BanPiracy Responds

US Offical statement released to the forums but...      21/11/07

BanPiracy Responds


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Just in from Banpiracy – the agency responsible for enforcing software usage rights and acting on behalf of Waves. The statement is released a year since it was founded by ex Waves director Tomer Elbaz and Micheal David. As you may or may not have noticed, the methods employed by BanPiracy in their program of enforcement (covert agents visiting recording studios) have caused quite a stir on the online community. The statement, released through Banpiracy's media agency Sitrick and Company, who handle a number of other high profile clients including MGM, Halliburton, Kelsey Grammer and Marvin Davis – who’s apparently a billionaire finacier, is an answer to some of the points raised on various forums. Update Peter Kirn from CreateDigitalMusic.com - who's site and users are specifically quoted in the release, has also responded to the 'spin' in the statement. The follow-up is a very well put challenge to the BanPiracy point of view as written below. The statement is as follows:
It’s been a year since BanPiracy, a company devoted to stopping piracy in the audio software industry, was formed. This is our report card to you, our cohorts in an industry that we love, but one that is also in serious trouble. Has it been lonely walking the walk as one of the only groups willing to enforce copyright protection for our clients? Absolutely. Do we wish we had more support from audio software developers who are getting their software “cracked� and are afraid to stand up for their rights as businessmen? Most definitely. Are we going to stay the course in our battle with pirates who abuse international copyright protections? Bet on it! This past year has been one of lessons learned. We learned to accept the harsh reality that the way our company was structured -- as a for-profit LLC which gets its operating income from the collection of fees from those who are unjustly enriching themselves by using unauthorized software – might be a tough sell to manufacturers accustomed to looking the other way when their copyrights were violated. We learned that those who’ve come to depend on “cracked� software see their illegal activity as an unalienable right to exploit the efforts of talented professionals who labored to author that software. And we’ve learned that there are brave people that will not be cowed by the noise of the rabble who want to take what’s not legally theirs. It is a tribute to our industry that it supports such ethical publications as Pro Sound News and its European counterpart, Pro Sound News Europe. Both publications in mid-November published extensively-researched stories about our enforcement efforts. The writers of these stories were not afraid to take their shots at what they perceived as our shortcomings, but they bent over backwards to get both sides of the story, and we at BanPiracy acknowledge their professionalism. In a Pro Sound News story written by Christopher Walsh, Andrew Kirk of PACE Anti-Piracy Inc., the developer of the ILok and InterLok tools, noted the uneven history of audio software manufacturers fighting the pirates, and noted: “BanPiracy has a noble goal,� and added that the audio software markets “do need some enforcement – think about a society in where there was no enforcement of law.� Another of our counterparts in the anti-piracy campaign is Ray Williams, director of the International Music Software Trade Association. We salute Mr. Williams for his efforts, which were heralded in the Pro Sound News story. “Our whole reason for being,� Mr. Williams told PSN, “is to try to have musicians respect the work of the companies who supply their software tools the same way they respect the makers of their hardware tools.� We at BanPiracy also welcome the voluminous opinions on Internet message boards about out campaign. One of the most interesting challenges to what we’re doing was posted on Peter Kirn’s Create Digital Music website. In referring to the only client we’ve been able to sign for BanPiracy, Waves Audio, Mr. Kirn wrote, “Waves, I put the challenge to you: either demonstrate you have other developers onboard with you, or stop trying to convince people this is an effort on behalf of the industry.� Mr. Kirn’s theory is that until Waves Audio, the initial client of BanPiracy, is joined by other software developers, any effort by Waves Audio to promote its involvement in BanPiracy is NOT a legitimate effort on behalf of the audio software industry. A note to Mr. Kirn: The clients of BanPiracy are not asking your permission, or anyone else’s, to stand up to audio software copyright infringers. BanPiracy hopes that others will join Waves Audio in this fight, but the fight will go on as long as there is one man or woman willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Adrian Anders, who posted the following in a user forum on Mr. Kirn’s website on November 14, 2007. “I think the studio owners were being very irresponsible to their paying customers,� Mr. Anders wrote in response to the many proponents of “cracked� software who frequent Mr. Kirn’s website. Mr. Anders then added: “Cracked software often causes severe problems in DAW environments and may even contain trojans, viruses, and/or worms that could compromise the data of their clients. Beyond the moral obligation to buy the software they use, [the studio owners] violated the trust of their customers by having potentially damaging software on their machines.� Count on this, Mr. Anders: You’re not alone in this fight. By Tomer Elbaz, BanPiracy COO and Michael T. David, BanPiracy CEO, Nov. 20,2007


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