ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a punishing, secretly negotiated copyright treaty that could send ordinary people to jail for copyright infringement. ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis and would create its own governing body outside existing international institution. ACTA has been negotiated in secret during the past few years.
Sounds somewhat worrying to me. ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers’ privacy and civil liberties for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet legitimate commerce. What is ACTA? document gives details on the agreement. The EU will soon vote on ACTA.
La Quadrature ACTA web page says that ACTA would impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is seen as a major threat to freedom of expression online and creates legal uncertainty for Internet companies. For some details read La Quadrature’s analysis of ACTA’s digital chapter.
La Quadrature du Net – NO to ACTA video (one side of the view):
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has published “Speak out against ACTA“, stating that the ACTA threatens free software by creating a culture “in which the freedom that is required to produce free software is seen as dangerous and threatening rather than creative, innovative, and exciting.
ACTA has been negotiated in secret during the past few years. It seem that nobody can objectively tell us what ACTA is going to do. You should oppose it for this exact reason. What exactly it will do is so multi-faceted and so deeply buried in legal speak it requires a book or two to explain.
If you don’t like this you need to do something on that quick. The European Parliament will soon decide whether to give its consent to ACTA, or to reject it once and for all. Based on the information (maybe biased view) I have read I hope the result will be rejection.
Another worrying related thing is Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. The bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites in U.S. and outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market. Opponents say it is censorship, that it will “break the internet”, cost jobs, and will threaten whistleblowing and other free speech.
I don’t like this SOPA plan at all, because the language of SOPA is so broad, the rules so unconnected to the reality of Internet technology and the penalties so disconnected from the alleged crimes. In this form according what I have read this bill could effectively kill lots of e-commerce or even normal Internet use in it’s current form. Trying to put a man-in-the-middle into an end-to-end protocol is a dumb idea. This bill affects us all with the threat to seize foreign domains. It is frankly typical of the arrogance of the US to think we should all be subject their authority.
749 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Japanese authorities arrest 27 in nationwide file-sharing crackdown
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/3/4059720/japanese-authorities-arrest-27-in-nationwide-file-sharing-crackdown
Last year Japan’s parliament put a measure into place that made downloading copyright material a criminal offense — and the country recently announced a crackdown that resulted in the arrest of 27 different individuals.
the resulting 27 arrests were for copyright violation of movies, television shows, anime, and music using file-sharing software.
According to Nikkei, two main pieces of file-sharing software were used by those arrested: an application called Share and another named Perfect Dark.
Tomi Engdahl says:
As Pirates Run Rampant, TV Studios Dial Up Pursuit
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324906004578292232028509990-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwMzEwNDMyWj.html
“Is the evolution of TV and movie viewing going to go legitimately digital or to pirates?” Mr. Cotton asked.
Some TV executives worry that they may follow in the steps of the music industry, which has seen its global sales plummet from some $29 billion in 1999 to about half that today, partly because of its slowness to respond to online demand after pirated songs became widely available on the Internet.
The explosion in pirated TV shows and movies is more recent because of improved Web technology. Faster Internet speeds have eliminated the hourslong process of downloading longer videos from peer-to-peer networks and online storage sites called cyberlockers. Much illegal content has also become available through instant streams, including live sports.
“It has taken the arrival of high-speed broadband to make that attractive,” said James Grimmelmann, a piracy expert and professor at New York Law School.
The filing-sharing technology BitTorrent is one tool pirates use to trade videos on websites. BitTorrent, which has many legitimate applications, breaks up large computer files into small pieces so they can zip across the Web. One peer-to-peer site using the technology, ThePirateBay.se, advises people, “Any complaints from copyright and/or lobby organizations will be ridiculed and published at the site.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Pirate Bay claims it is now hosting from North Korea
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-pirate-bay-north-korea-20130304,0,2555878.story
First, Dennis Rodman. Now, the Pirate Bay.
The controversial file-sharing website said it is now operating out of North Korea, after recently being forced out of Sweden. The Pirate Bay said Kim-Jong Un invited the website to North Korea, and the site’s logo, which is a pirate ship, now features the North Korean flag on its sails.
“This is truly an ironic situation. We have been fighting for a free world, and our opponents are mostly huge corporations from the United States of America, a place where freedom and freedom of speech is said to be held high,” a press release by the site says. “And to our help comes a government famous in our part of the world for locking people up for their thoughts and forbidding access to information.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Norwegian Pirate Party stops hosting The Pirate Bay
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2252203/norwegian-pirate-party-cancels-hosting-the-pirate-bay
DIGITAL FILESHARING website The Pirate Bay has lost one of the connections it picked up last week when it swung loose from the Swedish Pirate Party.
Under pressure from Sweden’s copyright cartel front group Rights Alliance, nee Anti-Piracy Bureau (APB), the Swedish Party passed hosting control to two other parties last week, one in Norway and one in Catalonia, Spain.
Today though, six days after the move, the Norwegian Pirate Party has said that it cannot protect The Pirate Bay from the digital rightsholder organisations that want to plunder it.
Aaslid talks about the financial pressure that is imposed by corporate rightsholders. It is a burden that the party cannot carry.
“There is strong concern that the strongest players could threaten the weak away from the internet and restrict free speech. Civil processes is about who has the most money, and we are now in the situation where only the richest are protected free speech in Norway,” says our translated version.
Falkvinge said that the Catalonian party has yet to provide any bandwidth for The Pirate Bay, but has just revealed that The Pirate Bay website is being hosted in North Korea, a country where American entertainment corporations do not carry much weight.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Pirate Bay – North Korean hosting? No, it’s fake.
https://rdns.im/the-pirate-bay-north-korean-hosting-no-its-fake
This is certainly interesting, however let me tell you: It is fake.
