Archive for 2012/01/23

Opponents Say Megaupload Boss Cheated His Way To Video Game Glory

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Stats / reports

Kim Dotcom, the imprisoned mastermind behind busted file-sharing site Megaupload and, bizarrely, also the top-scoring killer on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, wasn’t always a showboating millionaire. He also ran a competitive video game league in the late-1990s. And was by all accounts a rather sore loser.

How sore? Like, banning from his league everyone who beat him at a game of first-person shooter Quake 2. That kind of sore loser.

Back in the days of Quake 2 and the Barrysworld free server network, Dotcom used to troll the Rocket Arena 2 duel arenas as ‘www.kimble.org’ with an aimbot on his 6ms T1 line, raging people to the point that the entire server would clear, rather than put up with him. Then one day he was faced down and beaten by a girl-gamer on a shitty BT ISDN line – one on one, rail only.

He raged so hard that he then dc’ed, looked up the player’s name up on Quake.net irc and DDoSed the b0rk.co.uk irc bouncer that she used offline. Having realised he’d accomplished nothing, he then proceeded to DDoS the entire Barrysworld server array for a week, out of petty vengeance for being made to look like a twat.

He was a cheating shit now, so I’d very surprised if that #1 position is legit now, either. Take a browse through the PlanetQuake archives if you wanna see the other shit he pulled, like banning the people that beat him in the leagues he admined for liga.net. 100% twat material.

More:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/01/opponents-say-megaupload-boss-cheated-his-way-to-video-game-glory/

Online piracy causes rift between media and technology (SOPA & MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Legislation
Between all the back and forth, there has been little opportunity for a reasoned discussion between the media and technology industries. And that, some say, is what is most needed next.

“We have been told repeatedly that the tech community agrees that something needs to be done,” Mr Sherman said. “We take them at their word and continue to hope that we can sit down with responsible leaders from that community to devise a solution that will address counterfeiting and theft and, yes, bring the rule of law to the internet.”

More:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/271469a2-45ea-11e1-acc9-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1kJQLwtXD

‘No one’s going to be able to bring down Facebook…not even Anonymous’

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2012/01/23/no-ones-going-to-be-able-to-bring-down-facebook-not-even-anonymous/

60 hours per minute worth of uploads and 4 billion views a day on YouTube

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Education / Awareness, Google, Stats / reports

Since the dawn of YouTube, we’ve been sharing the hours of video you upload every minute. In 2007 we started at six hours, then in 2010 we were at 24 hours, then 35, then 48, and now…60 hours of video every minute, an increase of more than 30 percent in the last eight months. In other words, you’re uploading one hour of video to YouTube every second. Tick, tock, tick, tock — that’s 4 hours right there!

More:
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2012/01/holy-nyans-60-hours-per-minute-and-4.html

 

DOSarrest are specialists in stopping DDoS and DoS attacks of all varieties

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Bandwidth Management, Blocking, Education / Awareness, Network Security, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Tech Evolution

This is our sole purpose, and our anti DDoS network is built to handle the largest and most complex attacks.

We service websites representing the following industries: pharmaceuticals, gaming, online payment processing, music downloads, software sales/distribution and numerous large brand name E-commerce sites.

We do not filter based on geography or other methods that filter out large blocks of IP address space. Our proprietary techniques only block malicious IP addresses, on an IP by IP instance and on a continuous basis. This ensures zero false positives.

Most other DDoS mitigation services only have a proxy component. DOSarrest has both proxy and caching components. This means that should you have a massive burst of legitimate traffic, our system is always ready for it. In essence the system acts as a CDN as well, able to distribute massive amounts of content to legitimate users. All this is done without any stress on your server.

http://www.dosarrest.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=40

U.S. Attorney chasing MegaUpload is former piracy fighter

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation, Public Policy

Neil MacBride, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is the former general counsel and antipiracy enforcer for the Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing software producers such as Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, and Intuit.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57364004-261/u.s-attorney-chasing-megaupload-is-former-piracy-fighter/

Total global music sales dipped 3% in 2011 to $16.2bn according to estimates from international music industry body IFPI

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, New Business Models, Stats / reports

The news came as record labels hailed government action to crackdown on pirate websites — with notable victories including LimeWire, Pirate Bay and the recent international police raid on MegaUpload — and a surge in usage and growth of legal music services.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/23/global-music-sales

BREIN: XS4ALL Is Twisting The Truth Regarding Pirate Bay Blocking Verdict

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence

Internet provider XS4ALL has posted a press release on its blog, which has spokesperson Niels Huijbregts arguing that BREIN has gone and changed the list of domains that need to be blocked. According to him BREIN went and deleted 4 out of 24 domain names because they no longer point to The Pirate Bay website. XS4ALL says it is justified that BREIN does not want to block those domains any longer, but that it cannot go and change a formal verdict all by itself. BREIN is a biased, private sector entity. Furthermore, there would still be domains left in the list that are not pointing to The Pirate Bay website.

