Showing posts with label anti-piracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anti-piracy. Show all posts

Friday, October 18, 2013

Copyright Pirates Vow To Fight On After Filesharing Site Isohunt Walks The Plank; Forbes, 10/17/13

Jasper Hamill, Forbes; Copyright Pirates Vow To Fight On After Filesharing Site Isohunt Walks The Plank: "Internet pirates are preparing to set sail for new waters following the shutdown of the decade-old filesharing site Isohunt. Following a long court battle, the world-famous site agreed to switch off the lights for good today and pay out a mammoth $110 million settlement, although there’s little sense of where this cash will come from and how it will be handed over to movie studios. However, supporters claimed the court case represented little more than a “paper victory” in an age where content was freely available to anyone who knows where to look. They vowed to continue campaigning for copyright reform."

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Disruptions: Innovations Snuffed Out by Craigslist; New York Times, 7/29/12

Nick Bilton, New York Times; Disruptions: Innovations Snuffed Out by Craigslist:

"“The listings are already out there. We’re finding them already on the Web and organizing them so other people don’t have to do the same thing twice,” said Greg Kidd, the chief executive of 3Taps. “And we’re not breaking any laws because we are pulling in the facts from the listing; everyone knows you can’t copyright facts.” Craigslist also named 3Taps in the lawsuit filed last week.

As intellectual property lawyers will tell you, Mr. Kidd is not off base: facts, like those in classified listings, cannot be copyrighted.

So why hasn’t anyone managed to unseat Craigslist, a site that has barely changed in close to two decades?

It has dug an effective moat by cultivating an exaggerated image of “doing good” that keeps its customers loyal, while behind the scenes, it bullies any rivals that come near and it stifles innovation."

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Extradition Suspect Calculated the Savings From Piracy; New York Times, 7/13/12

Somini Sengupta, New York Times; Extradition Suspect Calculated the Savings From Piracy:

"Helpfully for the authorities, Mr. O’Dwyer also did the math for his users, spelling out, according to the Justice Department, exactly how much money its users were saving. It reminded users that they could have spent up to $10 on a movie ticket, $10 on “a typical US nacho-Coke or popcorn-Coke combo,” and another $5 on “typical US parking.”

Part of the Justice Department’s case against Mr. O’Dwyer seems to be show that he sought to make it as simple as possible to watch movies and shows available on other sites, including copyrighted material...

Meanwhile, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikimedia, who has stepped up to defend Mr. O’Dwyer from extradition, was quoted by The Hill, a Washington-based news site, as offering the entertainment industry some unsolicited advice: Make it easier for consumers to buy content online."

U.S. Pursuing a Middleman in Web Piracy; New York Times, 7/12/12

Somini Sengupta, New York Times; U.S. Pursuing a Middleman in Web Piracy:

"Richard O’Dwyer, an enterprising 24-year-old college student from northern England, has found himself in the middle of a fierce battle between two of America’s great exports: Hollywood and the Internet.

At issue is a Web site he started that helped visitors find American movies and television shows online. Although the site did not serve up pirated content, American authorities say it provided links to sites that did. The Obama administration is seeking to extradite Mr. O’Dwyer from Britain on criminal charges of copyright infringement. The possible punishment: 10 years in a United States prison.

The case is the government’s most far-reaching effort so far to crack down on foreigners suspected of breaking American laws. It is unusual because it goes after a middleman, who the authorities say made a fair amount of money by pointing people to pirated content. Mr. O’Dwyer’s backers say the prosecution goes too far, squelching his free-speech right to publish links to other Web sites."

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Senator: Web censorship bill a "bunker-busting cluster bomb"; ArsTechnica.com, 11/19/10

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com; Senator: Web censorship bill a "bunker-busting cluster bomb":

"Ed Black, CEO of computing industry trade group CCIA, was testifying at the hearing, and he agreed that COICA was a "good example of what not to do in an important, complicated digital ecosystem."...

While the bill looks dead this year, the idea has met with thunderous applause from the movie and music industries, who are sure to back it next year."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/11/senator-web-censorship-bill-a-bunker-busting-cluster-bomb.ars

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Rights Holders Launch Initiative To Protect Content In Africa; Intellectual Property Watch, 8/26/10

Dugie Standeford, Intellectual Property Watch; Rights Holders Launch Initiative To Protect Content In Africa:

"Foreign content producers and broadcasters hope the soon-to-be-launched Africa Media Rights Watch will help convince the region’s regulators and consumers alike to increase respect for copyright."

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/08/26/rights-holders-launch-initiative-to-protect-content-in-africa/

Monday, March 15, 2010

British Put Teeth in Anti-Piracy Proposal; New York Times, 3/15/10

Eric Pfanner, New York Times; British Put Teeth in Anti-Piracy Proposal:

"When asked how governments ought to deal with freeloaders who illegally copy music and movies on the Internet, James Murdoch, head of News Corp.’s European and Asian operations, does not mince his words: “Punish them.”

