This thesis examines the on-going anti-piracy and anti-file sharing measures taken by media conglomerates and big content as misguided attempts at addressing changing consumer expectations and social and technological norms. These measures include legislation such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA); and litigation against both extremes of the spectrum: from the world's largest file sharing search engines like The Pirate Bay, and cyberlockers like MegaUpload, to private citizens who illegally downloaded a few movies or a few songs. The manner in which the entertainment industry's largest, most expensive, and highest-profile anti-piracy measures in the recent years have been received by groups from IT corporations to human rights organizations, researchers, politicians, legal and internet experts, and millions of citizens worldwide are of focus; and how this translates into an unpopular public image is explored. Piracy is underlined as a service and distribution problem, and various international studies are presented in exploring the relationship between illegal downloading and legal purchases.

A la frontière entre les industries du divertissement et la production culturelle, grand fournisseur de contenu à l'économie numérique, l'industrie du cinéma soulève des questions intéressantes dans le champ de l'économie et du marketing. Cette thèse répond à trois questions empiriques importantes sur ce sujet à l'aide de différentes méthodes adaptées (économétrie des données de panel, différence-de-différences, économétrie structurelle) et propose un nouveau développement théorique du modèle nested logit. Le premier chapitre étudie l'effet des notes des consommateurs sur Internet, et analyse la complémentarité et la substituabilité de ces notes avec l'information disponible avant la sortie des films en salle. Le deuxième chapitre étudie l'effet redistributif de la loi anti-piratage Hadopi sur les entrées des films en salle, en écartant minutieusement les phénomènes alternatifs pouvant affecter les résultats. Le troisième chapitre considère la saisonnalité dans l'industrie française du cinéma et décompose séparément les entrées des films en salle en le niveau de l'offre (le nombre et la qualité des films), la demande saisonnière sous-jacente, les variations météorologiques, et les promotions nationales en estimant un modèle nested logit à trois étages tenant compte de la congestion des films dans les salles de cinéma. Le modèle est utilisé pour identifier les dates de sortie optimales en fonction des types de film. / At the frontier between entertainment industries and cultural production, vital content provider of digital economy, the motion picture industry raises several interesting questions in the field of economics and marketing. This dissertation tackles three important empirical questions in the motion picture industry using different methods (panel data models, difference-in-differences, and structural econometrics) and brings a new theoretical development about the nested logit model. The first chapter deals with online consumer reviews, also known as electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and focuses on the extent to which prerelease information alters the effect of eWOM on movie sales. The second chapter studies the collateral damages of the French anti-piracy law known as Hadopi on box office performances of movies, by carefully ruling out alternative explanations of the result. The third chapter investigates on seasonality in the French movie industry. The analysis separately identifies and decomposes movie sales into the number and quality of available movies, underlying seasonal demand, weather shocks, and national sales promotion by estimating a three-level nested logit model of weekly demand accounting for congestion on movie theaters' screens. The model is used to identify optimal release periods depending on the types of movie.

The pilot study used in this thesis examined the attitudes and perceptions of a small group of students at the University of North Texas. The participants in this pilot study (n=22) were administered an online music file sharing survey, a Defining Issues Test (DIT), and participated in a small focus group. This thesis also outlined the history and progression of online music piracy in the United States, and addressed four research questions which aimed to determine why individuals choose to engage in the file sharing of copyrighted music online.

MAAS / Department of of Music

No description available.

