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MPAA Blames Linux Australia Notice on Human Error

rjch writes "According to ZDNet Australia, the MPAA is blaming their recent takedown notice to Linux Australia as 'human error'. 'MPAA spokesman Matt Grossman denied the MPAA's system, which sends out 100,000 notices of claimed infringement on an annual basis was flawed. He said the organisation was not doing blind keyword matching against Internet content and sending out automatic infringement notices without checks, as Linux Australia had previously claimed.' When asked why this slipped through their checks, Grossman told Builder AU 'the answer is a simple human error unfortunately. Everyone has a bad day'. Grossman further denied the MPAA was sending out unsolicited e-mails."

254 comments

  1. Wow, MPAA blames themselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm surprised they didn't try to blame the Australians, then claim that they were probably pirating something anyway.

    1. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Funny

      We don't even have WMDs, nor do we have assassinations of our country's leaders. What makes you think piracy would be any different ;)

    2. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't read.

    3. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "However in recent years several illicit internal informants within the ADF have leaked rumours that Australia received a small number of warheads from allies (most probably the United States) during the high-risk tension with Indonesia while intervening in East Timor."

    4. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by nosfucious · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and what happened to Harold Holt? As if that wasn't an assasination ...

      Or you can blame the CIA OR the Chinese OR them both (according to some of the thoeries anyway).

      Note to self: Gotta take some more of those pills to keep me calm.

      --
      Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
    5. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by cranos · · Score: 1

      Or you can blame the CIA OR the Chinese OR them both (according to some of the thoeries anyway).

      I blame the Norwegians you know...

    6. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by Sein · · Score: 1

      What the hey!?!

      What did we do now?

      We're innocent I tell you, Innocent!

      Oh - I forgot. The RIAA don't do innocence. Except when it's them spamming of course. It's not spam if it's them.

      No, I didn't RTFA, I'm just knee-jerking. Why?

    7. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      We don't even have WMDs


      Oh yea? What do you call Vegemite?

    8. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by Sein · · Score: 1

      Of course, the joke would have been a lot more fun if I'd remembered to include that I'm from Norway...

    9. Re:Wow, MPAA blames themselves by Bush+Pig · · Score: 1

      Vegemite is _not_ a WMD, it's a nutritious food, part of what makes Australia great. I used to eat the stuff by the spoonful when I was a kid, but I'm not sure I could still do it ...

      --
      What a long, strange trip it's been.
  2. automatic checking! by psy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can you really believe that they are going to manually check 100,000 files for legimacy?

    1. Re:automatic checking! by kanenas · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sure they have 100.000 monkeys

    2. Re:automatic checking! by .orvp · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They would need more than that, he said that %99.9999 of the people getting them were actually sharing the files illegally. That would mean that since there are 3 highly publicised mess ups, they have sent these notices to over 3 million people. And really, I bet there are more than just 3.

      So if there are 10 people who get bad notices, did they really send out infringment notices to 10 million people? That is a lot of monkies you need.

      --
      My other sig is just as lame
    3. Re:automatic checking! by NetNifty · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, but they should at least check that the file isnt 9.8mb (for the windows framework), and at least is a movie file and not an executable installer (as the case is for the windows version). Don't need people to filter out exe files, or files below a certian threshhold.

    4. Re:automatic checking! by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, not only is this an automated checking with no human error, but it would appear that they have total idiots working on the coding side. They are simply looking at the filenames and not the content. It would indicate that a mapping of names to others might be in order.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    5. Re:automatic checking! by Gopal.V · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > So if there are 10 people who get bad notices, did they really send out infringment notices to 10 million people?

      If they had that many validated email addresses - they'd be the king of spam !!.

    6. Re:automatic checking! by DrSkwid · · Score: 3, Funny


      No, but I can believe that you didn't manually check all 15 words for legitimate spellings. :)

      --
      There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    7. Re:automatic checking! by NoMercy · · Score: 1

      Well lets see, a human has to check there's around 10 seconds of copied footage as less than 10 seconds I think can be described as fair use in many places, so it's taking 1,000,000 seconds a day to check, most people work 9-5, a total of 25200 seconds allowing for a lunch break, asuming that theve downloaded the files in question and have all the codecs anyone could ever think of, and some time to load, catalogue etc the work, lets give them 30 seconds a file to check, bumpin up that time to 3,000,000 seconds, you'd only need around 120 people working flat out all day to check them all.

      Or like me you can suspect they don't check them, and these humans just look down the list of files the computer spits out and go, oh that's one.

      If they bother to check these things I doubt Synmatec would have sent me a notice to take down there software, they invented a filename I guess by the dynamics of the eDonky network, and then gave me exactly the file details, strangely the only file which matched on my computer was a copy of Open Office 1.1.0 Win32, so I doubt anyones really checking these things out properly.

    8. Re:automatic checking! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      He said that %99.9999 of the people getting them were actually sharing the files illegally.

      He lied.

    9. Re:automatic checking! by dnoyeb · · Score: 1

      Human error! What other kind of errors are there? ./MPAAHarassProtocol indiscriminate &

    10. Re:automatic checking! by SB5 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sure they have 100.000 monkeys

      They are rented monkeys from the RIAA, so they use RIAA math, its just two monkeys but they are really really really fast.

      --
      If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
      it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
    11. Re:automatic checking! by tpgp · · Score: 1


      If they had that many validated email addresses - they'd be the king of spam !!.


      Nonsense!!!!

      There's Only one King of spam in Australia.

      --
      My pics.
    12. Re:automatic checking! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Can you really believe that they are going to manually check 100,000 files for legimacy?

      They must, if they really want to have a case and, most of all, to maintain their credibility.

      I don't know what happened to:
      You are innocent until proven guilty.

      But I guess this is something typical of the US of A:

      "It has come to our knowledge that you are using a computer. This means you must be doing some illegal stuff. Therefore we are going to sue you."

      I somehow get the idea I've heard this kinda crap before:

      "We are a meaningless, retarded country, that has no respect for humanity. We have a moron for a president. We support nazi regimes, throughout the history we have caused the deaths of millions in the whole world. We have WMD's. We want to bomb some country to direct attention away from domestic problems. Therefore you have WMD, we'll destroy your country, we'll destroy our own economy and the world economy. Heil Bush"

      That does not sum it up.

    13. Re:automatic checking! by Trejkaz · · Score: 1

      It sounds like they already are the king of spam, sending out all this unsolicited email!

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    14. Re:automatic checking! by MindStalker · · Score: 1

      Well if they do find one true illegitamate file, I guess they could hash that against other files which would significantly reduce their need for manual checks. So it would be interesting to see that figure of 100,000 in terms of unique files, though its quite possible they don't bother hashing it.

    15. Re:automatic checking! by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Funny

      You sez:

      "They are rented monkeys from the RIAA,
      so they use RIAA math, its just two monkeys
      but they are really really really fast."

      Nah .... they have nine monkeys.

      Two doing the math, and the rest trying to screw in the bulb.

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    16. Re:automatic checking! by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 4, Funny

      How do you fit 7 monkeys inside a light bulb?

      --
      A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
    17. Re:automatic checking! by Tanktalus · · Score: 1

      Never attribute to malice that which can be more easily explained by ignorance.

      In other words, he's not lying, he's blissfully unaware of reality, as his employer has brainwashed him to think this way.

    18. Re:automatic checking! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Well, heck, there seem to be a few music files among all these tens of thousands of files on my computer...you honestly don't expect me to look at each one to check if it should be there or not, do you? ;-)

      Geez, guess those music files are there by 'human error'. So we'll just call it even, eh? :-)

    19. Re:automatic checking! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you think they're funding all those lawsuits ;)?

    20. Re:automatic checking! by SB5 · · Score: 1

      With CSS encryption. Lightbulb only works in special regions and only in approved sockets.

      --
      If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
      it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
    21. Re:automatic checking! by Ernesto+Alvarez · · Score: 1

      Something interesting would be making them tell that human error story in court.

      If they say "we meesed up, but we have 99.99% accuracy", enough people could testify saying that they received these takedown notices.

      If that happens, using the estimate sent by the MPAA, and considering the number of witnesses, you could estimate how many notices have to be checked. (and that method is UNDERESTIMATING then, since some receivers would not show up).

      If someone could prove that it is impossible to check that many notices in a reasonable period of time (say, dividing by all the manpower available in the MPAA, and getting a very large number), wouldn't it be proven that they lied to the court?
      (or at least are somehow evading taxes, because they have employees without paying their corresponding labor tax, or whatever they have to pay in their jurisdiction).

      By the way, that number could be cranked up by adding some decoys, it doesn't matter whether they find decoys or the real thing, if they successfully send an unbelievable number of notices at some time, it should be enough.

    22. Re:automatic checking! by hesiod · · Score: 1

      > We support nazi regimes,

      Dictatorial: sure. Tyrranical: absolutely. But not Nazi.

    23. Re:automatic checking! by DA-MAN · · Score: 1

      No, but they should at least check that the file isnt 9.8mb (for the windows framework), and at least is a movie file and not an executable installer (as the case is for the windows version). Don't need people to filter out exe files, or files below a certian threshhold.

      Some people forget that .rpm is not only "RedHat Package Manager", but "Real Player Movie" as well. I can see how an automated script could be fooled, but human error? What kind of retards to they have working for them. . .

      --
      Can I get an eye poke?
      Dog House Forum
    24. Re:automatic checking! by karearea · · Score: 1

      >> the rest trying to screw in the bulb.

      What are they doing trying to screw the bulb - wouldn't that burn a bit?

      oops yes I see screw IN the bulb.

      Note to self: read posts

    25. Re:automatic checking! by Bush+Pig · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure the US supported Franco in Spain, and he certainly qualified as a fascist, if not precisely a Nazi.

      --
      What a long, strange trip it's been.
    26. Re:automatic checking! by Wytil · · Score: 1

      100,000 monkeys? I don't know, do they outsource to India? The manpower is available there

  3. Human Error ? Everyone has a bad day ? by anti-pop-frustration · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.

    1. Re:Human Error ? Everyone has a bad day ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For those of us poor unfortunates that don't get why this is funny, could someone please explain?

      Is this a quote from a movie/book/real-life? Or was it just the added "And I want to help you" that tickled the /. mod's funny bones?

      Please explain.

      I feel lost here. I'm scared.

    2. Re:Human Error ? Everyone has a bad day ? by mrdaveb · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's an ominous line that HAL says in "2001: A Space Odyssey"

      --
      Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale
    3. Re:Human Error ? Everyone has a bad day ? by renderhead · · Score: 1

      Funny, I thought it was Dan Rather's apology speech after the Bush service record snafu.

