BitTorrent now running outdoor ads

Yup you read right. BitTorrent, is now running ads. I guess to help keep perpetuating their sharing-is-caring narrative.

Gizmodo reported that initially the boards were up without any kind of logo or scratch out or word replacement. Then they were swapped out for the ones you see above. Because apparently 'teaser campaigns,' are a big deal.

Before we get into the political/moral/ethical/whatever position of the ads, let's first look at them from an advertising standpoint.

From an advertising standpoint, the ads are a steaming piece of cow pie. The art direction is hack work straight out of the 80's. When I taught at portfolio school, I had second quarter copywriters who wrote with more insight. The headlines prove how juvenile and simplistic the free-culture argument really is.

"Your data should belong to the NSA. you."

As if anyone has ever said data should belong to the NSA. Hello, straw man.

But hang on a minute: if my data should belong to me, then why do file-sharing software like BitTorrent enable movies, books, art and software to be shared without consent of creator, let alone compensation? Oh right, because it's all 0's and 1's and not content. It's not Lady Gaga. It's data. I forgot.

"Artists need to play by the rules options."

Options like selling T-shirts or getting a day job because they shouldn't expect to make money selling their content.

"The internet should be regulated people-powered."

What other industry do you know that has near zero regulation except Big Tech? We have Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food And Drug Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to name a few of the regulators. Big Tech doesn't even police itself because if it did, it would be losing money by the truck load. This isn't even up for debate.

People-powered, my ass. In the immortal words of our dear president, we didn't build that. Someone else did. They built the internet, the websites, the software. The search engines. The email programs. Just as someone else created the content you're helping yourself to for free. Don't fall for this "people-powered" bullshit at all. The artists and musicians (you know-- the people) do not make money off torrent sites from the 'exposure.' This has been reported on ad nauseam. The only people who have the power are the Big Tech companies getting rich off of content they don't own.

Torrent sites and google-owned sites like Youtube and Blogger etc, are Big Tech companies making butt loads of money off of in-market advertising while taking zero responsibility for compensating creators or regulating against piracy. They have replaced the record companies of the 70's, but they are still screwing the artists. The only difference is, it's much worse. Their capitalist-run-amok oligarchy is damaging more than just the music and media industry.

More like Sheeple Powered. There are legions of dim-witted people being duped into exploiting creators in the worst economy we've seen in decades, all in exchange for Chuck Season 3, and Miley Cyrus' newest album. All while a couple of corporate geeks get rich.

By the way it doesnt' actually have to be this way, despite what is perceived as an inevitability. When content creators and their friendly distributors put anti-piracy measures in place, they make more of a profit. Like Grand Theft Auto.
Gee, whodathunk it?

The opening of Gizmodo's article reads thusly:

"Torrenting" is kind of a dirty word. It makes you think piracy, doesn't it? Well it shouldn't. Torrenting isn't illegal. It's not even morally ambiguous. It's just a way to send data, and it's awesome.

Yes. That's right. Keep telling yourself that. Guns don't kill people. People do. It's not the syringe, it's the heroin. It's not the file sharing platform enabling copyright infringement; its the millions of users using the site to infringe.

Baa, baa, baa, Sheeple.