The research conducted for this master’s thesis determined that the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) current participation in military operations other than war (MOOTW) does not make significant contributions to its ability to develop its capability to conduct a large-scale war. Research was performed on the PLA’s MOOTW missions from 2008 in the areas of humanitarian aid and disaster response (HA/DR), noncombatant evacuation operations (NEO), and counterpiracy. General trends indicated that the PLA’s participation in these operations improved basic military capabilities that are fundamental to performing advanced tactics, but did not directly contribute to its ability to dominate air, land, and sea domains. Research also concluded that China is extremely concerned about how the international community views its role as a responsible stakeholder as an emerging global power. Consequently, the U.S. should be concerned with China’s growing capability to project goodwill as a result of its rapid military modernization. Besides the obvious military competition presented by the PLA’s modernization efforts, the U.S. should share an equal, if not greater concern for the resultant global political competition from China. This research develops a military cooperation framework based on the comparison of relative political goals and political interests between two nations. When applied to Sino-U.S. relations, it presents a spectrum of options available to U.S. decision makers, but suggests that U.S. should only participate in military cooperation with the PLA if there are relative political advantages to the U.S. Finally, it warns against decisions made out of the convenience of short-term interest alignment that do not contribute to solutions for achieving long term political goals.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d'envisager la piraterie ancienne dans la longue durée, à la lumière des recherches menées par N. Purcell et P. Horden sur la Méditerranée antique. Elle s’appuie en premier lieu sur une étude des mots grecs et latins liés à la piraterie et de ses représentations dans les sources écrites anciennes. Ce travail est complété par une relecture de l’historiographie moderne qu’il est aussi nécessaire d’analyser dans son contexte historique afin d’écarter toutes les images afférant à notre notion. Alors qu'elle a été jusqu'à présent abordée dans un cadre événementiel, on entend mettre l'accent sur les structures du raid antique, en s'inscrivant dans le long terme. Ainsi, les pirates n'apparaissent plus seulement comme la face négative du commerce maritime, mais comme des agents d'échanges et de production de richesse. L’étude approfondie de deux régions de la Méditerranée (Cilicie, mer des Baléares) permet enfin de mettre en évidence les structures micro-locales et les dynamiques économiques, sociales, territoriales, géopolitiques qui ont permis et entretenu l’activité de prédation. Au terme de cette étude, nous proposons d’analyser la piraterie dans toute sa diversité grâce à une typologie nouvelle : le pirate imaginé, le pirate commerçant et le pirate opportuniste. / The purpose of this doctoral work is to consider ancient piracy over a long period of time, in the new light of the research recently carried out by N. Purcell and P. Horden on the ancient Mediterranean. This dissertation begins with a study of the Greek and Latin words related to piracy, and of the representation of the latter in ancient written sources. This work is completed by a new reading of the modern historiography, which needs to be examined in the light of its own historical context in order to dismiss the images commonly related to the notion of piracy. While piracy has so far been studied from a factual angle, this dissertation aims at focusing on the structures of ancient raid through a long-term perspective. This shift in perspective enables to consider pirates not simply as a negative side of maritime trade, but more deeply as agents of trade and as agents in the production of wealth. Through the in-depth study of two regions of the Mediterranean (Cilicia and the Balearic Sea), I wish to highlight the micro-local structures and the economic, social, territorial and geopolitical trends that enabled and sustained piracy. By the end of this study I wish to analyze piracy in all its diversity thanks to a new classification: the imagined pirate, the trading pirate and the opportunistic pirate.