This just in: the arrest of the head of the internet site distributing information about the anti-beef rallies has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that his webpage is distributing information about the anti-beef rallies. It is all about movie piracy, which Korean officials are shocked, shocked to know has been going on.
here is a great stat:
My students download all movies and tell me that they only go see a movie in the theatre if it is special (and they will download it thereafter too).
But it has definitely been noticeable that DVD sellers on the street have vanished, or at least are much harder to find. There used to be one every block in certain areas and now they are scarce. I wonder if Lee has been cracking down on piracy as another concession, along with 30 month old poisonous beef.
INSIDE JoongAng Daily
The arrest of Nowcom head Mun Yong-sik has stirred up the already angry masses who have been staging protests against President Lee Myung-bak for the past month.
Prosecutors arrested Mun Monday night on charges of illegally distributing pirated films through online storage services that Nowcom operates. The storage services, PD Box and Club Box, have 9 million and 8 million registered members, respectively.
Nowcom also operates the self-broadcasting Web site Afreeca (www.afreeca.com), which has become one of the most popular Internet forums for protesters to get information on rallying points and riot police presence. Demonstrators also use the site to upload footage from the anti-U.S. beef rallies that they recorded with camera phones and camcorders.
Some say this is what’s really behind Mun’s arrest.
Culture critic Jin Jung-gwon, who is also an emcee of “Color TV,” a political program aired on Afreeca.com, said Afreeca made it possible for people to rally both online and off.
“Frankly, we have all downloaded pirated movies once or twice in our lives,” Jin wrote on an Afreeca Internet forum. “In that case, everyone should be arrested.”
Nowcom also challenged the government’s motives.
“The arrests naturally make us question whether the government authorities are conducting this probe with a politically motivated intention to prevent the expansion of candlelight vigils,” the company said in a statement posted on Afreeca.com.
“Nowcom never helped Internet users infringe upon copyrights of materials either,” the statement said."
here is a great stat:
"He said that users are offered free storage services, but the services charge them by the number of bytes they download. This, he said, amounts to illegal distribution of pirated films. He also said the probe found that there were up to 9,000 pirated films stored in Mun’s service."
My students download all movies and tell me that they only go see a movie in the theatre if it is special (and they will download it thereafter too).
But it has definitely been noticeable that DVD sellers on the street have vanished, or at least are much harder to find. There used to be one every block in certain areas and now they are scarce. I wonder if Lee has been cracking down on piracy as another concession, along with 30 month old poisonous beef.
Comments