TBP is not hosted in North Korea (at least not now).
Now lets look closer at the AS131279, aka Ryugyong-dong, aka STAR-KP – the sole ISP in North Korea, state owned of course.
AS131279 has one Upstream, AS4837 aka China Unicom which we see also in the real North Korean traceroute.
The AS also shows 2 other peers, AS22351 (Intelsat) and AS51040 (Piratpartiet Norge) – This would mean North Korea DOES provide connectivity to The Pirate Bay, right?
No.
Anyone can hijack an AS number and not cause any issues for the real user – In this case The Pirate Bay set up a Sat dish in Phenom Penh, Cambodia – Intelsat gives them a BGP session there.
The peer net for BGP handoff is 175.45.177.217/30, .216 is Intelsats side and .217 is The Pirate Bay’s.
One can use ANY IP they wish for these handoffs, internal, their own, “hijacked” – In this case The Pirate Bay “hijacked” 2 IPs from the North Korean network which does not matter for them as this is only acessible from their side, not from the internet.
This is possible because either Intelsat does not filter BGP announcements (unlikely) or TBP wrote a fake LOA for this AS (likely).
Conclusion:
While it is one of the more advanced fake routings it is still pretty lame, a single drop to AS4737 (like a server in China with a BGP session) and it would look much more real, and much harder to detect.
I cannot certainly say where TPB is hosted now, but it must be Asia
Tomi Engdahl says:
Full text of “Guerilla Open Access Manifesto”
http://archive.org/stream/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008_djvu.txt
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Accidental Betrayal of Aaron Swartz
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/03/05/202243/the-accidental-betrayal-of-aaron-swartz
Norton sadly writes, ‘It is important the people know that the prosecutors manipulated me and used my love against Aaron without me understanding what they were doing. This is their normal. They would do this to anyone. We should understand that any alleged crime can become life-ruining if it catches their eyes.’ Consider yourself forewarned.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
MegaUpload’s closure boosts movie rentals and sales
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57573195-93/megauploads-closure-boosts-movie-rentals-and-sales/
A new study shows that in the months following the takedown of Kim DotCom’s cyberlocker, online movie revenue increased by 6 percent to 10 percent.
Here’s something that will make the Motion Picture Association of America happy: movie sales and rentals increased after the feds shuttered cyberlocker MegaUpload last year.
A new study by Carnegie Mellon’s Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics shows that after MegaUpload’s closure online movie revenue increased by between 6 percent and 10 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“We conclude that shutting down MegaUpload and Megavideo caused some customers to shift from cyberlocker-based piracy to purchasing or renting through legal digital channels,”
However, the study’s researchers seem unclear whether users will continue to go through the legal channels. “We…do not know whether the sales increase will persist or if these new consumers will eventually find their way back to alternative piracy channels,” the researchers told the Wall Street Journal.
Comment Note: The Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics is funded entirely by the MPAA.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Unauthorised TV live streaming breaches copyright, rules European court
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/mar/07/tv-live-streaming
Websites that retransmit live TV over the internet without permission from broadcasters are in breach of copyright, Europe’s highest court has ruled in a judgment with wide ranging implications.
The landmark ruling published on Thursday by the European court of justice (ECJ) means that dozens of sites showing live TV in the UK, including the London-based TVCatchup.com, must now get rights clearance from broadcasters.
Legal experts said the decision was likely to spark a renewed clampdown by rights holders against similar sites, many of which show live sport
“Television broadcasters may prohibit the retransmission of their programmes by another company via the internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
European Parliament blocks citizen e-mails protesting EU ‘porn ban’
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57573151-93/european-parliament-blocks-citizen-e-mails-protesting-eu-porn-ban/
After European citizens began to complain en masse over a report proposing that porn should be banned in the 27-member state bloc, European politicians blew the whistle on their own IT department.
One member of the European Parliament (MEP) claims the upper house’s own IT department is censoring e-mails from citizens.
It comes only a day after CNET reported that other European politicians are set to vote next week on a report that could lead to a pan-European EU ban on all forms of pornography in the region.
Engström said that it was “absolutely excellent” that citizens were actively engaging in the democratic process
This is not the first time the Parliament has been blamed for blocking e-mails from its citizens, however. During the widespread anger over a new transatlantic treaty — the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) — e-mails were also blocked by the European Parliament after Brussels-based politicians complained.
ACTA eventually crumbled in the European Parliament
Tomi Engdahl says:
DRM protection in newest SimCity game has caused headaches for players who have purchased the game legally.
SimCity problems began publishing day, when a large number of new players tried to log onto the game’s servers. The game company was not properly prepared for server load, which seems strange
Amazon removed the digital version of the game to the sale of poor customer feedback after the flood.
DRM protection caused headaches to those who bought the game.
Pirated go to play their illegal copies without problems.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/simcitystartti+oli+katastrofi++kopiointisuojaus+oli+asiakkaille+pahempi+ongelma+kuin+piraateille/a885301?s=r&wtm=tietoviikko/-08032013&
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aaron Swartz to be honored with freedom of information award
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57574236-93/aaron-swartz-to-be-honored-with-freedom-of-information-award/
A champion of open access rights to documents on the Internet, the 26-year-old activist under prosecution committed suicide earlier this year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Online Music Piracy Doesn’t Hurt Sales, European Commission Finds
https://torrentfreak.com/online-piracy-is-not-hurting-music-revenues-european-commission-finds-130318/
New research published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre shows that online piracy doesn’t hurt digital music revenues. The researchers examined browsing habits from 16,000 Europeans and found that there’s a positive link between online piracy and visits to legal music stores, irrespective of people’s interest in music. The study concludes that the music industry should not see piracy as a growing concern.
