Agreement with Belgian collecting society does not appear to ‘exonerate’ Grooveshark
Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/80184/deal-met-belgische-sabam-maakt-grooveshark-niet-legaal.html
Archive for 2012/02/22
Belgian Audio Producers: Deal Between SABAM And Grooveshark Doesn’t Make Grooveshark Legal
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Illegal File SharingEU To Refer ACTA To EU’s Top Court For Legal Clarification
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Legislation, Public PolicyEU to US: It’s your content, but it’s our infrastructure
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120222-705795.html
Viviane Reding, the EU’s commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship had shortly earlier flagged up on Twitter a statement of her own in which she said “copyright protection can never be a justification for eliminating freedom of expression or freedom of information.”
Council Of Europe: Dutch Government Needs To Speak Out Against Freedom Party Complaint Center
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Education / Awareness, Public PolicyDutch government repeats its position: the Central & Eastern European Complaint Center is an initiative of the Freedom Party, not the Dutch government.
The Dutch government seems to have forgotten that the Freedom Party is currently supporting the minority government of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and that Rutte has to follow up on agreements made with the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, right after the previous elections in The Netherlands.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/politiek/2747093/kabinet-moet-zich-distantieren-van-meldpunt.html
See also:
http://vrritti.com/?s=complaint+center
How the European Internet Rose Up Against ACTA
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public PolicyPrime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland sent a letter to his fellow leaders in the EU Friday urging them to reject ACTA, reversing Poland’s course with the controversial intellectual-property treaty, and possibly taking Europe with them.
“I was wrong,” Tusk explained to a news conference, confessing his government had acted recklessly with a legal regime that wasn’t right for the 21st century. The reversal came after Tusk’s own strong statements in support of ACTA and condemnation of Anonymous attacks on Polish government sites, and weeks of street protest in Poland and across Europe.
The seeming overnight success came after both years of work by European NGOs, and the spark of the SOPA/PIPA protests in America (which included Wired.com).
The U.N. Threat to Internet Freedom
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public PolicyOn Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year’s end. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last June, his goal and that of his allies is to establish “international control over the Internet” through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a treaty-based organization under U.N. auspices.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577229074023195322.html
How we broke the NuCaptcha video scheme and what we propose to fix it
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reportsNuCaptcha is the first widely deployed video captcha scheme. Since Technology Review interviewed me about NuCaptcha in October 2010, I have been working on evaluating its security and usability. In this blog post, I will discuss how we are able to break the current version of NuCaptcha with >90% success and also discuss a possible approach to fix them.
http://elie.im/blog/security/how-we-broke-the-nucaptcha-video-scheme-and-what-we-propose-to-fix-it/
Aussies learn to love downloading – Need more legit content sharing options
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reportsABC’s iView has emerged as the leading site for legal on demand video downloads, followed by iTunes, Foxtel and on demand BigPond TV, according to new research from Ericsson.
The Ericsson ConsumerLab Report TV & Video 2011 – Consumer trends Australia, reveals that Australians are shifting their viewing habits rapidly towards selective content acquisition with 40 percent of Australian respondents regularly using on demand video and TV content.
The report also seems to confirm the emerging wisdom that video downloaders aren’t pirates by nature: people gravitate to convenient legal downloads when they’re available.
In Australia, 33 percent of respondents say they download video from file sharing sites, 32 percent from iView, followed by Apple (22 percent), Foxtel (14 percent) and Telstra Bigpond (13 percent).
Compared to the US, Hulu and Netflix are the top choices for content with 53 percent, while file sharing is one of the lowest at 14 percent. Australians are also driven towards time-shifting but remain unable to access all the content they want in a “legitimate” manner.
The report warns that Australia needs to increase the availability of kosher file sharing alternatives.
