Music Piracy Unit Raids ISP in BitTorrent Assault

renai42 writes "Australia's music industry piracy investigations unit has raided an Internet service provider in Perth, Australia in what it says is the first Australian assault on the use of BitTorrent technology for copyright infringement. Outgoing Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) general manager, Michael Speck, said the raid was launched this afternoon at the offices of Swiftel Communications."

Comments

Arrrr!

[BJZQ8]

Arrr matey! Show me the pirates and I be on me way!

Re:Arrrr!

[Anonymous Coward]

Use the Steve Irwin voice:

I found these HUGE poirates, they grow up to six or seven feet hoigh and have these big computahs. Here's one with foity songs from that BitTawent, isn't she a beauty? Crikey, I gawts ta wank awff on that toight ass...

Company name

[Paska]

It should be noted that the company that got raided, is now called 'People Telecom'. There former name was Swiftel.

Re:Company name

[eln]

No, they are not a government agency, the government gave them a court order authorizing them to do this. Amazing how the government will allow a private corporation to search another private corporation's confidential records, isn't it? I believe similar orders have been executed by various industry groups in the US, like the BSA, and possibly the RIAA.

It's things like this that really give you the impression that government is just a tool of powerful corporations. Whatever happened to government law enforcement agencies enforcing court orders?

Re:Company name

[Atrax]

Who gave them the rights to conduct random raids as they please?

A little-used civil search law, apparently.

The raids were conducted with rarely used search warrants known as Anton Piller orders which are used exclusively in civil proceedings. No police were involved, and the record industry sent its own investigators to carry out the search and seize evidence. From the Sydney Morning Herald.

Re:Company name

[mankey wanker]

It's The Golden Rule:
"He who has the gold makes the rules."

Democracy, Republic, Due Process, Rights - all catchy marketing phrases to disguise the ugly face of unbridled Capital.

Re:Company name

[QuantumG]

That's nuts. I found this document on lexisnexis which describes them and related "asset freezing" orders as "the law's two nuclear weapons and the greatest examples of judicial activism in our time. They strike without warning when, as is usual, they are obtained ex parte, secretly and without notice to the respondent."

That's crazy gestapo crap. I mean it's bad enough that official law enforcement agencies can do this crap but regular citizens!? Insanity.

Re:Company name

[HD Webdev]

It's things like this that really give you the impression that government is just a tool of powerful corporations. Whatever happened to government law enforcement agencies enforcing court orders?

This way the Government dodges the 'unreasonable search and seizure' rule.

They often use 3rd parties to keep from violating the Government's consititution.

For example: Let's say the Government and a criminally-minded person type person suspected I was growning marijuana. He could rob my house, steal that marijuana, show it to the Government, and could tell the Government that he that I was growing it. The Government could then easily get an 'official' warrant to search my premesis for that illegal activity.

But, the police could not do that (directly) themselves because with a good attorney, I would walk right away from the case.

The Governments of many countries use a variation of this tactic to do what they are not allowed to do directly.

They give a 3rd party the advice or permission to do something they aren't supposed to do themselves.

Re:Company name

[Husgaard]

The United States of America actually forced legislation like this on Denmark. They used the WTO (implying the threat "if you don't comply, we start a trade war").

So now anybody with a copyright, patent or trademark can raid my private home without warning if they can show that it is probable that I have infringed on their rights to the "court".

I quote "court" because the "court" that the other part has to show a probable infringement to is lower than the lowest court in Denmark. This "court" has a role somewhat similar to "sherif" in the United States.

If US people have problems understanding why some foreigners don't like the US, please take this as an example. (Personally I dislike the US government because of it, not the US people.)

Re:Company name

[HD Webdev]

The evidence isn't admissible, but it is sufficient to obtain a warrant in order to find admissible evidence.

Exactly. It's the 3rd party dodge to get a warrant for something the Government can't get a warrant for directly themselves.

It doesn't matter if the Government can directly prosecute with what they have from the 3rd party...but it is enough for them to get an official warrant to investigate further than they normally would legally be able to do.

Re:Company name

[cryptoluddite]

Personally I dislike the US government because of it, not the US people.

Americans get to vote on the federal government at least once every two years. Combine that with state referendums and offices and that's a lot of voting. So no, you should not have a problem with individual Americans, but you should a big problem with "the US people." We voted for all these unconstitutional laws and so-called leaders.

