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PayPal Joins London Police Effort
derGoldstein writes this excerpt from Ars Technica: "PayPal has joined a music copyright association and the City of London police department's bid to financially starve websites deemed 'illegal.' When presented with sufficient evidence of unlicensed downloading from a site, the United Kingdom's PayPal branch 'will require the retailer to submit proof of licensing for the music offered by the retailer,' said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's latest press release." The press release can be found here.
The monopoly is the economic nature of copyright. And, like pringles, it is addictive. Once you pop, you can't stop.
There are people who actually pay for "pirated music" via paypal instead of, say, downloading it for free?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I'd boycott PayPal, but sadly, I can't boycott them any more than I already do.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Breaking news: Media CEO a Lying Sack of Shit!
Who would have thought ...
No money to be made here, move along.
-----
I'm serious. They wont waste the time suing places which have nothing to give up.
- http://www.milkme.co.uk
Ahhh, I fucking love piracy. It's nicer than nice.
As soon as the decision is made to classify PayPal as a bank, we'll stop having to put up with this. It's a pity I can't use them any less than I do currently.
And in other news every major newspaper in the UK engaged in the same practices, with the information commissioners previous investigation showing that News International was a much smaller infringer than both the Trinity Mirror Group and Associated Newspapers (Daily Mail).
We have seen numerous times in the past where the recording industry will seek to charge for works they have no power over. Specifically independent works. We have seen cases go to court where elements of the case were discarded because the plaintiffs didn't actually own the copyright over some of the material in question. So I am guessing, that under this arrangement, the big music publishers will not be required to show they have ownership or authority over any specific works at all and that a mere accusation will result in damaging actions against another party who may be operating in a completely legal manner.
The article only says "sufficient evidence" is needed to start the action and doesn't say what is required. I suspect it will only be their word that infringement is occurring and we already know that the view music publishers have of infringement does not match that of the rest of the world as "fair use" and other such things simply do not exist in their minds.
And just as in the case of the DMCA, we are seeing more and more skipping over the use of the courts system. We are seeing essentially police and others operating at the request of private industry. Only recently, we have seen the tragic result that come of that sort of situation where Cisco was involved in the arrest of a former executive who happened to be suing them at the time.
The influence of business over government is damaging to the rest of the world. And this only seems to be getting worse.
...to boycott it to a sufficient degree. Unless Google pulls a facebook on paypal.
_ there are already under heavy fire + it is not friendly. Hotfile, rapidshare etc. are deleting probably more files than they get uploads. You pay them for file hosting + file sharing. They don't bill you for files and they don't say the files are legal. But a word about the phrase "... by selling music without paying artists, songwriters or producers for their work." from the artical above. A Artist, songwriter + producer, the creative, gets under 10 per cent of every record/cd sell. The music industries revenue is 90 per cent.
This is the force that harassed Ian Puddick http://www.ianpuddick.com/?p=492 and withheld evidence from IPCC over the death of Ian Tomlinson http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/09/ian-tomlinson-evidence-held-back
Having worked in the City Of London, I can tell you that all they are good for is helping drunk Bankers find the way back to Liverpool Street Station for the last train home.
You're kidding, right? Both Rapidshare and Megaupload have been sued, and the former was ordered by a court to pay a fine.
But there's an huge difference between offering personal file hosting and selling identified music files. The latter can't allege ignorance about the contents of the file.
Dilbert RSS feed
Ain't there something fucking better for the London Police to do, like I don't know, maybe the financial terrorists.
So, I'm an independent artist whose music was sampled on a Top 10 hit. I go to PayPal and the police and say, "Hey, here is my song and my copyright. Stop these people from selling my property." You know what the answer is going to be? "Sorry, sir. That's a civil matter, move along."
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
In fact, Paypal is famous for suspending peoples' accounts for 180 days when they have a large balance, for example.
If you're doing such a large transaction volume that PayPal will start holding funds, you can probably afford a real Internet merchant account with a bank.
Really? [citation needed]
Why do I keep seeing Pornographic Industry?
So I am guessing, that under this arrangement, the big music publishers will not be required to show they have ownership or authority over any specific works at all
Even if the alleged infringer countersues for slander of title?
I suspect it will only be their word that infringement is occurring
Not necessarily. For any given song by an independent songwriter, I suspect the incumbent music publishers will be able to dig up an older song that the songwriter is likely to have heard back in grade school. For example, after it was discovered that George Harrison had accidentally reused four measures from "He's So Fine" in his song "My Sweet Lord", Harrison lost a lawsuit for roughly a million dollars. Yet Lady Gaga gets away with reusing much more of that: four measures from "Waterfalls" and six from "Express Yourself" in "Born This Way".
"are deleting probably more files than they get uploads"
So, not only are they deleting every single file somebody uploads, they also delete a random system file once in a while?
Then what's the alternative to the online trading venue run by PayPal's parent company, famous for its auction-style listings? This venue banned Google Checkout last time I checked.
It's been quite the trend lately to have bankers police their customers. While it's perhaps excusable to want that for want of other ways to poke at criminal governments like, oh, various crackpot dictators around the word, it goes a bit far to employ it as a weapon in yet another war on stuff. To say nothing about lack of due process, innocent citizens becoming colateral damage has no way of redress, something you at least have a fleeting chance of with the regular judicial system. That or you have to be somewhat known in the blogosphere for a cause good enough to spark outrage.
That is to say, this isn't very democratic or much about justice at all. We ought to stop having anybody but the police act like the police. We might need laws to enforce that.
A long time ago, at an installation far, far away...
It is a time of intra-system war, as forces of the User Alliance
struggle to break the iron grip of the evil Admin Empire. Now, striking
from a hidden directory, they win their first victory.
