Slashdot Mirror
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.
I'm given to understand that this happens anyway. In fact, Paypal is famous for suspending peoples' accounts for 180 days when they have a large balance, for example. No appeal. So really this isn't news IMO. Yeah ok maybe finally the music industry has cottoned on to the fact that their target should be people who make a living by ripping them off instead of 13 year olds, grandmothers, and cats because after all that's what copyright was originally designed to prevent, but apart from that I just don't see a story.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
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).
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.
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.