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| ISP Wrongfully Sent 300 “First Strike” Letters To Innocents Posted: 17 Jun 2011 10:33 AM PDT
"Eircom is proceeding with implementation of the protocol which could result in the suspension and ultimately disconnection of broadband service for those customers who deliberately and persistently infringe copyright," the company said in a December 2010 statement, reiterating their commitment to the scheme. But little did we know that the fears of “3 strikes” opponents had already come true. From deep inside the “how the hell did the majority of the media miss this department”, it now becomes clear that by October 2010, Eircom had already sent out around 300 warning letters to completely innocent subscribers. The company seems to have tried to play down the error saying that computer clocks were incorrectly adjusted to compensate for daylight saving time, some comfort to the unlucky letter recipients. According to TJ McIntyre at digital rights site EDRI.org, as a result of this failure the Irish Data Protection Commissioner is now investigating the entire Eircom scheme. “The significance of this case goes well beyond simple technical failings however, as the complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has triggered a wider investigation of the legality of the entire three strikes system,” he writes. The DPC is said to be not only investigating the complaint but also “whether the subject matter gives rise to any questions as to the proportionality of the graduated response system operated by Eircom and the music industry.” McIntyre says that when the Eircom/IRMA deal was being agreed, the DPC expressed concerns with it, not least over the question of whether or not IP addresses are personal data. However, until someone raised a complaint, that issue was put on the back burner. The delivery of 300 false “first strike” warning letters appears to have met that criteria. “The complaint in this case has now triggered that action, and it seems likely that the Commissioner will reach a decision reflecting his previous views that using IP addresses to cut off customers’ internet connections is disproportionate and does not constitute ‘fair use’ of personal information,” McIntyre explains. “If so, the Commissioner has the power and indeed the duty to issue an enforcement notice which would prevent Eircom from using personal data for this purpose – an outcome which would derail the three strikes system unless Eircom successfully challenges that notice before the courts, or unless the music industry were to succeed in its campaign to secure legislation introducing three strikes into Irish law.” The way this story has flown largely under the mainstream tech news radar will have been a relief to Eircom and IRMA. Something tells us that is about to change. Source: ISP Wrongfully Sent 300 “First Strike” Letters To Innocents |
| Spotify: A Massive P2P Network, Blessed by Record Labels Posted: 17 Jun 2011 05:36 AM PDT
Having the option to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional ad, or free of ads for a small monthly fee, Spotify appeared to be serious competitor to music piracy. In the two years that followed Spotify rapidly won the hearts and minds of many music fans. Currently limited to a few European countries only, the service has already amassed more than 10 million users and over a million paid subscribers. A true success story, which has been recognized by the music industry on various occasions. What’s often overlooked is that Spotify is in reality one of the largest P2P networks on the Internet. No surprise, since one of the lead engineers from the start is none other than Ludvig Strigeus, the original creator of the BitTorrent client uTorrent. However, not much is known about this private P2P network. Using P2P technology allows Spotify to use less servers, less bandwidth and have a better up-time. And it appears to be working. In fact, of all the tracks that are streamed over the Internet by Spotify users the majority come via P2P connections. Since they’re dealing with copyrighted music, all transfers are totally anonymous, encrypted and secure of course. Let’s take a look at some data provided by Spotify on their three main music sources.  As can be seen in the graph above most tracks are played from the local cache. These are songs a user has listened to before, and those files are stored on the local hard drive. Of all the remaining tracks that are played, roughly 80% are accessed via the P2P network. What’s further notable is that P2P performance is most efficient during peak hours and in the weekend. In the graph provided by Spotify the share of P2P traffic peaks on Saturday evening. Spotify’s P2P network uses various influences from other file-sharing platforms. It uses both a BitTorrent like tracker and a Gnutella style network, but is specifically tailored towards playing relatively small files. Since it’s dealing with streaming, the first bits of a song are prioritized while slow peers are rejected. This custom P2P solution guarantees what is one of the most important features of Spotify, a very low latency. Tracks have to start almost instantly, and with a median delay of 265 milliseconds it lives up to this expectation. Quite remarkable for a P2P-powered application. So finally, there we have it. A massive P2P network that’s fully supported and even partially owned by the music industry. Who ever thought that would happen? Source: Spotify: A Massive P2P Network, Blessed by Record Labels |
In February 2009, IRMA – representing EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner – reached an 11th hour out-of-court settlement with Irish ISP Eircom on the issue of illicit file-sharing. The deal would see Eircom introduce a graduated response system for dealing with errant subscribers.
When Spotify launched their first beta in the fall of 2008, we | 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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