Polish Prime Minister Steps Up His Anti-ACTA Efforts After Hosting 7-Hour Open Q&A Via IRC
23 02 2012Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Legislation
If Google and the ad agencies drain the swamp of piracy by removing their financial incentive – online advertising – then we would have a fertile environment in which paid-for content could flourish
23 02 2012“No-one could imagine how we would survive without Google – most of us use it hundreds of times a day. But it is because they are so effective – and trusted – that Google and other search engines should use their creative energy to help the music industry fight piracy.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/22/harperson_google_rocket/
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, File Sharing, Google, Illegal File Sharing, New Business Models, Public Policy
Until copyright law manages to untangle itself and properly serve its own fundamental purpose, I’m glad we can rely on pirates to do its job for it
23 02 2012Essentially, certain Daria fans had taken to combining the high-quality video and spoken audio of the official DVDs with the music that accompanied the original broadcasts, either sourced from old television recordings or by manually inserting the pertinent songs. They’re doing their best to preserve the fidelity of a major piece of culture that is currently only legally available to the public in crippled form.
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness
Belgian Audio Producers: Deal Between SABAM And Grooveshark Doesn’t Make Grooveshark Legal
22 02 2012Agreement 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
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing
EU To Refer ACTA To EU’s Top Court For Legal Clarification
22 02 2012EU 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.”
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Legislation, Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Enforcement, Copyright
Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom barred from Internet
22 02 2012As 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.
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence
World’s Biggest Hacker And Pirate Released On Bail (MegaUpload) – Video
22 02 2012(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.
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation
German police have shut down the cyberlocker Skyload.net and arrested the alleged owner along with a person who provided hosting services to the site
21 02 2012The actions are part of an ongoing sweep against people connected to the popular movie streaming portal Kino.to. Skyload’s operator is suspected of uploading more than 10,000 films to Kino.to’s paid affiliate program.
The German anti-piracy outfit GVU reports that after Kino.to was shut down Skyload continued its operation by linking unauthorized streams and downloads to alternative movie portals such as kinoX.to.
Together with the operator of Skyload, the police also arrested Marcel E., the 25-year-old owner of the site’s hosting provider. Aside from providing hosting services to the cyberlocker, the Internet provider is also alleged to have hosted servers to release groups and movie streaming portals.
http://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-file-hosting-site-arrest-operator-and-isp-120221/
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing
A group of more than 30 rightsholders have won their case targeted against Grooveshark in Denmark. Site to be blocked
21 02 2012A court agreed that both the streaming music service and its users infringe recording label copyrights and granted an injunction forcing an ISP to initiate a block of the service. The anti-piracy group behind the action hopes that other ISPs will now follow suit.
“Grooveshark is an illegal site, which is really big and popular. But they have a business model that is based on trickery and fraud”
“Many users believe that when they use Grooveshark payment goes back to the artists and producers. So we think it was important to close off access so the legitimate sites have a chance to recover”
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-isp-to-block-grooveshark-120221/
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Jurisprudence, Blocking, Illegal File Sharing, Education / Awareness, Copyright
More than two years after France approved a tough crackdown on copyright cheats, the agency that oversees it sent its first cases to the courts last week. Some repeat offenders may temporarily be cut off from the Internet
21 02 2012Studies show that the appeal of piracy has waned in France since the so-called three-strikes law, hailed by the music and movie industries and hated by advocates of an open Internet, went into effect. Digital sales, which were slow to get started in France, are growing. Music industry revenues are starting to stabilize.
“I think more and more French people understand that artists should get paid for their work,” said Pascal Nègre, president of Universal Music France. “I think everybody has a friend who has received an e-mail. This creates a buzz. There is an educational effect.”
But the curtain has not yet come down for the fallen file-sharers. As a presidential election nears, opposition to the law is heating up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/technology/20iht-piracy20.html
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Three Strikes, Illegal File Sharing, Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Enforcement, Copyright
How To Turn A Legitimate Buyer Into A Pirate In Five Easy Steps
21 02 2012Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Illegal File Sharing, Education / Awareness, Copyright
Pinterest addresses copyright issues with opt-out option
21 02 2012Comments : Comments Off
Categories : New Business Models, Education / Awareness, Copyright
Pirates And Nazi’s…What Do They Have In Common?
20 02 20121. They hate the US, that’s for sure
2. They like it when they can get stuff for free
3. They do not want to be disturbed during their search for treasure
4. They sometimes share servers (and revenue)
5. They dress funny
French National Front woos internet pirates
Extreme right backs music tax alternative to Hadopi
The leader of the French National Front party, Marine Le Pen, wants Hadopi scrapped and replaced with a blanket licence to compensate creative industries. The extreme right party’s freetard-friendly gambit has caused the Socialists, who also oppose Hadopi, to rethink their policies.
