UK ISPs must block The Pirate Bay by May 30

Two of the five U.K. ISPs have already enacted site-blocking to prevent access to The Pirate Bay. More than a quarter of the U.K. population will see the site blocked by May 30.

The five ISPs forced by U.K.’s High Court to impose a block on its customers accessing The Pirate Bay have less two weeks to comply with the order, or face charges of being in contempt of court.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/uk-isps-must-block-the-pirate-bay-by-may-30/4712

May 18 2012

Site Blocking Measures Appear To Work: The Pirate Bay Changes Its IP Address (But Still In The Same Range)

New IP address: http://194.71.107.80/

The Pirate Bay’s IP Range: 194.71.107.0 – 194.71.107.255

inetnum: 194.71.107.0 – 194.71.107.255
netname: THEPIEATEBAY-NET
descr: The Pirate Bay
country: DE
route: 194.71.107.0/24
descr: The Pirate Bay
origin: AS50066
mnt-by: MNT-STN
source: RIPE # Filtered

The Dutch media report that the Dutch judge has not allowed BREIN to submit new IP addresses so BREIN may have to go back to court for each and every new IP address The Pirate Bay decides to use after a blockade has been implemented.

Dutch language news article:
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/110547/nieuw-ip-adres-pirate-bay-omzeilt-brein-blokkade.html

Meanwhile, The Pirate Bay’s Alexa Rank in the United Kingdom has dropped to the 50th spot, a rapid decline since 12th May 2012 when it was the 42nd most popular site in that country.

May 17 2012

Indian Supreme Court orders Vimeo, DailyMotion, Pirate Bay, Pastebin blocks, gets DDoSed

An injunction issued by an Indian court in a copyright infringement case has forced Indian Internet service providers to block access to the video-sharing sites Vimeo and DailyMotion, Bittorrent-tracker The Pirate Bay, text-sharing site Pastebin and a number of other websites. In response, members of Anonymous mounted a denial of service attack on the websites of the Indian Supreme Court and the Indian National Congress political party. As of 2pm GMT, both sites are back up.

The temporary restraining order (PDF) was issued by The High Court of Judicature at Madras in response to a lawsuit by the Chennai, India based company Copyrightlabs (whose site appears to have been taken down for maintenance) over the sharing of the movie “3″ online. It orders ISPs to stop sharing of the film “by copying, recording, reproducing, camcording or communicating, or allowing others to to communicate” the contents of the film in any form.

More:
http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/05/indian-supreme-court-orders-pirate-bay-pastebin-blocks-gets-ddosed/

May 17 2012

Dutch Advocate General proposes to submit prejudicial questions to the ECJ about the private copying levy

Advocate General Huydecoper of the Dutch Supreme Court proposes to submit prejudicial questions to the European Court of Justice about private copying levies. If the Supreme Court agrees with this, the ECJ will decide if the private copying exception is in compliance with the Berne three-step test, which is also laid down in the European Copyright Directive (2001/29/EG).

The European Copyright Directive provides a limited list of allowed limitations and exceptions for the use of copyrighted works without consent of the copyright holder. Member states can choose which limitations and exceptions they want to implement in their national laws. The three-step test sets boundaries to those limitations and exceptions. Limitations and exceptions are only allowed in (1) certain special cases (2) that do not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work and (3) do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder.

In the underlying case, the question arises whether only copies from works obtained from ‘authorized’ sources should be taken into account in the calculation of the private copying levy, or also copies from works obtained from ‘illegal’ sources. If works from illegal sources should be taken into account, the private copying levy will be higher. The Advocate General states that in order to answer these questions, it is necessary to submit a few prejudicial questions to the ECJ.

Much more:
http://www.futureofcopyright.com/home/blog-post/2012/05/16/dutch-advocate-general-proposes-to-submit-prejudicial-questions-to-the-ecj-about-the-private-copying.html

May 12 2012

Pirate Bay’s Alexa Rank For UK And NL Continues To Drop After Blocking Measures

In the UK, The Pirate Bay website – before the blockade – was more popular than the websites of Virgin Media, NatWest and The Sun. That no longer seems to be the case.

back then:

now:

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;1/GB

In The Netherlands The Pirate Bay website was the 27th most popular website before the blockade and the name change from thepiratebay.org to thepiratebay.se. It then dropped to the 41st spot and is now the 43rd most popular website in The Netherlands. As such it is no longer more popular than the websites of Microsoft, Apple or Amazon.

back then:

now:

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;1/NL

May 12 2012

Dutch Provider ZeelandNet Refuses To Block The Pirate Bay Website. Says It Does Not Want To Act Like “Internet Police”

The provider also argues that any issues should be taken up with The Pirate Bay website itself, which is an interesting statement considering the fact that The Pirate Bay website itself has already been declared illegal in The Netherlands and follow up blocking verdicts have been based on that legal assessment. Also, in Sweden, the founders of The Piratebay have been convicted and are now being sanctioned for their crimes.