Research into online piracy comes in all shapes and sizes, often with equally mixed results. The main question often is whether piracy is hurting sales.
The results are now published in a paper titled “Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data,” and the researchers found that overall, piracy has a positive effect on music sales.
“It seems that the majority of the music that is consumed illegally by the individuals in our sample would not have been purchased if illegal downloading websites were not available to them,” they write.
In addition, the researchers are also the first to find that free and legal streaming websites don’t cannibalize legal music purchases.
“The complementary effect of online streaming is found to be somewhat larger, suggesting a stimulating effect of this activity on the sales of digital music,” they comment.
“If this estimate is given a causal interpretation, it means that clicks on legal purchase websites would have been 2 percent lower in the absence of illegal downloading websites,”
The effect of legal streaming services on visits to music stores is even greater, and estimated at 7 percent.
“Taken at face value, our findings indicate that digital music piracy does not displace legal music purchases in digital format. This means that although there is trespassing of private property rights, there is unlikely to be much harm done on digital music revenues,” they write.
Digital Music Consumption on the Internet: Evidence from Clickstream Data
http://ipts.jrc.ec.europa.eu/publications/pub.cfm?id=6084
Tomi Engdahl says:
GoPro accused of using DMCA to take down product review
Company insists it’s all a big misunderstanding
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/21/gopro_digitalrev_dmca_takedown/
This was supposed to be a great week for extreme camera manufacturer GoPro but instead it has stumbled into a PR nightmare.
Shortly after the review went up it was pulled by the website’s hosting company Softlayer after it received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice from a GoPro brand manager claiming trademark infringement.
“Those who are familiar with DMCA might know that more than 50% of DMCA notices are filed with an abusive nature to suppress freedom of expression or to prevent fair competitions. We hope GoPro is not suggesting, with this DMCA notice, that camera reviews should be done only when they are authorised by the manufacturers.”
The news spread fast, with the usual suspects in social media declaring that they would never buy GoPro because of this, how the company had become just another corporate bully, and using the case as yet another example of how the DCMA is being abused.
But GoPro’s director of PR Rick Loughery told El Reg that this was not the case. “We have no issue with editorial reviews or articles on GoPro,”
“As part of our program – we ask merchants who are selling our product to use authorized images. That is why DigitalRev was contacted. But – our letter did not clearly communicate this and that is something we will correct.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Court affirms Isohunt copyright infringement, says company encouraged piracy
The Appeals court decision isn’t good news for internet services
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/4132374/appeals-court-affirms-isohunt-is-liable-for-copyright-infringment
A federal appeals court has decided that Isohunt, a BitTorrent index accused by a Hollywood film studio of encouraging users to share pirated moves and TV shows, is liable for the copyright infringement committed by users and isn’t entitled to protection under section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. These are commonly known as the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions. The decision could strip away some of the protections that internet services have previously won in court.
“This ruling affirms a core principle of copyright law,” the Motion Picture Association of America said in a statement. “Those who build businesses around encouraging, enabling, and helping others to commit copyright infringement are themselves infringers, and will be held accountable for their illegal actions.”
The DMCA was passed in 1998 to help balance the need to safeguard copyrighted work on the internet while also encouraging innovation. To be eligible for the protections, site operators must adhere to a specific criteria, which includes promptly removing any infringing materials once notified by a rights owner, and not have “actual knowledge” that infringing material is on their service. A site operator must also not be aware that “infringing activity is apparent.”
The court noted that Fung encouraged the uploading of infringing files. The panel of judges wrote Fung “communicated a clear message by responding affirmatively to requests for help in locating and playing copyrighted materials.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
GoPro Issues DMCA Takedown Over Negative Review
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/03/21/2151248/gopro-issues-dmca-takedown-over-negative-review
“Ars is reporting that GoPro, the company that makes cameras used in extreme sports such as sky diving and swimming with dolphins has issued a DMCA take down notice on a review at DigitalRev that they do not like.”
‘DigitalRev has a blog post up about the takedown, suggesting that most DMCA takedowns are “abusive” in nature.
Comments:
Issue BS DMCA notice, get negative PR and lose millions. Maybe the system works after all… though in my vision it has a reliance on the media.
Well, the DMCA latter doesn’t even raise the issue of anything copyrighted being used illegally, merely alleged trademark law violations.
There are more than two players in the “ruggedized camera” market.
“Action cameras” are an increasingly crowded segment
This is why I was against DMCA and am against six strikes on the ISP side because there is no penalty no matter how bullshit the claims are as long as you own the copyrights and trademarks.
The whole point of the DMCA takedown notice process is that the ISP, in order to remain within the safe harbor vis-a-vis the party issuing the notice, must fold to a valid notice.
But the parties on each side of the notice/counternotice arrangement aren’t generally in a symmetric power arrangement, so the importance of staying in the safe harbor with regard to each party isn’t the same.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the Second Circuit’s Decision in Viacom May Change the Web
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardbusch/2012/05/30/how-the-second-circuits-decision-in-viacom-may-change-the-web/
A New York Federal Court recently slowed down the Internet’s reappropriation of intellectual property by ruling YouTube may be liable for copyright infringement.
In defending that case, YouTube argued it could not be liable for copyright infringement because it took down videos in response to content owners’ complaints and was protected under the safe harbor provision of the Copyright Act.
YouTube convinced a federal trial court of just that. However, the federal court of appeals based in New York rejected that contention and found YouTube might be liable under either a red flag knowledge theory or based on its willful blindness.