Alliances between the pirates and far right parties are increasing. Most notoriously, the Pirate Bay was bankrolled by Carl Lundström, the heir to the Wasabröd fortune. Lundström financially supported the Progress Party and the racist Keep Sweden Swedish campaign, and was linked to a racist attack in 1985. [Swedish / English Translation.]
Much more:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/20/freetards_vote_for_us/
Previously:
Pirate Bay’s neo-Nazi sugar daddy - And the strange silence of the Freetards
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/26/pirate_bay_neo_nazi/
Wikileaks–in the news after publishing classified U.S. military documents–is connected to “Pirate Bay,” the patron of which is the Nazi-affiliated Carl Lundstrom.
http://spitfirelist.com/news/wikileaks-connected-to-swedish-nazi-milieu/
Assange’s Extremist Employees. Meet Russian-born, Swedish-domiciled, multi-aliased anti-Semite and Holocaust denier currently writing under the name “Israel Shamir,” a.k.a. Adam Ermash or Jöran Jermas
http://vrritti.com/2010/12/24/assanges-extremist-employees-meet-russian-born-swedish-domiciled-multi-aliased-anti-semite-and-holocaust-denier-currently-writing-under-the-name-%e2%80%9cisrael-shamir%e2%80%9d-a-k-a-adam-ermas/
-
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Blocking, Illegal File Sharing, Legislation, Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Enforcement, Filtering, Copyright
ACTA is part of a multi-decade, worldwide copyright campaign
20 02 2012Geist believes that the interests behind SOPA and ACTA are likely to view recent defeats as temporary setbacks. “They’re not playing for next year,” he said. “They’re playing for 10 years and 20 years in the future.”
He said that reformers can resist their agenda, but only if they play the same “long game” as their opponents. Ordinarily, the most important thing a citizen of a democracy can do to stop bad public policies is to call their legislators. But in this case, most of the action is occurring in international organizations where individual legislators have little influence.
To fight agreements like ACTA requires organizations with the sophistication and resources to navigate the complex world of international diplomacy. Geist pointed to Knowledge Ecology International, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation as examples of organizations with a track record of resisting the drive toward ever-stronger copyright protection.
These organizations are “WIPO regulars” well positioned to stay in the trenches and ensure the public interest is well-represented regardless of the venue. Geist said that donating to these organizations is the most effective way for ordinary voters to help resist the worldwide trend toward ever-more-extreme copyright laws.
More:
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Public Policy
Dutch Criminal Court condemns suspect for illegal film distribution
20 02 2012The criminal chamber of the Court of Appeal in The Hague condemned a suspect for being responsible for the large-scale illegal production of various Bollywood films and having them available for commercial distribution. These were films such as “Bunty aur Babi”, “Veer-Zaara”, “Parineeta”, “Sarkaar” and “Viruddh”.
With this illegal trade, the suspect infringed copyrights of Yas Raj Films International Limited and Tip Top Entertainment Limited. Therefore, the Dutch Criminal Court condemns the defendant to community service for the duration of ninety hours and, if not properly carried out, this will be replaced by forty-five days in prison.
More:
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement
Applied Operations -> Pirate Bay Discussion Leads To Sean ‘Napster’ Parker
20 02 2012Online discussions about why exactly Dutch traffic to ThePirateBay.org is being routed via the US have pointed to the fact that the most popular site hosted at Applied Operations (AppliedOps.net AS40475 which is advertising ‘Pirate Bay Prefix’ 194.71.107.0/24) is Sean “Napster” Parker’s Causes.com.
Sean Parker Founder and Chairman
Sean Parker, Chairman and Founder of Causes, is an entrepreneur with a record of launching genre-defining companies that reinvent ways to spread information online. In 1999, at the age of 19, Sean co-founded Napster with Shawn Fanning and changed how people think about and share music. In 2001, Sean co-founded Plaxo, pioneering viral engineering technology for updating contact information. Sean served as Plaxo’s president until 2004, around which time he joined with Mark Zuckerberg to launch the online social network Facebook. Sean was the founding president of Facebook from 2004-2005, again turning a technology start-up into an industry giant. Sean is also a Managing Partner of venture capital firm Founders Fund, where he looks for and supports this spirit of innovation in up-and-coming developers.
http://www.causes.com/teamCauses is the world’s largest platform for activism and philanthropy. Causes was co-founded by Sean Parker and Joe Green. Sean’s background is in consumer internet products such as Napster, Plaxo, and Facebook and Joe comes from a background of grassroots organizing, having worked on the ground in political campaigns on the city, state, and presidential level. They combined their knowledge of offline organizing and online social networking to create Causes.