BREIN says XS4ALL is telling lies and that the provider is intentionally twisting the truth. Managing Director Tim Kuik argues that the verdict allows for BREIN to add and remove domains from the list, if in relation to The Pirate Bay. BREIN is allowed to fax that data to the ISPs.

“And of course we want that information to be correct, otherwise we’ll be held liable. That much is clear.”

XS4ALL has until 1st February to go and block all relevant domains.

Dutch language press release by XS4ALL:
https://blog.xs4all.nl/2012/01/23/persbericht-brein-xs4all-ziggo-brein-past-op-eigen-houtje-vonnis-aan/

Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2722173/brein-speelt-eigen-rechter.html

Both BREIN’s Tim Kuik and XS4ALL’s Niels Huijbregts appear in this video:

 

 

 

Dutch Newspaper ‘De Telegraaf’ Wants To Hear From Victims Of The MegaUpload Shutdown

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

The newspaper mentions ‘people who have been sharing wedding pictures via MegaUpload and did not keep a copy on their own PC’ and other types of ‘personal use’. The FBI commented that MegaUpload itself recommended on its website that users should keep a personal copy of important files themselves, preventing data loss.

The newspaper also quotes Leaseweb’s Chief Security Officer Alex de Joode who states that Leaseweb hasn’t been able to get in touch with MegaUpload’s senior executives.

540 of MegaUpload’s servers have not been confiscated as of yet.

Users who have been storing personal files on MegaUpload and are now worried about what will happen to those files are being asked to send their experiences to amonterie@telegraaf.nl

The newspaper is not asking for stories from victims of MegaUpload’s allegedly massive copyright infringing activities.

Dutch language news article:
http://www.telegraaf.nl/digitaal/11359522/__OPROEP__Slachtoffers_van_MegaUpload_gezocht__.html

 

Europe eyes US online piracy battle as it prepares directive reform (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Legislation

http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/Detail.aspx?g=1d6283e0-d760-45c2-bc29-ee69ab48dd0b

Cyberlocker Ecosystem Shocked As Big Players Take Drastic Action. Uploaded.to, Filesonic, FileServe, VideoBB, VideoZer, FileJungle, UploadStation & FilePost (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

Over the past 48 to 72 hours, the operators of many prominent cyberlocker services have been taking unprecedented actions that can not simply be explained away by mere coincidence. The details in the Megaupload indictment clearly have some players in the file-hosting world spooked.

http://torrentfreak.com/cyberlocker-ecosystem-shocked-as-big-players-take-drastic-action-120123/

Fileserve Terminates Accounts; Suspends ‘Make Money’ Feature (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/fileserve-terminates-accounts-suspends-make-money-feature/

Major file-sharing websites ‘at risk of prosecution’ as shockwaves from Megaupload case spread

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

Now other established file-sharing sites such as Amazon, Dropbox, MediaFire, YouSendIt, Rapidshare, Box.net and FileSonic could find themselves under the spotlight of the law, with the latter already cancelling its file-sharing services.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2090528/Megaupload-case-Other-file-sharing-websites-risk-prosecution.html

The Year Of The Dragon Has Commenced

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

The new year celebrations, which will continue well-into February, was preceded by arguably the world’s largest temporary migration of people as millions and millions of migrant Chinese workers rushed home to be with their families.

Transportation authorities forecast a record number of 3.2 billion journeys by road, rail, air and ship in a 40-day peak period that includes the Spring Festival holiday week

More than4,100 trains will operate daily over the holiday, 260 more than last year, state media quoted Vice Minister of Railways Hu Yadong as saying.

Hu said he expected a daily average of 5.88 million people to use train services, while airlines planned to add some 14,000 flights during the 40-day travel peak.