Ultimately, if an Internet Service Provider can lose its safe harbor protection based on “red flag” knowledge, expect to see many more websites asking for permission rather than forgiveness.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US government agencies are advertising on accused pirate sites
http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/27/4154444/us-army-national-guard-among-those-advertising-on-accused-pirate-sites
USC to report that US government is helping to fund intellectual property theft
Many of the ads found on the sites accused of infringing intellectual property were distributed with the help of the Ad Council, the non-profit group that oversees the creation of public service announcements for the US government and other sponsors. Each federal government agency that contracts with the Ad Council “pays for the production and distribution costs” according to the Ad Council’s web site.
Tomi says:
Russians Selectively Blocking Internet
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/technology/russia-begins-selectively-blocking-internet-content.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The Russian government in recent weeks has been making use of a new law that gives it the power to block Internet content that it deems illegal or harmful to children.
Tomi says:
“Can I resell my MP3s?” redux—federal judge says no
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/can-i-resell-my-mp3s-redux-federal-judge-says-no/
After all, as we’ve pointed out in the past, nearly all digital good sales are really licenses rather than sales as conventionally understood. The question here is, can such a license be bought and sold to other users?
On Saturday, a federal court in New York ruled in summary judgment within the case of Capitol Records v. ReDigi. The court decided that no, users do not have the right to resell digital music files, as doing so violates existing copyright law.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube Won’t Put Your Video Back Up, Even If It’s Fair Use, If It Contains Content From Universal Music
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130405/01191322589/youtube-wont-put-your-video-back-up-even-if-its-fair-use-if-it-contains-content-universal-music.shtml
Patrick McKay, who has been a harsh critic of some of YouTube’s failings when it comes to the DMCA process and various takedowns, has highlighted a very serious issue with YouTube that has received little attention. YouTube now admits that, when it comes to some videos that contain content from certain “partner” companies, it won’t repost those videos, even if the video uploaders file a counternotice and show that they’re relying on fair use. YouTube claims that it will still keep some of those videos blocked due to “contractual” obligations
If this sounds vaguely familiar to something in the past, you may recall that a few years ago, Universal Music and Megaupload got into a bit of a spat when UMG issued a questionable takedown of a song promoting Megaupload, which featured a ton of big stars singing the praises (literally) of Megaupload.
Following so soon on our other story about YouTube taking down a video on a questionable “terms of service” violation and then refusing to repost the video, it’s once again a situation where it seems like YouTube needs to do a much better job handling these situations. While we obviously don’t know the details of the UMG contract, fair use rights cannot be signed away, especially by two third parties.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Until Today, If You Were 17, It Could Have Been Illegal To Read Seventeen.com Under the CFAA
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/until-today-if-you-were-17-it-could-have-been-illegal-read-seventeencom-under-cfaa
Seventeen highlights the absurdity of giving terms of service the force of law under the CFAA. It boasts a readership of almost 4.5 million teen readers with an average age of 16 and a half, and yet, until today, the average reader was legally banned from visiting Seventeen.com. That’s right, for a magazine dedicated to teen fashion, the publisher’s terms explicitly restricted online access to readers 18 and older.
Federal prosecutors have argued in court that accessing a website in violation of terms of service is a crime.
We also previously reported on a variety of other websites—including the New York Times, Boston Globe, and NPR—that have similar terms of service that restrict people 12-and-under from reading the news.
Thankfully, the Ninth and Fourth Circuits have rejected the government’s aggressive interpretation of the CFAA (with amicus help from EFF), but the Justice Department has shown no signs that it has given up on aggressive interpretations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why French Govt’s Attempt to Censor Wikipedia Matters
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/04/08/0532235/why-french-govts-attempt-to-censor-wikipedia-matters
In the end, the Streisand Effect prevailed, as you might expect, when a French domestic intelligence agency apparently browbeat a French citizen into removing content from Wikipedia.
“Even though attempts at Internet censorship will almost all fail in the end, governments and authorities have the capability to make groups’ and individuals’ lives extremely uncomfortable, painful, or even terminated — in the process of attempts at censorship”
Comment: Wikileaks comes to my mind
Tomi Engdahl says:
EMI, Microsoft and News International take steps to protect online copyright
Launch online rights framework
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2259921/emi-microsoft-and-news-international-take-steps-to-protect-online-copyright
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC) has welcomed industry efforts to self-regulate online rights information and share it across Europe.
The steps come from the Linked Content Coalition (LCC), a body that takes companies including the Associated Press, EMI Music Publishing, Microsoft and News International under its umbrella.
It was set up a year ago to manage the tricky subject of copyright protection in an online world. The result is a framework for managing and accessing online rights information across most media. The idea is that this should make it easy for rightsholders to work together and trade in rights.
“This important step to make cross-Europe licence use easier and faster”
“There is a huge and rapidly expanding amount of digital content available throughout the internet, but it is often difficult for either companies or individuals who want to trade in rights to find each other,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Slow Death of the American Author
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/opinion/the-slow-death-of-the-american-author.html?pagewanted=all
LAST month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the importation and resale of foreign editions of American works, which are often cheaper than domestic editions. Until now, courts have forbidden such activity as a violation of copyright. Not only does this ruling open the gates to a surge in cheap imports, but since they will be sold in a secondary market, authors won’t get royalties.
This may sound like a minor problem; authors already contend with an enormous domestic market for secondhand books. But it is the latest example of how the global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors’ income streams. It seems almost every player — publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars — is vying for position at authors’ expense.