Dutch language article & comments:
http://www.security.nl/artikel/40418/1/Nederlands_verkeer_Pirate_Bay_gaat_via_VS.html
English language analysis
http://www.mountknowledge.nl/2012/02/01/ziggo-and-xs4all-block-of-thepiratebay-org-technical-details/
http://en.wikipopia.org/as40475
http://www.appliedops.net/contact/
http://www.appliedops.net/clients/
Previously:
Dutch Traffic To ThePirateBay.org Is Being Routed Via California And No One Knows Why
http://vrritti.com/2012/02/20/dutch-traffic-to-thepiratebay-org-is-being-routed-via-california-and-no-one-knows-why/
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, Stats / reports
The filesharing website The Pirate Bay has come a step closer to being blocked in the UK after the high court ruled that the site breaches copyright laws on a large scale
20 02 2012In a judgement handed down at the high court in London on Monday, Mr Justice Arnold ruled that The Pirate Bay and its users unlawfully share copyrighted music.
The Pirate Bay is one of the world’s longest-running and biggest filesharing sites. According to record labels, The Pirate Bay generated up to $3m in advertising revenue in October last year by making 4m copies of music and films available to its 30 million worldwide users. The site has 3.7 million users in the UK, according to comScore.
The high court is expected to rule in June whether the ISPs should prevent their customers from accessing The Pirate Bay.
Much more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/20/pirate-bay-blocked-uk-high-court
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence
The government should not change UK copyright laws until supposed problems with the current framework can be assessed in light of how a new ‘digital copyright exchange’ (DCE) works, the Publishers Association has said
20 02 2012Richard Mollet, chief executive of the association, said that the benefits the DCE could bring could eradicate the need for new exceptions to copyright to be introduced.
“The DCE speaks to a market-based, fully voluntary, facilitation of licensing, where IP is respected and used as the basis for driving economic growth,” Mollet said in a blog post.
“However, the consultation looks to weaken copyright, undermine licensing and forestall the development of new business models, with a clear detrimental impact on growth. The government should suspend progress with its proposed radical re-writing of copyright law until such time as the DCE has got off the ground and into operation,” he said. “If, as all believe, it could greatly improve the speed and ease of copyright licensing, then many of the problems identified by Hargreaves will disappear. This will obviate the need for policies that weaken copyright and which, at the last time of checking the IPO’s assessment of their impact on growth in the British economy, were predominantly described with the phrase, worrying for its vagueness, ‘not quantified’.”
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Legislation, Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Copyright
The family estate of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick has dropped a vexing lawsuit against movie producers Media Rights Capital and filmmaker George Nolfi, the team behind the film The Adjustment Bureau
20 02 2012In October the Philip K. Dick family launched a legal attack against The Adjustment Bureau team, which wouldn’t agree to pay royalties from the 2011 film starring Matt Damon. The film producers claimed that they were not liable for an kind of royalty payment because the story that formed the foundation of the film was “in the public domain.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/19/dick_adjusted_by_hollywood/
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Litigation
Rick Falkvinge (aka Dick Greger Augustsson or Dick W. Augustsson) Makes A Plea For The Destruction Of The Corrupt Copyright Industries
20 02 2012Previously:
http://vrritti.com/?s=falkvinge
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, File Sharing, Public Policy
Judges Facing New Types Of Crimes, New Types (And Levels) Of Damage, New Types Of Suspects? (MegaUpload)
18 02 2012Mr Ortmann is described as shy, very straight and a humble person who lives a modest life in rented accommodation with a long-term girlfriend (MegaUpload)
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/198088/three-co-accused-same-address
Previously:
MegaUpload’s Bram van der Kolk: I’m a humble programmer with a wife and two-year-old son
http://vrritti.com/2012/02/11/megauploads-bram-van-der-kolk-im-a-humble-programmer-with-a-wife-and-two-year-old-son/
Mangham - who it is believed has Asperger’s and was said to have ‘no social life’ - claims that his work was ‘ethical hacking’ and he breached the security so that he could find vulnerabilities within the site, which the developers could then strengthen. This is someone who in previous times would have thrown everything aside to seek the source of the Nile and he would have continued until he did
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102690/Glenn-Mangham-hacked-Facebook-student-bedroom-brought-31m-empire.html
This endless pressure on an Aspergic man with severe mental health issues is barbaric
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-16996362
Richard O’Dwyer said the website had helped him with studies and said when he first set it up he “didn’t even think it would get that popular to be honest”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/student-to-face-us-trial-over-tvshack-website-6289235.html
On Thursday police in Cheltenham arrested a 26-year-old man who ran TV Links, which linked to video content on other sites, and shut down its Dutch servers. Then yesterday a 24-year-old IT worker who ran members-only torrent tracker website OiNK was arrested in Middlesbrough. Its servers – also in the Netherlands – were seized.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a78397/tv-links-oink-shut-in-download-site-raids.html
Dutch hacker Brenno de Winter will not be prosecuted in The Netherlands for hacking Public Transportation Cards. He did break the law but was acting as a reporter too
http://vrritti.com/2011/09/09/dutch-hacker-brenno-de-winter-will-not-be-prosecuted-in-the-netherlands-for-hacking-public-transportation-cards-he-did-break-the-law-but-was-acting-as-a-reporter-too-public-prosecutors-office-argu/ and http://vrritti.com/2011/06/24/dutch-public-transportation-card-hacker-brenno-de-winter-interrogated-for-four-hours/ and http://vrritti.com/2011/09/15/public-transport-card-hacker-brenno-de-winter-and-wikileaks-hacker-rop-gonggrijp-criticize-and-advise-dutch-government-on-diginotar-issue-during-political-debate-emphasize-need-for-better-it-security/
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence, Litigation
A Spanish court has dismissed a case against the popular peer-to-peer movie download site Cinetube citing legal precedents in concluding that redirecting online traffic is not illegal per se, even if it is to copyrighted content
18 02 2012Cinetube.es indexes thousands of copyrighted videos and was mentioned in last month’s Megaupload indictment. It is also one of the top targets of the entertainment industry once Spain’s new antipiracy legislation, dubbed the Sinde Law, is enforced starting in March.