Dutch copyright enforcer BREIN has decided to now go and sue ZeelandNet. This situation does make one wonder whether complainants in The Netherlands will always have to go and sue each and every internet service provider individually, even if a judge has already decided that a certain website is illegal. Will this require laws to be changed, or will complainants just have to sue all the Dutch ISPs in one go, for any nation-wide blockade to be put in place?

At this point in time Ziggo, Xs4all, KPN, UPC, T-Mobile, Tele2 and Telfort have been ordered by the Dutch courts to block The Pirate Bay website.

Dutch language news articles:
http://www.omroepzeeland.nl/nieuws/2012-05-11/119964/zeelandnet-geen-blokkade-op-pirate-bay
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2809109/zeelandnet-aangeklaagd-weigering-pirate-bay-blokkade.html
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/81929/brein-daagt-zeelandnet-om-the-pirate-bay-ook-te-blokkeren.html

The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde has asked the Swedish government for clemency citing health and business concerns

Peter Sunde was scheduled to begin his 8 month jail sentence in the Västervik Norra facility Wednesday, but at least for now that won’t be going ahead. Sunde has filed a plea with the Swedish government requesting clemency, citing health concerns and fears for his fledgling micro-payment business, Flattr.

Blast From The Past:

Mr Sunde has managed to convince investors that the idea is sound, both ideologically and financially. Flattr has angel backing from Stefan Glaenzer, Last.fm’s first investor and chairman, and Eileen Burbidge, formerly of Skype. The pair run White Bear Yard, a hub for tech-startups in central London.

“When we invested, it was in Linus and Peter,” says Ms Burbidge, who says she’s unconcerned by Mr Sunde’s conviction in the Swedish courts in the Pirate Bay case (he says the appeal process will take so long he is unlikely ever to have to serve his jail sentence).

“These guys were in the team that was involved in carrying 48 per cent of the world’s internet traffic,” says Ms Burbidge. “They know how to scale.”

http://vrritti.com/2010/07/06/pirate-bay-founder-aims-to-make-a-flattr-world/

Sunde adds that if the authorities can’t see their way to a full pardon, a delay before he has to serve his sentence would be the next best thing. The specific nature of his health concerns have not been detailed publicly.

In addition to prison sentences there is also the outstanding issues of damages. Recently it was revealed that the compensation amount the Pirate Bay founders are required to hand over to the movie and recording company plaintiffs has been growing steadily. Due to interest being added since May 2006, as of February 2012 the amount owed had jumped from roughly $6.9 million dollars to nearly $11 million.

http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-peter-sunde-requests-pardon-120511/

They All Want A Window Of Time Between Notice And Actual Removal. Time Is (Advertising) Money

Because algorithms that enable distribution of files are apparently much easier to write than algorithms that immediately remove copyright infringing files. Algorithms that immediately remove spam or malicious ads appear to be the exception to the rule…

Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft have drawn up a series of “principles” to guide how rights-holders should act when issuing them with requests for the removal of infringing content from search indexes as well as the responsibilities to which search engines themselves should be required to conform.

The plans were published (4-page/43KB PDF) by digital rights campaign group the Open Rights Group (ORG) who obtained details of the proposals via a freedom of information (FOI) request to the government.

Under the plans, search engines would be required to provide a way for rights-holders to inform them that their rankings display links to pirate content. Search engines would have to quickly remove content on receipt of a valid takedown notice.

Rights-holders’ takedown notices would have to be targeted in order to “specifically identify infringing content” and should only issue them to search engines “after assessing their impact on any non-infringing uses and concluding that the takedown would not have an adverse effect on such non-infringing uses”, the search engines’ plans propose.