The value of copyrights is being quickly depreciated, a crisis that hits hardest not best-selling authors
Take e-books. They are much less expensive for publishers to produce: there are no printing, warehousing or transportation costs, and unlike physical books, there is no risk that the retailer will return the book for full credit.
But instead of using the savings to be more generous to authors, the six major publishing houses
all rigidly insist on clauses limiting e-book royalties to 25 percent of net receipts. That is roughly half of a traditional hardcover royalty.
Tomi says:
Movie Studios Want Google to Take Down Their Own Takedown Request
http://torrentfreak.com/fox-wants-google-to-take-down-its-own-takedown-request-130404/
In a comical display of meta-censorship several copyright holders including 20th Century Fox and NBC Universal have sent Google takedown requests asking the search engine to take down links to takedown request they themselves sent. Google refused to comply with the movie studios requests and the “infringing” DMCA notices remain online. Meanwhile, the number of takedown notices received by Google is nearing 20 million per month.
With more than 100 million links to pirated files Google is steadily building the largest database of copyrighted material. This is rather ironic as it would only take one skilled coder to index the URLs from the DMCA notices in order to create one of the largest pirate search engines available.
Indeed, the DMCA notices are meant to make content harder to find on the Internet, but in the process they create a semi-organized index of links to infringing material.
This problem is illustrated by several takedown requests that were sent on behalf of movie studio 20th Century Fox recently. Usually these notices ask Google to remove links to pirate sites, but Fox also wants Google to remove the DMCA notices they sent earlier.
We expect that the notices are just another byproduct of the automated tools that are used to find infringing URLs. However, it’s a “mistake” that signals one of the key problems of automated censorship, and one that can lead to an endless loop of DMCA notices.
The above shows the growing mess the current DMCA procedures are creating and for now there is no end in sight.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK Supreme Court Says Unauthorized Browsing Of Copyright Material Online Is OK, But Asks European Court Of Justice Just In Case
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130417/09522822742/uk-supreme-court-says-unauthorized-viewing-copyright-material-online-is-ok-asks-european-court-justice-just-case.shtml
The lawsuits brought against the media monitoring firm Meltwater in both the US and the UK have not turned out too well for the company so far. In the US, the district court handed down a summary judgment against Meltwater, while in the UK, two courts came to a particularly worrying conclusion: that simply viewing copyright material online without a license amounted to infringement.
Fortunately, this judgment was appealed to the UK Supreme Court, which has just published its ruling. The judges recognized that the central issue is whether the temporary copies held on a computer in its memory cache, which are necessary to view a document stored on the Web, are covered by a clause in UK and European law that exempts temporary copies from needing a license provided certain conditions are met. In the judges’ view, copies held purely for browsing were indeed covered, provided they were not saved or printed out.
“if it is an infringement merely to view copyright material, without downloading or printing out, then those who browse the internet are likely unintentionally to incur civil liability, at least in principle, by merely coming upon a web-page containing copyright material in the course of browsing. This seems an unacceptable result, which would make infringers of many millions of ordinary users of the internet across the EU who use browsers and search engines for private as well as commercial purposes.”
That’s obviously just common sense — sadly, a rare commodity when it comes to copyright in the online world. However, the UK Supreme Court has asked the European Court of Justice to offer its own, definitive, ruling so as to settle the law for the whole of Europe.
Of course, the legal status of temporary copies is a crucial question elsewhere, too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CipherCloud Invokes DMCA To Block Discussions of Its Crypto System
http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/04/21/1721236/ciphercloud-invokes-dmca-to-block-discussions-of-its-crypto-system
“Cryptographers on StackExchange were discussing CipherCloud, using some promotional material from the same to provide detail. CipherCloud responded with a DMCA takedown request”
Comments:
The screenshots should be a pretty solid fair-use case, though, so even that part of the takedown demand is groundless.
There needs to be heavy punitive measures against this sort of thing.
There is no copyright “right” that is any equal to Human and Civil rights – including those of free speech.
There are two broad categories I like to use in describing laws and their application. Oppressive and Protective.
Oppressive law is mandated for the establishment and defence of Power.
Protective law seeks the institution and restoration of Justice.
DMCA is a prime example of oppressive law – and how tricky this distinction can be, as it masquerades itself as a measure for the protection of some natural right. In this case, the “rights” protected are – of course – merely a concession managed by the state, enacted through legislation and constitution.
Well, now everyone knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that “CipherCloud” is insecure, or else they wouldn’t have tried to suppress the conversation. Since their whole business is as a security provider…
There is no other way to characterize the DMCA.. It was no accident.
If you have to go to such extremes to cover up what people are saying about your product, your product must really suck.
Now I know to stay well clear of anything that has to do with Ciphercloud. I certainly wouldn’t have seen the Stack exchange discussion (much less the fact that Ciphercloud feels that cryptanalysis is bad for them) if they didn’t do what they did, though. Thanks, Ciphercloud!