As a citizen I can say that you should dislike the American people as a whole. Ultimately the buck stops here and we are the ones responsible for our government (at least for now).

WTF

[Turn-X Alphonse]

WTF is ANY company doing raiding an ISP? Surely this is something for the police or licenced people with a warrant to do..

Re:WTF

[databyss]

I'll bet two RIAA settlements and half a donut

Starting post with arrogance: Check


this is merely ZDNet's inability to differentiate between journalism and editorializing.

Attack of major corporation: Check


Of course, they are hardly alone in this deficient behavior, and are in the company of many prestigious (and formerly prestigious) media outlets.

Attack of major media: Check


It's obvious to all but the tinhat crowd (and ZDNet)

Attack of /. general public: Check
Second attack of major corporation: BONUS!!


that the police did the raid.

Arrogance of knowledge of another country's legal system: Check

Re:WTF

[Atrax]

Australia doesn't have a bill of rights.

Correct

The government can do as it pleases.

Not correct. There is plenty of accountability. Australia is not an autocratic state lacking checks and balances by any means. If a government oversteps its mark, there are numerous avenues by which they can be constrained.

Re:WTF

[mumblestheclown]

and if they do, it's "don't the police have rapists and murderers to catch?"

it's called the slashdot two-step! anybody can dance to it. the idea is just to keep moving with your keyboards in any way you can to justify piracy.

For example, in response to this message, you can ignore the main point, and concentrate on the minor linguisitc point that I used the term "piracy" instead of "copyright infringement." See, you can do it.. it's easy!

Time to switch...

[swiltse]

Guess it's time for file-sharing Aussies to switch to AOL.

MUTE

[Neo-Rio-101]

Assuming that raid become common practice in the future of the internet, one may actually be surprised that P2P apps are trying to work their way out of having their owners IP addresses traced.

I was surprised (but really, should I be?) to see these kinds of projects. Check out the MUTE project here.

Re:MUTE

[Husgaard]

Interesting, but trying to avoid the law is IMHO not a solution.

Trying to change the law is what we need to do.

Re:MUTE

[rhizome]

>Trying to change the law is what we need to do.

No, either the music industry or the copyright offices need to get off their fat, money-soaked asses and come up with a workable licensing scheme that doesn't turn huge chunks of the country's citizens into criminals. But, as noted in another story, the record companies are using these suits for revenue more than abatement, so don't worry about the Anton Pillar orders going away soon.

SMH Article

[Atrax]

here, which makes some mention of the law this was carried out under.

"The raids were conducted with rarely used search warrants known as Anton Piller orders which are used exclusively in civil proceedings. No police were involved, and the record industry sent its own investigators to carry out the search and seize evidence."

Deja Vu...

[ErikZ]

For some reason I see the scene from Ghostbusters where the EPA barges into their business:

"Turn it off! Turn it all off!"

Discussions on Whirlpool

[The Qube]

There are more details on the case on Whirlpool (Australia's broadband discussion website).

There's also a discussion on Whirlpool's and Swiftel/People Telcom's forums.

What does bittorrent have to do with this?

[mark-t]

Bittorent is a tool.

It's sorta like saying that "Before being apprehended, the chainsaw murderer went after the victims with a 2 HorsePower Black-and-Decker Deluxe Model Chainsaw (available at hardware stores near you)"

Anton Piller order

[Husgaard]

An Anton Piller order is a court order giving one party in an upcoming civil copyright/patent/trademark case the right to raid the other party without notice to look for evidence.

Here is the Wikipedia explanation

And here is how it is done in Australia

It is considered the "atomic bomb" of IP rights enforcement, and is quite old. Because the defendent is not heard before the raid, it was removed from most laws until the new wave of harsh IP enforcement.

In Denmark this was implemented a few years ago due to pressure from the United States. This is another reason I do not like the US government: Now anybody having copyright, patents or trademarks can raid my private home if they can prove that it is likely that their rights were infringed upon.

For those of you who saw Boiler Room

[CarlinWithers]

I can't wait till file-sharing raids get screentime in a Hollywood movie. Especially considering how technically literate movie directors are.

A raid! Quick hide those torrents!

The actors proceed to furiously bury floppies in desk drawers.

Make no mistake...

