tagged w/ Anti-piracy
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Some of the biggest names in the music business, who apparently have nothing better to do, have teamed up for a new initiative to remind music lovers of the “significance and value of music”. iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, We7, and MySpace are among the companies who have joined a coalition to launch a new site called Why Music Matters.Some of the biggest names in the music business, who apparently have nothing better to... more
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Last week the gaming giant Ubisoft announced their latest DRM invention. In order to play purchased games customers have to be connected to the Internet at all times. Game developers are skeptical of this new anti-piracy solution, but could it actually be a step in the right direction?
http://torrentfreak.com/game-developers-skeptical-abou-ubisofts-new-drm-100206/Last week the gaming giant Ubisoft announced their latest DRM invention. In order to... more
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Ever since it became clear that running a P2P links site is not a crime in Spain, music anti-piracy group SGAE have threatened civil action. Yesterday the admin of two P2P sites had a home visit by members of SGAE, who took advantage of the admin’s legal naivety and conducted a search of his property without a suitable warrant.Ever since it became clear that running a P2P links site is not a crime in Spain,... more
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Piratebay.org trial will set a precedent and many file-sharing sites will be shut down, says Andrey Mikhayilyuk, editor-in-chief of Zhelezo computer magazine, but says it is impossible to stop sharing on the Internet.Piratebay.org trial will set a precedent and many file-sharing sites will be shut... more
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A new law designed to make it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit file-sharers came into force in Sweden yesterday. Interestingly, it looks like the IPRED legislation, which will also increase penalties and ultimately criminalize large scale infringement, has already resulted in a major drop in Internet traffic - for now.
The controversial Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) has gathered opposition from various sides, most notably half of the Swedsih public. In a response to the new law The Pirate Bay introduced their anonymity service IPREDATOR last week, which is scheduled to open up to the public soon.A new law designed to make it easier for copyright holders to go after illicit... more
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DtecNet, the anti-piracy outfit replacing MediaSentry as the RIAA’s chief evidence collector, also operates in several other countries. The Danish company is working for the BPI in Britain in support of its drive to force a “3 strikes” regime, and helping in Australian investigations against alleged pirates. We take a closer look.
The RIAA will now be working with DtecNet, a Danish anti-piracy tracking company which employs largely the same techniques as MediaSentry, but the aims will be slightly different in the majority of cases. The new tactic for the IFPI-headed music industry is to target ISPs instead, lobbying governments to implement the dreaded “3 strikes” or “graduated response” scheme reported so often in recent months.
Interestingly, DtecNet is far from an objective investigating firm. In fact, it originally stems from the anti-piracy lobby group Antipiratgruppen, which represents the music and movie industry in Denmark. There are more direct ties to the music industry though. Kristian Lakkegaard, one of DtecNet’s employees, used to work for the RIAA’s global partner, IFPI. Unsurprisingly, the RIAA has now chosen DtecNet to gather the evidence that will cost alleged filesharers their Internet connection.
One country in the thick of the “3 strikes” proposals is the UK. Led up by the BPI, the British music industry signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the country’s six largest ISPs. They agreed to send out letters to alleged pirates on behalf of the music industry, warning them that their illicit sharing habits had been monitored and they should discontinue their actions.
Of course, even without individual prosecutions, an anti-piracy company still has to do the tracking, but despite our requests the BPI refused to tell TorrentFreak how they were achieving this. Some months ago we put it to Matt Philips of the BPI that if their system was robust, there should be no problem in revealing it to us. Unfortunately he wouldn’t tell us who they were using or how they carried out their tracking. But of course, we found out in the end.
It turns out that in common with the RIAA and IFPI, the BPI are also using DtecNet. However, there appears to be no particular magic behind this company’s techniques. Just like most (if not all) anti-piracy outfits, they simply work from a list of titles their client wishes to protect and then hunts through known file-sharing networks to find them, in order to track the IP addresses of alleged infringers.