During the battle, User spies manage to snarf source of the Empire's
ultimate weapon; the dreaded "rm-star", a privileged root program with the
power to destroy an entire file system at a keystroke.
To be continued...
Not every newspaper, certainly - the Guardian didn't, despite Rebecca Brooks' attempts to smear them to a parlimentary committee. Also I'm not aware of any evidence the other papers interfered with police investigations in the same way as the News of the World did, and they certainly didn't have the same close ties to the Government.
I know paypal is a private company and can do business with anyone they please, or not do business... But still, f-em for trying to impose their concepts of morality on their customers.
If they want to ban *convicted* criminals, sure.. but *suspected*.. they can kiss my business good bye.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
As long as this stuff is happening ( and being driven by ) in the private sector, there is no requirement of proof.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Guido Fawkes Blog
Handy graph for you showing the number of offences the Information Commissioners Office recorded for each of the papers. You can verify the numbers yourself via the ICO's website.
Ironic that Paypal should be looking to starve others of funds, I boycot Paypay for NOT being a bank*, for taking money from users accounts depending on what the weather is, for their disgraceful terms and conditions which affect your privacy and give them the right to do what they like, and generally getting away with scummy anti-competitive practices. The consumer councils here do not want to take on Paypal, and as people might of noticed in the recent news, the UK police are institutionally corrupt.
Two can play the game of cutting off money supply, and from my perspective, I hurt far more companies than Paypal, and have no sympathy for their "only pay" or "must pay" using Paypal", for example Ebay,
Two fingers to the RIAA and MPAA, should have sold recent music / films, not the garbage you've been rolling out for years. Your industry is dying, don't expect me to prop it up. Time to find your coke fund from somewhere else.
*Basing yourself in a European country with the least regulations to get away with what they do to users.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
They most certainly did. Here's a helpful graph for you that shows the number of offenses by each paper as recorded by the Information Commissioners Office: Guido Fawkes Blog
Whilst not on the same scale as the Trinitiy Mirror group the Guardian Media Group are in the same ballpark as News International when compared to the overall number of offenses.
The Guardian are famous for their holier than though, do as we say not as we do, approach to their reporting. For example they campaign consistently against tax evasion yet the Guardian Group itself has used numerous loopholes to avoid taxes, using the same mechanisms they criticise others for using.
What you're witnessing in the media and politics at the moment is a bunch of hypocritical self servers sniping at their competitors and idealogical enemies totally disregarding their own failings and involvement in the same or similar activities. They're all at it, the entire establishment is corrupt, and they all have their own agendas that they're trying to advance.
...recognize illegal sales. Only allow a numeric value to be placed with the product description. No matter what, nobody can claim copyrighted material has been transferred.
There has. You just had to work for eBay to know about it.
Short answer: Those with the fattest wallets speak the loudest. They basically have the same claim as any other ISP, and have DMCA takedown provisions, so eBay has very little incentive to take action. RapidShare/Megaupload also send their own DMCA takedowns on resellers of their services to eBay/PayPal.
What this is more likely aimed at are the loads of russian and chinese sites that basically do nothing but sell the mp3's they got off Napster back in 2002, winmx, emule, piratebay, etc. Many of these sites are thinly disguised as ringtone sites.
Longer answer: Europe's copyright has a much stronger burden of proof and frequently Germany is the wet blanket resulting in inaction. Paypal/eBay Europe is based out of Germany. France has the weakest burden of proof and is the loudest barking dog when it comes to copyright. So trying to get something taken down in Europe is an extreme pain in the arse. What's actually happening here is that instead of going after the sites, they are going directly after their PayPal accounts since they can basically claim fraud and win. This will just cause them to go back to Western Union, and eGold, but very few lazy pirates use these.
As for the file directdownload share sites. Facebook is frequently abused for picture and video sharing.
"Paypal joins London Police efforts"... Does that mean that PayPal will entertain in activities like harassing and arresting people for taking pictures, brutally beating innocent bystanders for being in the wrong place, murdering dark-skinned foreigners on the tube and then sell information to Murdoch? Bring on the letter bombs!
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
It's a good idea. It's much more sensible for London police officers to take their regular payments from tabloid journalists via PayPal. The alternative - frequently meeting up in a dodgy pub to hand over an envelope of used bank notes - is just an big inconvienence for everybody concerned.
So long, PayPal.
Have gnu, will travel.
Fuckers
that those trying to pay via paypal will still be responsible for their charges, which paypal will conveniently keep, until this whole thing is resolved, or h_ll freezes over? Which ever comes first.
We need sound money and anonymous ways to complete transactions remotely.
Because Power is Fun. This will be more Power, and so Paypal can have more fun.
We laughed at the "Tin Foil Hat" guys too long - now the real news stories are putting the xFiles to shame, minus the supernatural parts.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
It makes some sense, next time don't be afraid to post under ur username... Fileserve membership accepts Paypal and the main credit cards. As far as I know, this website hosts copyrighted movies. I've also seen the DMCA link but surely their Admin must know that when a 700 MB file has been uploaded, then there's a fat chance it's an Xvid or Divx movie.
And here is the unrealted post of a decentralized alternative that ain't so popular to many.
Get a secondary account, always keep the funds in it limited.
Yeah, it's a bit of a pain. Especially if your primary bank automatically ties accounts so you can't limit the secondary account unless you open the account in another bank.
Computer memory is just fancy paper, CPUs just fancy pens with fancy erasers; the 'net is just a fancy backyard fence.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
-- Benito Mussolini
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Hawala is better than Paypal
http://www.nagaiah.com/