[lendude]

This has bugger all to do with catching 'offending' P2P/BitTorrent end users, and everything to do with the MIPI ramping up the FUD so as to create an atmosphere of fear of litigation amongst ISP's, driving a push towards ISP's 'voluntarily' screwing down what end users do on the network. i.e. doing the MIPI's job for them. Fuck using current legislation which is wholly appropriate - too much trouble to tag individuals by due process: might as well scare the shit out of ISP's with litigious fear mongering and close-to-libelous PR (I'd love to see that tested in a court of law).

And Music Industry 'Piracy' Investigations for a title? What about Music Industry Copyright Investigations as a more correct name - oops, too easy to take the MICI out of them.

Re:"WTF, mate"

[F13]

Of course that is after piracy = terrorism, which isn't far off I imagine...

Yeah not far at all.

The story

[Anonymous Coward]

Many broadband ISP in Australia have uncounted content (does not coun't towards download quota) between users of the same state or where an ISP peers with an internet exchange (eg waix, pipe). This, in combination with often low download limits from ISPs, has lead to a situation where users of this ISP in question had setup bittorrent and direct connect facilities/servers for other users on their own computers (servers and the like are allowed on user connection in this ISP's respective AUP). This way they could exchange files without affecting their quota.

The people who raided the ISP in particular believed that the ISP had setup the P2P facilities for the users (which isn't the case).

Interestingly the hubs and groups who were using these facilities were pretty low key, you would be lucky to find two or three seeders per torrent (for example). I am amazed that they even botherd to do the raids, the people involved number in the dozens only. We aren't talking a Aussie suprnova or anything...

Posting anon for obvious reasons.

confused reporting

[mako1138]

...provided the user has BitTorrent software or software or a protocol equivalent to BitTorrent.

Ah, ZDNet.

Anton Piller order is not a search warrant.

[ZombieEngineer]

If you are served with an Anton Piller order, you are being asked nicely to allow a solicitor for the plantiff to enter and remove documents relating to the order. If you refuse the order you will be held in contempt of court.

The difference is that the bearer of the order needs to ask for permission to access, if there is no-one present then they can't enter.

ZombieEngineer (IANAL)

Re:So...

[rsilvergun]

The PearPC guys are giving their product away for free, and only ask that if you build off their product that you contribute back to the free project. The RIAA (and whatever the fuck the Austrialian equivalent is) are screwing artists out of a good living, overcharging for thier product by maintaining an artifical lock on distribution, and discouraging new/interesting music because having just a few big name bands is more profitable. Your comparison isn't valid.

I don't understand why the 'little people' (us) have to paint everything black and white while the bastards with all the power can come up with any old justification to do what they want. This isn't hypocrisy. If you're not going to show me any decency and respect, I'm under no obligation to do the same for you. I just wish people weren't such a bunch of dumb fucks that they can't see the distinction, and then maybe reform the system for everyone's benefit (except the record producers, my they and their ilk rot in hell).

Great quote

[Anonymous Coward]

http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1457?show=repl ies:

Ryan O'Hare, People Telecom CEO claimed to be unaware of the sites or the technology behind them. O'Hare said, "I've never even heard of this technology."

"I've never even heard of this technology" is the new "I did not have sex with that woman."

and this is who it went?

[DenDave]

*radio chirps*

we have 404 in progress

*chirp*

they've taken down the links

*chrip*

I'm goin' in

*chirp*

*crashing sounds*

*screams*

put down the network cable!

put your hands above your head!

Hey, you, in the greatfull dead tshirt and the
"fuck-you" hat! Ya you, drop the Peanut butter
and jelly sandwich right now!!

The tough jobs of tough men in law enforcement and the War on Torrent....

*sob*

The torrent cops will become corrupt...

[sgant]

Oh sure, at first they'll be on the up and up. But after a while, with so many songs just laying around, soon a young cop...not getting paid enough, will start skimming a few songs off the raid for himself. He'll think "hey, there's so many songs here, they won't know I took a few!"

Then after a while, he's a major song peddler himself...and the bittorrent pirates will know they can pay him off with a few dozen songs here and there. Corruption will seep into the ranks of the bittorrent police and soon after that, it makes way for the song cartels.

Re:Country name.

[ozmanjusri]

This Australia we're talking about here. Not the US. They run things their way. We run things our way.

Not any more. With Howard's Liberal government (famously referred to as a conga-line of arselickers) in power, we run things your way as well.

Just look at our government's total lack of response when you lock up our citizens without charge.