      --
      I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.

      -RenderHead

  4. Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by hanssprudel · · Score: 3, Funny


    What is this? A change in policy on Slashdot. This can only be for the worse. I am very angry. Rabble rabble rabble (or something).

    1. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by I+Love+this+Company! · · Score: 3, Funny

      Leave it to the new guy to discover the "Enter" key.

      --

      "All art is quite useless." -- Oscar Wilde
    2. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by billybob · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yah I am curious what the hell is going on also. I think it looks horrible. The summaries generally shouldnt be more than 3 or 4 sentences, which fits perfectly into a paragraph. This story is only 5 sentences long, yet 3 paragraphs. Yah that makes sense :P

      --
      Joseph?
    3. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by REBloomfield · · Score: 0

      New guy? His UID is 5 for chrissakes...

    4. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And? All it means is that they assigned him a low UID. He is a new editor.

    5. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now if someone could just tell me where the "Any" key is...

    6. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by ImaLamer · · Score: 1
      Actually I was wondering about the same thing.

      What has bothered me more is the people who submit stories like this:
      "China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

      when it should be:
      "China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

      I know it is silly but the link should go on the verb reports if there is a link to an article. This one is just an example, but there are others out there which are going too far. Not too long ago I couldn't figure out what should be linking to what - there were 5 links in the story and I had to open them all to RTFA!
    7. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by operagost · · Score: 1
      Not to mention that the sentence in question is a run-on; and "who" is the pronoun you use to refer to human beings.

      "China Daily reports the discovery of two women who are immune to HIV via a mutant gene. Researcher Tuofu Zhu made the discovery in an HIV research program ..."

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    8. Re:Multiple paragraphs on the front page? by JFitzsimmons · · Score: 1

      I beleive the word you are looking for is 'Harumpfff'.

      --
      Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -Anonymous
  5. so about this CAN SPAM thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Un-solicited emails huh?
    Do they get fined per-email, or is it just the typical slap on the wrist fine? Yes yes, I know this is Australia we're talking about here, but I know people have gotten them here in the USA too.

  6. I don't have the links... by kcb93x · · Score: 1

    ...but haven't they done this before, in I want to say Europe I believe? Or was that the RIAA, so the mistake's okay?

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    1. Re:I don't have the links... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I say "Don't come the raw prawn with me, sunshine!". Human error? Perhaps at a very abstract level, ie the motivations of the organisation :)

  7. Human errors will not be tolerated at MPAA by JVert · · Score: 5, Funny

    MPAA vowes to eliminate any posibilty of human error on their next "mailing" by incorporating high tech tools that will seek out and verify the violations using descriptive meta-data and file naming system. Furthermore any attempts to circumvent this proccess will be dealt with in a strict and obscure manner. We reccomend that you check your current library against known copyrighted work unless you want to get pwnd.

    Thank you.

    1. Re:Human errors will not be tolerated at MPAA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dear MPAA,

      I didn't mean to make 1000 of my MPAA MPEG collection public. I mean to make 1000 of my Indie artist MPEG collection and movie clips. I have the right to distribute those freely.

      I'm sure you'll understand and quietly overlook the incident because you know that we're all human.

      Sincerely,
      --- Honest Miss Taek Wright

  8. MPAA doing their duty. by Quikyn · · Score: 3, Funny

    Everyone knows Linux Australia are pirating Unix on a massive scale and owe Eleventy Billion Dollars to SCO for every piece of intellectual property downloaded. MPAA is just doing their duty for the owners IP everywhere.

    1. Re:MPAA doing their duty. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wouldn't that be the BSA, not the MPAA?

      And since when does the MPAA have authority in Australia? Wouldn't that be the "Screen Producers Associarion of Australia?

      Wait... since when has ANYTHING the MPAA done contained some sort of common sense?

    2. Re:MPAA doing their duty. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Wouldn't that be the BSA, not the MPAA?"

      What does the Boy Scouts of America have to so with anything?

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
      That joke never gets old.
      Hee hee.

    3. Re:MPAA doing their duty. by Kehvarl · · Score: 1

      Anything besides Girl Scouts, you mean.

    4. Re:MPAA doing their duty. by Quikyn · · Score: 0

      MPAA is just doing their duty for the owners IP everywhere.

      Actually I was trying to say the MPAA were doing a favour for other owners of IP in other industries, such as the BSA. Except I missed the word "of" between "owners" and "IP".

      That, and I was taking the tact that using an imaginery number would make my sarcastic tone clear. Clearly I was mistaken.

  9. Yeah right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If that's so, I would be happy to serve any Adult Movie Industry Association for such antipiracy purposes.

  10. In their defense.... by mark-t · · Score: 2, Funny
    This can't have happened very often in the past or else we would have heard about a lot more cases like this.

    I'm certainly no fan of the MPAA, but maybe it might not be a bad idea to give them the benefit of the doubt... this time (then when it happens again everyone can really lay into them full throttle).

    1. Re:In their defense.... by Thiago+Ize · · Score: 2, Informative

      But this has happened before. I remember way back when they started this whole charade they accused some lady using a mac that she was pirating music using a program that only works on windows...

      No, I'm afraid this has happened too many times already.

    2. Re:In their defense.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't remember the "Usher" case with a professor at some PA college? And I think SuSe(I can't for the life of me remember which distribution) getting a notice for their linux downloads? There have been quite a few more less-publicized ones that still have gotten mentioned various times, and I'm sure there are a large amount that no one even talks about

    3. Re:In their defense.... by jbarket · · Score: 1

      That would be the RIAA. The MPAA has nothing to do with music.

      --

      -----
      jonathan barket
    4. Re:In their defense.... by Grym · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly.

      The truth of the matter is, we don't know how often this has happened before because the ??AA makes the accused sign non-disclosure agreements upon settlement. Something which shouldn't be considered admission of guilt, by the way.

      The American civil justice system is broke. It operates under the false assumption that all parties have equal legal representation and funding. But that's not even remotely the case when a multi-billion dollar coalition of corporations sues a middle-class citizen for millions of dollars in "damages."

      Given this, why should the MPAA care to check the validity of its legal threats? As far as they're concerned, they the only MISTAKE they made was to send the letter to another company/group. Had it gone to the low-income parents of another thirteen-year old girl, we wouldn't even be talking about it. No bad PR--just the life-savings of a person who strayed from the righteous path of consumerism.

      -Grym

    5. Re:In their defense.... by pjrc · · Score: 5, Interesting
      This can't have happened very often in the past or else we would have heard about a lot more cases like this.

      Just in case anyone didn't see this as satire....

      MPAA mistakes various free code in small zip files (all under 64k) as the movie "Basic" and television serial "Alias")
      http://www.scene.org/showforum.php?forum=5&topic=4 0047

      MPAA mistakes a file manager for X windows as X-Files movie based on television series.
      http://lsolum.typepad.com/copyfutures/2004/09/dmca _iselfhelpi.html

      ESA mistakes "INFMapPacks123FULL-MAN.zip" as Pac Mac video game.
      http://gauley.ucs.indiana.edu/~cshields/dmca_lette r

      RIAA accuses Penn State's Peter Usher of pirating music by rap band "Usher".
      http://news.com.com/RIAA+apologizes+for+threatenin g+letter/2100-1025_3-1001095.html

      RIAA admitts to "several dozens more additional errors" but won't disclose details. No direct link to Cnet coverage on May 13, 2003.
      http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/20030926_unsafe_harbors. php#_edn2

      Diebold intentionally files false takedown notice to silence (very well deserved) criticism of its shoddly voting machines:
      http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/001465. php

      Cult of Scientology attempts (yet again) to shut down xenu.net, which exposes embarrasing truths about their documents made public in a court case:
      http://www.peerfear.org/rss/permalink/2003/02/04/1 044497702-DMCA_Takedown_Notice_Scientology_and_Pac Bell.shtml

      Apparant con artist David Waathiq attempts to use DMCA threat to shut down critical website:
      http://mdwaathiq.worldwidewarning.net/DMCA.aspx

      .

      To be fair, many of these aren't the MPAA (though at least the 2nd one is)... but there is definately a pattern of abuse. These are just the ones I found in 5-10 minutes of searching. It's quite likely there are many more out there, and many that go utterly unreported.

    6. Re:In their defense.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Unnaceptable and immaterial.
      They are not human beings and therefore human error is not a valid defense.

    7. Re:In their defense.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Actually I find the MPAA the lesser evil, they just send out notices but they don't sue you on the first offense.

    8. Re:In their defense.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That last one was discussed a while ago and the lawyer that sent the takedown notice claims he does not understand why it is abuse. http://www.ipnewsblog.com/chillingeffects

    9. Re:In their defense.... by surprise_audit · · Score: 1
      we don't know how often this has happened before because the ??AA makes the accused sign non-disclosure agreements upon settlement

      In which case, it might be to everyone's advantage to go public as soon as the ??AA fires their opening volley. Then either EFF or ACLU could keep a running total of grannies and kindergartners being sued, and list those that settle for "undisclosed sums".

      OK, here's a thought - do the ??AAs have to publish their accounts?? If so, would they be able to hide those "undisclosed sums"??

    10. Re:In their defense.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      insightful?

    11. Re:In their defense.... by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 1

      Are not DMCA takedown notices sent under penalty of perjury? I wonder why no-one has countersued?

    12. Re:In their defense.... by number11 · · Score: 1

      Are not DMCA takedown notices sent under penalty of perjury?

      The only part of the notice that's "under penalty of perjury" is the part where the sender says he's acting as an agent for the copyright owner.

    13. Re:In their defense.... by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 1

      Well, that sucks. Seems like there should be some kind of penalty for baseless claims.. but then again, the DMCA could be a poster child for poorly thought out (or maybe just "corporate") legislation.

  11. Unsolicited emails... by aaza · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Have the MPAA ever done business with Linux Australia?
    Doubtful, but I would need to check.

    Is the mail sent of a commercial nature?
    "Take this down or we sue." Kinda commercial, if suing people is their business (for the RIAA it seems to be, maybe it is for the MPAA as well).

    CAN-SPAM?
    Apparently they can.

    --
    In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
    In practice, however, there is.
    1. Re:Unsolicited emails... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CAN-SPAM?
      Apparently they can.


      Oh, come on. That's like saying the court officer who turns up with your subpoena is delivering junk mail.