“There is no difference with going into a store and stealing Pringles or a handbag and taking this stuff,” he said last week at a media conference in Abu Dhabi. “We need enforcement mechanisms and we need governments to play ball.”

In Britain, where Mr. Murdoch is based, lawmakers have taken up the challenge — to the consternation of Internet companies and civil liberties groups, which are ratcheting up their own arguments against a tough anti-piracy bill that is nearing the make-or-break stage in Parliament.

The measure, championed by the business secretary, Peter Mandelson, would give the British authorities new tools to clamp down on piracy, including the right to cut off the Internet connections of persistent copyright cheats. Such a system has been approved, though not yet implemented, in France.

The British proposal, set to be taken up by the House of Commons on Monday, goes further. Under an amendment to the bill in the House of Lords this month, courts would be empowered to order Internet service providers to block access to Web sites that provide pirated movies, music and other media content.

Supporters of the amendment say it would finally give copyright holders the tools to tackle the piracy problem at the supply and demand levels, after more than a decade of largely futile efforts. But critics of the bill say it raises the specter of censorship on the Internet, and could undermine the development of Britain’s digital economy, currently among the most advanced in the world.

“Put simply, blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the Internet in the U.K. and elsewhere, threatening freedom of speech and the open Internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended,” opponents of the proposal wrote in a letter to The Financial Times. It was signed by Internet service providers, Internet companies like Google, Yahoo, eBay and Facebook, and other groups.

Britain is not the only country considering tougher measures to fight piracy. Along with France, South Korea also recently approved a system under which Internet pirates who ignore two warnings to stop illegal downloads face the loss of their Internet connections. Lawmakers in Spain have proposed a measure that, like the British proposal, could require Internet service providers to block access to certain sites.

The British government says a tougher approach on piracy could provide hundreds of millions of dollars for the “creative industries,” which already account for more than 6 percent of British economic output.

But critics say the proposals would be expensive to enforce and would generate very little new revenue.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which campaigns against restrictions on the Internet, said the bill contained unusually broad scope for abuse. Individuals or companies, he said, might try to use it to suppress any Web content they found objectionable, under the pretext of protecting their copyrights.

British libel laws, which put the burden of proof on the defendant, are already employed in this way by wealthy plaintiffs, critics say; rather than mount expensive defenses, bloggers and others accused of libel often back down and withdraw whatever statements drew offense."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/technology/15iht-piracy15.html?scp=2&sq=piracy&st=cse

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

IT experts call for crackdown on copyright piracy; Daily Star (Lebanon), 12/16/09

Dana Halawi, Daily Star (Lebanon); IT experts call for crackdown on copyright piracy:

"Information Technology (IT) experts gathered on Tuesday at Ramada Hotel in Beirut to tackle challenges facing Lebanon’s IT industry due to lack of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection. “One of the main challenges facing this sector in Lebanon is the absence of effective entities tailored to the protection of IPR. This includes the challenge of issuing laws by the Lebanese government that are compatible with the international agreements signed by Lebanon for its accession to the World Trade Organization,” said Microsoft’s anti-piracy manager for North Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Pakistan Aly Harakeh.

Respecting intellectual property rights is one of the basic conditions of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). Lebanon is a signatory to several international agreements relating to intellectual property rights and started the process for accession to the WTO in 1999, but could not join because of its failure to properly implement the basic required conditions. The country’s accession application is still ongoing, according to the WTO website...

Sectors dependant on intellectual innovations are crucial to the Lebanese economy. Lebanon is on the top of Arab countries when it comes to intellectual innovations and arts, and these sectors can contribute a lot more to our economy than the core industries such as agriculture and manufacturing.

According to a report issued by the Institute of Finance, the industries in Lebanon which copyright applies to contribute 4.74 percent to GDP and 4.54 percent to employment. However, the report said, the core industries contribute 2.53 percent to GDP and 2.11 percent to employment.

The study said that the industries which copyright laws apply to generated $555.52 million of value added, generated from nine sectors including press and literature, music, theatrical productions, opera, motion pictures and video, radio and television, photography, software and databases, visual and graphic arts, advertising and copyright collecting societies.

A report issued by the Business Software Alliance said that the piracy rates in Lebanon reached 74 percent in 2008, while losses incurred from piracy activities reached $49 million in the same year."

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=109830

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Copyright row dogs Spore release - BBC News, 9/10/08

Copyright row dogs Spore release:
"Hundreds of people have complained about the copyright protecting system on the long-awaited game Spore. Scathing criticism of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system have been posted by reviewers on Amazon.com...

In what reviewers described as "a draconian DRM system", the game can only be installed three times...

But many reviewers reacted with anger at the SecuROM DRM system used by EA. Some wrote that it would stop them from purchasing the product; others cancelled pre-orders...

"Our system works just like online music services that limit the number of machines on which you can you can play a song," an EA spokesman told the BBC. "This system is an effort to control piracy."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7604405.stm