Thursday, November 11, 2010

TorrentFreak Email Update

TorrentFreak Email Update

Man Fined For Publishing Links To Legal Sports Broadcast

Posted: 11 Nov 2010 02:46 AM PST

A man who linked to two hockey games streamed live by broadcaster Canal Plus has been found guilty of copyright infringement. The 32 year-old found unprotected direct URL links to the games on the channel's official website which would ordinarily cost money to view. A District Court decided that publishing those links on his forum amounted to an infringement of copyright.

In 2007, a man from the coastal town of Söderhamn in east-central Sweden drew the attention of TV channel Canal Plus. The 32 year-old ran a forum where fans could participate in chats about live hockey games, games ordinarily broadcast for a fee by Canal Plus.

However, due to the way the Canal Plus service was structured, it proved trivial for anyone to watch the games free of charge if they knew the direct URL. The problem here is that Canal Plus simply handed over the URLs to people who paid for the matches but since they were completed unprotected, people passed them onto friends. Making matters worse, at the time Canal Plus used the same URL time and again for all its hockey streams.

So, on two occasions in October and November 2007, at times when it was confirmed that approximately 25 people were using the fan site’s live chat facility, the man posted the URLs of the streams to his forum. Canal Plus were not amused.

In the summons against the man, Canal Plus called his actions “an assault on the entire operations of pay TV services on the Internet” and that by publishing links to the streams broadcast openly from the Canal Plus website he had illegally made them available to the public.

Yesterday, and despite Canal Plus being completely unable to show that anyone at all had clicked the links or viewed the streams, the Hudiksvall District Court found the man who posted the links guilty of copyright infringement. He was fined 3,500 kronor ($520) and ordered to pay 11,780 kronor ($1,747) in compensation to Canal Plus.

Although the fines may be almost laughably small by United States standards, this decision by the District Court has the potential to send shivers down the spine of anyone running a website who links to a media source, even when provided by an official outlet but not in accordance with their wishes.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

uTorrent Apps Arrive, Plus Free Movies and Privacy Features

Posted: 10 Nov 2010 11:04 AM PST

The uTorrent team has rolled out the stable release of uTorrent 2.2 today. The highly anticipated release is the first to open up BitTorrent's App Studio to uTorrent's 65 million users and introduces optimized proxy privacy settings. To emphasize the collaboration with independent artists, the launch of uTorrent 2.2 coincides with a promotion of the free-to-download film 'Four Eyed Monsters'.

utorrent appsBitTorrent Inc. has been very active with the development of uTorrent this year. Among other things, the company pushed out two experimental clients (codenamed Falcon and Griffin) from where new features were tested in public. One of the most discussed features has been uTorrent’s support for Apps.

BitTorrent Apps is a web-based extensions framework to add new functionality without compromising the lightness of the core BitTorrent client. Similar to other apps, addons and extensions in today's web browsers and phones, the Javascript-based Apps allow 3rd party developers to create applications that will integrate seamlessly with the client. They can be added to the client with a single click and are displayed using an embedded browser window.

Initially the Apps were only been available to a relatively small group of uTorrent users who downloaded the experimental 'Griffin' client. In September this test audience was expanded to the users of BitTorrent Inc’s Mainline client, and today the “Apps Studio” is made available to all uTorrent users, 65 million in total. The release of uTorrent 2.2 includes the Apps Studio and comes with a handful of Apps that are approved by BitTorrent, but users can also install unofficial Apps such as the EZTV one we featured previously.

One of the official Apps that are included is that of VODO, a platform where independent filmmakers share their work for free. To celebrate the fact that Apps are now bundled with uTorrent, VODO is releasing two new films today – 'Four Eyed Monsters' and ‘Snowblind‘. For the producers of these films, BitTorrent provides an opportunity to have their works seen by millions of people without having to worry about distribution problems.

"The barriers to filmmaking have fallen, but the gates around distribution through traditional TV, theatrical and video-on-demand remain locked," says Arin Crumley, creator and star of '>Four Eyed Monsters'. "With a user base of over 80 million [Mainline included], BitTorrent is exposing our film to an audience larger than many television networks and fostering a direct connection between audiences and filmmakers.”

“The creators who embrace this modern approach will encourage a new culture of audiences who support the production of movies they want to see and help distribute the ones in which they fall in love," Crumley added.

Aside from the ‘Apps Studio’ and the release of the films through VODO, uTorrent 2.2 has several other features and enhancements in store. The skinning format which allows users to change the look of the client has been renewed, the client is now able to move files if you change the download location of a file, and there is now an add torrent dialog for magnet links.

On the privacy side there are also several much needed and demanded improvements. First of all, there was a huge security leak for the users of some proxy services. uTorrent users broadcasted their real IP-address instead of the secure one when they were connected to an UDP tracker (most proxy operators warned their users about this). This has now been fixed in the latest stable release. In addition, the latest release makes it easier for users of proxies to configure their client so they are indeed anonymous.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

European Commissioner Lambasts ‘Copyright Middlemen’

Posted: 10 Nov 2010 06:12 AM PST

European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes has warned copyright middlemen and content gatekeepers that they risk being sidelined. The restrictive systems they have set up irritate the public and leave "a vacuum which is served by illegal content," said Kroes, who added that a new approach to copyright is the answer. One which looks beyond "corporatist self-interest".

kroes digiAt the Forum d’Avignon – Les rencontres internationales de la culture, de l'économie et des médias (International meetings of culture, economy and media) last Friday, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes gave a very interesting speech on how the preservation of culture is being restricted by rights-holders.

“Borders are now crossed more easily than ever before in history. It is a great opportunity for artists and creators of all kinds, as art has no limits but those of our minds,” said Kroes. “Art enriches itself by eliminating artificial barriers between people such as borders between countries.”

The breaking down of borders is made even easier these days, largely thanks to the planet’s most powerful tool for dissemination – the Internet. But the free flow of information – of culture – is a problem to those whose businesses rely on controlling where and how it is accessed.

But, Kroes says that thanks to the Internet revolution, these “content gatekeepers and intermediaries” are in a vulnerable position, referring to the many organizations that exploit and defend copyright for corporate interests.

“Like it or not, content gatekeepers risk being sidelined if they do not adapt to the needs of both creators and consumers of cultural goods,” she warned.

While noting that copyright has proven itself historically as a system capable of getting money to artists, it can also be a frustration to those wishing to preserve culture.

Referring to the “digital wonder” of those digitising cultural works for the Europeana portal, Kroes worries about the huge problem of obtaining permissions and licensing for 20th century items, media which is tied up in complex legal frameworks and managed by rights-holders.

“Today our fragmented copyright system is ill-adapted to the real essence of art, which has no frontiers. Instead, that system has ended up giving a more prominent role to intermediaries than to artists,” said Kroes.

“It irritates the public who often cannot access what artists want to offer and leaves a vacuum which is served by illegal content, depriving the artists of their well deserved remuneration. And copyright enforcement is often entangled in sensitive questions about privacy, data protection or even net neutrality.”

Kroes went even further, noting that those who avoid debate – the rights-holders – often do so to protect their vested interests, and instead choose to discuss the issue of copyright on “moralistic terms that merely demonise millions of citizens.”

According to Kroes that approach is unsustainable and the solution lies in copyright reform which looks beyond “national and corporatist self-interest.”

“I will remember artists and citizens with each step forward,” she concludes. “Artists cast light on our world; our job is to let the light shine in.”

Article from: TorrentFreak.
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