“The links in this web have been found in different video webs online (veoh.com , megavideo.com… ) and we don’t know if these” are legal, says the home page of Cinetube. Referring to the links it redirects traffic to, it says: “all content has been exclusively found in public Internet sites, which makes this content of free distribution. No law prohibits distribution of free content and thus this page doesn’t violate any law.”
The ruling gives legal ammunition to the movement fighting antipiracy laws and will be the most recent precedent when the piracy battle heads to the Supreme Court. Ultimately the question is whether judges or officials should decide when copyright is being infringed.
In the verdict, the judges say the accusation could not prove any crime was being committed by Cinetube and directly dropped the charges, citing a previous ruling from 2011 that also released P2P site Sharemula.com from copyright infringement. Sharemula shut down shortly after winning the case.
The judges in the Cinetube case argue that like in the Sharemula precedent, Spanish law specifically limits the liability of P2P sites, which “will not be responsible for the information to which their users are redirected to,” as long as they 1. have not been “effectively” notified about their illegal nature and 2. if they have, act accordingly to delete the link.
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation
‘The Most Hated Man On The Internet’ Appears On Dutch TV: BREIN’s Tim Kuik
18 02 2012Some of his statements:
- Death threats do not bother him, he’s just doing his job. People making the threats ‘should get a life’
- He targets the ‘shops’ that offer illegal content and takes down the source of illegal material
- Whether he’s watching adult content at work isn’t anyone’s business (The TV show also demonstrated that lots of Dutch government officials spend their day watching adult entertainment from their employer’s desktop PCs)
- He supports ACTA and says ACTA does not target downloaders but only large scale commercial copyright infringement
- BREIN is supporting and protecting innovation and creation of content
- He is going after those offering content illegally. That is content which can also be obtained from legal sources, and for free, such as Spotify. So the term ‘censorship’ doesn’t apply
- All attractive content can be obtained online, movies are being released globally at the same point in time. Release windows are much shorter than ever before and innovation in distribution is moving very fast
- The fact that The Pirate Bay is accessible via Google Translate is something BREIN is looking at. He says that most users will leave that illegal site and opt for legal offering
- To allow innovation to develop, illegal competition has to be shut down. That’s his job and some have an issue with that
- He’s unable to mention a specific website were one can download the latest DVDs legally. Says that promotion of legal distribution channels is not a responsibility of BREIN. Does add there are about 30 legal streaming sites available
- When the illegal offering is ‘under control’ one will see growth of legal offering and he will continue to support that. There will always be theft of intellectual property like there always will be theft of property
- He has never downloaded something illegally. He did copy an audio cassette but that’s allowed and covered by the Private Copy Levy in The Netherlands
- He feels that intellectual property rights are not better protected than human rights, as someone claimed. Notes that property rights are also human rights according to article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Says that fundamental rights have to be balanced. He fights for fundamental rights of authors
Article 17.
- (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
- (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a17
Dutch language video:
http://247.bnn.nl/artikel/466/-24-7-aflevering-22-17-februari
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing
Australian Government Holds Secret Anti-Piracy Meetings; The Public Is Not Invited
18 02 2012Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Public Policy
MegaUpload Was Selling Lies About Its Popularity. Had 66.6 Million Users Instead Of Claimed 180 Million. Most Of Its Customers Were Downloaders
18 02 2012And of those 66.6 million, only 5.86 million users actually uploaded files. False claims may have been made to attract new advertisers to affiliate websites
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2744092/meer-aanklachten-megaupload.html
Comments : Comments Off
Categories : Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Litigation, Stats / reports