CipherCloud uses DMCA notice to bury security concerns
http://www.reddit.com/r/netsec/comments/1cr54l/ciphercloud_uses_dmca_notice_to_bury_security/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pirate Bay Finds Safe Haven in Iceland, Switches to .IS Domain
http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-finds-safe-haven-in-iceland-switches-to-is-domain-130425/
After The Pirate Bay’s new Greenland-based domains were suspended earlier this month, the world’s largest file-sharing site has found a safe haven in Iceland. From now on TPB can be reached via ThePirateBay.is without the imminent threat of another domain suspension. The Icelandic registry informs TorrentFreak that they will not take action against the domain unless a court order requires them to do so.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google: government censorship requests jumped 20% in last six months
http://gigaom.com/2013/04/25/google-government-censorship-requests-jumped-20-in-last-six-months/
Summary:
Google has published new numbers that show how governments around the world are asking to remove more content from services like YouTube than ever before.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What happens when pirates play a game development simulator and then go bankrupt because of piracy?
http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/
When we released our very first game, Game Dev Tycoon (for Mac, Windows and Linux) yesterday, we did something unusual and as far as I know unique. We released a cracked version of the game ourselves, minutes after opening our Store.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here Is the New Face of TPP and ACTA in the US
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/new-face-acta-tpp-us
Today, the White House announced that Michael Froman is the nominee to be the new U.S. Trade Representative. The U.S. Trade Rep is the office in charge of negotiating all trade agreements including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and the upcoming US-EU trade agreement. This office has therefore been a fundamental player in the game of international copyright policy laundering.
Hollywood and Big Content groups like the MPAA, RIAA, and IFPI have convinced the US Trade Rep to push for increasingly restrictive copyright provisions in trade instruments and for years copyright enforcement around the world has grown more expansive and restrictive. A major force in this trend has been a practice called policy laundering. This is when unpopular policies that wouldn’t normally survive public oversight are cycled through international negotiations that aren’t subject to the same level of democratic oversight as national lawmaking systems.
In the same way, abusive copyright rules that echo the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) are copied and pasted from trade agreement to trade agreement. Since no single governing body regulates these policies, these agreements become a moving target that raises global standards of copyright enforcement while avoiding accountability.
Our petition to the new USTR asks for an end to this secrecy.
Tomi says:
Prenda hammered: Judge sends porn-trolling lawyers to criminal investigators
Lawyers who obfuscated for years face disbarment and a $82,000 fine.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/prenda-hammered-judge-sends-porn-trolling-lawyers-to-criminal-investigators/
US District Judge Otis Wright has no love for the lawyers who set up the copyright-trolling operation that came to be known as Prenda Law. But Wright at least acknowledges their smarts in his long-awaited order, released today. Wright’s order is a scathing 11 page document, suggesting Prenda masterminds John Steele and Paul Hansmeier should be handed over for criminal investigation.
“Plaintiffs have outmaneuvered the legal system,” Wright begins.
All Prenda has in the way of evidence is a “snapshot” showing that an IP address was seen online in a torrent swarm.
Their strategy of identifying IP numbers, issuing subpoenas to ISPs, and sending demand letters offering to settle for about $4,000 “was highly successful because of statutory-copyright damages, the pornographic subject matter, and the high cost of litigation.” Steele, Hansmeier and Duffy got “proceeds of millions of dollars due to the numerosity of Defendants.” And Wright added, “No taxes have been paid on this income.”
Judge Wright once used the word “fraud” when confronting Prenda lawyers, a statement they later cited when they pled the Fifth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Prenda Law Shell Corp Threatening to Tell Your Neighbors You Pirated Porn
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/05/14/0134224/new-prenda-law-shell-corp-threatening-to-tell-your-neighbors-you-pirated-porn
It appears that Prenda Law, freshly defeated, has formed a new shell company named the “Anti-Piracy Law Group,” and has resumed sending threatening letters to supposed porn pirates.
Naturally, the letter also notes that the recipient can avoid having the list of videos they supposedly copied sent to their neighbors and family if they settle for a few thousand bucks…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anti-Infringement Company Caught Infringing On Its Website
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/05/15/2110243/anti-infringement-company-caught-infringing-on-its-website
“Canipre, a Canadian anti-infringement enforcement company, has been using photos on their official website without permission. This company hopes to bring U.S.-style copyright lawsuits to Canada”
“Multiple photos from different photographers are used; none of them with permission”
Canadian Anti-Infringement Enforcement Company Caught Using Infringing Photos On Its Website
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130514/20283923089/canadian-anti-infringement-enforcement-company-caught-using-infringing-photos-its-website.shtmlCanadianAnti-InfringementEnforcementCompanyCaughtUsingInfringingPhotosOnItsWebsite
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Outfit Loses Company Status, Faces Penalties
http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-outfit-loses-company-status-faces-penalties-130515/
The Center for Copyright Information, a partnership between the RIAA, MPAA and several major Internet providers, has had its company status revoked. The CCI, who are leading the “six strikes” anti-piracy scheme in the US, has violated state laws and is unable to conduct any official business anywhere in the United States. In addition the outfit faces civil penalties and risks losing its name to a third-party company.
After more than a year of delays the CCI finally launched its Copyright Alert System during February. But just when it appeared the group was on the right track, it met another roadblock.
According to the Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), the company leading the six-strikes program has had its status revoked. This pretty much means that the company is unable to conduct any official business anywhere in the United States.
The revocation means that CCI’s articles of organization are void, most likely because the company forgot to file the proper paperwork or pay its fees.
“If entity’s status is revoked then articles of incorporation / organization shall be void and all powers conferred upon such entity are declared inoperative, and, in the case of a foreign entity, the certificate of foreign registration shall be revoked and all powers conferred hereunder shall be inoperative,” the DCRA explains.
It appears that company status was revoked last year which means that other businesses now have the option to take over the name. That would be quite an embarrassment, to say the least, and also presents an opportunity to scammers.
As with any other company, CCI will be able to have its company status reinstated after fulfilling its obligations. A source connected to the Center of Copyright Information informs TorrentFreak that the proper paperwork has been filed now.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Copyright owners can’t sue Google’s YouTube as a group – judge
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-google-copyright-idUSBRE94E19Z20130516
A U.S. judge on Wednesday denied class-action status to copyright owners suing Google Inc over the use of material posted on YouTube without their permission.