    2. Re:Unsolicited emails... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Ordinary citizens and corporations do not get to appoint themselves as court officials. There is good reason for this.

    3. Re:Unsolicited emails... by tpgp · · Score: 1

      It's Australia - we don't have can-spam, we have effective spam laws.

      Under the Spam Act 2003 it is illegal to send, or cause to be sent, 'unsolicited commercial electronic messages' that have an Australian link.

      --
      My pics.
    4. Re:Unsolicited emails... by idlemachine · · Score: 1

      When our Prime Minister can legally pay his son's business to spam self-promoting political crap to his electorate, I'd have to question your use of the word "effective".

    5. Re:Unsolicited emails... by tpgp · · Score: 1

      You're right - see my other comment in this thread.

      *sighs* God I hope the fucker is voted out tomorrow.

      --
      My pics.
  12. Where's Duke Nukem at a time like this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "simple human error"

    Now we blame the humans. I wonder if they're really lizards under that skin. Do they drool whenever mice are near? Hmm.. No wonder nightvision is so attractive to some of these!(!( ) )1@*!& &&!

    (!@* &*@

    @!&&@2

    @&*

    NO CARRIER

  13. I'd love to try turning that one around... by MachDelta · · Score: 4, Funny

    MPAA: OMG! You're downloading movies you evil pirate! Why?! STOP IMMEDIATELY!!

    Me: Human error. Watch. *Click* - OOPS! Finger slipped!

    1. Re:I'd love to try turning that one around... by hype7 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      MPAA: OMG! You're downloading movies you evil pirate! Why?! STOP IMMEDIATELY!!

      Me: Human error. Watch. *Click* - OOPS! Finger slipped!


      What's more concerning is that this may open the door for spammers to pull the "accident" route and bypass the law. It wouldn't be a long running business practice, but what's to stop them setting up a shell company, "accidentally" spamming a lot of people, then closing the company up so it doesn't "accidentally" do it twice?

      Set up a new company, wash, rinse, repeat.

      -- james
    2. Re:I'd love to try turning that one around... by BlueWonder · · Score: 2, Insightful
      What's more concerning is that this may open the door for spammers to pull the "accident" route and bypass the law. It wouldn't be a long running business practice, but what's to stop them setting up a shell company, "accidentally" spamming a lot of people, then closing the company up so it doesn't "accidentally" do it twice?
      Set up a new company, wash, rinse, repeat.

      <cynicism>
      Why go to the hassle of setting up a new company every time? The movie companies don't set up a new MPAA every time they repeat this "accident", after all.
      </cynicism>

    3. Re:I'd love to try turning that one around... by necro2607 · · Score: 1

      This has been discussed here on /. in the past.

      It's easier for corporations to do something questionable or illegal and apologize later, rather than ask permission and act legitimately...

  14. We apologise for the fault.. by Suchetha · · Score: 3, Funny

    .. in the subtitles^Wextortion^Wnotices.

    Those responsible have been sacked.

    --

    learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
    or one out of three ain't bad
    1. Re:We apologise for the fault.. by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      Those responsible for sacking them haven't been sacked yet, though, or things would be done in a completely different style at the last minute and at great expense

  15. Hey this system sends what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...which sends out 100,000 notices... "

    Sounds like bulk un-solicited email to me.

    SPAM! SPAM! SPAM!

  16. Maybe.. by Wilkshake · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Maybe the MPAA needs to start basing their takedown notices on actual or proven infringement of copyright rather than just their current reign of circumstantial and claimed legal Gestapoing.

    ---

    --

    -
    "I may have invented it, but Bill made it famous." - David Bradley, inventor of Ctrl-Alt-Del
    1. Re:Maybe.. by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Still, I bet that most people who get those takedown notices are indeed breaking the law.

      It's not like you are dead meat once you get a takedown notice. There's no court case running against you yet, and you can still inform the *AA that what you're doing is, in fact, completely legal. Then maybe they'll do an actual assesment, or they might just drop the case and go after an easier target.

      I think people are really giving the RIAA too hard a time. Yes, they refuse to see the light on online distribution. And indeed, we don't need them to distribute our music. However, it is their task to find copyright infringers and bring them to justice, and that's what they're doing. Even those teenagers who get sued get sued because they are breaking the law. If you disagree with the law, fine, get the law changed. You live in a democracy, right? Right?

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    2. Re:Maybe.. by 10101001+10101001 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It might be the case that the majority of those who recieve a letter are breaking the law. The problem is, the DMCA (which is what this is based off of) invokes some executive/judiciary power against people by anyone who spends the time/effort to write up a letter. That's great if it's laid against the right people, but the second it's laid against the wrong people, it's an abuse of power. If the RIAA or MPAA were to off and sue one of the people (what they'd have to do without the DMCA), you could countersue if the RIAA/MPAA was in error.

      It would seem to me that giving the RIAA/MPAA more direct power would entail not only being able to countersue for such a letter but also to get higher damages when they're wrong. Lastly, just because someone is sued doesn't make them guilty. Nor does them settling make them guilty. Sadly, even with the promise of countersuing few lawyers will risk a dragged out litigation against the RIAA/MPAA on commission. There's just unlikely to be substantial pay-off compared to just about any other form of litigation possible, which opportunity cost favors.

      It does sicken me a bit, though, that you feel the RIAA/MPAA or any organization should be able to go around threatening innocent people until they're prove they're innocent. At least if someone issues a case against you, you can countersue for it being a frivolous case conceivably so they pay for your lawyer when they lose (depends on the state, obviously).

      --
      Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
    3. Re:Maybe.. by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 1

      ``It does sicken me a bit, though, that you feel the RIAA/MPAA or any organization should be able to go around threatening innocent people until they're prove they're innocent.''

      That's a good point. However, keep in mind that these are not just innocent people. They are people suspected of violating copyright law. Some people who get the notices are indeed innocent. Many are guilty.

      It's similar to the case where people start destroying stuff during a demonstration and the police arrest a bunch of them. Some of these may not actually have been destroying stuff; they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. They will (hopefully) be released, just like people who get mistaken takedown notices will (hopefully) be left alone after further investigation.

      ``At least if someone issues a case against you, you can countersue for it being a frivolous case conceivably so they pay for your lawyer when they lose (depends on the state, obviously).''

      In Europe (at least in many countries), it's common that the judge decides on who is to pay for the legal costs. In case of frivolous lawsuits, this will be the suing party. As I understand it, this is not the case in the States, unfortunately.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    4. Re:Maybe.. by eyeye · · Score: 1

      Since you dont mind I am about to write a take down notice to your ISP and upstream provider.

      Have fun!

      --
      Bush and Blair ate my sig!
    5. Re:Maybe.. by Tom · · Score: 5, Insightful

      you can still inform the *AA that what you're doing is, in fact, completely legal.

      I could. But why should I? They are looking for something, it's their job to verify their search results. Why should I waste a second of my time pointing out to them what they should've checked themselves?

      They're sending these messages out in the thousands. If we assume an error rate of 1%, and that is a very forgiving assumption, that's a hundred or so errors. If it takes 30 minutes to sort things out, that's 50 hours burnt on account of the **AA, 50 hours that they don't pay a dime for, but should.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    6. Re:Maybe.. by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      ok, so let's send everyone fines on jaywalking because almost everyone has done it at least once in their lives.

      besides, THEY FUCKING ARE just mining the web for keywords and sending out takedown notices without proper checking. otherwise they would notice that the file is too small for a movie file(and not a torrent file) and of a totally unrelated project as well. also they don't do any checking of where in the world the possible infringer lives(and state us laws, and dmca, regardless of if they're in effect or not). just checking what the filename is doesn't really count as "checking" either, especially when the guy checking the filename is not a pro. personally though i think they're just buying this service from the lowest bidder(who in turn just run some spiders on google and on various p2p services).

      and it's a poor excuse that they don't have enough time to check who they're sending them to.

      the takedown notice is a threat that basically says "take it down or we'll sue you.". it's the kind of a thing you shouldn't be allowed to send on a whim to just anybody. you want to start receiving legal threat spam?

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    7. Re:Maybe.. by mpe · · Score: 1

      The problem is, the DMCA (which is what this is based off of) invokes some executive/judiciary power against people by anyone who spends the time/effort to write up a letter.

      If it were that simple you'd expect to see individuals and small corps sending these kind of letters to big corps. e.g. SCO should be swimming in them, since they are commercially pirating Linux and making a big fuss about it.

      If the RIAA or MPAA were to off and sue one of the people (what they'd have to do without the DMCA), you could countersue if the RIAA/MPAA was in error.

      Often anyone sued can counter sue, regardless of merits or otherwise of the plaintiff's case.

    8. Re:Maybe.. by mpe · · Score: 1

      That's a good point. However, keep in mind that these are not just innocent people. They are people suspected of violating copyright law. Some people who get the notices are indeed innocent. Many are guilty.

      Legally they are all innocent people. There is the principle that people are "innocent until proven guilty" (by a suitably competent court). Just because some individual accuses another individual of doing something wrong does not make them guility.

    9. Re:Maybe.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought we lived in a country where we are innocent until proven, by your accusor, that you are guilty, right? Right?

    10. Re:Maybe.. by BlueWonder · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Still, I bet that most people who get those takedown notices are indeed breaking the law.

      Once upon a time, judging if somebody broke the law was not based on betting...

      However, it is their task to find copyright infringers and bring them to justice, and that's what they're doing.

      You seem to have missed the point of the article. It's about a case where finding copyright infringers was not what they've been doing,

      Even those teenagers who get sued get sued because they are breaking the law.

      So you're saying that Linux Australia is a bunch of teenagers who broke the law?

      If you disagree with the law, fine, get the law changed.

      Which law is it that gives the MPAA the right to harass innocent people?

    11. Re:Maybe.. by SeanDuggan · · Score: 1
      It's not like you are dead meat once you get a takedown notice. There's no court case running against you yet, and you can still inform the *AA that what you're doing is, in fact, completely legal. Then maybe they'll do an actual assesment, or they might just drop the case and go after an easier target.
      Thing is, in a lot of current cases, they aren't suing. Rather, they simply call up your ISP and say that they have evidence of these files being shared and gosh, they'd hate to have to pursue legal action... *sigh* And currently ISPs can be held fully liable for the activities of their subscribers, or at least they're convinced they can, so they fold like a cheap card table. Even though I've proved to Adelphia that the claims they made were on bogus material that is legal to distribute, and that the accusers had no ownership of, I still have a black mark on my record which means that a second person accusing me is grounds for immediate termination, no questions asked. It's Adelphia's right to do so. It's also my right to publicize the case and convince all my friends to boycott Adelphia, but I certainly hope it doesn't come to that.
      --
      This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
    12. Re:Maybe.. by kidgenius · · Score: 1
      They are looking for something, it's their job to verify their search results.