More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/21/ericsson_reveals_download_habits/
A privacy group suing the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday in a federal court brief that the agency’s inaction against Google warrants judicial review and failure to do so could cause “irreparable injury” to consumers
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Education / Awareness, Google, Litigation, Privacy / Data ProtectionMegaupload’s Kim Dotcom barred from Internet
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, JurisprudenceAs part of the bail conditions, Dotcom must reside at his leased Coatesville, Auckland mansion. He cannot travel more than 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, from the Coatesville residence on which no helicopters are allowed. Earlier bail applications by Dotcom failed as he was thought to have access to helicopters and chartered private jet planes with which he could flee New Zealand.
Dotcom, who changed his last name to fit his outsize personality and online persona, is also banned from using the Internet.
Lawyers acting for the US government opposed the bail application, and claimed Dotcom has access to financial resources that make him a flight risk. However, Justice Dawson said in the North Shore District Court that as time had passed, authorities had not been able to show that Dotcom has further assets hidden, and the mere suspicion that he is very wealthy cannot be used against him.
Instead, Justice Dawson says Dotcom has “every reason to stay to be with his family and fight to keep his assets.” Justice Dawson also noted that while Dotcom has Finnish and German passports both those countries have treaties with the US that would allow for prosecution should he flee to either place.
Video Streaming Dominates 42 Percent of Global Mobile Broadband Data Traffic. P2P In Decline
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Education / Awareness, File Sharing, Stats / reportsThe popular YouTube video sharing site alone was responsible for 24% of total broadband traffic (up from 22% in H1).
However, the fastest growing applications were VoIP and Instant Messaging (IM), which grew by 114% (up from 101% in H1). It’s interesting to note that the File Sharing (P2P) growth rate is in decline, gaining 29% compared to a 33% growth rate in the first half of 2011.
Dutch ‘National Theater Ticket Register’ Database Hacked. Personal Data Of 100,000 Customers Compromised
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data ProtectionE-mail addresses, active credit card accounts, personal details of politicians and law enforcement officers out in the open. Some of the most sensitive data was not encrypted.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2746843/creditcardgegevens-gelekt-hack-nationale-theaterkassa.html
World’s Biggest Hacker And Pirate Released On Bail (MegaUpload) – Video
Posted: 2012/02/22 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation(Video available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLMYI20XMhk )
Kim Dotcom, the founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload, was released on bail today after a New Zealand judge determined that authorities have seized any funds he could have used to flee the country.
US authorities allege Dotcom facilitated millions of illegal downloads through his company. He had been in custody since his arrest on 20 January.
A smiling Dotcom spoke to reporters briefly outside the court as he was ushered to a waiting truck.
“I am relieved to go home to see my family, my three little kids and my pregnant wife,” he said. “And I hope you understand that that is all I want to say right now.”
He confirmed he would be fighting US extradition efforts. Asked how he had been treated by the police after his high-profile arrest, Dotcom said, “Well, it felt a little bit like an audition to ‘American Idol.”‘
Dotcom was released without any monetary bail bond, which is standard for cases that come before New Zealand’s district courts. He does have other conditions of release, but Ministry of Justice officials declined a request by The Associated Press to release those details, saying the AP would need to apply to the judge.
North Shore District Court Judge Nevin Dawson found that the German-born Dotcom no longer posed a significant flight risk because, as far as the court was aware, he wasn’t hiding any money or assets that could help him flee the country. New Zealand courts had earlier turned down Dotcom’s bail application and a subsequent appeal, saying he did pose a flight risk, but Dawson said those decisions were made when details about Dotcom’s assets remained unclear.
“Since that time, all known assets have been seized and are unavailable for Mr Dotcom’s use or disposal,” the judge found. “No new assets or accounts of any significance have been revealed since his arrest. Mr. Dotcom’s submission that he has not concealed any assets or bank accounts has largely been borne out.”
Dawson also said he received an affidavit from Bonnie Lam, the Hong Kong chief financial officer of Megaupload, supporting Dotcom’s contention that he has no resources available to him.
Dawson disputed an earlier court finding that the US doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Germany.
The judge said there is a German law which prevents Germans being extradited to any country — but that a treaty between Germany and the U.S. would allow Dotcom to be prosecuted in Germany should he flee New Zealand and should German authorities deem prosecution appropriate. He said a similar situation applies to Finland.
