trump Will President Trump Be Tough on Online Piracy?

[Reefa]

Quote

The people of the United States elected Donald Trump as their next president this week. The election outcome came as a total surprise to many, who are now wondering what's in store for the next four years. According to some, The Pirate Bay and other pirate sites are in for a rough ride, but is that really the case?

 

At TorrentFreak we have no interest in reporting on politics, except when it’s relevant to copyright issues.

 

After the surprising victory of Donald Trump earlier this week, several people asked what this would mean for the country’s stance on piracy and copyright enforcement in general.

 

While we would love to dissect the issue in detail, there are no concrete policy proposals yet. Neither Trump nor Clinton have gone into detail over the past few months.

 

So what do we know?

 

It’s not a secret that Donald Trump made some rather dubious remarks during his election campaign. For example, he suggested that it might be worth considering whether to “close up” the Internet over terrorist threats.

 

Extreme or not, we believe that extrapolating these kinds of one-liners into copyright policy proposals goes a bit far, to say the least.

 

A concrete promise Trump has made on copyright issues came a few hours after his election victory. The president-elect vowed to end foreign trade abuses with help from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), which keeps a close eye on pirate sites.

 

“I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately,” Trump said.

 

This is tough language. Still, the promise is hardly any different from the general policy that’s been in place over the past several years. After all, identifying and addressing foreign trade abuses is one of the key goals of the USTR.

 

Also, it’s worth keeping in mind that Trump is not on his own. He needs Congress to steer the country in a new direction, and it may not always be easy to reach consensus.

 

Trump may very well have a pro-copyright agenda. But would that really change anything? Let’s review some of the copyright-related developments that took place under President Obama’s reign.

 

– The Department of Homeland Security seized dozens of domain names of alleged copyright infringing websites, leading to various constitutional complaints.

– The Government had to give back some of the seized domains and accidentally took down 84,000 websites.

– President Obama’s IP-Czar laid the groundwork for the controversial SOPA and PIPA bills, which were close to becoming law.

– The Obama administration urged the Supreme Court to keep high staturory damages for copyright infringement intact to deter pirates.

– The U.S. Government tried to have UK student Richard O’Dwyer extradited for operating a linking site.

– The Department of Justice started major criminal prosecutions against the operators of Megaupload and KickassTorrents.

– Several U.S. site owners and other pirates were sent to jail, serving multiple years for copyright infringements.

 

And the list goes on and on.

 

Of course things can easily get more extreme, but thus far there haven’t been any concrete signs of that happening.

 

Ironically, one of Trump’s main promises is to end the TPP trade agreement, which digital rights activists widely condemned for its draconian copyright plans. So that’s definitely not a pro-copyright move.

 

This article is not an attempt to defend or critisize Trump. However, we do try to break away from all the one-sided and sensationalist analyses by trying to put things in perspective.

 

Perhaps it’s a good idea to take a step back and just wait and see. There will be plenty of policy proposals during the coming years, just as we’ve seen under Obama. If the Trump administration goes after The Pirate Bay, that would not be a change of course…

 

TorrentFreak

 

[steven36]

Since the young yuppie elite of the Hollywood didn't have enough sense to embrace Trump  and stood behind the loser it dont look like Hollywood   will be getting much help.. Most of the most slutty stars stood behind the loser  they got rich from there sex appeal not for there talents . TPP is already dead in the water because Trump got in. Hollywood dont help us get our jobs back that's just one city in one state and there's 50 states with lots of cities and the Hollywood elite missed the boat  they spat on Trump  so you think he's is going help them? LOL .

[luisam]

I don't believe Trump's "copyright protection", "anti-piracy" and "Internet terror" policies should be different to the tendency of current Obama Administration. Actually, I don't believe he has enough computer knowledge,(probably not much more than what he knows about emails, private servers and commonplace urban legends about Russian Hackers) to have some proper own ideas about the matter so he should rely on those who had been managing the official point of view in the US, up to the present, be they Democratic or Republican. Means, nothing new on the horizon. I don't even believe that his general politics will be radically differen to that of G.W. or even Obama. Some people, mostly the rednecks, looked at him as the anti-system but I just can't imagine anyone more sticking to the "SYSTEM" then Trump and rednecks! All the difference with others is his politically incorrect dirty mouth.

[steven36]

13 minutes ago, luisam said:

I don't believe Trump's "copyright protection", "anti-piracy" and "Internet terror" policies should be different to the tendency of current Obama Administration. I don't even believe that his general politics will be radically differen to that of G.W. or even Obama. Some people, mostly the rednecks, looked at him as the anti-system but I just can't imagine anyone more sticking to the "SYSTEM" then Trump and rednecks! All the difference with others is his politically incorrect dirty mouth.

when G.W was in there I never used a VPN  i uploaded releases everyday   I went to the TPB  and never feared anything , I stared getting paranoid while Obama. came in there and they busted Megaupload  and MediaFire  started banning uploaders , Rapidshare and many other closed down ..Bush never really cared what we done lol. I dont upload to the public since 2011 and I use a VPN 24/7 since 2011 too.

[luisam]

8 minutes ago, steven36 said:

when G.W was in there I never used VPN  i uploaded releases everyday   I went to the TPB  and never feared anything , I stared getting paranoid while Obama. came in there and they busted Megaupload  and MediaFire  started banding uploaders Rapidshare and many other closed ..Bush never really cared what we done lol.

 

As you may see, I edited my original post. I mean, the difference in politics are not made by the president but  by those who manage the official point of view in the US, up to the present, be they Democratic or Republican. Independently of their internal political point of view, they defend the same interests. Moreover, you may extend this to the EU!

[steven36]

27 minutes ago, luisam said:

 

As you may see, I edited my original post. I mean, the difference in politics are not made by the president but  by those who manage the official point of view in the US, up to the presenet, be they Democratic or Republican. Independently of thir internal political point of view, they defend the same interests. Moreover, you may extend this to the EU!

This time it will be the republicans  doing the managing  it its more likely many changes for better or worse will take place . Most the time it's split  A president will be one party  and congress another but this time it's all the same party the republicans have the majorly  its going be interesting  lol.. He got in because he promotes change if no change he want have another 4 years  he has to do something too stay in there  it was very close . The republicans never worked with Obama unless it fitted there agenda  and that caused very little changes.

[truemate]

he should be tough on everything besides these online pracy  

[pc71520]

2 hours ago, truemate said:

He should be tough on everything

besides these online piracy  

I pray for it.

[poipoi]

Well, Trump properly paid for blanket licenses to use various songs at his rallies, but didn't give a hoot if people like Adele threw a fit about it.

 

He's most likely to say related regulations are too complicated and unenforceable, and to do away with them if he can. For things like music and movies (and software), copyright mainly protects those on the more liberal side politically, anyway. His supporters are far more likely to be "free market" and to not be copyright holders themselves. It wouldn't surprise me if you see copyright essentially "blown up" by him, if he can get away with it.