      When I read that I instantly thought of SCO. Currently, the MPAA sounds a lot like what SCO is doing. "You are stole our code, we can't prove it, but you need to prove it to us."

    13. Re:Maybe.. by wuice · · Score: 1

      That's a good point. However, keep in mind that these are not just innocent people. They are people suspected of violating copyright law. Some people who get the notices are indeed innocent. Many are guilty.

      What does that have to do with the people who aren't guilty? The spirit of civil liberties is (was) such that it doesn't matter if you look like a lot of other people who happen to be guilty. That's not a good enough reason to become a target.

    14. Re:Maybe.. by Holi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you disagree with the law, fine, get the law changed. You live in a democracy, right? Right?

      No, I live in a representative democracy, and as such have no real say on the laws that are created. My only chance of making the changes I want is to run for office. The only problem with that is do to choices and actions I have done in my past I would be un-electable. I can ask for the legislature to modify copyright laws but do you really think they are going to listen.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
    15. Re:Maybe.. by arodland · · Score: 1

      Would be fun to see them do it to someone who has enough time and money to waste not to respond to the letter, see if the MPAA would get a court case rolling based on the completely bogus evidence, and then mention the fact that you don't actually have any copyrighted materials anywhere on your site. I'm sure they'd waste considerably more money than you would.

      Actually, better plan: as many people as possible should link to files on their website claiming to be the latest Harry Potter movie or something, and actually pointing to the mpeg version of Aunt Margie's vacation slides. Could we push the SNR down far enough to make lawsuits unprofitable?

    16. Re:Maybe.. by 10101001+10101001 · · Score: 1

      It is that simple. Linus, et al are waiting for SCO to settle their court case since that should take care of SCO pirating Linux. The amount of money Linus, et al (baring IBM, Red Hat, and Novell) have to fight a court case is minute. As for other corps and individuals, I'd assume at least some of the smaller businesses are sending out letters and some of the individuals. I doubt many have the funds to back up their threat (that's more or less what it amounts to, given they still have to sue people to actually have the courts/executive branch do something meaningful; they're just invoking the name of the US for if/when the court case occurs, since it reasonable means they can ask for more damages for such blatant disregard of the law). My point was more that the MPAA/RIAA made a mistake in the name of the US, so they should be suable there and then for signficant damages.

      With every step in power you give a person or body, the penalties for invalid use of those powers should be exponentially worse. This is not only to limit the thirst for power (as it becomes infeasible to actually make headway from all the natural human errors) but also to signify the increase responsibility and influence an increase in power has.

      --
      Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
  17. Just check by hand. by mind21_98 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't it easier and less expensive to just send the letters by hand? If it was someone other than Linux Australia, they could possibly have a nasty legal issue on their hands (IANAL).

    1. Re:Just check by hand. by bhima · · Score: 3, Informative
      A few years ago I was getting to know a nice young lass in marketing. One afternoon she was preparing a mailing to some segment of our customers which literaly took up 7 US Post mailing bins. She was using an automated folder, stuffer, address labeler and sealer (all in one device that would fit on you desk) and it took her longer to decide not to go out with me than to process the mail...

      So no, I don't think it would be eaiser or cheaper.

      --
      Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  18. Thats not warez.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .... it's human error!

  19. future mails by mirko · · Score: 4, Funny
    Future MPAA mails will begin with some harsh accusations and end with some disclaimer in the fine print, thus making it even more surrealistic.
    I can imagine it :

    Dear xxxx
    We ave strong reasons to believe you are infringing our members' copyright, please cease and desist.

    Yours.. erm : Ours...

    PS: Of course, it's also possible that our victim file got messed up by one of our million monkeys in which case you might disregard this mail.
    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
    1. Re:future mails by wheany · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Hey, they already say "Also, we hereby state, that the information in this notification is accurate and that we are authorized to act on behalf of the owners of the exclusive rights being infringed as set forth in this notification."

      At least in this forum post. MPAA is accusing that the guy was downloading the movie "Speed", when the file name is "supermetroid-speedrunv3-frenom.avi."

      I would understand the mistake if the file name was something like "Supermetroid -Speed-frenom.avi", since many movies floating in p2p networks have the name of the ripper/encoder/releaser in them, but the name had the word "speedrun", not just "Speed."

    2. Re:future mails by CdBee · · Score: 1, Funny

      What sort of self-respecting criminal would download Speed anyway....?? If he was doing it, he'd deserve everything he got!

      --
      I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
    3. Re:future mails by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder if they'll continue to use the phrase "there can be no reasonable doubt about the illegality of this material" in their nastygrams?

    4. Re:future mails by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what losers do that???

      Most of what I find is rot13'd names. hell there's a kazaa plugin for it to reverse the names for you automagically.

      only poser/losers have the filenames in clear text.

  20. Sorry! by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Funny

    "We accused an innocent group of copyright infringment and threatened a lawsuit, wasting a bunch of people's time and possibly money and causing much emotional suffering, but we're vewy vewy sorry.

    That makes it OK, right?"

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  21. Demoscene also under MPAA scrutiny by andr0meda · · Score: 5, Interesting


    See here

    Reading it, you can clearly see that their 'human error' is no other than an automated filename scan.

    --
    With great power comes great electricity bills.
    1. Re:Demoscene also under MPAA scrutiny by Jugalator · · Score: 1

      Hehe, they comment the files were even still in /incoming/ so MPPA can't have been able to download it either. Funny how they do searches for files with words like "BASIC" and "ALIAS" in them...

      Come on... ALIAS1.zip, filesize: 23 K.

      Even if it's an automated tool, it's a very stupid automated tool.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    2. Re:Demoscene also under MPAA scrutiny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, sending a Dutch person a notice in English. He/she could always assume that this message is just a bunch of very awkwardly spelled Dutch and ignore it.

    3. Re:Demoscene also under MPAA scrutiny by BashDot · · Score: 1

      I may just be pointing out the obvious, but look at the "first found" entries on that printout:

      Infringement Detail:
      Infringing Work: BASIC
      Filepath: /pub/incoming/equalizerbbs-oldfilez/ANSI-STUFF/
      Filename: BASIC-02.ZIP
      First Found: 27 Aug 2004 06:40:30 EDT (GMT -0400)
      Last Found: 8 Sep 2004 12:57:29 EDT (GMT -0400)
      Filesize: 62k
      IP Address: 145.24.145.100
      IP Port: 21
      Network: FTP
      Protocol: FTP


      Infringing Work: BASIC
      Filepath: /pub/incoming/equalizerbbs-oldfilez/ANSI-STUFF/
      Filename: BASIC_04.ZIP
      First Found: 27 Aug 2004 06:40:30 EDT (GMT -0400)
      Last Found: 8 Sep 2004 12:57:29 EDT (GMT -0400)
      Filesize: 51k
      IP Address: 145.24.145.100
      IP Port: 21
      Network: FTP
      Protocol: FTP


      Infringing Work: BASIC
      Filepath: /pub/incoming/equalizerbbs-oldfilez/ANSI-STUFF/
      Filename: BASIC-01.ZIP
      First Found: 27 Aug 2004 06:40:30 EDT (GMT -0400)
      Last Found: 8 Sep 2004 12:57:29 EDT (GMT -0400)
      Filesize: 40k
      IP Address: 145.24.145.100
      IP Port: 21
      Network: FTP
      Protocol: FTP


      Now someone try and tell me that that's just a really fast monkey that managed to parse 3 files in less than a second. Or perhaps that could explain the fact that they missed the filesizes on these "movies."

  22. simple humans by Aussie · · Score: 4, Funny

    the answer is a simple human error

    Yep, some simple humans made an error.

  23. Potential SCO oursouring? by AnuradhaRatnaweera · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Perhaps SCO may choose to oursource their Linux lisence campaign to MPAA. I am sure SCO can't send 100,000 letters an year!

  24. Human error, sure ... by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everybody get's away with human error:

    Some guy:
    "No it ws human error, I didn't mean to:
    - violate the speed limit by 100KM/h
    - kill that guy
    - steal money from tax payers
    - cheat the stock market
    - use an aimbot
    - attack iraq because I thought they have WMD
    - ..."

    Judge:
    "Oh, if it was human error then law doesn't apply, so it's ok."

    Can somebody spell bullshit?

    1. Re:Human error, sure ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right. It isn't a crime for being stupid.

    2. Re:Human error, sure ... by Arclight17 · · Score: 1, Funny

      Maybe it should be... Just look what the world is coming to... It said "Insert disk 3" but only 2 fit.

      --
      All men can fly, but sadly, only in one direction--Down.
    3. Re:Human error, sure ... by Upaut · · Score: 1

      Some guy:
      "No it ws human error, I didn't mean to:
      - violate the speed limit by 100KM/h
      - kill that guy
      - steal money from tax payers
      - cheat the stock market
      - use an aimbot
      - attack iraq because I thought they have WMD

      If this is alluding to Bush I have a couple problems with this: First, Laura Bush was the one to violate the speed limit by 100KM/r, drunk, and kill that guy. Second, I don't think Bush knows what an aimbot is. Asside from this its all pretty accurate.

      --
      3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
    4. Re:Human error, sure ... by Speare · · Score: 1
      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
    5. Re:Human error, sure ... by Phragmen-Lindelof · · Score: 1

      "Laura Bush was the one to violate the speed limit by 100KM/r, drunk, and kill that guy"
      Well, perhaps not drunk and with speed illedgable but she did kill one person (Michael Douglas).

    6. Re:Human error, sure ... by dbIII · · Score: 1
      Everybody get's away with human error:
      ...
      - kill that guy
      Hence the invention of the "temporary insanity" plea by a member of congress who killed an unarmed man in front of several witnesses near the whitehouse during a corrupt pre-civil war administration. He was a good friend of President Buchanan, so the rules were bent for him, but we still have those bent rules.

      Bending the rules for the MPAA just becuase they give a lot in party contributions and employ some people is a bad precendent.

  25. Possible by Mr_Silver · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I know we'd like to think that it was all performed by some cool web-searching script, judging by the technical level I've seen of some sections of the music industry, it is entirely possible that they just recruited a whole bunch of temps with the mandate "find files which have our artists name in them" and left them to it.