Passengers are expected to make 34.88 million more trips by air during the Spring Festival travel rush this year, up 7 percent from last year, Xia Xinghua, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), recently told a press conference.

Xia said airlines are currently running nearly 8,000 flights each day at a capacity that is able to carry 1 million passengers on a daily basis.

Authorities calculate that majority of the country’s 1.34 billion population would be travelling at least twice during the period.

More:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/RestOfAsia/China-welcomes-Year-of-Dragon/Article1-801001.aspx

New Zealand Door Wide Open For Future Dotcoms – Prime Minister John Key Not Looking To Change The Protocol (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

Dotcom is one of 10 foreigners to come into New Zealand under the investor plus category.

“If every single case of where a person had a previous conviction was pushed through the ministers to make a decision, then I suspect there would be quite a few people that ministers would have to say yes or no to.”

http://www.3news.co.nz/Why-Immigration-NZ-let-Megauploads-Kim-Dotcom-into-NZ/tabid/1607/articleID/240373/Default.aspx

Kenyan movie lovers are likely to pay more for foreign films following the decision by US federal law enforcement to shut down Internet website Megaupload.com

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, New Business Models

The popular file-sharing website, which has been used by local dealers to download movies and retail them for as little as Sh50 per copy, is facing multiple charges of racketeering, money-laundering and presiding over “massive” online piracy.

In a reaction to the closure, a portion of sellers of movies, series and music in the Nairobi market expressed concern that they would lose business since they relied on the site to get the latest content to burn CDs for their customers.

Though the vendors have other sites from which they download content, they said Megaupload.com usually had the most up-to-date content – a major factor in the local distribution business.

“It is all about who can provide the latest movies as and when they come out in the US, and sites like Megaupload allow us to have access to those,” said a local movie vendor who did not want to disclose his identity for fear of arrest by the Kenya Copyright Board.

The pirated copies usually retail for Sh50. Buyers usually make orders well in advance, and the closure of the site could eat into a significant portion of the providers’ Sh5,000-15,000 per day earnings.

“A movie shop in the city’s central business district generates an average of Sh240,000 per month,” said the owner of a popular movie shop who declined to be named for fear of anti-piracy authorities.

In Kenya, pirating software and local music is an offence. According to the Kenya Copyright Board, over 90 per cent of the videos and CDs sold in Kenya are pirated.

More:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201201230153.html

‘Given the breadth of issues covered in this bail application and the seriousness of the issues, I am going to reserve my decision’ said Judge David McNaughton (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

http://updatednews.ca/2012/01/23/megaupload-founder-seeks-bail-in-new-zealand-court/

Kim Dotcom and his three associates have been remanded in custody until Wednesday morning to allow Judge David McNaughton to deliver a detailed reserved decision on bail applications for all four men.

The judge has only heard the application for Kim Dotcom and has yet to make up his mind, but he’s indicated that what is decided for Mr Dotcom will apply to the other three defendants.

Much of the discussion in court late this afternoon was over the firearms found in Mr Dotcom’s house: whether they are legal in New Zealand and how they were obtained. The seized shotguns, one of which was brought into court in a paper bag in case the judge wished to view it – he didn’t  -, are known in the US as personal defence weapons for home security.

After considerable delays this morning, a District Court judge took the unprecedented step in removing media from the public courtroom where the bail application of the Dotcom Four will be heard.

NBR veteran court reporter Jock Anderson was shouted down by the judge when he asked why he was ordering media out of the court but letting the public stay.

When Anderson asked the judge if he would give his reasons for ordering the removal of the media, a big court security officer and burly female policewoman bore down on Anderson, telling him to get out.

More:
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/court-confusion-dotcom-bail-hearing-ne-108210

 

Prosecution: Gun in Kim Dotcom mansion was loaded (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

The gun in question, discovered in a safe just metres from where police arrested the German internet lord at his Auckland mansion, was a type never seen before by arms experts in New Zealand.

A police arms officer said the weapon must have been modified.