“The suggestion that a class action of these dimensions can be managed with judicial resourcefulness is flattering, but unrealistic,” Stanton wrote.
“Generally speaking, copyright claims are poor candidates for class-action treatment,” he said.
In the Viacom case decided last month, Stanton sided with Google in finding that it was protected from Viacom’s copyright claims thanks to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The 1998 federal law made it illegal to produce technology that could circumvent anti-piracy measures, but also limited the liability of online service providers over copyright infringement by their users.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoins, Wikileaks, 3D printers, PGP and the gov’s battle against information
http://pandodaily.com/2013/05/13/bitcoins-wikileaks-3d-printers-pgp-and-the-govs-battle-against-information/
The U.S. government has a hard enough time parrying foreign threats like terrorist groups and hostile nations but it’s the unfettered distribution of information in the form of software that could pose the greatest threat of all.
In the past few years we’ve seen the emergence of Wikileaks, Bitcoins and 3D printers – paradigm busters that resist regulation or control by outside forces. Each has the potential to make all of us a little bit freer.
Each also has its martyr, or at least a martyr in waiting.
The government can’t completely stop Bitcoins, Wikileaks, 3D printers and PGP either; it can only try to mitigate the threat they pose to its powers. It hasn’t been able to stamp out hackers, the ultimate information warriors, either, even though they have long been in the sights of federal prosecutors, with potential sentences far outstripping the seriousness of the crimes – if indeed the crimes actually took place.
Like its war on drugs, the government can try to make it more difficult for its citizens to procure information, incarcerate those it can catch, but if people want them, they’ll find a way to get them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RapidShare Fires 75% of its Staff After “Rogue Site” Revamp Bites
http://torrentfreak.com/rapidshare-fires-75-of-its-staff-after-rogue-site-revamp-bites-130519/
RapidShare is fighting through a crisis after a massive downturn in business forced it to fire three-quarters of its workforce, an insider has revealed. After being labeled a “rogue site” by the U.S. Government, in 2011 the file-hosting service reportedly burned through half a million euros lobbying in the United States to save its reputation. The company is now struggling to find a new path after severing ties with millions of former users.
After its launch in 2004, RapidShare’s speedy growth saw the company become one the largest file-hosting sites on the Internet.
However, like all sites of this nature, RapidShare became popular with those looking to store copyright-infringing material. It was a relationship that would prove problematic.
RapidShare fought many legal battles with entertainment companies seeking to hold the company liable for the actions of its users, but it was a big surprise three years ago that really caused it to take stock.
In 2010, the RIAA submitted their list of foreign “notorious markets” to the Office of the US Trade Representative and among the usual torrent site suspects were RapidShare. In the year that followed the company spent huge amounts of cash – reports suggest around 500,000 euros – lobbying to change the site’s image
RapidShare were absent from the USTR’s 2011 list
Late November 2012, RapidShare was still very popular, ranked 150th in the world by Alexa, but now, just six months later, the site is ranked 860th.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK net firms block pirate movie websites
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22607298
Big UK net firms have begun blocking access to two sites accused of flouting copyright laws.
The blocks were imposed after the Motion Picture Association (MPA) won a court order compelling ISPs to cut off the Movie2K and Download4All websites.
However, pro-piracy activists have set up a copy of the Movie2K website in a bid to get around the restrictions.
The action comes as a music industry group publishes a list of 25 sites it wants blocked for pirating pop.
The MPA, which is the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America, went to court arguing that the two websites broke the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RIAA Makes Drastic Employee Cuts as Revenue Plummets
http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-makes-drastic-employee-cuts-as-revenue-plummets-130522/
New tax records reveal that the RIAA has made heavy employee cuts after revenue dropped to a new low. Over the past two years the major record labels have cut back their membership dues from $33.6 to $23.6 million. RIAA staff plunged from 107 to 60 workers in the same period. The IRS filing further shows that the music industry group paid $250,000 to the six strikes anti-piracy system.
The figures follow the trend we spotted last year and show a massive decline in revenue for the music group. In just two years overall revenue has reduced from to $34.8 to $24.8 million.
For decades the RIAA has been the anti-piracy bastion of the music industry, but the new numbers show that the group’s financial power is weakening.
The reduction in legal costs is even more significant, going from to $6.4 million to $1.2 million in two years. In part, this reduction was accomplished by no longer targeting individual file-sharers in copyright infringement lawsuits, which is a losing exercise for the group.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy rootkits, spyware, ransomware and trojans to attack pirates!
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/26/us-entertainment-industry-to-c.html
The hilariously named “Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property” has finally released its report, an 84-page tome that’s pretty bonkers. But amidst all that crazy, there’s a bit that stands out as particularly insane: a proposal to legalize the use of malware in order to punish people believed to be copying illegally. The report proposes that software would be loaded on computers that would somehow figure out if you were a pirate, and if you were, it would lock your computer up and take all your files hostage until you call the police and confess your crime. This is the mechanism that crooks use when they deploy ransomware.
It’s just more evidence that copyright enforcers’ network strategies are indistinguishable from those used by dictators and criminals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Public Outcry In Taiwan Kills Their Version Of SOPA
from the like-that-wasn’t-predictable dept
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130611/00503223401/public-outcry-taiwan-kills-their-version-sopa.shtml
At the end of May, we wrote about the Taiwanese government’s bizarre proposal to create a copyright bill that was like SOPA, but even worse
Thankfully, the Taiwanese quickly did their own version of the SOPA blackout, with Wikipedia Taiwan and Mozilla Taiwan set to participate.
the proposal was abandoned before the protest was even needed.