Much more:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/10/search_engines_plans_to_combat_piracy_seek_extra_safeguards_existing_eu_law_does_not_provide/

May 10 2012

The Dutch Court has forbidden the Dutch Pirate Party from linking to, operating or listing websites that allow the public to circumvent a local Pirate Bay blockade

Hackers and pirates are doing Big Brother and Big Content a huge favor. Big Data is watching closely

The Court specifically ruled that the Party’s reverse proxy has to remain offline. It was further ordered that Pirate Bay domains and IP-addresses have to be filtered from the Pirate Party’s generic proxy. In addition the Pirate Party can’t link to other websites that allow the public to bypass the blockade. These orders are only valid when paired with an encouragement to circumvent.

Should the Pirate Party fail to comply with the Court’s ruling it faces fines of €5,000 per day to a maximum penalty of €250,000.

http://torrentfreak.com/court-forbids-linking-to-pirate-bay-proxies-120510/

May 9 2012

Pirates Beware: DVD Anti-Piracy Warning Now Twice as Fierce

The new warnings now have three scary logos intended to deter those who might violate copyright law by making a back-up copy, ripping a movie to a tablet-friendly file, uploading it to a peer-to-peer network or make illegal copies to send to military service members in Iraq.

The original logo has been included since 2004 on the Motion Picture Association of America members’ movies, with the now-famous FBI tough-talking “anti-piracy warning label” which cautions customers who legitimately purchased a movie about the criminal penalties for copyright infringement.

Added alongside the FBI’s logo in the new version, however, is a Homeland Security Investigations “special agent” badge. That reflects the agency’s new power, handed down in 2008, to seize web domains engaged in infringing activity under the same forfeiture laws used to seize property like houses, cars and boats allegedly tied to illegal activity such as drug running or gambling.

What’s more, as an added bonus that’s even better than a James Cameron director commentary, movie fans will be treated with a second annoying screen (above) touting the National Intellectual Property Center.

That screen, like the others, presumably will be made unskippable during viewing. The warning says, “Piracy is not a victimless crime. For more information on how digital theft harms the economy, please visit www.iprcenter.gov.” The center’s logo is tough, too, with a hawk clenching a banner that reads “Protection Is Our Trademark”.

Oddly, such warnings are rarely included in versions uploaded and downloaded via P2P networks.

More:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/anti-piracy-warning-updated/

May 5 2012

Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom: Inside the Wild Life and Dramatic Fall of the Nerd Who Burned Hollywood

Last October, television producer Ziad Batal was summoned to the penthouse of the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong. The reality TV veteran had been told by a friend, motorcycle designer Alex Mardikian, to get on a plane for a summit with a deep-pocketed acquaintance who was looking to make Hollywood connections.

After being chauffeured from the airport to the posh hotel, Batal went to a lunch meeting in a suite with a private entryway dominated by a curious statue: a life-size re-creation of the alien from the Predator movies. Batal was escorted to a conference room and introduced to Kim Dotcom, né Kim Schmitz, the 300-pound-plus, 6-foot-7 German hacker-turned-web mogul who founded Megaupload, the cyber-locker service that offered its 180 million users remote storage of movies, music and other files. The 13th-most-visited site in the world at one point, Megaupload was a pirates’ haven — a Napster on steroids, where members could share everything from Lady Gaga hits toTransformers movies with anarchists’ abandon.

The young Schmitz received his first computer at 9, according to a January Sunday Business Poststory, and earned money by copying computer games for friends. He later moved to Berlin and fell in with the Chaos Computer Club, a hacking group founded in 1981. Schmitz began using the sobriquet Kimble, a tribute to The Fugitive lead character Richard Kimble, who is falsely convicted of murdering his wife and must spend his life on the run. Schmitz’s use of this nom de guerre presaged a lifetime of shape-shifting and identifying with antiheroes and the misunderstood.

“This guy was operating the largest cyber-locker out there — thousands and thousands and thousands of links to content,” says Michael Robinson, executive vp of worldwide content protection at the Motion Picture Association of America, which lobbied the government to take action. “Someone setting up a kiosk and selling counterfeit goods on a street corner in front of a legitimate shop — you’d expect law enforcement to stop that behavior. That’s all we ask for on the Internet.”

Although exact figures are hard to come by, piracy has become an epic financial problem for content creators. The Obama administration has claimed that intellectual property theft costs the U.S. $58 billion a year, but some question that figure. The MPAA has said global piracy costs movie studios more than $6 billion a year, and still more money is spent fighting content theft, though the MPAA declined to say what it spends. One thing is clear: The entertainment industry has portrayed Dotcom as the worst facilitator of copyright infringement.

Much more:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kim-dotcom-megaupload-piracy-steve-jobs-kanye-west-kim-kardashian-318376?page=show

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