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I wholeheartedly support this "One Strike" law. As the first barrage in the torrent (heh!) of complaints, let me fire this one off:

http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-steals-code-violates-linkware-license/

I demand 100% complete disconnection of the MPAA, including subsidaries, partent companies, any company where any member of the MPAA (or subsidaries, parent companies, etc) is a shareholder in whole or in part, from ALL Italian users. They cannot connect to ANY Italian IP address, on pain of defying a court order (or whatever the punishment is for evading the 'one strike' law).

Any "evidence" gathered against Italian internet users is null and void because in order to gather that evidence they had broken the "one strike" rule in Italy. And, of course, the MPAA would never download something they didn't actually own the rights to, therefore committing copyright infringement themselves, right? Never? ...

Oh wait, the laws don't apply to those who make them? The MPAA is allowed to commit the worst kind of copyright infringement -- claiming you created something you didn't, and then using it for commercial purposes and making a bunch of money with it -- and that doesn't count as a strike? Because they are immune to their own law?

Oh damn.

Well, it was a nice thought anyway.

RIAA Label Used In Massive Cocaine Trafficking Ring

http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-label-used-in-massive-cocaine-trafficking-ring-110916/

Earlier this year record label boss Jimmy Rosemond was arrested on the suspicion of leading a massive cocaine trafficking ring.

The founder of Czar Entertainment used shipments of music equipment to transfer cocaine across the United States.

These shipments went to several music studios, and according to a recent court filing uncovered by The Smoking Gun, Interscope Records is one of them.

This suggests that people at the RIAA label were in on the game.

Previously entertainment industry representatives have suggested that piracy can be linked to organized crime, and the above suggests that the same can be said for the music industry.

How many people in the music industry were part of the drug ring remains unknown at this point, but we would advise the RIAA to carefully investigate its members to avoid the practices from escalating.

https://torrentfreak.com/and-when-even-the-death-penalty-doesnt-deter-copying-what-then-110807/

According to TorrentFreak, the top 10 file-sharing sites are almost entirely "legit" sites like this. What does that tell you?

A public letter to the lawyers:

Sue for damages that most courts would find "rational" if the person were clearly guilty. Not thousands of dollars per song, but more like 3x the retail price of the track plus legal fees. 500 songs @ $2.99 = $4,500 plus legal fees. Adjust upwards so you are over the "small claims court" limits - you REALLY want to make a point this is NOT a small claim. Repeat x 200,000.

Do NOT make any initial offer to settle, wait for people to respond to the suits. Get default judgments for those who do not respond. Do your fellow troll industry a favor and and sell default judgments for pennies on the dollar to judgment trolls.

Make an INITIAL offer that is basically the amounts to the amount you are suing for minus your projected legal costs minus some reasonable discount to reflect the risk that an "honest" lawsuit would not succeed.

If the person claims poverty, youth, or you are suing a middle class person for $10K+ (that he'll never be able to pay) because he downloaded 1,000 tracks, or the defendant is otherwise "sympathetic" in any way make a counter-offer to get the defendant to be your spokes-person in exchange for lowering the claims - the more they do for you and your client the less they have to pay.

Save the "big bucks" lawsuits for people who can afford to pay the judgment and for people who are making money off of resale (likely a very small fraction of the defendants).

Do this and you can make some money, send a message/provide some deterrence, and not be accused of being off-the-scale-greedy.

A public letter to the music industry:

Remove both economic incentives to piracy (too-high prices) and non-economic ones (DRM and other inconveniences) and you will see piracy go way down.

View piracy as an untapped market not as an evil to be squashed.

All examples of usage of the extradition has been where the act has been illegal in both countries, *and* the US has been able to show that some of the act was carried out in the US.

What about Richard O'Dwyer of TVShack fame? http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/big-content-unveils-latest-antipiracy-weapon-extradition.ars/

The legality of linking It's not clear whether O'Dwyer has even committed a crime under UK law. O'Dwyer is not accused of hosting infringing content himself. Instead, his site provided links to content hosted by other websites. In December, a British judge ruled in favor of TV-Links, a website that, like Tvshack, offered links to video content, some of it infringing.

You're kidding, right? Both Rapidshare and Megaupload have been sued, and the former was ordered by a court to pay a fine.

But there's an huge difference between offering personal file hosting and selling identified music files. The latter can't allege ignorance about the contents of the file.

You're kidding, right? Both Rapidshare and Megaupload have been sued, and the former was ordered by a court to pay a fine.

But there's an huge difference between offering personal file hosting and selling identified music files. The latter can't allege ignorance about the contents of the file.

You're kidding, right? Both Rapidshare and Megaupload have been sued, and the former was ordered by a court to pay a fine.

