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BitTorrent: Sysadmins to face the music

An anonymous reader writes "Two sysadmins in Australia are set to get sued by the music industry after the federal court ruled that Melissa Ong and Ryan Briggs did ignore calls to remove Web sites that were in breach of copyright. All major music labels in the country have banded together to take action against the duo's employer Swiftel, an ISP which allegedly hosted BitTorrent file-sharing hubs (which contained pirated music etc)."

8 of 373 comments (clear)

  1. It took federal courts to... by Scott+Swezey · · Score: 2, Funny

    It took federal courts to determine that they "ignored phone calls..." I'm glad to see tax dollars being put to such good use.

    --
    Scott Swezey
  2. Conversation snippet: It all started like this... by ducklord · · Score: 5, Funny

    A: Hello sir B: What? A: Hello! We're calling regarding... B: What? A: HELLOO! We're calling for the peer to peer... B: What? A: About the bittorrent... B: What? A: About the wares... B: What? A: About MP3 bittorrent links... B: What? A: WILL YOU TURN DOWN THE DAMN MUSIC? B: What?

  3. Sysadmins.. by RyuSoma · · Score: 5, Funny

    who ignore email infringement notices are hardly uncommon. As a sysadmin for several small clients, I sure don't want file-sharing going on on MY network no matter how beneficial it may be to me personally. The article is pretty vague unfortunately - they 'treated the infringement notices like spam.' So why didn't the music industry send them ACTUAL notarized letters in the first place? If I took every piece of semi-legit-looking crap that arrived in my inbox seriously, I'd be handing out credit card numbers left and right, and I'd have about a 10-foot-long penis and twenty free iPods by this point!

  4. Re:Heavy handed, but it is their right by fuzzybunny · · Score: 4, Funny

    The law does not support the right to share, nup, no it doesn't (at least it restricts the right to share in certain very specific instances, but I'm sure that's what you meant.)

    But wait a moment, these guys weren't sharing, they were just "running" a bittorrent hub, weren't they? Those dastardly pirates, trying to hide between the mask of a third party! Oh wait, hold on a moment, they weren't actually "running" the hub, they are sysadmins for the ISP where the hub is present.

    Ah, but surely they must be responsible for content on their servers? Well, barring that pesky common carrier concept for a moment, sure they are, which is why they were informed by legally binding documents. Hang on, what's that you say? Emails? Phone calls? You mean to imply that these two do-no-goods ignored emails from a rightfully authorized agent of the RECORDING INDUSTRY? Why, the blackguards, swing they must.

    Whoa, thousands of mails a day to sysadmins, you say? Damn their eyes, they can't shield their guilt behind a spam filter. Sue them! In fact, sue their boss! Sue the accountants who work there! Sue the janitor! Who does he think he is, claiming that he's not party to technical operatoins. I'm _sure_ he overheard one of aforementioned phone calls. For that matter, sue the landlords, they must have known that illegal activity was going on!

    Good lord, man...

    --
    Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
  5. Re:Terrible Puns! by CdBee · · Score: 2, Funny

    YOU'LL TAKE THIS PUN FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!!!

    damn that wasn't good. I even felt like Charlton Heston....

    --
    I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
  6. Re:How is this going to end? by myowntrueself · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Who wins? No-one."

    Bzzzt Wrong; not 'No-one'.

    The correct answer was "Lawyers".

    --
    In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  7. Re:Because it's art? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You automatically lose. I invoke Godwin's Law, version 2. Bringing up Britney Spears in any discussion about P2P automatically ends the thread.

    Thanks for playing. Have a nice day.

  8. Re:This just in... information is free by intangible · · Score: 2, Funny

    I like to boil them first to loosen the outer layer of crust built up from years of not showering and tree-hugging. Then you baste them with a nice pineapple BBQ sauce, bury them in a fire pit and let them slow roast for at least a full day.

    MMM