    In which case, human error (based on rubbish instructions) would be true.

    --
    Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
    1. Re:Possible by JimDabell · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It doesn't take a lot of time to write a robot that finds files with a certain name. I think that the most likely scenario is that they do have a bot that checks filenames, but the output would be so full of false-positives that human filtering is almost certainly required. In that case, the human error would be sending out 101 notices from a list of 10,000 files when they should have only sent out 100.

      Naturally, if the people are being paid for their throughput and not their accuracy, they are simply going to load up the linking page and see if it looks like "a nasty pirate site". An FTP site containing tarballs would most likely look the same as an FTP site containing MPEGs to the untrained eye.

      What I don't understand is why their bot doesn't narrow things down using things like file size before it reaches the people involved. That alone would cut down the workload and reduce the false positives.

    2. Re:Possible by JohnGalt00 · · Score: 1
      What I don't understand is why their bot doesn't narrow things down using things like file size before it reaches the people involved. That alone would cut down the workload and reduce the false positives.


      Shh... Don't tell them how to improve it! It's in our best interest if they sue innocent people.
  26. As laughable... by zeruch · · Score: 0

    ...as this reply from the MPAA is, it is afr from unexpected. You can hardly expect them to own up to such a stupid error from a juvenile tactic to start with. Their only recourse (in their eyes) is to mitigate by a small vague 'mea cupla' directed at an unnamed low-level person rather than accpet that there is a slight possibility that their entire approach is reprenhensible (or at the very least counter-productive).

  27. What we need... by marsu_k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is more people running this script on their pages.

    1. Re:What we need... by sploxx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Even more effective and interesting would be to put up encrypted ZIP files of random data with "interesting filenames" and the right file length. Without revealing the password.

      Is there any reason why this may not be allowed? [In both the EU (where I live) or the US?]

      I would like to have a good lawyer as a friend before doing that, though.

    2. Re:What we need... by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 1

      That script has a rather ugly output and it's not very nice.
      So I wrote a new script (completely in PHP) that produces an Apache style directory listing:
      http://el-muerte.student.utwente.nl/ware z/

      You can download the script here:
      http://el-muerte.student.utwente.nl/warez/w arez-li st-script.zip

    3. Re:What we need... by Xzzy · · Score: 1

      I did something like this a month or so ago when that story was posted on Slashdot about the guy who was distributing a 23k file called Doom3:

      http://xzzy.org/warez/

      For the month of September, that directory became the most popular location on my site.. over seven thousand unique visitors.

      Fighteningly, the file with britney spears in it's name was the most popular download by about 40%.

      Sadly, no DMCA/MPAA takedown notices. :(

    4. Re:What we need... by Per+Wigren · · Score: 1

      Please stop! You're making it harder for legitimate pirates also!

      --
      My other account has a 3-digit UID.
  28. Who solicits takedown infringement notices? by Cryptnotic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Grossman further denied the MPAA was sending out unsolicited e-mails.

    An infringement notice is an unsolicited e-mail, last time I checked. Can you imagine someone asking to be sent an infringement notice? Though, I don't think that you could say, "Hey, you're saying I'm infringing and you're going to sue me? Well, I'm going to sue you for sending me an unsolicited email! Ha!" I'm sure some lawyer would take your money to file a lawsuit against them, but I don't think you'd get very far in your case.

    --
    My other first post is car post.
    1. Re:Who solicits takedown infringement notices? by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      Considering it is now illegal to send unsolicited, commercial messages, I think you might have a very good case. Because the spam is intended as part of a con, claiming copyright on works not owned by that party, you would probably have a better case, not worse. Think of it this way, If I searched with google for the string "real estate" and the @ character, then sent messages to every e-mail address I harvested in this way, stating that the real estate was in fact my property, and they must stop advertising it. Would I be more or less likely to win a lawsuit that my messages are spam than the average spammer?

    2. Re:Who solicits takedown infringement notices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet another analogy that falls flat on its face. Since you know that you don't own the real estate, you're knowingly sending out a false message.

      The MPAA can claim that they suspected that the file was an illegal copy of one of their members' movies, so they can probably make a case that that suspicion implied a relationship between the MPAA and the recipient of the letter.

      Regardless of what the /. crowd things, the MPAA isn't perpetrating a con, they're using a law to, as they see it, protect themselves. Want to point a finger at the bad guy(s)? Look at Congress. They're the ones that passed the DMCA.

      ---

      Posted anonymously so that I don't have to read the whining drivel of the uninformed masses.

    3. Re:Who solicits takedown infringement notices? by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      "Since you know that you don't own the real estate, you're knowingly sending out a false message."

      I own real estate. My house. But I, like the MPAA, did not do a very good job of making sure the property in question is the one that belongs to me, you know, like looking at it, or a picture of it, which is all that they would have had to do.

      I stand my analogy, it is apt, you hear me? Apt!

    4. Re:Who solicits takedown infringement notices? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't change your analogy in mid-stream! What you just described isn't what your analogy is.

      In your analogy, you just harvested a bunch of realtors' email addresses. You not only didn't check, but you knew that you had no relationship with the realtors at all. In the MPAA's case, they had at least a tenuous relationship because they suspected (as the DMCA allows them to do) that a file was infringing. In your analogy, you own real estate, so you harvested a bunch of realtors' email addresses. Apples and oranges, my friend. And in your reply to mine, you changed the conditions of the analogy.

      Allow me to use an analogy to describe your position: John Kerry voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it. Har, har.

    5. Re:Who solicits takedown infringement notices? by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 1

      You can't change your analogy in mid-stream!

      I did no such thing. All i did was give you more information, by telling you that I own real estate. I can't be responsible to enlighten you about every aspect of everything. You'll note I also did not mention that this was in the U.S. or that it was not taking place in bizarro world where Superman is evil.

      Furthermore, suspecting someone of a crime, does not constitute a pre-existing relationship for the MPAA any more than it does for me. If I suspect that you are trying to sell my real estate to someone, based upon the fact that you are advertising a stupendously beautiful house, which mine is, does that mean we have a pre-existing relationship? That is complete bull-pucky. In order to reasonably suspect someone of a infringing on my intellectual property rights, I have to at least look at what they are publishing. As far as your counter "analogy" goes, I have no idea what you are talking about. Do you know what an analogy is?

  29. Re:So by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Better idea than just having a stupid little "Read More" link on everything for 2k of text; even on modem that's a pissy amount of downloading.

    All of Slashdot's pages are gzipped-compressed so it's not that big a deal on a modem. But still, the "Read More" links do suck.

  30. Human error by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    All the worlds problems are caused by human error it would be a much more stable place without them. In 50 years we should have good enough AI to be able to code ourselves and we can dispose of our carbon based masters.

  31. Human error? THEY ARE LYING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is what, the 100,000th incorrect 'copyright infringement' notice that's been sent out? And they claim it to be human error? Proof that they are FULL OF SHIT - this was received by someone at a board I frequent. Keep in mind this is a board where the topic is emulator-assisted videogame speed runs. Excerpts, since apparently in posting the whole thing I was using too many "junk" characters (the fuck?):
    We have received information that you are providing Internet or Usenet access to the above
    referenced account holder, or hosting the above referenced Internet site, which has made
    available the download or streaming of copyrighted motion picture(s) including such title(s)
    as:

    SPEED

    Infringement Detail:
    Infringing Work: SPEED
    Filepath: supermetroid-speedrunv3-frenom-avi.torrent/
    Filen ame: supermetroid-speedrunv3-frenom.avi
    First Found: 6 Sep 2004 00:29:14 EDT (GMT -0400)
    Last Found: 6 Sep 2004 00:29:14 EDT (GMT -0400)
    Filesize: 182,426k
    IP Address: (removed)
    IP Port: 26887
    Network: BTPeers
    Protocol: BitTorrent
    If that's not patternmatching then they're hiring retards to send these notices out. I'm betting on robots.
    1. Re:Human error? THEY ARE LYING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, it'd be funny if the person who got that notice was Australian, as it would mean they lied again =P

    2. Re:Human error? THEY ARE LYING by Aussie · · Score: 1

      From the website

      The Telecommunications Act provides that a corporation may be liable for a penalty of up to $10
      million (AUS) in respect of a breach of section 313(1).


      Looks like the amounts are in Australian dollars.

      you can laugh now.

  32. Perhaps someone can host a forum to fight this by ahodgkinson · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I've read of a few other similar incidents and it appears that the MPAA is being a little too pro-active in hunting of copyright violators. In the end it doesn't matter if this as an automated process or being performed by hand, it's still harassment and can probably be couter-attacked though the courts.

    I wonder if a group of recipients of the MPAA cease and desist letters, meaning only those who are not distributing copyrighted material, could band together and sue the MPAA.

    The approach might be to start a MPAA victims (again consisting of only those who are provably not distributing copyrighted material) web-site or forum where you could document the MPAA's phishing attempts.

    Assuming the reality is as bad as the we're reading about, some lawyer or perhaps even the EFF might offer some pro-bono time to righting the wrongs that the MPAA appears to be committing.

    --
    ---- It won't be as bad as you fear or as good as you hope, but it will take twice as long as you plan.
  33. Human error? by djupedal · · Score: 0

    ....maybe 'taste & smell' protocals will help reduce such travesties in the future.

    (Taste=sour/smell=foul)=fire torpedos ...at the very least, someone's going to lose a recycling center.

  34. Re:so about this CAN SPAM thing... BLACK AND WHITE by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    I always find it funny that so many ppl think that can spam was about stopping spam. That is nothing than a brain washing via the feds. What it does show is how easy the public can be made to accept anything. Which would also explain our current situation with regards to Politics

    As to MPAA/RIAA, I wonder if the public can be taught to accept all of their crap? I fear that they are taking the road of attrition and counting on lawmakers giving into their twisted logic.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  35. "Bad Day"? WTF by fuzzybunny · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Gee sorry, Mrs. Smith, but the officer who shot your dog made a human error. It happens; hey, everyone has a bad day occasionally."

    What a crock of shit. IANAL and I haven't really thought through the consequences, but while "stealing" a song may or may not be wrong (let's not go into that argument), its net effect per incident on the "owner" is economically small. Conversely, hitting grandma with a $10k pay-up-sucka-or-we-sic-Joey-da-lawyer-on-you blackmail job, per inicident, has a relatively high economic impact on the target. Think speeding fines in Finland, commensurate with the level of your personal income and wealth.

    When someone's committed a crime (once again, without going into whether this is really justifiable as such or not), punishment appropriate to the level of the crime is, well, appropriate. Speed, pay a fine. Kill, go to jail. Usually, even if it's "by mistake".

