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RIAA/MPAA vs. xMule Author, EarthStation 5
Two bits of news in the ongoing battle between the RIAA/MPAA and the rest of the internet: One P2P company, apparently based in Palestine, has thrown down the gauntlet to the movie industry. Meanwhile, a developer of another P2P tool who unwisely chose to live in the USA has been shut down (mirror) by the RIAA.
Here's the full text of the article, to hopefully stem some of that tide.
0x0D 0x0A
Most countries are signatories to one or more copyright treaties that commit them to recognizing and protecting international copyrights. They are therefore more or less prohibited from allowing the explicit breach of copyright declared in this PR release.
But who is responsible for enforcing copyright in an occupied country? Palestine has been recognized by the UN as an occupied territory, with Israel as the occupying power. With little real power, is the Palestinian Authority still supposed to enforce copyright restrictions? Or is that for Israel to do?
The same situation would apply, I assume, in Iraq. America is the occupying power, so I would think the same criteria should apply as in the Israel/Palestine situation. There is no true Iraqi government to enforce copyright, but on the other hand it seems a bit absurd to think that American laws should govern Iraq.
Interesting situation....
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
Their company page (http://www.es5.com/company.html) says:
"Our group is made up of many people, Jordanians, Palestinians, Indians, Americans, Russians and Israelis. Some of us are Jewish, some Christians, some Hindus and other of us are Muslim.
Believe it or not, we all love and respect each other.
We all work and play together. Our families on many occasions eat at the same dinner table. We trust each other and are very close friends with each other. As a group, the most important thing in our life is our children, our families and love ones and of course our friends. "
I'm not a speaker, but AFAIK "Ras Kabir" is arabic for "large head"
definately a pseudonym.
What's more, with the fighting in the west-bank over the last two years,
I doubt that people there had time to run any OS project, let alone one with "15 million active online users" cocurently. Especially entertainment-oriented.
This "declaration of war" is probably a hoax, and I wouldn't be surprized if kooky conspiracy-theories actually turn-out true in this case
(BTW, I'm not much of a speaker, but AFAIK "Ras Kabir" is arabic for "large head" definately a bad pseudonym )
Working for necessity's mother.
Not that I'd de-advocating this sort of stance. I'd really prefer that my money not go to these money-grubbing [NAUGHTYS].
But think on this for a second. These idiots don't even have a NODDING acquaintence with common sense, or even REALITY. All they'll see, and yammer about, when sales plummet is "It's filesharing!" "It's texting!" "It's freedom of speech!"
No matter what, they're utterly incapable of believing tha that their sales dropoffs are actually due to:
Need I go on?
In short, no matter what people do, or do not, buy, the likes of the MPAA and the RIAA will merely blame-shift so they don't have to accept responsibility for their own [NAUGHTY]-ups.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
1. Wonderful press release, kick the MPAA/RIAA where it hurts.
2. Web site not slashdotted.
3. 40kb/sec download of the software. Exactly what kind of net pipes do they have running into Jenin? Maybe download.es5.com is located somewhere else...
4. None of this "we're just technology providers" bullshit. No, this is theftware at its best. Hey, the US has paid billions to help the Israeli state bomb the Palestinians into the stone age, it's not surprising there is not huge local support for US "intellectual property".
The software was apparently developed in Russia, financed by Arab and Israeli businessmen. It appears to use UDP rather than TCP/IP, which is a neat idea when you are sending redundant chunks of information around, and SSL for security, which may or may not be really secure.
The whole thing may be a hoax, I am downloading it to a test machine to try right now.
At last, someone with the guts to sock it to those bums at the MPAA and RIAA. Yeah!!
Ceci n'est pas une signature
...Yes, Hollywood DOES have the right to make money. ...
No they don't. They have the right to TRY to make money by making movies that people want to see. They have no right to expect a profit if they make crap, no matter how much they spend making the crap.
Used CDs:
a) Are cheaper
b) Don't send money to the RIAA
I haven't bought a new CD in many years. I have bought used though.
half.com rocks.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
They are anti-establishment. Their software is the epitome of ideals held by hackers everywhere.
From the article:Earthstation 5 also has a FREE multi-user Voice and Video chat system,
FREE Dating system, provides FREE video streaming of first run movies, FREE
ten SEX channels, FREE live Sporting events, and will be releasing soon a
Voice over IP application providing FREE local and international telephone
calls to its users to communicate with each other.
