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Google and Apple Order Telegram To Nuke Channel Over Taylor Swift Piracy (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the policing-things dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Instant messaging client Telegram has for the first time blocked access to an entire channel following pressure from Google and Apple. A channel, called Any Suitable Pop, was found distributing copyright infringed copies of songs from Taylor Swift's new album 'Reputation'. It's understood that following complaints from Universal Music, Google and Apple ordered Telegram to take action.

37 comments

  1. What? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    Did someone warn people in southern England and northern France?

    And since when does Google and Apple have nukes?!

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:What? by grumpy_old_grandpa · · Score: 1

      > And since when does Google and Apple have nukes?!

      Between them, they could buy Academi's private army (formerly better known as Blackwater) many thousand times over. So yeah, the next logical step would be nukes. I hear there's a buyer's market in the streets around Kremlin.

  2. Re:GNAA GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA FELCH CU by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 0, Troll

    Do you know what's funny? The text of your posts are displayed as BLACK ON WHITE.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  3. Really? by boudie2 · · Score: 0

    Think you lost everyone at Taylor Swift. She's got all the talent and sex appeal of a stick of linguine.

    1. Re:Really? by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1

      Think you lost everyone at Taylor Swift. She's got all the talent and sex appeal of a stick of linguine.

      I don't know give her a little more credit than that. Seems that at least she can count while acting out her music vids and putting down the tracks. She must have at least had some couching from musicians even if she can or can't read a lead sheet line. She has a pleasant face, a sense of timing, can carry a tune or at least seems to rely less on autotune than most of the other new faces out there.

      Sure what she is putting out is hyped up over produced bubble gum oriented "pop" but how the hell else do you expect the industry to survive these days? If it were not for the endless parade of fresh faced stars showing up on youtube, muchmusic and the other industry factory outlets the whole pop music industry would simply implode and revert to artists having to have enough real talent to be able to perform well enough to have live audiences want to hear them. As it is the stage end of rock and pop has also turned into a show not an actual musical performance. Without the money to back the stage work and cost of live performance most of today's so called "song stylists" would not stand a chance on a stage without expensive presentation gimmicks provided by the production companies sponsored by mega corps like Universal. So think of the dollars spent to produce a Taylor Swift show and then you have the answer as to why the situation with the industry is the way it is.

      I wish her the best for making it as far as she has and who knows she might progress to a level where what she does reach above the need for the glitz if she studies the craft and works hard.

      --
      This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
    2. Re:Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      She must have at least had some couching from musicians even if she can or can't read a lead sheet line. She has a pleasant face, a sense of timing, can carry a tune or at least seems to rely less on autotune than most of the other new faces out there.

      Who is going to be the Harvey Weinstein of pop? I bet Simon Cowell.

    3. Re:Really? by boudie2 · · Score: 1

      I don't think she needs your best wishes. According to google, she's worth about $300 million. Now I like her even less.

    4. Re:Really? by Gregg+M · · Score: 2

      She's pretty, talented, and rich.

      But F^@& her if she doesn't want us stealing her music!!!!

      --
      Linux is only free if your time has no value. Windows is only free if you threaten to use Linux.
    5. Re:Really? by Arzaboa · · Score: 2

      I wouldn't know who this was if her music hadn't been shared outside of the ToS.

      --
      Who are you? - The Who

    6. Re:Really? by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1

      She must have at least had some couching from musicians even if she can or can't read a lead sheet line. She has a pleasant face, a sense of timing, can carry a tune or at least seems to rely less on autotune than most of the other new faces out there.

      Who is going to be the Harvey Weinstein of pop? I bet Simon Cowell.

      Woohoo that was one hell of a Freudian slip!!! LOL At least she keeps time with her movements and actions so there has been some coaching no doubt. If she writes at all then I give her kudos even if her lyrics and music is essentially bubble gum pseudo country pop at least she knows where her bread is buttered. It is easy to forget that some very talented performers can also be very talented writers, we will see if she matures and moves on eventually beyond the genre that has her stereo typed as a single generational "pop" artist.

      I won't but many of her fans will see if she has enough talent to overcome her generational stereo type and does not wind up in 40 years doing her schtick for what will then be a Las Vegas geritol crowd, like so many other so called "song stylists" of the pop industry have done. If she has no talent then all she will have achieved is creating an audience who wants to here the same shit over and over again. But there are a great many of my generation who get high enough on geritol mixed with bourbon to pay to hear the same shit over and over again in Las Vegas so if she has the staying power then I am sure she will still be on stage because it is obvious that she is a performer.

      --
      This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
  4. Oh well, so much for that by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Another one bites the dust.. Is there any safe system that can't be censored??

    On the other hand, they should have kept the thread private. Whoops!

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:Oh well, so much for that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fuckkin nerds think they're owed..CENSARSHIP!!!...fukkin loser

  5. Re:Tylor Swift.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fuck you Trump guys are retarded. It's Taylor. Tyler is your boyfriend.