Still, it is good to see that whenever something SOPA-like pops up, the public quickly jumps up to protest it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Leaseweb Wipes All Megaupload User Data, Dotcom Outraged
http://torrentfreak.com/leaseweb-wipes-all-megaupload-user-data-dotcom-outraged-130619/
Megaupload’s former hosting provider Leaseweb has deleted all Megaupload user data from 690 servers without warning. Petabytes of data and backups, mostly from European users, are now lost forever. Kim Dotcom is outraged by the scandal and says this is what the U.S. Government was hoping would happen all along. “I’m furious about this betrayal, and extremely sad,” Dotcom tells TorrentFreak.
It’s been a frustrating situation for the millions of affected users and one that has taken a turn for the worst today, with the news that one of Megaupload’s main hosting companies has decided to delete all the data they had stored.
“This is a huge disaster,” Dotcom tells TorrentFreak, explaining that the servers mainly contained files from European users as well as the associated backups.
“They deleted petabytes of data and did not warn us at all. Our legal team asked them multiple times not to delete the data while the U.S. court is deciding about the rights of our users,” Dotcom says.
Soon after the raid Megaupload’s legal team started to discuss the option of giving back users their uploaded data, but the U.S. refused all suggestions. Megaupload and the U.S. hosting company Carpathia did come to an agreement to hand over the servers, but the Government blocked this plan in court.
“This is what the U.S. government wanted all along. That’s why they seized all of our assets and would not even release funds to pay our hosting partners,” Dotcom now says.
Tomi says:
Less porn for you: UK ISPs will enact auto-filtering of adult content by the end of 2013
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/17/less-porn-for-you-uk-isps-will-enact-auto-filtering-of-adult-content-by-the-end-of-2013/
Relax, you can still watch porn in the United Kingdom, but it’s about to become a bit harder. As reported in Wired, Internet service providers (ISPs) in the country will “make filtering a standard option across industry.” If you don’t act, parental filters will come “pre-ticked.”
ISPs are implementing the filtering system without a legal requirement, so we will not see a law enforcing the new policy.
The kicker to this is that the system will not only be put in place for new accounts, but for existing accounts as well. This is pervasive.
“We will have automatic put on, so if you turn the filter off at 9pm, it turns on again at 7am.”
Here’s what’s going on: In collaboration with their government, UK Internet providers are deciding to filter the Web connections of their customers. Thus, in the UK by 2014, you will no longer have access to the web unfettered; instead you can, with added effort, remove the blinders and access whatever the hell it is you want, but only for a short period of time before the handcuffs are reattached.
Tomi says:
UK ISP Filter Will Censor More Than Porn
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/07/27/0051224/uk-isp-filter-will-censor-more-than-porn
“The Open Rights Group spoke with several ISPs and found that in addition to pornography, users will also be required to opt in for any content tagged as violent material, extremist and terrorist related content, anorexia and eating disorder websites, suicide related websites, alcohol, smoking, web forums, esoteric material and web blocking circumvention tools.”
Tomi says:
Downloading pirated collapsed – copyright organizations already have a new target
07/27/2013 6:01 Studies have shown that pirated files from a few years suffered tremendously. Copyright by organizations of the reason is the new legal and illegal online services.
These results have come to Norway and Finland studies. Finnish copyright of this is part of a change in the forms of piracy. On the other hand, for example, that a movie file loaded into the computer, movies or TV shows to stream them online without permission performing on-line services.
- For example, Turkey is an online service where you can watch movies like YouTube. Service is funded by ads sold on the site, says the project manager Lauri Kaira creative industries represent a counter-Lantern Organization.
In Norway, the study shows that online piracy has suffered tremendously. Norwegian Norwaco-copyright organization in the annual survey commissioned study (pdf) found that in Norway in 2012, illegally downloaded 210 million music files, while still in 2008 of illegally downloaded files was 1.16 billion shares.
Also, films and TV programs for the illegal downloading of a Norwegian study, at the same time reduced to about half.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/viihde/2013/07/27/piraattilataaminen-romahti–tekijanoikeusjarjestoilla-jo-uusi-kohde/201310397/66
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finally, a firewall for all the porn on the Internet
http://hackaday.com/2013/07/29/finally-a-firewall-for-all-the-porn-on-the-internet/
The current UK government is proposing an Internet porn firewall. Unlike other countries with Internet firewalls, such as North Korea, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, the citizens of the UK are so especially helpful some of them decided to help code the new porn filter. The idea behind the Great Firewall of Porn is simple: if a user wants to visit a NSFW website, let them. If, the user wants to visit the other 19% of the Internet, block it
The way the firewall works is actually pretty clever – it checks each request against the OpenDNS FamilyShield filter. If the request is denied, load the page, and if the OpenDNS request is allowed, block the page.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenDNS Parental Control Solutions
http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/parental-controls
Tomi says:
Microsoft to Google: Please remove us from internet
Automated sueball generator mistakenly requests takedown of Microsoft.com pages
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/30/microsoft_asks_google_to_stop_indexing_microsoftcom_pages/
Microsoft appears to have asked Google to remove some microsoft.com pages from Google’s search engine.
TorrentFreak reportsthat LeakID, an organisation that provides services such as “Monitoring illegal links and sources” and “Send automated takedown notices to ISPs hosting infringing links and websites”, has sent Google a notice to stop indexing some pages on Microsoft’s site because they infringe Microsoft’s copyright.
The takedown request was made under the auspices of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which has been interpreted as requiring web publishers to remove links to stolen content.
Just how Microsoft.com pages passed LeakID’s tests isn’t known, but TorrentFreak says Google spotted the mistake