But there's an huge difference between offering personal file hosting and selling identified music files. The latter can't allege ignorance about the contents of the file.

Unless it is a distributed DNS without some Gov/Icann/Corporate model.

I think something like TPB model is there to stay, if necessary they'll just move it to be a TOR onion site, still centralized but anonymous.

On that point, it's interesting to see clients like MediaGet and Frostwire 5 incorporating search into the client. If one of the sites they rely on gets shut down, not only could the clients switch to another site at the next upgrade, they could potentially switch to another way of contacting the site (eg through Tor, as you suggested) without the users needing to be any the wiser.

The US government would provide protection to them with our military.

That might not go well... http://torrentfreak.com/us-military-bittorrent-users-targeted-by-mpaariaa-100118/

The interesting thing is... if you treated copyright infringement much like we treat marijuana here in Australia, things would get a lot better.

A little bit of weed doesn't do a lot of damage and is kinda fun every now and then. A lot of weed is pretty bad, but as long as you're only using it yourself, eh... not a huge issue, but clearly you should cop a fine for it.

But deliberately growing warehouses full of weed, for the express purposes of selling it is pretty bad since it's usually tied to organized crime. Even worse, deliberately manufacturing *cocaine*, a much worse drug, is clearly bad and should be punished heavily.

So we understand that there are "less bad" and "more bad" scales on these things. But now, what if the cops (or vigilante groups with huge congressional power posing as cops) are mass-producing cocaine? Surely they should be fallen upon from a great height and made an example of, right?

http://gizmodo.com/329648/mpaas-university-toolkit-taken-down-for-violating-copyright
http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-steals-code-violates-linkware-license/

That's just the top two results on a quick Google search. Other examples exist, I'm sure of it.

Now, the MPAA in both cases didn't just download an illegal copy of Photoshop. They stripped out the licencing and branding, rebranded it as their own, and then used it an profit making enterprise as though they themselves wrote it. THAT is the kind of copyright infringement that SHOULD be punished- it's literally taking someone else's work, pretending it's yours, then making money from it. They didn't just shoplift a copy of Photoshop from a store, they claimed they wrote it themselves.

And yes, they should be punished far worse than any individual. They pretend to be the ultimate authority on copyright enforcement, and treat it extremely gravely- Jamie was sued into bankruptcy for downloading mp3's for personal use. Surely their own actions, however, which are so much more malicious in nature, and so much more damaging to a society as a whole (and again given their position as de-facto "copyright cops") should be treated far more harshly. An individual who is busted for speeding gets a fine, a police officer who is busted for speeding can lose their job. And these particular police officers aren't even cops, more like shopping mall Rent-A-Cops arresting 13 year old kids for possessing a bit of weed while simultaneously running a commercial grade meth lab in their basement.

Yes, the MPAA's incidents are not nearly as numerous as the huge amount of copyright infringement that goes on everyday, but their actions are so much *worse* given their circumstances. They should be punished accordingly. If anyone should understand copyright infringement and copyright law, it should be the MPAA.

So, given this, I propose the MPAA and all its affiliatories, sister companies, shell companies, parent companies, CEOs (present, former and past) and anything to do with them should be purged utterly from the internet to make an example of them.

Censorship, , hell, even war crimes--all perfectly fine as long as you have the money to do it.

That's because traditional distributors already sit on top of the most profitable established distribution channels and they get to decide who gets in and who doesn't. Copy-friendly distribution fights an uphill battle on a very steep slope but it still has tremendous success when you look at how little they invest in advertisment compared to traditional distributors. And don't forget that selling copies is not the only way to make money from content.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Wow, you're so right. A guy threw his shoes one of the guys behind the "Great Firewall" and some people online said, "Yay, you." Clearly the Chinese are standing up en masse against tyranny. Remember when someone threw his shoes at Bush a few years back? Check out youtube for the video and the comments. Same damn thing. So what? I highly doubt either event will change anything. Begone troll.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Wow, you're so right. A guy threw his shoes one of the guys behind the "Great Firewall" and some people online said, "Yay, you." Clearly the Chinese are standing up en masse against tyranny. Remember when someone threw his shoes at Bush a few years back? Check out youtube for the video and the comments. Same damn thing. So what? I highly doubt either event will change anything. Begone troll.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Wow, you're so right. A guy threw his shoes one of the guys behind the "Great Firewall" and some people online said, "Yay, you." Clearly the Chinese are standing up en masse against tyranny. Remember when someone threw his shoes at Bush a few years back? Check out youtube for the video and the comments. Same damn thing. So what? I highly doubt either event will change anything. Begone troll.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Wow, you're so right. A guy threw his shoes one of the guys behind the "Great Firewall" and some people online said, "Yay, you." Clearly the Chinese are standing up en masse against tyranny. Remember when someone threw his shoes at Bush a few years back? Check out youtube for the video and the comments. Same damn thing. So what? I highly doubt either event will change anything. Begone troll.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't approve of censoring the internet for any reason. Nor do I approve of the U.S. government's record on IP-related enforcement *or* electronic freedoms. However, I should note that your angry objection is overwhelmingly colored by the fact that all of your links seem to point to a single source - torrentfreak.com - and all seem to involve actions taken during IP related seizures and enforcement. I realize that in your anger, you won't be able to separate me from the IP apologists, but I appeal to your cooler-headed colleagues of the copyleft movement and its ilk. Understand that a clumsy and self-centered attempt at comparison like this - IP enforcement to the Great Firewall - just makes you and your cause (which I mostly agree with) look...um...selfish, self-centered, and not too bright.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it sounds like you're comparing the effects of the Great Firewall on the citizens/netizens of China to the effects on you, somewhere (as you say) other than America, because...you can't download bittorrents.