  6. so google and apple control the net now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    because everything has been "app-ified", they can just threaten to delete an app off billions of devices if you don't play along with whatever they demand?

    fuck that.

    1. Re:so google and apple control the net now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They are now giving the orders that the government used to give. Pay up, citizen!

    2. Re:so google and apple control the net now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually it's more likely because Google and Apple both now serve huge music catalogs for buying or streaming, and in their agreements with the people licensing them that music, it's probably pretty starkly clear that if they have apps in the app ecosystem that are facilitating infringement, that it's in Google and Apple's corporate interest to keep those off their services otherwise the music owners might start pulling their licenses from their services.

      The only reason it affects Telegram is because it is offered through the app stores. If it wasn't, Google and Apple would have no sway over them.

    3. Re:so google and apple control the net now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The irony that Google and Apple are nuking an entire *channel* of internet communication over the contents of a fraction of its usage for allegedly unlawful purposes, without a court order, as a subsequent headline to the controversial intersection of net neutrality and bittorrent blocking, is pretty rich.

    4. Re:so google and apple control the net now? by swillden · · Score: 1

      they can just threaten to delete an app off billions of devices if you don't play along with whatever they demand?

      I don't know about Apple, but Google's Play Store can't delete apps from your phone. They could pull the app from the store and not distribute new downloads, or updates, but not remove it from devices that already have it.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  7. Nuked because of Taylor Swift piracy? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    She’s already got hundreds of millions of dollars - why is she so greedy that she turns to piracy? How much money does the girl need?

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    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Nuked because of Taylor Swift piracy? by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh cute, you're assuming the artist gives a shit as opposed to some militant bottom feeding "every streamed copy is a lost sale" middleman.

    2. Re:Nuked because of Taylor Swift piracy? by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      wooosh

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    3. Re:Nuked because of Taylor Swift piracy? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      I thought about adding an ‘s but then it wouldn’t have quite matched the story title.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    4. Re:Nuked because of Taylor Swift piracy? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      In order to wooosh you need an obvious pun, not something that looks quote common on modern Slashdot: Sheer and utter ignorance.

    5. Re:Nuked because of Taylor Swift piracy? by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Give a man a shovel and he'll dig himself a hole.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  8. wha? by wardrich86 · · Score: 1

    Were they threatening to remove the app from the store? Telegram should offer a separate app via sideload that is uncensored. Also, are the Telegram rooms hosted in the US? Why do they have to abide by US Laws?

    1. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Were they threatening to remove the app from the store?

      Probably Universal Music just told Apple and Google that an App they are spreading via their App stores was "facilitating piracy". And since it their environments are walled gardens over which Apple and Google have full control, Universal considers Apple and Google to be facilitating piracy if they do not stop it.

      Considering the slippery slope regarding copyright enforcement regulations* we have been on for years, this is a point of view that will likely stick in the courts by now.

      *15-20 years ago, the idea that anyone but the party actually hosting and spreading illegal content was responsible, was considered ridiculous.
      Back then putting up a link to such content was just as illegal as telling someone that the local drug dealers can be found behind the central train station.

    2. Re:wha? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Telegram should offer a separate app via sideload that is uncensored

      This, to be honest.
      If there are things that potentially cause issues for the company, move it to a sideloaded child-app. It solves SO MANY issues and still keeps the service up.
      Just have a warning of "content in these channels are not moderated by us or by law and may be illegal, click OK to confirm" and boom, legally in the clear even in backwards places.

  9. Proof of Extortion ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do they have proof of extortion by Google and Apple or is this all just a made up pile of bullshit?

    If they have proof then they should sue.

    If they do not have proof they should shut the fuck up, since they have no balls to go with their lack of brains.

  10. Of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In his last X-factor, IIRC, he was coach for the teen girl groups... In France.

  11. This is why all my Android apps... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come off F-Droid.

    I have yet to find a device I couldn't side-load it on out of the box, and while it can install better apps when rooted (notably firewall and other things needed to protect you from apps phoning home), the majority work on any stock android distro. Some all the way back to the android 2.3 era or older, most to the android 4.x series, and some now requiring 5 or 6 due to configuration/security setting API changes that otherwise break them.

    Best part: It is all free/open source apps, some of them open source apps otherwise available on the google app store, but including telemetry or advertising in their gapps distributed form.

  12. Am I the only one here old enough by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    to remember swapping binaries over mIRC and the like? This is like that. It's a chat client and it looks like it lets you send binaries and folks were passing MP3s. What makes it odd is that the company making the app can ban channels. I would've thought it'd all be P2P.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  13. Re:Tylor Swift.... by argumentsockpuppet · · Score: 1

    I thought she had gained some serious computer security cred?

    https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSec...

    And she's already mentioned this very issue:
    https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSec...