The ACE that aced Ace Ventura

Humble beginnings

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is a coalition of over 30 major global entertainment companies and film studios that aims to protect the creative marketplace from digital piracy. Digital piracy is the illegal distribution of copyrighted content online, such as movies, TV shows, music, books, and games. Digital piracy harms the creators, workers, and consumers of the content, as well as the economy and society. But does it really have the benefit of everyone at the heart of this multi-national, multi-billion dollar conglomerate of an corporate/coalition of an industry?

ACE is a name that very few have heard of. Those who have heard of it have either done two things: work for the mega-machine that is ACE, or work in some way, shape, or fashion that managed to offend ACE to the extent that ACE used its many levers, switches, buttons, and knobs of connections, money, and power to make the person’s life a living hell. The latter is the more common of the two, and is the reason why ACE is so feared by those who know of it.

ACE was founded on June 13, 2017, as a joint initiative of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and its members: Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal, and Warner Bros. The founding members of ACE represented some of the most influential and innovative players in the entertainment industry, with a combined global box office revenue of $14.3 billion in 2016. These are the elite of the elite of the Hollywood industry companies. What were once humble beginnings have now turned into an organization or device so dedicated to destroy those who oppose them that we, the people of not just the United States, but the WORLD need to take a stance and action to stop this oligarchy of power from growing any further.

The founding members of ACE included some of the top executives and leaders in their respective companies, such as:

• Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company
• Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Netflix
• Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures
• Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment
• Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal
• Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment

Sinister Designs

The founding members of ACE supposedly shared a common vision of fostering a vibrant and legitimate digital ecosystem for content creation and consumption. This, however, only allows people to own less of what they pay for, and these companies to gain more and more in terms of revenue, and ownership in the homes of people they sell product to. Did you know, that for a VERY long time, Apple said and was allowed to say (and still tries in many respects to say) that the iPhones it sells to customers from their stores are still Apple’s once they leave the store?! This only slightly changed once Apple had a lawsuit brought before the US Supreme Court regarding the act of Jailbreaking (a form of breaking past Apple’s bubble-wrap restrictions to enjoy the use of one’s hardware more). The fact that Apple brought a case to the US Supreme Court to try to prevent this is ridiculous enough, but that they would even try to continue this monopolistic practice is ridiculous. This will be explained and detailed more in a later article. Now, back to ACE…

ACE also supposedly acknowledged the benefits of working with other stakeholders across the internet ecosystem, such as search engines, broadband providers, hosting providers, domain registrars, and payment processors. By working together, they could achieve greater results than they could individually. In other words, they could learn to manage, distribute, and control the flow of information across the internet and all things digital. All of this was done behind one of their MANY evil names: ACE.

Since its launch in 2017, ACE has expanded to include other leading content providers and platforms from around the world, such as Amazon, Apple TV+, BBC Studios, DAZN Group, HBO, Hulu, Lionsgate, MGM, NBCUniversal, Sky, Spotify, and ViuTV. The full list of ACE members can be found on its website linked here.

Alternative Means

ACE is touted to be the world’s leading content protection coalition that was founded by six major global entertainment companies and film studios in 2017. And what do entertainment companies want more than free speech, freedom, or even entertainment? Money. One simple word: money. To put it simply, ACE has infected the efforts of over 30 global entertainment companies and film studios to combat “digital piracy” in the name of “protecting the creative marketplace.” They say that by reducing digital piracy, they are supporting the economic growth, innovation, cultural diversity, and consumer welfare that are enabled by the creative industries. But are they only targeting digital piracy? Simply put, they are not… I once came across an ad for a political-like bill being sponsored by a group called “NetChoice” on Facebook. Upon further investigation, it appears that that same ad from years ago (for which I cannot find a SINGLE LINK TO) was sponsored by a lot of the members of ACE, a lot of whom are also members of NetChoice. This is a very interesting coincidence, and one that I will be looking into further in the future. However, and again, let’s get back to the problem at hand: ACE.

Some of ACE’s notable achievements include shutting down some illegal streaming services, such as Cuevana3 in Latin America, Uptobox and Uptostream in France, and Openload and Streamango. ACE has also taken down three major live sports streaming sites in Egypt, disrupted several illicit IPTV services in Europe and North America, and obtained court orders to block access to hundreds of pirate domains in various countries. Additionally, ACE has launched public awareness campaigns to educate consumers about the risks and harms of digital piracy and to promote legal alternatives for accessing content. However, with all this said, one thing still stands a bit murky: is streaming pirated content illegal?

As you have likely noticed, most of the aforementioned services were streaming sites, not download sites. That means that people could easily watch the content being provided to them, but not have to pay for it. Again, this is a matter of what hurts the members of ACE’s wallets more: streaming the movies for family and friends as well as sharing it, or downloading it once for yourself and stopping there. While I am ABSOLUTELY not condoning online piracy, I do think that the members of ACE have their priorities a little backwards, don’t you?

While it is true that digital piracy does put a minor dent in the United States economy, there are much larger things at stake than the online marketplace for movies to be debated. For example, the United States economy is currently in a state of decline, and has been for some matter of years. This, in combination with a seemingly never ending wave of malicious attacks from foreign adversaries, all but which go without reproach, action, or even a slap on the hand to the country or group that is responsible, we here in the online realm are in a state of a never-ending online FFA (free-for-all).

Personally, sometimes I think the governments of the world want it this way, because they then can do their shady business dealings in the shadows, wage digital wars on each other, and commit other unspeakable crimes, all at the cost of us, the taxpaying citizens of the world. But, I digress…

The ACE that aced Ace Ventura

So, back to the “Ace” that aced “Ace Ventura?” I believe it can be me, you, any or all of us! Instead of picketing, protesting, etc, lobby your representatives for actual change. Hold them accountable for the despicable things going on in your country. If they don’t respond, instead of using violence, or force; think smart! I once saw a campaign where a bill was about to be passed by Congress in DC and people across the US were not happy about it. So, there was a bot you could sign up to put your name on, legally, and send robocalls and texts on your behalf to your representative to tell them not to pass the bill. This kind of thing should be done more often, instead of picketing, rioting in the streets, and other things involving violence. All that does is divide our world and let these oligarchies of evil people continue to do their evil deeds and conquer our world.

It MUST stop! And you can help it! Do the above items, when you feel it is right, and I know we can make the world a better place.

Signing off for now,

//TheModdersDen