tagged w/ IFPI
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The MPAA is currently involved in legal battles against several BitTorrent sites. Last year Hollywood’s lobby organization booked a victory in court when they managed to shut TorrentSpy down, but despite these efforts the studio bosses are still not satisfied. Three of the MPAA’s anti-piracy leaders have now been fired.The MPAA is currently involved in legal battles against several BitTorrent sites. Last... more
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Just a few minutes ago, the Swedish IFPI website has been hacked. The site has been taken down, and replaced with a simple, but clear message towards the IFPI.
The text tells that it is a “declaration of war against anti-piracy and industry players behind it“.
There is not much info who actually hacked the site but the hacker(s) are crediting Anakata, TiAMO and Brokep.
Translation sort of...
IFPI.se is hacked
Question is if it helps or makes a disservice. This is what the site contains, in simple Courier font.
SLUTA LJUG HÅKAN ROSWALL!!!
Den hänsynslösa jakt som IFPI, Antipiratbyrån, Warner Bros och alla andra företag med en bricka i spelet bedrivit har nu resulterat i en rättegång där fyra oskyldiga män står åtalade för upphovsrättsintrång.
Det här är en krigsförklaring mot antipiratindustrin och aktörerna bakom den, och vi uppmanar allmänheten till bojkott och lynchning av de ansvariga.
IFPI är bara början. Fortsättning följer.
Den Nya Generationen
# credz till: anakata, TiAMO och brokep
Which freely translated into English is:
STOP LYING HÅKAN ROSWALL!!!
The ruthless hunt that IFPI, Antipiratbyrån, Warner Bros and all the other companies with a foot in the game has now resulted in a trial where four innocent men are charged for copyright infringement.
This is a declaration of war against the antipiracy industry and the agents behind it, and we encourage the public to boycott and lynching of the responsible ones.
IFPI is just the beginning. To be continued.
The New Generation
# credz to: anakata, TiAMO och brokep
In the HTML source you find the following commented line twice:
This won’t win sympathy for the pirates, but still it’s a rather equal way of fighting back against those who run this trial at the cost of Swedish tax payers, the justice system and democracy.
Update 2009-02-18 20:12
“…this is not a trial against The Pirate Bay, it’s a declaration of war on the internet!”
//Marcin de Kaminski, 080216
Internet slår tillbaka.
Update 2009-02-18 20:30
The message has been taken down by Ifpi’s web administrator and now has the following message:
Välkommen till IFPI Svenska Gruppen
Sidan är tillfälligt tagen ur drift
which in English is
Welcome to IFPI Swedish Group
The page is temporarily taken out of serviceJust a few minutes ago, the Swedish IFPI website has been hacked. The site has been... more
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The Internet has been a blessing for the music industry. Although the RIAA and IFPI frequently complain about piracy, their own research shows that only 10% of all illegal downloads are considered to be a loss in sales. Meanwhile, piracy has shown them how to monetize music online, and turn it into profit.
Every year, RIAA’s global partner IFPI publishes a digital music report, which can be best described as a one sided view of the state of digital music consumption. For several years in a row the report has shown that the sales figures of digital music have gone up, but still, the industry continues to blame piracy for a loss in overall revenue.
One of the key statistics that is hyped every year, is the piracy ratio of downloaded music. Just as last year, IFPI estimates that 95% of all downloads are illegal, without giving a proper source for this figure. Interestingly, those who take a closer look at the full report (pdf), will see that only 10% of the claimed illegal downloads are seen as a loss in sales.
Contrary to the RIAA’s arguments in court, the BPI and IFPI don’t believe in the “every pirated download is a lost sale” myth. Matt Phillips, BPI’s Director of Communications wrote in an email to TorrentFreak: “No, we don’t think every illegal download is a lost sale (and never, ever, have, if my memory serves me correctly). The estimates for lost sales revenue is [sic] not calculated on this basis.”
To come up with a ‘best guess’ of the real losses for the UK market, the music industry have commissioned Jupiter Research. For two years in a row, Jupiter estimated the losses are to be about equal to the revenue that comes from digital sales. If we combine this with the ‘only one in 20 downloads is paid for’ guesstimate, only one in 10 illegal downloads is seen as a loss in sales.
Of course we will be very reluctant to draw conclusions from research that is commissioned by the music industry itself, however, it would interesting to know what the effect is of those downloads that are not seen as a loss. Could they perhaps used by consumers to discover new music, and generate revenue in the long run?