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:29:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernando Shimidt de Paula.pdf: 1504181 bytes, checksum: 0c669bf02428b719fbbc3408513de691 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-20 / The aim of this paper is to expose the evolution of the penal treatment that is given to the violation of the copyright in Brazil. Considering some historical events emphasizing Brazilian penal legislation since the Portuguese Ordinations , an effort was made to show how the harmful practices against the intellectual property occurred, the way society has treated them and how the social and political life in Brazil was also affected. Since the increase given by Queen Anne of England in 1710 until the present period it is possible to notice that from the confiscation to the penalty prison, the counterfeiters deserve more attention from the legislators, due to the human development and the international conventions about this issue, where Brazil takes part of. Concerning some items on authorial right issues, (it is important to consider that authorial does not mean author s right in this case) about counterfeits and the public dominion and also several doctrine manifestations about law of these institutes and its crimes, going through the analyses of the constitutional and infra-constitutional treatment of the subject, emphasizing the article 184 of the Penal Code, a basic rule about the issue and the aim of this study, considering what the Laws number 9.279/96 and 9.609/98 say about violation of trade mark and invention rights, as well as computer programs. Finally, a connection was made between piracy - a commercial form of counterfeit and the economical activities of crime organization, and also some efficient forms of fighting against this modality of crime, bringing some statistics up / Este trabalho tem por objetivo expor a evolução no tempo do tratamento penal dado às violações aos direitos de autor no país. Através de um breve escorço histórico, relatando eventos desde a Antiguidade, com ênfase para a legislação penal brasileira a partir das Ordenações Portuguesas, procurou-se apresentar de que forma as práticas nocivas à propriedade intelectual acontecem e, com mais destaque, como foram tratadas pela sociedade e influenciaram a vida político-social do Brasil. Do incremento dado pela Rainha Ana da Inglaterra em 1710 até os dias atuais observa-se que, dos confiscos às penas de reclusão, os contrafatores vêm merecendo atenção cada vez maior dos legisladores, devido ao desenvolvimento humano e as convenções internacionais sobre o tema, das quais a Nação é signatária. Expostos alguns conceitos de direito autoral, distinguindo-o do direito de autor, sobre o plagiato e o domínio público e, também, reveladas várias manifestações doutrinárias acerca da natureza jurídica desses institutos e dos crimes respectivos, passou-se à análise do tratamento constitucional e depois do tratamento infra-constitucional da matéria, com ênfase para o disposto no artigo 184 do Código Penal, norma básica sobre o assunto e foco deste trabalho, sem se olvidar do que consta nas Leis nºs 9.279/96 e 9.609/98, no que tange aos crimes de violação aos direitos sobre marca e invenção, bem como dos direitos sobre os programas de computador, respectivamente. Por fim, foi exposta uma correlação entre a pirataria - forma comercial de contrafação - e as atividades econômicas das organizações criminosas, bem como citadas algumas maneiras encontradas de combate eficiente a essa modalidade delituosa, com a apresentação de algumas estatísticas

Notre connaissance de la diversité virale associée aux microorganismes procaryotiques issus des sources hydrothermales océaniques profondes demeure encore limitée. Peu d’études se sont intéressées à l’abondance virale ou à l’impact des virus sur la mortalité microbienne au sein de ces écosystèmes. Le nombre de virus caractérisés, issus de ces environnements, reste faible. Deux virus, PAV1 et TPV1, associés à des archées hyperthermophiles anaérobies appartenant à l’ordre des Thermococcales ont été décrits dans notre laboratoire. Afin de poursuivre nos recherches sur la diversité virale infectant les microorganismes hydrothermaux marins, l’ordre bactérien des Thermotogales a été ciblé. Cet ordre est composé de bactéries chimioorganotrophes anaérobies pour la plupart hyper/thermophiles. Elles partagent la même niche écologique que les Thermococcales et sont métaboliquement proches. De nombreux transferts latéraux de gènes ont, par ailleurs, contribué à l’histoire évolutive des Thermotogales, subodorant l’implication potentielle de virus. La présence de séquences CRISPR a également été rapportée au sein de plusieurs génomes de Thermotogales, suggérant que les Thermotogales sont ou ont certainement déjà été exposées à des infections virales. Pour autant, à ce jour, les seuls éléments génétiques mobiles à avoir