piracy. And you should! You seem to love movies. I hope you believe that the people who make the movies and television shows you love deserve to be... Read more
Many of the films I have produced dramatize crimes and heists – Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and The Bourne Identity, among others. Safe to say, I know a crime when I see one. Last week at SXSW, I spoke about crime – in this case the multi-million dollar heists involving... Read more
By Melissa Chamberlain All parents worry about their kids. We watch our children dream big and we do our best not to stifle their ambitions – so that they might enter into the adult world with the confidence that comes from being supported and encouraged. Even as they move away... Read more
By Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang As researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, we are primarily concerned with data and evidence. Unfortunately, when it comes to piracy and its impact on creative artists, we’ve discovered that data and evidence can frequently be obscured by opinion and ideology. A significant portion... Read more