They are attacking the old bricks-and-mortar businesses, in an attempt to force them to change their ancient business practices. And good for them! Information wants to be free, but content doesn't have to be. These companies had better start releasing their music/movies/services to the unwashed masses in a proper and timely manner or people are going to do it for them.
That's what happens when 2 groups of people argue over imaginary friends.
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
For the "sake of curiousity" I decided that I wanted to check this site out. Particularly the claim of providing first-run movies (I'm not interested in wasting my money on The Hulk...hey I got the text page telling me it sucks, remember?). I don't know if it's the bandwidth constraints of refugee camps or the serious slashdotting but the movie stop for two minutes of buffering just about every 20 seconds.
u lk-384.wmv" , Target = "")
Frustrated, I whipped out my trusty copy of ASFRecorder. Imagine my surprise when it failed to connect! First time that has ever happened to me. So I whipped out my trusty backup copy of ASFRecorder that was recompiled with a Windows Media Player User-Agent string. That didn't work either! This was bizarre. I'm watching the video play right now (albeit poorly) in WMP but ASFRecorder with the exact same user agent is getting connection closed. I try HiDownload, again, failed, even with the same agent string! What is going on here?
The entire thing is SWF based so I download an evaluation copy of SWF Scanner and decide to see what URL I'm actually going to. Low and behold, what is this?
on (unLoad) {Get URL("mms://stream.es5.com:1755/es5/movies/The%20H
What the hell is with that blank "target" paramenter? Can anyone explain that? I have a feeling that is the problem. ASFRecorder only takes a URL, there is no place to specify a target. Ditto for HiDownloader and Windows Media Player. I confirmed that if I type the stream location into Media Player, it fails to connect. But, if I make an ASX file that links to the stream and includes the blank "target" parameter, it works!
Okay, now it's gone beyond trying to see if The Hulk is really as crappy as everyone says. This is a mystery, and I'm hoping someone here can figure it out.
In short, streaming file plays in Windows Media Player but it seems impossible to capture this stream using any of the tools available. Is there a solution? And why would these boneheads at war with the RIAA/MPAA bother to sabatoge downloads to begin with?
- JoeShmoe
.
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
I've been boycotting the music industry since 1996, not because of the RIAA, but because I don't care about music enough to buy it
That's not a boycott. That is just you making a choice. It is the same as me, a non-smoker, saying I have boycotted the tobacco industry. If you're not in the market and you don't buy then it is not really a boycott is it.
We can argue all day that the music industry sucks and the bands all suck but when the bands sell out concert venues in 30 minutes then someone must like them. But why aren't their CD's selling? In 1983 I'd pay full price for a Billy Squire tape for a couple good songs. In 2003 I don't have to. Is P2P to blame? Hell yes. It might be hard to prove using sales figures. You can't look at a pile of receipts and figure out why there are more or less but when you look around at the popularity of P2P, the volume of files online, and the volume of comments HERE and other places as to why people trade there is your proof that P2P is hurting the industry.
This post will probably be modded as troll or flamebait but it is pretty close to the truth.
'Same speed C but faster'
Also, you do realise that violent crime in your country has dropped year on year in the last 10 years? So why exactly do you need all this weaponry?
I could care less about having a gun for my personal civil protection. The chances of me getting to a firearm before a criminal shot me are next to nothing. But the fact of the matter is, we don't trust our Government. That's why America was founded with so many checks and balances; one of which being the people shrugging off a tyrannical government. I believe it was either Jefferson or Washington who said that it was essential for a people to revolt every so often so as to keep the government clean and honest. I don't know that I necessarily agree with that, but the truth is, we want to have the ability to protect our rights (if it ever came down to it.)
That is why I believe in the 2nd amendment. I don't care that it's a sport, I don't care that it "protects" people from criminals (which I don't believe justifies the many more deaths as a result of illegal gun violence each year). I just want to make sure that, if it ever came down to it, I, or my children, or my children's children would have the means to do what they need to do if the situation were to call for it. I don't mind gun control. I'll lock my guns up in 3 safes and bury them if I have to. But I want to have access to a firearm if it were needed.
Paranoid? Probably. But I'd rather be safe than sorry. Like someone else stated: I value my liberty over security. The Patriot Act, gun banning, etc, etc, while potentially keeping me safer draw perilously close to trading my freedoms for a little more "safety".
I'd rather be free and fighting (or dead) than safe and a slave.