réellement été décrits chez les Thermotogales sont 3 miniplasmides et aucun virus. Une cinquantaine de souches de Thermotogales provenant majoritairement de la collection de notre laboratoire (Souchothèque de Bretagne et Collection Ifremer) a été passée au crible quant à la présence d’éventuels bactériovirus associés. A l’issue de ce criblage, des éléments à ADN extra-chromosomiques, incluant 2 plasmides et 7 bactériovirus (du type Siphoviridae) ont été découverts au sein de souches appartenant aux genres Thermosipho et Marnitoga. Des analyses préliminaires ont été réalisées sur ces différents éléments et l’un des nouveaux systèmes hôte/virus a été caractérisé en détail. MPV1 (Marinitoga piezophila virus 1) est un siphovirus-like tempéré isolé d’une bactérie piezophile, il constitue le premier bactériovirus associé à l’ordre des Thermotogales. La souche hôte est piezophile mais aisément cultivable à pression atmosphérique au terme de plusieurs repiquages. Si l’essentiel des analyses a été mené à pression atmosphérique, la production virale s’est avérée tout à fait effective à pression hydrostatique. Nous avons réalisé les analyses de la séquence complète du génome MPV1 (43,7 kb, extrait des capsides virales purifiées) et sa comparaison avec le provirus présent au sein du génome séquencé de Marinitoga piezophila KA3. Les analyses de ce génome viral ont suggéré une proximité évolutive de MPV1 avec les bactériovirus de Firmicutes. Nous avons également mis en évidence que le bactériovirus partage son hôte avec un élément génétique extra chromosomique circulaire de 13,3 kb (pMP1). Ce « ménage à 3 » est surprenant dans le sens où l’élément de 13,3 kb, contenant 13 ORF de fonctions majoritairement inconnues, utilise les capsides virales afin de se propager. Ceci pourrait, ainsi, illustrer un nouvel exemple de piratage moléculaire. / Our knowledge of the viral diversity associated to procaryotic microorganisms inhabiting the deep sea hydrothermal vents is still limited. Only few studies have focused on viral abundance and impact on microbial mortality within these ecosystems. A limited number of viruses from these environments were isolated and characterized. Two viruses, PAV1 and TPV1, associated to hyperthermophilic anaerobic Archaea, Thermococcales order, have ever been described in our laboratory. The topic of this phD thesis was to extend our investigation to other deep sea vent microorganisms in order to deepen our knowledge on the marine hydrothermal virosphere. We decided to focus more precisely on the bacterial order of Thermotogales. This order is composed of anaerobic chemoorganotrophic bacteria that are, for almost, hyper/thermophilic. They share the same ecological niche as the Thermococcales and are metabolically close. Numerous lateral gene transfers have contributed to the evolutionary history of the Thermotogales, implying the potential involvement of viruses. The presence of CRISPRs has also been reported in many genomes, suggesting that Thermotogales certainly are or have been exposed to viral infections. However, up till now, only 3 miniplasmids have been described within Thermotogales and no viruses. Fifty strains of Thermotogales, mostly from the LM2E culture collection (Ifremer and “UBOCC”), were screened for the presence of potential bacteriovirus. Extrachromosomal DNA elements, including 2 plasmids and 7 bacterioviruses (siphovirus-like), were discovered amongst strains belonging to both Thermosipho and Marinitoga genera. Preliminary studies were performed on these elements and one of the new virus-host systems was characterized in details. MPV1 (Marinitoga piezophila virus 1) is a temperate siphovirus-like isolated from a piezophilic bacterium, it is the first bacteriovirus associated to the Thermotogales order. This host strain is piezophilic but easily cultivable at atmospheric pressure after several subcultures. Whether most experiments were performed at atmospheric pressure, the viral production appeared to be effective at hydrostatic pressure. We reported the analyses of the complete sequence of the MPV1 genome (43.7 kb, extracted from purified virions) and its comparison to the provirus present in the sequenced genome of Marinitoga piezophila KA3. Analyses of the viral genome suggested a close evolutionary relationship of MPV1 to Firmicutes bacterioviruses .We also reported that this bacteriovirus shares its host with a circular extrachromosomal genetic element of 13.3 kb (pMP1). This ‘ménage à trois’ is surprising in the sense where the 13.3kb element, that contains 13 ORFs of mostly unknown function, uses the viral capsid to propagate. Therefore, it would likely correspond to a new example of molecular piracy.