That demeans the struggle that the Chinese are undertaking.

Suck it up.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't approve of censoring the internet for any reason. Nor do I approve of the U.S. government's record on IP-related enforcement *or* electronic freedoms. However, I should note that your angry objection is overwhelmingly colored by the fact that all of your links seem to point to a single source - torrentfreak.com - and all seem to involve actions taken during IP related seizures and enforcement. I realize that in your anger, you won't be able to separate me from the IP apologists, but I appeal to your cooler-headed colleagues of the copyleft movement and its ilk. Understand that a clumsy and self-centered attempt at comparison like this - IP enforcement to the Great Firewall - just makes you and your cause (which I mostly agree with) look...um...selfish, self-centered, and not too bright.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it sounds like you're comparing the effects of the Great Firewall on the citizens/netizens of China to the effects on you, somewhere (as you say) other than America, because...you can't download bittorrents.

That demeans the struggle that the Chinese are undertaking.

Suck it up.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't approve of censoring the internet for any reason. Nor do I approve of the U.S. government's record on IP-related enforcement *or* electronic freedoms. However, I should note that your angry objection is overwhelmingly colored by the fact that all of your links seem to point to a single source - torrentfreak.com - and all seem to involve actions taken during IP related seizures and enforcement. I realize that in your anger, you won't be able to separate me from the IP apologists, but I appeal to your cooler-headed colleagues of the copyleft movement and its ilk. Understand that a clumsy and self-centered attempt at comparison like this - IP enforcement to the Great Firewall - just makes you and your cause (which I mostly agree with) look...um...selfish, self-centered, and not too bright.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it sounds like you're comparing the effects of the Great Firewall on the citizens/netizens of China to the effects on you, somewhere (as you say) other than America, because...you can't download bittorrents.

That demeans the struggle that the Chinese are undertaking.

Suck it up.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't approve of censoring the internet for any reason. Nor do I approve of the U.S. government's record on IP-related enforcement *or* electronic freedoms. However, I should note that your angry objection is overwhelmingly colored by the fact that all of your links seem to point to a single source - torrentfreak.com - and all seem to involve actions taken during IP related seizures and enforcement. I realize that in your anger, you won't be able to separate me from the IP apologists, but I appeal to your cooler-headed colleagues of the copyleft movement and its ilk. Understand that a clumsy and self-centered attempt at comparison like this - IP enforcement to the Great Firewall - just makes you and your cause (which I mostly agree with) look...um...selfish, self-centered, and not too bright.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it sounds like you're comparing the effects of the Great Firewall on the citizens/netizens of China to the effects on you, somewhere (as you say) other than America, because...you can't download bittorrents.

That demeans the struggle that the Chinese are undertaking.

Suck it up.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Oh Yeah! Well....

USA! USA! USA! We're Number One! USA!

World Power!

USA! USA! USA!

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Oh Yeah! Well....

USA! USA! USA! We're Number One! USA!

World Power!

USA! USA! USA!

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Oh Yeah! Well....

USA! USA! USA! We're Number One! USA!

World Power!

USA! USA! USA!

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

Oh Yeah! Well....

USA! USA! USA! We're Number One! USA!

World Power!

USA! USA! USA!

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

At least the Chinese do something about it. Unlike Americans who sit down watching tv and drinking beer and bitching on slashdot (and never doing anything about it) while their government not only censors their internet connections, but the whole worlds.

This is why Americans are so fucking hypocrites. Do whatever you want on your own land, but leave rest of the world alone. We don't want your bullshit around here in Europe, and the rest of the world.

...or wait, I guess they get nothing!!!

No.

Update: After affecting only Comcast users for about 15 hours, The Pirate Bay seems to be inaccessible pretty much everywhere now. The Pirate Bay team is looking into it. (Update: one webserver died, should be back for most people who are not on Comcast now).