Their software appears as a normal client in, for example, BitTorrent swarms, while collecting IP addresses, file names and the unique hash values associated with the files. All this information is filtered in order to present the allegations to the appropriate ISP, in order that they can send off a letter admonishing their own customer, in line with their commitments under the MoU.
DtecNet is also active in Australia. Hired by Hollywood studios, DtecNet helped to build the case against ISP iiNet, by gathering evidence which they say proves that iiNet authorized the copyright-infringing activities of its own subscribers.
It is unclear why the RIAA finally dumped MediaSentry, but the fact that its techniques were heavily criticized in court couldn’t have helped. The switch to DtecNet is unlikely to prove any more fruitful, since no anti-piracy company is capable of identifying uploads to anyone but itself, which makes mass-infringement almost impossible to prove. It might be some time before DtecNet’s evidence is scrutinized in court but when it is, it will be a big surprise if it’s of a greater ‘quality’ than the data provided by MediaSentry.
Meet the new boss…..DtecNet, the anti-piracy outfit replacing MediaSentry as the RIAA’s chief... more
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On October 20, Microsoft China announced that they would release an anti-piracy patch in China called the “Black Screen of Death” to combat pirated versions of Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office software. Hours after the release, Chinese Internet users asserted that Chinese hackers have already broken the anti-piracy patch. It is not yet confirmed whether the hackers have been able to crack all the anti-piracy patch specifications.
The “Black Screen of Death” causes computers with unauthorized Windows XP Professional to display a black screen when starting the computer. Users with the pirated version could reset the background and return it to normal use, but the black screen is set to reoccur every 60 minutes. In addition, when a user logs into a pirated system, a dialog box will pop up at the right corner of the screen, saying, "You may be a victim of pirated software."
Media reports cited Microsoft China saying that users of unauthorized software would not have to worry about the specifications too much. Microsoft will not be using pre-installation data collected through their Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) or Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) software to sue anybody at this time.
Many Chinese Internet users expressed their support for the hackers, calling them geniuses. Some Internet users even warned Microsoft, “If Microsoft insists [on using the “Black Screen of Death], then we will put up with it.”
According to a poll carried out by Tencent Computer System Company, about 83.6 percent of Chinese Internet users are hostile to WGA and OGA. In addition, 60.71 percent (57,028 users) say they will continue to use unauthorized versions of Window XP and Microsoft Office after they have been identified as pirate versions; 33.48 percent (31,449 users) will ignore the warning messages, whereas only 5.82 percent (5,465 users) said they would buy and install authorized copies.On October 20, Microsoft China announced that they would release an anti-piracy patch... more
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The deals between ISPs and anti-piracy organizations are a worrying trend. In just a few months entertainment industry representatives managed to convince ISPs and governments that they should have the right to accuse and warn Internet subscribers, without solid proof. The question that remains unanswered is whether these warnings will have any effect.
The power of the entertainment industry and anti-piracy lobbyists is growing rapidly. In the UK, six major ISPs have teamed up with the music industry to start mass warning filesharers. France has gone even further, recently adopting a law that will enable the entertainment industry to disconnect alleged pirates on their third warning. Similar methods are proposed throughout the rest of the world.
It’s quite scary if you think about it. In France the right to access the Internet now rests on the shoddy evidence of anti-piracy units, evidence that is known to be inaccurate. Christine Albanel, the French Minister for Culture recently quoted research that allegedly found that 97% of all file-sharers will stop downloading copyrighted content when they receive a warning, but this seems to be very unlikely.
Unfortunately, the minister failed to name the resource for the study, but it does raise some interesting questions. All these new agreements and policies have strong faith in the deterrent function of these so called warnings, but thus far there is no evidence that these actually have any effect. That’s right, millions of people are now receiving warnings (sometimes even threats), and they may very well lead to nothing.
