24 hours of illegal downloads … against piracy

24 hours of illegal downloads ... against piracy

(Updated) The Association of Audiovisual Commerce of Portugal (ACAPOR) has been installed at Largo Camões, in Lisbon, since 2 pm, in protest against the download illegal.

24 hours of illegal downloads against piracy

The protesters will set up camp in Lisbon’s square until tomorrow and brought a laptop and a mobile broadband card for a symbolic 24-hour marathon to «withdraw films», showing that they are carrying out illegal activity without the authorities taking any action. attitude. The aim is to draw the attention of civil society and government officials to the need to «apply the law» created to combat download illegal.

ACAPOR’s executive director, Alexandre Bravo, told TeK that he does not advocate solutions such as those considered in countries such as the United Kingdom or France that foresee cutting Internet connections to offenders. Alexandre Bravo believes that the solutions have to adapt to the reality of the country and that the laws currently in force will be sufficient if they are applied, which, in his opinion, is not happening.

24 hours of illegal downloads against piracy

In the past six years, nearly 800 video clubs have closed, resulting in the loss of 2,400 jobs, the movement’s spokesman claims. For the approximately 400 stores still in operation, he anticipates an even more catastrophic scenario, since, according to him, «they are in danger of closing in the next 6 months».

The president of ACAPOR associates the numbers with the growth in the supply of illegal content on the Internet, as well as with the quality and speed of the services provided by ISPs and says that the problem «has been getting worse essentially in the last two years, with the increase of traffic «. Fixed rates (with unlimited downloads) were another factor mentioned.

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<p>The average traffic of Internet consumers in Portugal went from 10 GB per month a year ago to 18.6 GB today, says the official, citing the latest data from ANACOM. </p>
<p>«I would venture, for data that already exists internationally, to say that 80 to 85 percent of the traffic that currently exists on the Internet is to provide illegal content», says Alexandre Bravo.</p>
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The official admits that in the future, when there is greater control over the download illegal, the association may invest in an online movie rental platform, an option that would be used in combination with the traditional in-store rental system.

Video on Demand services that are starting to compete with traditional video clubs are not seen by the association as a threat since the offer normally made available is usually older content.

The protesters expect reinforcements for the night and guarantee that they will continue to download films at the amazing speed of 272Kbps … at least for the duration of the battery of the netbook.

Editorial Note: The news has been updated with more information.