Archive for 2012/03/04

Pirate Bay Block Inspires Crowdsourced Song – Bye Bye BPI

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Stats / reports

While there can be no doubt that some users of The Pirate Bay are indeed engaging in copyright infringement, for others the site is their gateway to the world, the mechanism by which their own work can be distributed – for free – to the masses.

More:

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-block-inspires-crowd-sourced-song-bye-bye-bpi-120304/

Previously:

MiniNova users leave the site on a massive scale after ‘big cleanup’

On November 26th 2009, Mininova removed from her popular portal all links to infringing content. In doing so, Mininova followed the verdict of the court of Utrecht of July 2009. The judge ruled that Mininova was responsible for the infringing behaviour of its users and ordered the site to remove the infringing content.

The effect of the ‘big cleanup’ was even more dramatically visible with the downloads. In its heydays before November 26th, Mininova facilitated over ten million downloaded files a day. This number shrunk twentyfold to about half a million files. The number of available torrents collapsed from 1,3 million to less than 10.000, a decline of over 99%.

Update: Infringing files outnumber legitimate content 297 to 1 on torrent sites

The conclusion, Ernesto says, would have been more correct if phrased as ‘of the files that are shared at any point in time, less than one percent is legal’.

The figures about MiniNova that we quote, are derived from an Envisional report, that stated that the number of torrents hosted on MiniNova just after the ‘big cleanup’ had dropped from 1,3 million to fewer than 10.000. That is a drop of more than 99%. Niek van den Maas, one of MiniNova’s admins, approached us with slightly different data. He speaks of 5% pre-approved content as well as freeware and open source works. His estimate is that MiniNova hosted 80-90% infringing content before it was removed.

http://www.futureofcopyright.com/home/blog-post/2010/07/28/update-infringing-files-outnumber-legitimate-content-297-to-1-on-torrent-sites.html

and

Many rightsholders use completely automated systems to inform Google and other service providers of infringements. They swear under penalty of perjury that the notices are correct, but this is often an outright lie

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Stats / reports

Microsoft, for example, has sent Google dozens of notices about the massive infringements that occur on the site Youhavedownloaded.com, a site that is completely non-infringing. As a result, many pages of the website have been de-listed from Google’s search results, directly damaging the site’s owners.

Other rightsholders make even stranger mistakes by massively taking down content that they don’t own. The adult content outfit AFS Media for example asked Google to remove links to the movies Braveheart, Monsters Inc, Green Lantern and many more titles that have nothing to do with the content they produce.

Similar mistakes are made at NBC Universal who got Google to censor the independent and free-to-share movie A Lonely Place for Dying.

Or again by Microsoft, who successfully requested Google to remove a link to a copy of the open source operating system Kubuntu.

And then there’s YouTube’s content-ID system. We previously outlined many mistakes that were made by the DMCA-style anti-piracy filter, resulting in tens of thousands of ridiculously inaccurate claims.

This week yet another example came up when YouTube labeled birds tweeting in the background of a video as copyrighted music. Again a mistake, but one that probably would have never been corrected if Reddit and Hacker News hadn’t picked it up.

Aside from the mistakes outlined above, there’s also a darker side to DMCA abuse. Google previously revealed that 57% of all the DMCA notices they receive come from companies targeting competitors.

Much more:
http://torrentfreak.com/dmca-horrors-of-a-broad-and-automated-censorship-tool-120304/

Europe is a happy hunting ground for TiVo

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/04/tivo_marches_on_europe/

Oregon Man Convicted for Helping Thousands Steal Internet Service Because The Internet Wants To Be Free

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence

Ryan Harris, 26, was the owner of TCNISO, a company that distributed products enabling users to steal Internet service.  From 2003 through 2009, Harris developed and distributed hardware and software tools that allowed his customers to modify their cable modems so that they could disguise themselves as paying subscribers and obtain Internet service without paying.  The products included a “packet sniffer,” which Harris dubbed “Coax Thief.”  “Coax Thief” surreptitiously intercepted (or “sniffed”) Internet traffic so that the user obtained the media access control addresses and configuration files of surrounding modems.  TCNISO and Harris also offered ongoing customer support, primarily through forums that it hosted on the TCNISO website, to assist customers in their cable modem hacking activities.

“Mr. Harris tried to hide behind the banner of freedom of access to the Internet, but the evidence established that he built a million dollar business helping customers steal Internet service,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.

More:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/March/12-crm-274.html

Hackers Steal Michael Jackson’s Unreleased Tracks

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness

Michael Jackson’s entire back catalogue, including an unreleased collaboration with Will.I.AM, has been stolen by hackers.

The Sony Music archive has been infiltrated by cyber-crooks, who have illegally downloaded more than 50,000 digital files.

Record company bosses paid $250 million (£156 million) to Jackson’s estate in 2010 for the catalogue, including unheard material from studio sessions when the superstar recorded Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad.

A source tells Britain’s Sunday Times, “Everything Sony purchased from the Michael Jackson estate was compromised.

“It caused them to check their systems and they found the breach. There was a degree of sophistication. Sony identified the weakness and plugged the gap.”

The attack was discovered weeks after hackers targeted Sony’s PlayStation Network in April (11), but was only confirmed by a Sony Music representative on Saturday (03Mar12).

http://www.contactmusic.com/news/hackers-steal-michael-jacksons-unreleased-tracks_1300070

Microsoft: Apple Makes Old iPhones ‘Unusably Slow’ On Purpose

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-02/tech/31115804_1_windows-phone-android-phones-andy-lees

Can Apple bully its way to a streaming TV service?

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/home-theater/can-apple-bully-its-way-to-a-streaming-tv-service/5693

Big Data continue to amass gigantic amounts of personal information without providing any guarantee of privacy, while encryption remains largely inaccessible

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Tech Evolution

Cryptocat aims to bridge the gap for those who need easy, encrypted communication

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2012/03/raspberry-pi-activist-tool.ars

Who can shut down cell phone service? FCC seeks public comment

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/who-can-shut-down-cell-phone-service-fcc-seeks-public-comment.ars

Andrew Breitbart’s unexpected death sparks wild conspiracy theories

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports

Andrew Breitbart’s untimely death has sparked wild conspiracy theories that the publisher was murdered on the President’s orders. The Conservative blogger, who published the infamous tweets that brought down former Representative Anthony Weiner, died on Thursday after he suddenly collapsed on a sidewalk near his Los Angeles home.

Within hours of his death, the internet was awash with methods and motives invented by conspiracy theorist explaining how and why Obama had the author killed. The theories are fueled by Breitbart’s announcement at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington last month that he had a college video of Obama that that would blow the lid off his presidency.

Much more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109703/Andrew-Breitbart-dead-Bloggers-unexpected-death-sparks-conspiracy-theories.html

and

“The videos are going to come out, the narrative is going to come out, that Barack Obama met a bunch of silver ponytails in the 1980s, like Bill (Ayers) and Bernardine (Dohrn), who said one day we would have the presidency, and the rest of us slept as they plotted, and they plotted, and they plotted.

“Barack Obama is a radical, we should not be afraid to say that! Okay? And Barack Obama was launched from Bill and Bernadine’s salon. I’ve been there.”

In fact, Breitbart had been there as recently as December when he was a dinner guest of Ayers and Dohrn.

Ayers turned out to be “a fantastic host, a fantastic conversationalist and a great chef,” Breitbart admitted. Still, he said, Ayers “is a sociopath” even if he did serve apple pie for dessert.

Ayers and Dohrn were founders of the Weather Underground, a violent radical leftist group formed in 1969 who went on to become university professors in Chicago, where they met Obama.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1139847–andrew-breitbart-s-obama-tapes-to-be-released-friends-say


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This photo provided by Harvard University Law School shows Barack Obama as a student at the school in Cambridge, Mass. in 1990. A friend of Andrew Breitbart says he will make good on Breitbart’s promise to release tapes that he said reveal Barack Obama as a radical bent on “racial division and class warfare.”

Previously:

Breitbart must face Shirley Sherrod’s defamation suit
http://www.huliq.com/10178/breitbart-must-face-shirley-sherrods-defamation-suit

Fox, Warner Bros., SanDisk and Western Digital to Advance Digital Ownership of High Definition Movies

Posted: 2012/03/04 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Tech Evolution

“Project Phenix” (working title) will Enable Consumers to Buy, Store and Playback HD Versions of Movies and TV Shows at Home or On-the-Go, Easily and Seamlessly

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/twentieth-century-fox-home-entertainment-warner-bros-home-entertainment-group-sandisk-and-western-digital-to-advance-digital-ownership-of-high-definition-movies-2012-02-28