Kloofy's Shut Down By MPAA

Okay, this burns me up a wee bit ... The MPAA has just had the subtitle resource website Kloofy's shut down for supposed copyright violations.

I'll say right up front that I'm all for shutting down piracy. Go after the bootleggers. Go after the people ripping and distributing films. Go ahead. They're clearly in violation of the law and are taking money out of the pockets of the people who invest in films and need to see a profit if they are to continue the industry. But here's the thing: Kloofy's wasn't a download site. They weren't a bootlegger. They didn't host ANY video files whatsoever and the site was NOT designed to encourage bootlegging. What it DID do was provide subtitle scripts - the bulk of which were fan translations - for a variety of films around the world, mostly asian, for international film fans who wanted to see films that did not exist in subtitled versions. Here's how it worked: DVD A turns up in Hong Kong without subtitles. Consumer B buys a LEGAL COPY of said DVD then goes to Kloofy's to find the english language subtitle script so they can understand the film. Then, using DVD Subber or some equivalent software, Consumer B plays the film with the english subtitles overlayed on top. THERE IS NO THEFT OCCURRING HERE! A legally purchased DVD is being played with a non commercial translation, that is all. How is this the MPAA's business!?!

Answer: it shouldn't be, but under the guise of fighting piracy they have shut down a valuable service to attempt to stop people from importing the generally far superior Asian DVD releases and force them to buy - when the discs are even available - the sub standard North American releases. Here's a clue, boys: importing is a hassle, and often an expensive one. If you would produce decent quality, timely DVDs there would be NO IMPORT MARKET WHATSOEVER!

This blows.

Hey look! It's my kid's birthday, which is known in other houses as April Fool's Day. And I've been fooled, evidently. But I leave this here to raise blood pressures as people read down to this ...