What is clear from the report is that ‘pirates’ have shown the music industry what consumers really want. The music industry is slowly starting to recognize that they have to compete with piracy, by offering high quality products. In the 2009 report, for example, IFPI proudly reports that many services now sell DRM-free music, while they themselves are the reason why these restrictions were implemented in the first place.
In the report IFPI writes: “An important development in 2008 was the licensing of more online stores to sell downloads without digital rights management (DRM), meaning consumers can play the music they acquire on any portable device. In January 2009, Apple announced it had signed deals with leading record companies to offer eight million DRMfree tracks at flexible price points. The move is expected to significantly boost download sales.”
Besides the usual anti-piracy ramblings on how ISPs should help to disconnect pirates from the Internet, the report documents another interesting trend. The music industry clearly recognizes that they’ve done something wrong in the past, and is now promoting unlimited download services, either ad supported or for a low monthly fee. If done right, this ‘piracy inspired’ model might just be the future of music consumption, or at least a worthy competitor to piracy. But then again, they will find something else to complain about sooner or later.The Internet has been a blessing for the music industry. Although the RIAA and IFPI... more
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According to a new report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), 95 percent of all online music downloads are in fact unauthorized and can be considered piracy.
The trade group notes that piracy is "its biggest challenge" as it leaves artists and record companies without royalty payments.
The report noted that worldwide music revenue shrank by 7 percent last year but did add that digital downloads continued strong growth.
The IFPI says over 40 billion music files were shared "illegally" over the past year in comparison to the 1.4 billion tracks purchased legally via iTunes, Amazon MP3 and other online shops.
John Kennedy, the CEO of the IFPI, added:
"There is a momentous debate going on about the environment on which our business, and all the people working in it, depends.
"Governments are beginning to accept that, in the debate over 'free content' and engaging ISPs in protecting intellectual property rights, doing nothing is not an option if there is to be a future for commercial digital content."According to a new report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry... more
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Last Friday, Italian ISPs started to prevent their customers from accessing the Pirate Bay. Strangely enough, Pirate Bay traffic is not redirected to Italian authorities, but to the IFPI, the infamous anti-piracy lobby of the music industry. Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde is not happy, and says it’s a scandal.
the pirate bayFor now, potential Italian Pirate Bay users are denied access to the BitTorrent tracker, and Italian authorities are investigating whether the site should be blocked indefinitely. The block totally missed its purpose though, as The Pirate Bay saw an increase in traffic from Italy instead of a decline.
The Pirate Bay has already taken several countermeasures to make sure Italians can access the site. These don’t work across all ISPs yet, and those users are redirected to the following page by their ISP. Interestingly, this page is hosted on a server that belongs to IFPI - a reverse IP lookup shows that the page is linked to www.pro-music.org, IFPI’s legal music site.
“I think it’s a scandal,” Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak in response to this remarkable finding. “I hope that people start noticing that IFPI gets more and more into bed with the police. It’s really disturbing that one side of an ongoing fight gets more authority without a legal basis.”
Peter finds it hard to believe that the IFPI now gets all the traffic destined for the Pirate Bay, without any legal grounds, and he urges Italian users to clear their cookies before the IFPI decides to steal them. We have to agree with Peter here, it is indeed very disturbing that the traffic is redirected to a site which belongs to an anti-piracy lobby, instead of diverting neutrally to the ISP or local authorities.
The IFPI was contacted for a response several days ago, but hasn’t replied so far. It’s not the first time that they’ve “hijacked” traffic from a torrent site. Last October they did the same thing with the OiNK domain. That instance was even worse, as they used the opportunity to threaten members of the BitTorrent tracker, in advance of any trial.
Last October, the IFPI lost their .com domain, which was mysteriously transferred to the Pirate Bay, who started International Federation of Pirate Interests. Even though the IFPI managed to get the domain back in their possession, the incident marked an increase in efforts from the organization to take out The Pirate Bay.
Thus far, only John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the IFPI, has responded to the Italian move against The Pirate Bay stating: “This decision sends out a clear message that The Pirate Bay’s activities are illegal under Italian law. The Pirate Bay facilitates the mass infringement of copyright across music, film, television and games. Its very name shows the contempt its operators hold for the creators of legitimate content.”
Italy is trying hard to get rid of their fascist label, and some Italians were quite upset about the Pirate Bay calling their country a fascist state, but scandals like this don’t help to improve this image. Things get even worse if you take into account that the IFPI covered up the fact that the organization was founded in Rome, Italy, under the watch of Mussolini, one of the greatest fascist dictators. Enough said.Last Friday, Italian ISPs started to prevent their customers from accessing the Pirate... more
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