    Governments, as enforcers of law & order authorized as such by the population of a commonwealth (yet again, please don't go into this argument, I think this is a fairly neutral way of putting it) will usually get away with making mistakes as a whole, even if the individual cop who shot Mrs. Smith's dog may suffer personal consequences. Restitution may be in order to the victim, but not consequences as such for the government as a whole.

    Private entities have no such privilege of authority. I kill your dog, I probably must make some sort of amends to you personally, as well as suffer possible consequences to myself personally.

    Soooo...taking this a step further, when someone's not done anything and is wrongly hit up for restitution for his supposed wrongdoing by a pack of malicious, thoughtless, greedy and unethical baboons (**AA for starts), they should be punished personally. As I would be if I nailed the Smith pooch, even by accident, and be forced to pay restitution appropriate to (a) the level of the wrongdoing committed, and (b) the relative level of nastiness of the wrongdoing.

    In this situation, the corporate thuggery, racketeering, blackmail, bullying and generally being a slobbering pack of cunts (not a crime, although it should be) makes for a pretty awful bit of work.

    In short, make the fuckers pay. Every time they "have a bad day". Through the nose. With criminal lawsuits and prison if possible.

    Grr.

    --
    Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
  36. Wetware?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I gotta admit, attempting to implement simple 'grep' skills in your average cheap, epsilon-minus employee would certainly qualify as a human error.

  37. Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I finally got around to scripting a dynamic fake warez site. There are currently 250 movies, but you can add your own to the flat text file. This should work on ANY php webserver.

    If you try and download a file, you will get the correct mime-type, and filesize, but the transfer will gradually get slower and slower and it will never finish (well, maybe some day, but its garbage anyways).

    Preview: http://ciagon.dnsalias.com/movies/
    Source: http://ciagon.dnsalias.com/movies/index.phps
    Movie List: http://ciagon.dnsalias.com/movies/movies.txt

    Enjoy!

    1. Re:Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by babybird · · Score: 2, Insightful

      May I offer a userful suggestion? Each time you refresh this page you get a different, randomly chosen list of files. Were this an actual warez site, it would have the same list more or less on a given day. My suggestion is to come up with a way of generating the randomness of the page using the current date and the ip address of the client requesting the page, such that refreshing the page with a given IP address will return largely the same list on a particular day. Otherwise their bots would have a fairly easy task (once they catch onto this idea) of determining that the list is bogus.

      --
      Keith D.
    2. Re:Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by deimtee · · Score: 1

      The interesting thing about this sort of strategy is that in a different way you are assisting them by making copyright infringement more difficult. The more fake files there are out there the more the poor downloaders will have trouble finding what they are looking for. If the actual infringing files get swamped by enough fakes this could significantly reduce copyright infringement.

      --
      I'm guessing that wasn't on their radar screen...
    3. Re:Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really -- if you use a way to proof a filename is real instead of fake then there's no problem. Emule and such already have this feature. It just costs a 'lil bit more time.

    4. Re:Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by deimtee · · Score: 1

      If you can tell the difference without downloading it then so can they.

      --
      I'm guessing that wasn't on their radar screen...
    5. Re:Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by platipusrc · · Score: 1

      Isn't that also kind of the point of this story? Linux AU had a Python framework and memory tool offered for download and the MPAA thought they were movies. It doesn't matter if a human can tell the difference if no human ever sees it. And these files were not named like movies, they probably had .tgz or similar extensions. Putting a 15K file with a .avi extension is probably enough to fool the humans at the MPAA if they actually start checking.

      --
      And the muscular cyborg German dudes dance with sexy French Canadians
    6. Re:Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by djeca · · Score: 1
      Hope you don't mind my suggesting some improvements... it doesn't seem to work on my Apache 1.3 setup (Debian stable) without a couple of flush() calls. Also it's nice to send a few "correct" bytes to keep mime sniffers happy:

      if(isset($_GET["get_file"])) {
      $size = rand(660*1024*1024,720*1024*1024);
      header("Content-type: video/x-msvideo");
      header("Content-length: " . $size);
      header("");
      echo("RIFFJ\xff\xe4\x00AVI LIST2\x01\x00\x00hdrlavih8\x00\x00\x00");
      flush();
      for($i=0; $i<$size; ++$i) {
      echo(chr(rand(0,255)));
      flush();
      if($i>2000)
      usleep($i/10);
      }
      }

      My mirror is at http://catmur.co.uk/warez/
    7. Re:Auto-Generated Fake Warez Movie Site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you're the JERK making fake warez pages and getting them highly page ranked in google HOW DARE YOU!!!! It's ppl like you who make Kazza so popular!!

  38. Jam MPAA by uglyduckling · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Remember Jam Echelon? Perhaps it's time we all filled our http/ftp servers with files whose names will attract attention but whose contents are completely legal...?

    1. Re:Jam MPAA by hyc · · Score: 1

      Sounds like fun. My web site could use a few more page hits anyway, traffic has been low this month...

      --
      -- *My* journal is more interesting than *yours*...
    2. Re:Jam MPAA by hyc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Methinks it's time to write a bit of perl script to retrieve the page at movies.yahoo.com and parse the "Top Movies" and "Coming Soon" tables for movie titles. Spit them out in a plain text list, and feed that into a file generator that generates random binary content (or whatever content you feel like.)

      Run it from a cron job (scheduled task) once a week and that should keep things hopping...

      --
      -- *My* journal is more interesting than *yours*...
    3. Re:Jam MPAA by Jerrry · · Score: 1
      Spit them out in a plain text list, and feed that into a file generator that generates random binary content (or whatever content you feel like.)


      How about doing a parody of the MPAA and putting that into all of the files?

    4. Re:Jam MPAA by wheany · · Score: 1

      I did pretty much just that. Behold: 0-day moviez!

      It is updated once a week from http://www.imdb.com/chart/

  39. The only other explanation... by Ghostgate · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... is that someone on the inside is purposely sending out false notices to make them look bad, which is highly unlikely.

    Otherwise, you're right, there's no way any rational person is going to see supermetroid-speedrunv3-frenom.avi and think that it is a copy of the movie "Speed". Human error my ass. A bot linked "speed" and ".avi" in the same file, simple as that. Hell, at least this file was 180+ MB. Other times it seems like they are calling out files that are a couple of K and saying they are full movies. Yeah... human error. I guess they mistakenly thought someone had come up with the greatest video compression in the history of computers.

    The MPAA's tactics continue to disgust me and I hope that, eventually, someone who gets falsely accused has the courage/money to take it to them for this. At least for slander, or something.

  40. Congratulations by pjt33 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Can somebody spell bullshit?
    As one of the /. spelling Nazis, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that you can. You even spelt it correctly.
    1. Re:Congratulations by evslin · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Yet you didn't notice the misplaced apostrophe in "get's"?

      That's what the grammar Nazis are for.

  41. Monkeys? by ggy · · Score: 1

    So that's their problem. What they should've used is of course pigeons! (Just look at google, they haven't sent out a messed up notice of unsolicited sharing to anyone!)

  42. The solution by Siener · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From many of the previous posts it is clear that the MPAA's explanation of "human error" is bull, so here is what we do:

    1. Anyone who administrates a web/ftp site put a fairly big random file on your site that is called >.mpg or .avi or whatever.

    2. Look at the MPAA spam flowing in

    3. Wait for the stage where the majority of the MPAA's spam is sent to people who are not actually infringing.

    4. Complain to the relevant authorities.

    PS It might be a good idea to put a disclaimer with the file so that people looking for movies don't eat up all your server bandwidth trying to download your random file. Even better configure you server to give an error when someone actually tries to downoad the file.

    1. Re:The solution by ronobot · · Score: 1

      Why not name the files "[moviename]_MPAA-Bait_FakeFile_DoNotDownload.txt" ? *Then* we'd find out if it's humans or computers (or monkeys) doing these searches. Make it less than 1K, so it would be easy for a human to confirm that it's not an infringing copy.

  43. "Everybody has a bad day" by Gentlewhisper · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now as you can see, our legal department consists of many people. After all we need a lot of man power to send out all those threathening letters.

    Now, today, Sue here has a bad day. Tomorrow it will be Janet's turn, and the day after it will be Margaret's turn. See that chart over there? Yeah.. we are pretty well organised.

    It just so happens that everybody has a bad day. And since our legal department is all women, what if they have a bad day once a month?

    These errors are just due to human errors.

  44. In case you didn't get it.. by Gentlewhisper · · Score: 1

    It was supposed to be funny. But after reading it again, I guess I didn't word it well enough! Dang!

  45. Cease and Desist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Speed, pay a fine. Kill, go to jail. Usually, even if it's 'by mistake'."

    We have received information that you are providing Internet or Usenet access to the above
    referenced account holder, or hosting the above referenced Internet site, which has made
    available the download or streaming of copyrighted motion picture(s) including such title(s)
    as:

    SPEED

    Infringement Detail...

  46. RIAA Pit of Confusion by salimfadhley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My tarpit scripts are all GPL2'd for your lawbot defeating pleasure.

    1. Re:RIAA Pit of Confusion by gnuman99 · · Score: 1
      My tarpit scripts are all GPL2'd for your lawbot defeating pleasure.

      I think there is too much tar in that pit. You have just tarpitted your server....

    2. Re:RIAA Pit of Confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You should mark the pages as NOCACHE, if you haven't yet.

      I wonder if their bots respect robots.txt, though? If they don't...

  47. Mail Delivery by Penis; it's the way of the future by Dogtanian · · Score: 2, Funny

    it took her longer to decide not to go out with me than to process the mail...

    Wow! So you said...

    "Hey, uh, groovy chick. What say we, uh... check out Star Wars Episode II and maybe we can... have sex?"

    And in the split second it took her to reply

    "Stay away from me, you Slashdot reading geek-fiend!"
    and run out of the building, she was able to prepare the mailing?

    I am impressed.

    On a side-note, the grandparent mentions delivering letters by hand. Well, I sometimes get charity junk-mail (through my front door) that says stuff like

    "Delivered by hand to save money".

    Really? That's impressive. My mail is normally delivered by hi-tech robots with penis-shaped tentacles that use suction to hold the letters in place while they deliver them.

    Absolutely true; I get nostalgic for the days when the postman used to put them through my letterbox using his hands, but the Post Office prefer to waste money with the latest "Hentai-anime Delivery Bots". Disgraceful.

    --
    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  48. The system has still been proven flawed by malsdavis · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "MPAA spokesman Matt Grossman denied the MPAA's system, which sends out 100,000 notices of claimed infringement on an annual basis was flawed."

    Surely if a legitimate website recieved a letter threatening leagal action when it shouldn't have then the system IS flawed regardless of whether it was a human or machine error.

    Besides ultimatly all errors are human errors (if you blame machine errors on the programmer/engineer).

    1. Re:The system has still been proven flawed by pjt33 · · Score: 1
      Besides ultimatly all errors are human errors (if you blame machine errors on the programmer/engineer).
      My guess is that that's what's happening in this case.
  49. Site Mirror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is a mirror: http://www.yourmom.sh/warez/

  50. First Notice of Infringement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dear Anonymous Coward,

    According to our web monkey (#134723 known as Eric),
    your post contains URL(s) to copyrighted material.

    Our gaggle of lawyers informs us that this is ver, very, very, bad. We ask that you remove the offending links immediately and replace them with high-quality flash banner ads that inform the young people to say no to P2P.

    Yours Sincerely

    Matt Grossman

  51. Movie People Are Assholes by yaphadam097 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I suppose that BEING A BUNCH OF ASSHOLES could be construed as a form of human error.

    1. Re:Movie People Are Assholes by idontgno · · Score: 1

      I think the "human error" in question was their mommies and daddies deciding to feed them when they were little. No end of the crap that came out of that stupendous bad decision.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
  52. An intermediate scenario is more realistic by jesterzog · · Score: 1

    Assuming he is telling the truth, I think it's more likely that some kind of scanning software is involved. It'd seem very difficult to either develop sufficiently intelligent software, or to hire people to simply search manually. Even in the latter case, it's unlikely that someone might "accidentally" wander into an open source repository and accidentally assume that a file in the middle of all those other legitimate files happens to be a ripped off movie.

    But the intermediate possibility seems much more realistic. My guess is that they have software to do the bulk of the searching and spidering. It probably presents a big list of filenames and perhaps contextual information to a few humans. These people most likely scan down a list checking boxes or clicking buttons on any entry that appears at a glance to be a movie copyright violation, and the pattern-matching system, having received confirmation of the infringement, generates a notice and does the rest.

    The human error to which he refers to could quite conceivably be someone simply clicking an incorrect item, or some-such mistake. Just because humans don't run the entire process doesn't mean they can't play a part in it.

    I'm not trying to suggest that it should be excused. Chances are that there were a lot more mis-sent notices before this one went wrong. But on objective grounds, it seems premature to write it off on the by claiming that it's impossible for a human error to be involved just because of the sheer volume of infringement notices.

  53. Re:Mail Delivery by Penis; it's the way of the fut by bhima · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Hah!!

    Well that predated the Star Wars prequels and I remember a lot more blushing and stammering that "hey cool chick"

    But the machine is fast and has enough moving parts to be interesting.

    "Hentai-anime Delivery Bots", how interesting I only have a stoner dude that delivers my mail on bicycle.

    --
    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  54. Taste of their own medicine by theonetruekeebler · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Gee whiz, this wouldn't be the same MPAA that's sued grandmothers and minors, is it? The same one that's said in Congressional hearings that there must be zero tolerance for abuse of the copyright laws, that convinced Congress to make copyright laws more perpetual and unbalanced year after year, hat claimed using a VCR is tantamount to serial rape?

    I would strongly encourage anyone who receives a wrongful takedown notice to use whatever legal means are at their disposal to punish the sender for wrongfully harassing them.

    Another post in this thread mentioned a fake warez generator tool. Perhaps the mass adoption of random filename generators would be a way of demonstrating that the MPAA is sending shotgun legal threats. To that end, I would encourage the creators of open source projects to adopt a named release policy. For example, Perl 6 could be called "Finding Nemo". Debian could rename their next distribution "Fight Club".

    --
    This is not my sandwich.
    1. Re:Taste of their own medicine by cpghost · · Score: 1

      o that end, I would encourage the creators of open source projects to adopt a named release policy. For example, Perl 6 could be called "Finding Nemo". Debian could rename their next distribution "Fight Club".

      That is not a good idea, because such titles are also trademarks. Doing so would only harm those open source projects.

      --
      cpghost at Cordula's Web.
    2. Re:Taste of their own medicine by BlueWonder · · Score: 1
      [...] claimed using a VCR is tantamount to serial rape?

      Here in Germany, the German equivalent of the MPAA shows movie ads which purport the idea that it is "just" to expose copyright infringers to rape. (For those who wonder, "hart aber gerecht" means "hard but just", and in the full ad, the guys in the poster talk about raping a copyright infringer.)

    3. Re:Taste of their own medicine by feidaykin · · Score: 1
      Yeah, that VCR quote was one of the more retarded things Jack Valenti has ever said... And that's saying a lot.

      "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

      (Testimony to the House of Representatives, 1982)" (source)

      --

      "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

    4. Re:Taste of their own medicine by Idarubicin · · Score: 1
      Gee whiz, this wouldn't be the same MPAA that's sued grandmothers and minors, is it?

      Grandmothers and minors who were hosting files that genuinely infringed copyrights, yes.

      I absolutely agree with embarrassing the MPAA/RIAA et al. when they send illegitimate takedown notices and threaten lawsuits based on gross errors. I think there should be real consequences for them when they state under penalty of perjury that to the best of their knowledge a flat text file is a movie. I believe that perpetual copyright extension is an insidious problem. I am very concerned about the erosion of fair use by recent legislation.

      On the other hand, I don't think that there is any reason not to pursue willful infringers of copyright just because they happen to be young or old. Being a senior citizen doesn't (or shouldn't) absolve one of one's legal responsibilies. Saying that the recording industry is evil because they sue cute youngsters may make for good press, but it doesn't substantively advance the copyright debate.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    5. Re:Taste of their own medicine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      To that end, I would encourage the creators of open source projects to adopt a named release policy. For example, Perl 6 could be called "Finding Nemo". Debian could rename their next distribution "Fight Club".

      That'd make the MPAA quite happy - it makes it harder for people to download Finding Nemo and Fight Club.

    6. Re:Taste of their own medicine by BluBrick · · Score: 1
      Wait a minute, aren't trademark limitations restricted to a particular area of endeavour (or whatever the legalese actually is - IANAL)?

      Anyway, namesapce clashes between movies and FOSS projects is not new at all.

      Doesn't anyone wonder if the folks at Ximian ever got harassed with C&D nastygrams over confusion between this project and this movie.

      --
      Ahh - My eye!
      The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
    7. Re:Taste of their own medicine by cpghost · · Score: 1

      Yes, I didn't think of that. Thanks for pointing it out!

      --
      cpghost at Cordula's Web.
  55. let's find out, shall we? by bani · · Score: 1

    a subpoena would surely reveal if they're using automated software or just hiring fuckwits off the street.

  56. Call for a *AA pitfall !!! by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 1

    Fellow /.ers unite!

    Let's all setup our own download services that keyword scanners will recognize as being illegal -or at least dodgy. Make pages containing words of popular artists ( e.g. Bony M, The Sweet, Mud, Showadywady, Pat Boon, Engelbert Humperdinck etc... ( Oh shit I just gave away that I'm an old fart in a wheelchair. So shoot me! ) ). Then make mp3s/oggs/whatever named like song titles ( e.g. "by-the-rivers-of-babylon.mp3", "dynamite.ogg" etc... ) but which contain the sound of you monotonously repeating the words like in a meditation.

    Then let's see how many "human errors" are made by the*AA. And let's also see whether the *AA can cope with this. And let's see how long until they have to change tactics.

    --

    I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
  57. Re:Mail Delivery by Penis; it's the way of the fut by Dogtanian · · Score: 1, Funny

    But the machine is fast and has enough moving parts to be interesting.

    Rather like the Hentai-anime Delivery Bots, then?

    --
    "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  58. Re:Mail Delivery by Penis; it's the way of the fut by bhima · · Score: 0

    exactly!!!

    --
    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  59. Re:automatic checking!? p2p-install-download worm by h00manist · · Score: 1

    am mpaariaa.vb mp3 and p2p distribution worm is coming.

    that'll make everyone automatically "guilty". and automatically innocent, as it got there by no action of their own.

    besides helping the mpaariaa efforts *really* backfire of course

    --
    Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
  60. Opportunity here? by bLanark · · Score: 1

    While RTFA, I thought "opportunity for google here". How about google create a new service that notifies subscribers as soon as a large file appears on a site that a googlebot happens upon?
    People like the MPAA would subscribe, save them writing their own spiders. Google could look inside zips for mpeg or other content, and users, maybe individual studios, could register various keywords such as "hero" or "manonfire" if they liked.

    Of course, google would be bound by robots.txt, whereas the MPAA will probably ignore that, so maybe it's not such a great idea anyway.

    --
    Note to ACs: I won't mod you up, even if you are being funny or insightful. So take a chance! It's not real life!
  61. Well MPAA can just pay penalties by rfc1394 · · Score: 4, Informative
    U.S. Federal law specifies penalties for false or fraudulent takedown notices. Since these are sworn under penalty of perjury that the person who did so had a good-faith belief, this was obviously false and perjurous in nature.

    Since the MPAA thinks a $3,000 to $11,000 judgement is acceptable for someone accused of 'stealing' music, then I suppose a $3,000,000 to $11,000,000 judgement is acceptable for someone from MPAA accused of fraud and perjury. I figure MPAA is at least 1,000 times the size of the average file swapper.

    --
    The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
    1. Re:Well MPAA can just pay penalties by AEton · · Score: 1

      You mean the RIAA.

      Motion Picture Association of America = bastards because of DeCSS

      Recording Industry Assn. of America = bastards because of suing low-income preteen girls

      (So far the MPAA has intelligently and refreshingly avoided any of these suits - we'll see whether it keeps up that way. Go go Jack Valenti go!)

      --
      We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
    2. Re:Well MPAA can just pay penalties by kidgenius · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You said "good-faith belief," which are the words that are used in the DMCA. All the MPAA has to say is that they truely thought the files were infringing. Now, does "good-faith belief" mean that they have to actually have downloaded the file and analyzed it to determine if the file is infrining? That's a tough one. I would say that the MPAA's safest bet would be to do so. Otherwise, it could be construed that they didn't go far enough in asserting their belief. The problem here is that Mr. Valenti and his thugs have many more millions of dollars and evil, greedy lawyers than you will ever have. Therefore, if you decide to challenge them in court over something as simple as whether or not they actually believed in good-faith that the file in question was infringing, then you will have a big problem on your hands. It is unfortunate that we as individuals have little recourse. The only way that you could successfully sue and win is if they actually filed a lawsuit against you for that file. Then, you could prove, in a court of law, that if they decided to go so far as sue, they should've at least downloaded the file and examined it for infringement. Then, and only then, would you have a good set of legal legs to stand on.

