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European Parliament Votes on Controversial Anti-Piracy Report
TorrentFreak TV: Suprnova.org Needs Help
US Lawmakers Want to Quash Pirate Websites
Copyright Trolls, Not Just for Patents Anymore

European Parliament Votes on Controversial Anti-Piracy Report

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 04:31 AM PDT

Tomorrow, the European Parliament will vote on the Gallo report that deals with the enforcement of intellectual property. Drafted by a partner of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the report paves the way for draconian anti-piracy measures to be introduced across Europe, potentially affecting the lives of millions of Internet users.

In recent years pro-copyright lobbyists have pushed governments worldwide to adopt harsher anti-piracy legislation. Thus far they’ve booked several successes, with the controversial trade agreement ACTA as the most important victory. But there’s more. Tomorrow the European Parliament will vote on another document that could turn the Internet into a copyright police state.

The Gallo report, named after the French MEP Marielle Gallo, is an initiative report. This means that it’s non-legislative, but that doesn’t make it less dangerous. It functions as advice for all European member states and offers local governments and lobbyists an excuse to push for harsher anti-piracy measures.

Among other things, the report offers advice to "complete the legislative framework to introduce a set of measures to combat intellectual property infringements”. Furthermore, it promotes "voluntary" partnerships between Internet service providers and copyright holders to crackdown on copyright infringers.

The Gallo Report

In its current form the Gallo report paves the way for various draconian anti-piracy measures to be implemented across Europe, such as three-strikes schemes for repeat uploaders. Although this idea is not really new, the voluntary agreements won’t have any governmental oversight and could therefore lead to disconnections without a fair trial.

TorrentFreak spoke with Christian Engstrom, Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party, who is one of the most prominent opponents of the reports. Engstrom told us that the “voluntary” agreements could pose a serious risk, as these "self-regulatory" systems take away fundamental rights such as the right to a fair trial and the right to privacy.

Another problem with the report is that no distinction is made between counterfeiting and unauthorized file-sharing. According to the report, producing counterfeit medicine is the same as sharing copyrighted music online. Much like the entertainment industry commissioned reports that have been published in recent years, the terms counterfeiting and piracy are used interchangeably in the Gallo report, which is misleading to say the least.

MEP Engstrom told TorrentFreak that there is no basis for the report at all and no hard figures to justify these suggestions. The report itself even states that there are still several uncertainties about the impact of online copyright infringement on our society. Still, it makes recommendations that seem to assume that there is a correlation. Instead of passing the report, Engstrom recommends that the European Parliament invests in decent scientific research on the issue.

Engstrom himself is backing an alternative resolution submitted by the Green, Social Democrat and Left groups, which he thinks is more balanced. This alternative mainly targets counterfeiting and leaves online copyright infringement untouched. The main differences between the two reports, and a third alternative, can be found in this overview.

European citizens who are against the report are encouraged to take action today, before it’s too late. La Quadrature Du Net has set up an excellent campaign page with some pointers on who to contact and what to ask for.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

TorrentFreak TV: Suprnova.org Needs Help

Posted: 21 Sep 2010 02:01 AM PDT

The latest episode of TorrentFreak TV covers the return of the legendary Suprnova.org, a film director helping out an accused file-sharer, artists cashing in despite piracy and more. Enjoy.

TorrentFreak TV covers some of the best, most interesting or remarkable stories related to file-sharing. An (ad-free) HD version of this episode is available on EZTV.

Thanks to Mevio for the equipment and the feature on the Tech channel.

Not all episodes will appear on TorrentFreak so please subscribe to one of the feeds below if you don’t want to miss anything. An iTunes feed is available here, and a regular RSS feed here.

As always, we’re looking forward to your commentary. For questions or suggestions, feel free to contact the crew at tv@torrentfreak.com. We encourage contributions from viewers!

Article from: TorrentFreak.

US Lawmakers Want to Quash Pirate Websites

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 01:45 PM PDT

United States lawmakers have proposed new legislation today that would allow the Department of Justice to take over domain names of websites that promote copyright infringement. The proposed bill would allow for court orders against domestic as well as foreign sites, which could potentially shutter many torrent sites including The Pirate Bay.

Earlier this year the Obama administration declared war on Internet piracy and counterfeiting. “Piracy is theft, clean and simple,” Vice President Joe Biden said when he announced the Joint Strategic Plan to combat intellectual property theft.

A week later the U.S. Government took action against nine websites suspected of promoting copyright infringement by seizing their domains. The targets were mostly movie streaming sites, but it later became apparent the The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload had also been considered. They have escaped for now.

Taking the domains of suspected sites has proven to be a highly effective tool to shut down sites that are considered illegal, and today a group of US senators proposed legislation to make this a standard procedure.