À luz do princípio da presunção de inocência, construiu-se o entendimento de que no processo penal seriam lícitas apenas as medidas cautelares, em respeito ao status de inocência do acusado, vedando quaisquer outras medidas que revelassem uma antecipação do juízo condenatório. Partindo dessa premissa, as medidas de busca e apreensão passaram a ser entendidas e aceitas apenas como medidas cautelares, destinadas a assegurar a marcha processual ou a eficácia e a utilidade do provimento jurisdicional final. Entretanto, com a promulgação da Lei nº 10.695/2003 que modificou a proteção penal da propriedade imaterial e criou um novo procedimento especial para os crimes de ação penal de iniciativa pública , foi introduzida no sistema uma nova modalidade de apreensão, permitindo o apossamento de todos os bens ilicitamente produzidos ou reproduzidos, com o escopo de tornar o combate à pirataria mais eficiente. Assim, a nova medida deixou de ser um instrumento a serviço do processo e passou a ter um novo objetivo: dar resposta à sociedade com a apreensão, antes mesmo da produção da prova pericial, dos bens contrafeitos, revelando natureza jurídica de medida de antecipação de tutela (satisfativa). Entretanto, apesar de ter natureza jurídica satisfativa, a medida de apreensão prevista no artigo 530-B do Código de Processo Penal se justifica no nosso sistema e não representa violação ao princípio da presunção de inocência, por se referir a capítulo da sentença distinto do capítulo da autoria e da culpabilidade do acusado: refere-se ao capítulo das coisas que não podem ser restituídas. Nessa situação, tanto em casos de condenação quanto em casos de absolvição, impronúncia ou arquivamento, as coisas não podem ser restituídas porque o fabrico, a alienação, o porte ou a detenção constitui por si só fato ilícito autônomo. Logo, a antecipação de tutela determinando a apreensão de tais coisas não representa violação ao princípio da presunção de inocência. Por outro lado, o procedimento deve ser modificado para alcançar o justo equilíbrio entre a eficiência e o garantismo, introduzindo a obrigação de que a ilicitude seja constatada, por perito ou pessoa tecnicamente habilitada, logo após a apreensão e de que a medida seja sempre precedida de ordem judicial ou, nos casos de prisão em flagrante, seja imediatamente submetida à apreciação judicial, para que seja convalidada ou revogada / Under the light of assumption of innocence, it was understood that in the criminal suits there would only be acceptable caution measures regarding the status of innocence of the accused, prohibiting any other measures revealing an advanced position of the condemning judgment. As of this assumption, the search and seizure measures started to be understood and accepted only as caution measures, destined to assure the procedural progress or the effectiveness and usefulness of the final jurisdictional decision. However, with the enactment of Law 10695/2003 which modified the criminal protection of intangible property and created a new special process for criminal suits of public initiative a new kind of seizure was introduced, allowing the possession of all assets produced or reproduced illicitly, with the scope of rendering more efficient the fighting against piracy. Thus, the new measure stopped being an instrument to serve the suit and evidenced a new purpose, of providing answers to the society with the seizure of the infract assets, even before the production of the expert\'s evidence, revealing legal nature of advanced protection (satisfactory). However, in spite of having the legal nature of satisfaction, the seizure measure provided by article 530-B of the Criminal Procedures Code is justified in our system and does not represent infringement of the principle of assumption of innocence, since it refers to a chapter of the sentence different from the chapter of authorship and guilt of the accused, i.e., refers to chapter of things which cannot be returned. In these cases of things which cannot be returned, both in case of condemnation and acquittance, lack of judgment or filing, the things cannot be returned because the manufacture, disposal, possession or holding thereof, in itself, constitutes and independent illicit fact. Therefore, the advanced protection determining the seizure of such things does not represent infringement of the principle of assumption of innocence. On the other hand, the procedure must be modified to achieve fair balance between the efficiency and the guaranteeism, introducing the obligation of the forgery being evidenced by official expert or technically qualified person, straight after the seizure; and that the measure is always preceded by judicial order, or in cases of imprisonment in flagrant, that it is immediately submitted to judicial analysis, for the measure to be validated or revoked.