“It couldn’t be cut off any further back because of the position of the magazine” 

To get a license for that type of gun in New Zealand it would have had to be granted a permit. The arms officer didn’t believe that would happen.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/6297454/Prosecution-Gun-in-Kim-Dotcom-mansion-was-loaded

Two more arrested in Europe over Megaupload case, Sven Echternach, 39, a German, and Andrus Nomm, 32, of Estonia

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

A Slovakian national, Julius Bencko, is still being sought in connection with what U.S. authorities have called the Mega Conspiracy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/23/us-internet-piracy-arrests-idUSTRE80M04H20120123

MediaFire CEO Derek Labian: ‘We don’t have a business built on copyright infringement’ (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

When it comes to Megaupload, Labian described Kim Dotcom and his organization as “shady” and said the $175 million in revenues the company made should give people pause. He noted that Megaupload’s structure gave users monetary rewards for uploading pirated content. Users of the service could upload without a cap but users who want to download a large file (or download it faster) would have to pay for it. Those who uploaded the best files would be given free account upgrades or even cash.

“Megaupload was making a ridiculous amount of money with a ridiculously bad service,” Labian said. “We frankly don’t see ourselves in the same space.”

But the MediaFire’s free file-sharing solution can also be used easily for sharing copyrighted files, especially music, with friends, relatives or anyone on the web. A Google search for a song name, an artist name and “MediaFire,” for example, will likely bring you to a copy of that file that can easily be downloaded from a MediaFire page.

Examples:

Blu-Ray http://tinyurl.com/7vex9k3

screenshot:


MP3 http://tinyurl.com/7yp8svg 

screenshot:

When asked about the Googling issue, Labian said that MediaFire is a “private service” and the only reason Google indexes a MediaFire page is when it has been shared without authorization by a user. He said MediaFire isn’t at fault for this and said Google should look into the issue.

“We try to steer clear of things that would attract scrutiny,” Labian said. “If people are pirating on our service, we don’t want those people to use it.”

Another reason Labian said he wasn’t worried about the government stepping in is because the company maintains a “good relationship” with various government bodies, including “Homeland Security, ICE, and the FBI.” Following DMCA protocols, whenever MediaFire is notified of a copyrighted file being shared inappropriately, the company immediately takes it down.

More:
http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/22/mediafire-megaupload-business-model-piracy/

Megaupload shows online copyright protection is needed

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Legislation

Some opponents will fight any regulation of the Internet. This should not be acceptable. A free and viable Internet is essential to nurturing and sustaining the kinds of revolutionary innovations that have touched every aspect of modern life. But freedom and lawlessness are not synonymous. The Constitution does not protect the right to steal, and that is true whether it is in a bricks-and-mortar store or online.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/megaupload-shows-online-copyright-protection-is-needed/2012/01/20/gIQAT6G8IQ_story.html

How much knowledge does a platform provider need to have of the files being traded on their system before they can be considered culpable? (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/megaupload-case-raises-question-of-provider-knowledge

Anonymous didn’t just take down CBS.com, it actually deleted the entire site (MegaUpload)

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

http://www.fellowgeek.com/a-Anonymous-Has-Deleted-CBS-ix1732.html

Robert Bennett, one of the best-known US defense attorneys, has withdrawn from the defense team of content-sharing Internet service Megaupload.com

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation

http://rt.com/news/megaupload-us-defense-bennett-403/

Leading Cyberlocker Service Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

Filesonic, one of the Internet’s leading cyberlocker services, has taken some drastic measures following the Megaupload shutdown and arrests last week. In addition to discontinuing its affiliates rewards program and not yet paying accrued money to members, the site has disabled all sharing functionality, leaving users only with access to their own files.

But the bad news for the site’s users doesn’t end there. In the last few hours, before file-sharing was disabled, Filesonic also ended its rewards program, meaning that uploaders to the site no longer earn money when people download their files.

http://torrentfreak.com/filesonic-kills-file-sharing-after-megaupload-arrests-120122/

The freely available movies and TV series that millions of Internet users watch everyday via Cuevana.tv were hosted at MegaUpload

Posted: 2012/01/23 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

Indeed, that is precisely one of the main arguments that the creators of the Argentine video streaming service have used to deny frequent accusations of copyright violations.

However, it remains to be seen what will happen to the large video archive made out of thousands of films and TV episodes that originally linked to a Megaupload file. Until those older links aren’t readdressed to other file-sharing sites using servers that – we now know – are being chased by the FBI, the chance to enjoy entire seasons of popular TV series (one of the biggest attractions of any OTT VOD offering) will have disappeared from Cuevana.

Like a fugitive who knows they are being tracked, from now on Cuevana will have no option other than to avoid spending more than a couple of consecutive nights in the same place.

More:

http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2012012219015/megauploads-closure-deals-new-blow-to-cuevana.html