If signed into law, the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act” (pdf via TL) would allow the Department of Justice to file a civil lawsuit against the domain owners. If the courts decide that a site is indeed promoting copyright infringement, the DOJ can order the domain registrar to take the domain offline.

“The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act will give the Department of Justice an expedited process for cracking down on these rogue Web sites regardless of whether the Web site’s owner is located inside or outside of the United States,” Senator Orin Hatch said.

According to Senator Hatch the new legislation is needed because the Internet has “become a tool for online thieves to sell counterfeit and pirated goods, making hundreds of millions of dollars off of stolen American intellectual property." When and if the proposed legislation will be signed into law will be decided later.

Aside from the classic ‘pirate’ websites the proposed bill can be an effective tool to take the whistleblower site Wikileaks offline, the domain at least. After all, Wikileaks posted thousands of files that are owned by the United States.

If the proposal is accepted it will change the Internet and how domain names are controlled for good. Thus far, no central Government has the power to take over domains. This power belongs exclusively to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

As if he saw it coming, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom already warned against the legislation that was proposed by US senators today.

“If governance were to become the exclusive province of nation states or captured by any other interests, we would lose the foundation of the Internet’s long-term potential and transformative value,” Beckstrom said last week.

The other interests would be those of the movie studios and record labels in this case.

The MPAA has already applauded the introduction of the bill and offered their full cooperation. “In the coming weeks, we look forward to working with Chairman Leahy and the Senate and House committees to help strengthen the bill,” MPAA’s Bob Pisano said.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

Posted: 20 Sep 2010 05:49 AM PDT

Patent trolls sit on patents and do little with them. These trolls only come out of their caves to enter a court room with the aim of cashing in when they consider someone has infringed on their 'property'. This attitude has now spread to copyright, with artists being sued for infringements on songs that are 20, even 30 years old.

Copyright is often seen as protection for artists and other creative individuals, but more realistically it tends to protect those with the deepest pockets. Even big name artists are now getting hit with copyright violations, and the oft-quoted “what about the artist” mantra is becoming less relevant through the prism of modern day music copyrights. Artists are being sued for using small audio samples in popular works, sometimes even decades after the infringing work was published.

Earlier this year, the Australian rock band Men at Work were ordered to hand over 5% of royalties for their most famous song ‘Down Under’ after a judge ruled that the flute riff in the song was based on 1934 composition ‘Kookaburra’.

Of course, the infringement was so great that no-one noticed until a TV music quiz show brought the idea into peoples heads – 28 years after the song was published. If it really was a large infringement, then it should really have been noticed 28 years and hundreds of thousands of copies earlier – or at the very least when it was performed at the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. But all that time, nobody noticed.

These belated lawsuits are happening more often nowadays, and not just down under. In the US, a company called ‘Drive in Music Company’ (DIM) has been adopting the same sorts of tactics over the last few months. The company sued a slew of people over a Super Bowl advert for Kia, with The Hollywood Reporter listing targets for that one advert alone as "Kia, CBS, the NFL, ad agency David & Goliath, Ninja Tune Records and various other parties".

While that particular suit was filed in a timely fashion, the same outfit has now started on a case that has a strong resemblance to that built against Men at Work. DIM is now claiming infringement on a song that’s old enough to vote.

Cyprus Hill’s ‘How I Could Just Kill a Man’ was released in 1991 as part of a double single as well as their debut album. As with most of their albums, the band uses samples from a number of songs in their own tracks. One of these samples comes from the song ‘Come on In’ by Music Machine that was released in 1966, and that’s the subject of the lawsuit brought on by Drive in Music Company.

The Alleged Infringers

cypress

All existing copies of Cyprus Hill’s self-titled (double platinum) album will be impounded and sales halted if DIM gets its way, and in addition the company wants damages for the losses they suffered.

The reason for the complaint? According to ContactMusic, DIM bosses were alerted to the alleged sampling after seeing copies of the song for sale on Apple’s iTunes. The case against Cypress Hill is not the only suit they’ve filed; a week earlier they filed against Leaders of the New School and Busta Rhymes over samples on another 1991 album, Future Without a Past.

After almost 20 years the only reason for DIM to want to sue now is because it’s potentially profitable. The longer they waited, the better. The Kookaburra precedent (albeit in Australia) helps make their case.

However, leaving the infringement for so long without action may constitute de-facto acceptance and licensing. Especially as, unlike Kookaburra, Cyprus’ use was obvious (so obvious, it’s been referenced on the album’s wiki page for at least 4 years). That said, it is doubtful that this will matter much in a US court where copyrights are treated with a near holy reverence, and infringement of such is treated as a cardinal sin, racking up penalties equivalent to major crimes.

Unless Cyprus can provide a licensing agreement, DIM may get what they want. When the writers of the US Constitution see how the progress clause has been abused, the least they’re likely to say, is "D’oh!”

“Come on In” by Music Machine (1966)

Article from: TorrentFreak.

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