That was the news THIS MORNING. Then it was found that Pirate Bay couldn't be accessed by anyone. Web server died. It sounds like they segment traffic to certain web servers based on IP ranges for load-balancing, and the one for the Comcast group died. No big conspiracy here.

And why link to PCWorld? Who are they? TorrentFreak broke the news and continually updated it through the day. They should be cited:
http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-blocked-the-pirate-bay-110512/

This isn't funny, it's insightful.

Maybe it really does have something to do with a breach of the dev network, if such a thing even exists. If they throw PSN back online without properly patching this hole they're just opening it up to a fresh attack.

And why is that?

I haven't heard of other countries arbitrarily seizing domain names from web sites that the government doesn't like, without due process, without a way to appeal, and without even notification. But this is exactly what the US has been doing recently [1, 2]. This ranking is completely worthless.

[1] http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-and-more-101126/
[2] http://torrentfreak.com/us-resume-file-sharing-domain-seizures-110201/

And why is that?

I haven't heard of other countries arbitrarily seizing domain names from web sites that the government doesn't like, without due process, without a way to appeal, and without even notification. But this is exactly what the US has been doing recently [1, 2]. This ranking is completely worthless.

[1] http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-seizes-bittorrent-search-engine-domain-and-more-101126/
[2] http://torrentfreak.com/us-resume-file-sharing-domain-seizures-110201/

Yeah, you're right. Because there is still SOMETHING they need to do, then it hasn't made their live EASIER. (Easier being the operative word here)

Also, sure, Google and Facebook might be secure, so ALL websites will be secure.

Not for those of us who operate a legitimate online business. I couldn't imagine what my customers and clients would say if one day they came to one of my sites and saw a domain seizure image, even if the government did it on accident.

With all the side-channels, like Twitter, available these days, it's trivial to communicate a change of domain to your users, but if you're creative then you don't even have to do that. A few sites now, notably Newzbin.com have started using Tor hidden services to make domain seizures a non-issue.

As with any arms race, all you really achieve is creating some really neat new technologies and methods to get one over on the other guy.

It might be better to try it in Washington, DC. Especially if they're lucky enough to get this judge, a former RIAA lobbyist and pirate-chaser.

Here's an article that explains what's happening in the youtube video.

"In a little over two months time, the long-awaited horror movie The Tubes will receive its world premiere. Rather than a traditional theatrical release, the movie - which is set in abandoned real-life tubes under Sydney, Australia - will make its debut online for free with BitTorrent. Simultaneously it will be released on physical DVD, to be distributed by Hollywood giant Paramount Pictures."

There, fixed that for you.

You should read the e-mail before claiming it's obviously satire and the judge is clueless. The parts about the leprechaun and unicorn aren't so much the satire that the summary claims, but more flaming in a (and this is a direct quote) "go fuck yourself" sort of way.

This would be the same Turkey whose president is so fucking stupid that he tweets about the joys of watching a pirated movie in the comfort of his own home?

Portuguese Government Creates Honeypot To Combat Piracy

And I'm sure it was completely legal how BRIEN in the Netherlands, seized warez servers from an ISP without a court order or warrant. And then later, have the owner of those servers seize them back from the entity that snatched them in the first place, with the law on their side to boot.. Story here, if you're interested.

Simple fact is, not everything done is by the book when it comes to Corporations, law enforcement, and judicial procedure. To make the blanket assumption that "That's not how raids work" is both assinine and naive. If you'd said, "That's not how raids are supposed to work", then I wouldn't be writing this. There's more to the story here, I agree, but your post rings as blatantly 'American naivete', and as a 'corporate reliever... err, slant journalist'.

Next time, leave this tripe for the MSM political flame-war!

I'm assuming that the warrant said that mooo.com was hosting child porn, which one of its subdomains likely was. What wasn't mentioned was that mooo.com is fairly special among domains, since it also carries 84,000 completely unrelated sites. To notice that, someone would have to be familiar with FreeDNS and what it does, which is a bit much to ask of an ICE investigator. This isn't a case of due process being ignored. It's a case of due process not covering every crazy special situation that changes the case.

No, this is a case of incompetence.
If we're going to grant ban hammer powers to any one, I'll expect them to competently wield it or NOT USE IT AT ALL.

P.S. Apologists can suck it too, your site's visitors didn't get spammed with a "THIS SITE HAS CHILD PORN ON IT" page that instantly reduced hits (after recovery) to 1% of what they were before hand. (Pre-Pedantic comment Note: visitors don't fully read or understand the warning page, to them, the site was found guilty of delivering child porn, and they are not coming back)

This is Just plain fucking outrageous -- There's no acceptable excuse for this level of retardation and carelessness.
Inches given, miles taken, a foreshadow of things to come.