    3. Re:Well MPAA can just pay penalties by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sounds like a plan to me. Someone has to stand up to bullies. Size is no excuse for the RIAA. Maybe they should download the files and check them first. Of course if the RIAA downloads music off of the net why would we assume they aren't just pirating the music. The RIAA short changes more artists than the internet. They don't just want a monopoly on music, they want a monopoly on piracy.

  62. Time to post bait? by MichaelKaiserProScri · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm going to start sharing a video of my kid playing and title it "PlanetOfTheApes.mpg".....

  63. riiiiight by suezz · · Score: 1

    99.9999% - riiiight excuse or notice threatening to take your business down - it was a mistake. what a load of crap - they should sue these bastards and sue the hard - that is the only language they understand and it will set a precidence. so please, please, please sue these bastards

  64. Human error by Zemran · · Score: 1

    just like my music downloads are human errors...

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  65. Re:"Bad Day"? WTF by Lumpy · · Score: 1, Informative

    As I would be if I nailed the Smith pooch, even by accident, and be forced to pay restitution appropriate

    actually, if you hit someone's dog with your car and kill it, the dog owner is responsible to pay for damage to your car caused by their unleashed dog.

    It's the pet owner's responsibility to keep their animal under control and out of the way of cars and others.

    Anyways, it takes very little to thwart these *iaa morons. reverse the text,rot13,etc the filename and their search devices will only detect false positives.

    Hell, taking one of the spam email harvester poisioner scripts and rewrite it to give pages fill of "links" to movie and song names that are not real. get yourself 30,000 suponeas in one day for fun and profit!

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  66. human error by Arconaut · · Score: 2, Insightful

    These things have happened before and always have been attributed to human error. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made.

  67. Wise up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The American civil justice system is broke.

    Wise up. Law-makers don't call things by their right name. The NAMES are part of the LIE.

    Do you think the "Defense Department" only defends? No, it is the "Armed Forces Department", really. Note that the truth is not really a secret so much as a matter of habit of mind.

    The "Justice Department" IS NO SUCH THING. It is a "LAW AND ORDER Department". Think about the difference between providing justice and keeping the rabble from breaking rich people's toys and powerful people's tools. Now you know why when you report your uninsured shit was stolen the police don't care. And why the system pays rich lawyers a thousand dollars an hour and the jury members pennies an hour. And in war the poor man's life is subject to taking (a draft) without paying market prices but a rich man's property is bought at fair market value ( OR MORE IF HE "CONTRIBUTED" MONEY TO THOSE IN POWER).

  68. Civil disobedience by halfdeadcat · · Score: 1

    If their take down notices are generated by a brain-dead automated process, then why don't we all engage in a little civil disobedience? We should all start sharing zero-byte files that happen have the same names as movies. It would be trivial to overwhelm this system with noise.

  69. NES emulator assisted speed runs are crap! by Jagasian · · Score: 1

    All of the NES emulator assisted speeds runs that I have seen are utter crap, as they use extremely inaccurate NES emulators and exploit bugs in the emulation to get their fast speeds. One of the worst offenders that I saw was a Zelda speed run. Not only were there numerous graphical glitches, but there were actually gameplay glitches that let the guy not get hurt by his own bomb explosions and at the same time let him plant a bomb on one end of the screen, and as it was exploding he could run across the screen and whatever was near him took the explosion damage... so one bomb could take out a room of baddies AND open a secret.

    After watching about 10 minutes of that, I fired up my real NES with a real copy of Zelda... comfirmed that those things were not possible... AND THEN I LOST ALL RESPECT FOR NES EMULATOR ASSISTED SPEED RUNS!

    I mean, come on guys, at least use an accurate NES emulator like FCE Ultra.

    1. Re:NES emulator assisted speed runs are crap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, dude, bombs in NES Zelda don't hurt you.

      And there is a rerecording version of FCEU available. It just doesn't have that much usage yet. Most of these videos were released before this rerecording FCEU was.

      If you lose all respect for these runs just because of an anomaly in a single video, then I've just lost respect for you.

    2. Re:NES emulator assisted speed runs are crap! by binarytoaster · · Score: 1

      They're not actually using "bugs in the emulator" - all emulator assisted speed runs are, are runs that involve massive use of savestates. It's possible that there ARE those glitches that you speak of, but it takes more to activate them than what you're seeing - remember that all computers generate pseudorandom numbers so a condition may be engineered to occur there that you're not exactly reproducing.

      All legitimate runs are given as a movie file in the emulator's format so it can be played back using only button presses, anyway.

  70. Re:"Bad Day"? WTF by fuzzybunny · · Score: 1

    Whoever modded this offtopic is a cretin--he's right in the particular situation he refers to, but my initial analogy still holds.

    And I like the "countermeasures" technique--unfortunately, any such concept applied to p2p networks will end up causing the same sort of shit as the RIAA flooding the airwaves with the eqiuvalent of "10--Like_a_virgin.mp3" that's nothing more than Madonna cussing out p1r8z (1)--i.e. dropping the SNR pretty substantially.

    (1) the new, MPAA anti-pirate version has far more artistic merit than the original.

    --
    Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
  71. Bad days happen... by joemck · · Score: 1

    "Everyone has a bad day."

    True, but the rest of us have to suck it up and accept any losses we cause ourselves when we have a bad day. If I have a bad day and forget to come out to feed the parking meter after a couple hours, I still have to pay the ticket. They admit they made a mistake and that it was their fault. They should have to pay Linux Australia for the time wasted reading and responding to the empty legal threat.

    In legal matters, saying "oops, my bad" doesn't help. You still gotta pay.

    1. Re:Bad days happen... by Travy.b · · Score: 1

      In legal matters, saying "oops, my bad" doesn't help. You still gotta pay. Problem is. It obviously does work. Otherwise they wouldn't still be doing it. I agree that they should have to pay. But until people get off their high horse and actually DO something about it then nothings going to change.

  72. Yeah right. by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 1

    Who do they think we are? Little red riding hood?
    Hey, grandma... why are your teeth SO big?

  73. It doesn't work like that! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    And since our legal department is all women, what if they have a bad day once a month?

    When women work in close proximity, I hear their cycles tend to synchronize. But this being Slashdot and all, I forgive you for not knowing that.

  74. Sure, Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was human error that put an unsigned byte in the BMP handler of Internet Explorer 5.0. And it was human error that caused a Canadian sub to drift in the Atlantic after an onboard-fire. And it was human error that killed three Apollo astronauts on the launchpad.

    It was just human error that I downloaded your entire fucking album. I meant to be downloading child pr0n instead. It must've been human error that relabeled the movie.

    Also, it was human error that disabled the Macrovision shit on my Liteon DVD player. And hacked my Liteon 812S into a dual layer 832S.

    Our bad.

  75. BRILLIANT!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So instead of using some kind of automated checking that could in theory be done right, they are using IDIOTS!!!! GREAT!!!!

  76. Madness! by Is0m0rph · · Score: 3, Funny

    Cars that speed themselves up, MPAA sending out false accusations, fradulent voting machines, OS/X running on an Xbox... Madness!

  77. All the **AA's by BCW2 · · Score: 1

    Are a human error.

    --
    Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
  78. Reminds me of a client I had once... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They were notoriously sloppy. They asked me to come to meetings that weren't really pertinent (mostly so they could avoid them), etc. I said, what the hey, they're paying me.

    End of the year comes. They say "dude, we spent $30,000 and have nothing, we're going to sue your ass". I pointed out that they never spent any time defining what they wanted and instead had me mucking about.

    Long story short, after my lawyer talked to their lawyer, their lawyer called me up and said "ooooh, I'm soooo sorrry, my client didn't REALLY mean to say sue" blah, blah, blah. We eventually came to an agreement where they would dictate what it is they wanted. I would give a fixed cost. (remember the sloppy part)

    I verified that they wanted a database to add items, modify items, etc. (it was a funky database). WITH a 6 month warranty. Yah, I lost money on it, but it was out of my hair.

    Seven months go by and I get a phone call. "Uh, we accidently entered something and can't find a way to remove it". Well, I pointed out, you never put that in your specifications.

    The MPAA is like this client. They are messy. They are going to say "oh, it was an error", but point is, they don't care. They just want to get their way. The best thing for us is to mess up their nasty little plans with bogus files. It is easy and it is fun.

    Footnote: My lawyer eventually told me that because the refused to take legal possession of the software, I still owned it and could charge them for using it. I figured I would let it slide... idiocy is one thing, spite is another.

  79. MPAA False Accusations by radd0 · · Score: 1

    The MPAA makes baseless threats and false claims of "infringement" all the time.

    It's nothing new.

    -r

  80. Blame the person, not the machine? by Ayandia · · Score: 1

    So we've gone right past blaming the programs and computers and now they're so infallible that people are the problem?

    I think I can feel myself slipping from the top of the food chain already.

  81. Slashdot had a lawyer answer this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We had an actual lawyer answer that one.

    All they're asserting is that they represent the copyright holder of the work they *think* you're infringing.

    So, if they think you're pirating Speed, all they assert under penalty of perjury is that they represent the copyright holder of Speed. So you'd have to get the entity with the copyright they claim you're infriging to say that the person who sent the notice didn't represent them.

    All that it prevents is people sending these notices on behalf of third parties. Not that it wouldn't be nice to punish them for some of the crap they pull...

  82. RE "Everyone has a bad day" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    any day
    with MPAA
    or RIAA
    is a Bad
    Bad day

  83. Wouldn't this boomerang on the MPAA? by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 1

    Given the nature of the files they claimed infringed, no reasonable person looking at those files would even have concluded that they were movies, let alone that they were the movies named in the takedown notices. If they're claiming they actually had a human being review the case before sending the letter, wouldn't that make the MPAA's violation of the DMCA knowing and willful? Seems to me that this is a perfect opportunity to tie the MPAA up in a nice double-bind.

  84. actually by alizard · · Score: 1

    in the case of the *AA organizations, malice is the way to bet. Malice amplified by stupidity is their usual modus operandi.

  85. My thoughts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Human error my ass.

  86. Just FYI. by SharpFang · · Score: 1

    Chernobyl was a human error too.

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