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Wikileaks Cable Shows US Involvement in Swedish Anti-Piracy Efforts Posted: 07 Dec 2010 02:29 PM PST A yet to be released cable from the US Embassy in Stockholm will reveal that the United States Government was very concerned about file-sharing related issues in Sweden. The US Embassy actively worked with the Swedish authorities to reduce file-sharing related threats, which included The Pirate Bay which was raided in 2006 following US pressure. It is no secret that the US Government has been actively involved in copyright enforcement in other countries, including Sweden. After the raid on The Pirate Bay’s servers in 2006, it became clear that the US had threatened to put Sweden on the WTO's black list if they refused to deal with the Pirate Bay problem. But that was not the end of the ‘collaboration’ between the US and Sweden on this front. According to an unreleased US Embassy cable in possession of Swedish Television, the US pressure on Sweden to deal with file-sharing issues continued in the years that followed. In the cable, which dates back to 2008, the US Embassy presented a list of six items that they wanted to see addressed, all related to online copyright infringement. A year later, five of these six items were indeed turned into action, including the appointment of more copyright police and prosecutors, backed up by educational anti-piracy campaigns. Of course, the Pirate Bay wasn’t left unmentioned in this cable either. The cable writer mentions that it was hard for the Embassy to get openly involved in piracy related issues, because most of the press coverage was unfavorable towards the copyright industry. “After the raid on The Pirate Bay on May 31, 2006, the issue of internet piracy was fiercely debated in Sweden. Press coverage was largely, and still is, unfavorable to the positions taken by the rights-holders and the United States Government,” the cable reads. “The Pirate Bay raid was portrayed as the Government of Sweden caving in to United States Government pressure. This delicate situation made it difficult, if not counter-productive, for the Embassy to play a public role in IPR issues,” it adds. Excerpt from the cable In a response to the revelations, Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask denied that Sweden ever responded to pressure from the US Government. She hinted that the cable writer was making these remarks just to get a better payday. Former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde was surprised about the leaked cable, although the fact that the US put pressure on the Swedish Government was not that new to him. “We all knew for a long while that the US was behind the raid and pressured Sweden, but that they’re still doing it was news to us,” Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak. “And that the Minster of Justice just says that the cable writer is lying ‘to get a higher salary’ shows that she doesn’t even care if her government is corrupt.” The cable in question has not been published by Wikileaks yet, but is expected to be released in the near future. This, and other cables, are likely to add more insight into the backroom deals related to file-sharing and copyright issues. Article from: TorrentFreak.

Anti-Piracy Campaign Clothes, Now For Babies Posted: 07 Dec 2010 10:54 AM PST IRIS Distribution has just launched an anti-piracy campaign which it says is designed to push music ownership and support for the artists that create it. Aimed directly at kids, the 'I Share Everything But My Music' promotion features artwork depicting a stubborn non-sharing rabbit and, as perhaps expected, a thief-inspired racoon. Hoping to catch children early, the anti-piracy message is even available on baby clothes. Educating the most easily influenced members of society is what our world is built upon, so it comes as little surprise that when planning for the future, guiding the youth in a particular direction is a useful strategy. Over the last few years, in an attempt to force reductions in illicit file-sharing, movie and music groups have targeted young adults and children with a broad spectrum of anti-piracy campaigns. At the brutal end of the scale is the climate of fear generated by targeting the teenage inhabitants of colleges and universities in the United States with lawsuits and the more recent threat of reduced funding. Somewhere in the middle lie schemes such as the one behind "Escape From Terror Byte City", the MPAA-created book which tells the story of two young boys who attempt to download the latest Transformers movie from a file-sharing website but, naturally, everything goes terribly wrong for them. Others have targeted even younger children, and sometimes in not entirely straightforward manner either, such as when EMI went undercover in 2009 to promote music in schools but were revealed to have an anti-piracy agenda. This week sees the launch of a new anti-piracy campaign, this time created by digital distribution company IRIS Distribution and the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM). The “I Share Everything But My Music” promotion features artwork by illustrator and animator S Britt, as seen below. “Copyright awareness doesn't have to be heavy-handed; it boils down to supporting the artists that create the music we love," said Bryn Boughton, Co-Founder and CMO of IRIS Distribution. "IRIS Distribution has over 700 independent label clients, so we are intensely concerned with helping them sustain their artists' recording careers. S. Britt helped us create something fun that people will want to buy for the kids in their lives, and at the same time, promotes music ownership.” The artwork is indeed eye-catching and very kid-friendly, but obviously the animals were chosen to provoke a response in children, a point not lost on Hypebot. “The campaign is a cutesy way to start the conversation about music piracy with kids,” they wrote today. “But does the rabbit seem a little conceited? Does the raccoon resemble a thief? And if that orange is an MP3, the rabbit appears too stuck-up to take it.” The kid’s t-shirts are available from ShareShirts, either on their own or bundled with a couple of children’s albums – Kimya Dawson's Alphabutt and Kids Songs: Sing and Learn Activities. But while even the RIAA tends to stop at 4 year-olds, IRIS go even further – with anti-piracy clothes for babies. While this fairly gentle campaign from IRIS can hardly be compared with those generated by the RIAA, one has to wonder if it will enjoy any more success than any of the other initiatives in recent years, especially when they are continually set back by things such as thoughtless music rights issues that negatively affect children. Maybe you think you could do better? Perhaps you’d like to see an alternative message displayed on your own version of ShareShirts? There’s a full size image available here – feel free to put your remixes or fresh designs in the comments. Article from: TorrentFreak.

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