TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Police in File-Sharing Raids Across Europe, WikiLeaks Host Targeted
- ISP Hits Back At U2 Manager’s Billion Dollar Piracy Bonanza Claims
- ISP Liability For Infringement Nuked, ACTA Leak Reveals
- Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
| Police in File-Sharing Raids Across Europe, WikiLeaks Host Targeted Posted: 07 Sep 2010 03:03 AM PDT Police in up to 14 countries around Europe have coordinated to carry out raids against suspected file-sharing servers this morning. Locations in The Netherlands, Czech Republic and Hungary were targeted but Sweden appears to have borne the brunt of the action. Seven locations including PRQ, which hosts WikiLeaks, have been raided. This morning news is coming in which indicates that very significant raids against illicit file-sharing are taking place in locations across Europe. Police in up to 14 European countries are said to be involved in an operation, said to be in the planning for two years, targeting the Warez Scene, the network of individuals and servers at the top of the so-called ‘Piracy Pyramid’. Details are scarce at the moment, but it is believed that at the behest of Belgian authorities, raids have gone ahead in The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Hungary and Sweden. Not unusually, Sweden appears to have borne the brunt of the activity with a total of seven locations raided including Stockholm, Malmö, Umeå, Eskilstuna and Solna. Armed with IP addresses, this morning police officers turned up at the Solna premises of PRQ, the company that in part hosts WikiLeaks.There is no suggestion that the controversial whistle-blowing site is connected to the operation. “At 9:00 this morning, five policemen were here,” explained PRQ’s Mikael Viberg. “They were interested in who were using two IP addresses from 2009 and onwards. We have no records of our clients but we’re handing over the e-mail addresses for those behind the IPs. However, it’s rare that our clients have mail addresses that are traceable.” This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Update: Swedish Prosecutor Frederick Ingblad told Swedish news outlet Expressen.se, “I can confirm that [this operation] is not about Wikileaks.” Update 2: Thus far, four people are said to be being questioned on suspicion of breaching copyright law. Servers and computers have been seized in Sweden. Update 3:Police raided the Umeå University. Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ISP Hits Back At U2 Manager’s Billion Dollar Piracy Bonanza Claims Posted: 07 Sep 2010 01:17 AM PDT Last month, outspoken manager of U2 Paul McGuinness penned a piece titled "How to Save The Music Industry". Among other things, McGuinness suggested that ISPs were unlikely to help the music industry in their battle against illegal file-sharing since they are the ones benefiting from the "multi-billion dollar bonanza" it has generated. UK ISP Entanet are not happy. Beginning with a recollection of 19th-century composer Ernest Bourget’s dismay at hearing an orchestra playing one of his own compositions in a restaurant without permission (and subsequently leaving without paying his bill in retaliation), it was a typical and now regular anti-filesharing piece from McGuinness. We are living in an era when “free” is decimating the music industry, but while those who make our music are having the lifeblood sucked from them, others are profiting handsomely, the U2 manager argues. “Yet for the world’s internet service providers, bloated by years of broadband growth, ‘free music’ has become a multi-billion dollar bonanza,” says McGuinness. Internet service provider Entanet took exception to his comments and last night responded. After earlier telling Bono to “Stick To Singing“, they are now suggesting that McGuinness should stick to what he knows best – the music. “Considering Mr. McGuinness proudly informs us he has been debating on this issue for two years, he seems to totally misunderstand the reasons behind broadband customers' demand for better broadband speeds and equally doesn't understand the current facilities available on the Internet,” writes Entanet's head of marketing, Darren Farnden. Farnden argues that most broadband customers want faster speeds in order to enjoy better performance on legal services such as online gaming, YouTube, iPlayer, iTunes and VoIP, and slams McGuinness for suggesting people just want to pirate more efficiently. “It is simply naive to suggest that customers' desire for faster broadband and more bandwidth is driven solely by a desire to cheat music rights holders out of their royalties through illegal file sharing,” said Farnden. “Furthermore, without legal services such as iTunes music sales would undeniably decrease. Does Mr. McGuinness want to close down this distribution model that has proven to contribute positively to music sales? Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face!” McGuinness further provokes ISPs by stating, as if they are somehow responsible for the actions of others, that “their free-music bonanza has got to stop”. This can be achieved, he says, by ISPs entering into commercial partnerships to offer unlimited music via streaming services and “taking proportionate responsible steps” to stop customers sharing unauthorized music. But ISPs are not the Internet police, they are mere conduits of information, writes Farnden, while questioning why yet again the emphasis is being put on ISPs to solve someone else’s problem. “It's about time the music industry took responsibility for its own revenues and embraced the new distribution models available instead of trying to shut them down!” he concludes. But of course, McGuinness recognizes that ISPs aren’t going to fight someone else’s battle voluntarily and his solution is, predictably for the music industry, the use of lawyers. “Some things have got to come with the force of legislation.” Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ISP Liability For Infringement Nuked, ACTA Leak Reveals Posted: 06 Sep 2010 11:22 AM PDT According to yet another leaked draft of the highly controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), participating countries will no longer be obliged to impose secondary liability on Internet Service Providers for copyright infringements carried out by their customers. Other harsh measures to counter copyright infringement are still in place. The level of secrecy which surrounds ACTA, the developing international agreement that aims to target piracy and counterfeiting globally, is unprecedented. It took nearly two years for negotiators to release a heavily redacted draft to the public, but by that time citizens were already fairly well informed having gathered information from previously leaked documents. Bypassing U.S. opposition to the release of an official text, last night yet another draft leaked out, published by Knowledge Ecology International. The draft contains details on the round of ACTA negotiations which took place last month in the United States. Notable in the 29 page draft titled ‘Consolidated Text, Reflects Changes Made During the August [Washington] DC Round’ are changes to Section 4 – Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Environment. With the relevant texts having been removed from earlier drafts, it appears that countries will no longer be required to impose secondary liability for infringements onto their ISPs. Previously, ISPs would be held liable for the copyright infringements of their customers when they failed to respond swiftly to ‘notice and takedown’ requests from copyright holders. Although dropping the ISP liability paragraphs could be seen as a step in the right direction, there are still various strict ‘anti-infringement’ measures in place. The countries that sign up to ACTA are being asked to provide relevant authorities with the power to order ISPs to hand over the identities of customers suspected of infringing copyright to rights holders on the presentation of a “sufficient claim of infringement”. Countries are also required to provide “remedies to prevent infringement and remedies which constitute a deterrent to further infringement” along with enforcement procedures which address “technologies that can be used to facilitate widespread infringement”. Although the text is open to interpretation, it opens the door to all kinds of filtering systems that may be used to block websites which are deemed illegal, a measure that is high up on the ACTA wish list of anti-piracy groups. Participants are further encouraged to “promote cooperative efforts within the business community to effectively address infringement” while preserving “legitimate competition”, “freedom of expression, fair process and privacy”. According to an analysis by Michael Geist, the anti-circumvention (DRM-breaking) provisions are still on the table. “There is general agreement on a broad provision that largely mirrors the WIPO Internet treaties in calling for ‘adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures.’ If the obligation were to end there, the provision would simply ensure that all ACTA countries establish anti-circumvention rules, with all the flexibility that WIPO allows,” Geist explains. However, the United States wants to go further – time will tell if they get their way. Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent Posted: 06 Sep 2010 09:30 AM PDT The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, 'Robin Hood' tops the chart this week, followed by 'Iron Man 2'. 'The Expendables' completes the top three.
The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are DVDrips unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.
Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This week there are four newcomers in the list. Robin Hood is the most downloaded movie on BitTorrent this week.| You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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