You would think that the government would at least get some solid proof of the deterrent effect of these letters but, perhaps even more importantly, check the validity of the anti-piracy evidence before they allow the entertainment industry to start contacting millions of citizens with intimidating letters. It might turn out that thousands of users receive a letter for something they didn’t do, and that wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. On the other hand, even those who are correctly accused might not change their behavior so easily.
Warning letters will most likely make most pirates more cautious, and they will find ways to get what they want more anonymously. Whatever happens, it wont stop the most of them from getting what they want. As Justin Milne of Telstra BigPond, Australia’s largest Internet provider put it: “There’s no one thing that you can do that is going to fix the problem (but) when people think about this area, they often look to ISPs to provide the silver bullet.”
So how can “pirates” be stopped then? This is not an easy question to answer. Right now, 50% of all BitTorrent traffic is generated by people who download TV-episodes, something that’s available for free in most countries, but not available on demand. It might be a good start for the entertainment industry to rethink their outdated business models, experiment and use peer-to-peer technology to fulfill the ever growing demand for media online.
The deals between ISPs and anti-piracy organizations are a worrying trend. In just... more
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Fresh out of the G8 meetings ‘Declaration on the World Economy‘, passages under the heading ‘Protection of Intellectual Property Rights’ suggest member states want the international anti-piracy agreement ready for implementation sooner than some expected, as it reads:
We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, ACTA, and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year.
This date is consistent (surprise, surprise) with that which the US Trade Representative has set as its own timetable for ACTA.
How We Can Slam On The Brakes
So what can be done, and what hope do we have over ACTA? Well, firstly, there are internal contradictions in the process that might make its progress less than smooth. The inclusion of the ‘3 strikes’ rule for kicking P2P users from their ISP contract is a case in point — the European Parliament is actually very suspicious of the 3 strikes rule and the UK government is reportedly desperately looking for alternatives to this political hot potato, which only months ago was portrayed as a fait accompli. This raises the possibility of a showdown between ACTA and the European Parliament.
Secondly, the European Commission has no mandate to implement criminal sanctions on copyright matters - this is down to the individual member states who will be very wary about antagonizing their electorates. Since these criminal sanctions are seen by players like the RIAA as a key ‘virtue’ of ACTA - without which it would be a ‘dodo’ - the shakiness of the legal base for inclusion of criminal sanctions is a big issue.
Thirdly and relatedly, the secrecy around ACTA is a potential pitfall. A mandate should have been obtained from the Commission to negotiate the Treaty, but if it exists it has been declared too secret, or at least ‘confidential’ to bring out. Since this document would very likely have to include a rationale for allowing the Commission to negotiate beyond its power on criminal sanctions, it may be rather suspect. European TorrentFreak readers should immediately write to your MEP in your Member State and ask them to request a copy of the mandate, so that we can get a copy of it online and look at how the EU justifies negotiating an ACTA that includes criminal measures. Since the US wants ACTA to be signed before Bush leaves office, a derailing tactic like this has a good chance of working.
ACT against ACTA before it’s too late…
Fresh out of the G8 meetings ‘Declaration on the World Economy‘, passages... more
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"A 25-year-old Brooklyn man has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement in what the Recording Industry Association of America describes as the first-ever federal trial for online criminal copyright infringement primarily featuring music.
Barry Gitarts was convicted Thursday by a federal jury in Virginia, according to the U.S Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. He now faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release. In addition, he must "make full restitution" to record labels.
This is no mere file sharing case, so if you share the odd file now and again, you don't need to worry about facing charges like this. Under the pseudonym "Dextro," Gitarts was charged with administering a server in Texas for an underground file sharing group called Apocalypse Production Crew.
APC members traded music, games, movies and software amongst themselves but trial testimony portrayed APC as what the RIAA termed a "first provider" or "release group" of pirated content.
According to the RIAA, evidence presented in the case showed that he received payment from the leader of the group in return for this work.
"For the first time ever, a criminal online music piracy case went to trial, and the jury rendered a swift and unanimous verdict," said Brad Buckles, executive vice president of the RIAA's anti-piracy division. "The crimes committed here -- as well as the harm to the music community -- are severe, and so are the consequences.
"We congratulate and thank the U.S. Attorney's office for its work on this case and the larger crackdown against the internet piracy rings that are responsible for leaks of pre-release music weeks and sometimes months before retail release. Groups like APC that specialize in leaking pre-release music are at the top of the piracy pyramid and the efforts of federal law enforcement have dealt a real blow to these kinds of operations."
Gitarts appears to be the 15th APC member to be convicted for criminal copyright infringement as part of U.S. Department of Justice's long-running Operation Fastlink campaign, but his is the first case that went to trial. An RIAA spokesman told Wired.com that the two new wrinkles in this case are that it went to trial and that the charges centered on music.
U.S. District Court Judge Liam O'Grady will sentence Gitarts on Aug. 8".
By Eliot Van Buskirk"A 25-year-old Brooklyn man has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit... more
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The Oregon lady has accused the recording industry's campaign of threatening and intimidating innocent people, and of racketeering and fraud. The new lawsuit charges the industry representatives (RIAA) and the company it hired, MediaSentry, of spying 'by unlicensed, unregistered and uncertified private investigators' who 'have illegally entered the hard drives of tens of thousands of private American citizens' in violation of laws 'in virtually every state in the country'.
The complainant is Tanya Andersen, a 41-year-old disabled single mother. Lory Lybeck, her attorney said the lawsuit will also force the industry to reveal how extensive its spying has become.The Oregon lady has accused the recording industry's campaign of threatening and... more
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Music artists and their managers are suing the RIAA for not sharing the compensation money from large legal settlements such as Napster and KaZaA.
“Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for.”Music artists and their managers are suing the RIAA for not sharing the compensation... more
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The Pirate Bay faces three separate legal challenges this holiday season, though site administrators tell Arstechnica.com that they're not worried by any of the pending cases. A Swedish prosecutor wants to take down the site, though, and Prince has set his lawyers on the same task.
Most pressing, perhaps, is the news that a Swedish prosecutor soon plans to press charges against the popular BitTorrent search engine. The charges will be filed before January 31, 2008, by prosecutor Håkan Roswall.
The Pirate Bay faces three separate legal challenges this holiday season, though site... more
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LONDON - Police have arrested three people on suspicion of being involved in one of the country's biggest internet-based music and film piracy rings, officials said.
The alleged ringleader, an unnamed 33-year-old man, was held in a dawn raid at work in Cardiff, the city's trading standards department said.
A second man aged 28 and a woman aged 22 were also arrested in the anti-piracy operation in the Welsh capital. They have been bailed pending further police inquiries.
Police and officials from the Intellectual Property Office and the BPI, a music industry body, took part in the raids, seizing computer equipment.
The gang was one of the biggest suppliers of pirate music and films in Britain, trading standards officials and the BPI said in a joint statement.LONDON - Police have arrested three people on suspicion of being involved in one of... more
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According to a report recently filed by the Washington Post, the Kremlin has finally begun to crackdown on software piracy ... with a twist. The Russian state agency is targetting political enemies with claims of piracy, including independent news media, political parties, and private advocacy groups. In particular, 'the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of the last outposts of critical journalism in Russia, suspended publication of its regional edition in the southern city of Samara on Monday after prosecutors opened a criminal case against its editor, alleging that his publication used unlicensed software.According to a report recently filed by the Washington Post, the Kremlin has finally... more
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A film award ceremony was held in Beijing to help raise awareness for anti-piracy. Short, one-minute films were made by over 100 young film lovers from across the country who competed in the contest, hoping to be the first in creatively portraying an anti-piracy message on film.A film award ceremony was held in Beijing to help raise awareness for anti-piracy.... more
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