TorrentFreak Email Update

Richard Stallman Urges Rejection of Anti-Piracy Web Blocking

Posted: 05 Jul 2011 03:30 AM PDT

Italy is no stranger to censoring sites deemed offensive by the entertainment industries. In the summer of 2008 The Pirate Bay was blocked nationwide following a court order, a decision the site successfully appealed at the The Court of Bergamo.

That victory was short-lived. The Supreme Court subsequently decided that sites such as The Pirate Bay can indeed be blocked on the basis they are engaging in illegal behavior. This decision opened up fresh action against another torrent site, BTjunkie. The public prosecutor described BTJunkie as one of the most prominent havens for pirated media and in April a court ordered all Italian ISPs to block the site.

But of course, legal action takes time and as was shown in the first ruling against The Pirate Bay, sometimes a positive outcome for copyright holders can transform into periods of concern. To avoid such distractions in the future, the Italian government and its telecoms agency have a cunning plan.

Under recent government legislation telecommunications agency AGCOM is now required to adopt measures to deal with sites and content deemed illicit by the entertainment industries. AGCOM want to make that particular job as simple as possible by awarding themselves the most powerful tool available – the ability to remove content and block websites without a single court, judge or legal process getting in the way.

AGCOM will be able to take offending sites and content offline within 48 hours. Sites affected by the measures will have 5 days to lodge an appeal.

Tomorrow, July 6th, AGCOM will vote on the resolution which will grant the agency the controversial powers detailed above. It will do so in the face of intense opposition from many in the Internet community, who see the lack of judicial oversight as a sign that abuses of power and unwarranted censorship will follow. Among the dissenters is free software guru Richard Stallman.

“I believe that this an attempt by copyright owners to skip the legal system to attack sites and services that they consider a threat to their interests,” says Stallman in an interview with Italy’s Espresso.

“The new system, directed by AGCOM rather than by a court with due process, will accelerate decisions against alleged illegal internet content: this is why the copyright industry wants it. But, being a short and quick way, it will probably trample the rights of users.”

Stallman goes on to state that dissenting voices have been wrongfully silenced in the past following spurious claims of copyright infringement, and that under AGCOM’s proposals collateral damage is inevitable.

“I do not think it is possible to avoid censorship against innocent sites. But even if it were possible, it would be wrong. Why would we hinder users who want to share content?”

But does Stallman believe the right to share trumps the rights of the entertainment industries?

“I reject the term ‘copyright protection’ associated with what the industry is doing now,” Stallman explains.

“Copyright should serve to protect the art and artists. The current system, however, is only in the interests of publishers and delivers only crumbs to almost all of the artists. I propose a system to fund artists directly, based on their popularity, with taxes to give fair compensation [such as from a blank media levy].”

Various campaigns are underway to protest AGCOM’s proposals. The activists of Anonymous are taking the usual direct action by way of ‘Operation Italian Internet Freedom’ and a DDoS on the currently unavailable AGCOM website.

Source: Richard Stallman Urges Rejection of Anti-Piracy Web Blocking

BitTorrent Admin Continues Fight Against Police Abuse

Posted: 04 Jul 2011 12:22 PM PDT

Founded in 2003, UK-based FileSoup is one of the original torrent sites. It outlived many of the sites that sprung up around the time and developed a great community in the years that followed.

The site never ran into any significant problems with copyright holders, but this quickly changed in the summer of 2009 when police and the Hollywood-backed Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) conducted a raid on the home address of the site's owner Steve Lanning, known online as 'TheGeeker'.

The arrest came as a total surprise to Lanning, who felt that the police didn’t follow the rules as they should have. In addition to blindly acting on biased information provided to them by a self-interested anti-piracy group, Lanning summed up a total 56 complaints which he filed at the complaints commission late August 2009, shortly after his arrest.

Earlier this year the authorities dropped Lanning’s case (and the case of a fellow admin) because the evidence was solely provided by FACT and thus unreliable. While this was a huge relief and a welcome victory for Lanning, he was still waiting for a response to the 56 complaints filed earlier.

A few weeks ago he finally heard back from the police investigator, but it was by no means the response hoped for by Lanning. In a brief reply the police investigator reduced the 56 complaints down to just 3, and only in one case did the police admit a mistake was made.

“Mr Lanning was not given the right to telephone someone after the restriction had been lifted. The Sergeant in question will receive management action which will be in the form of words of advice from his line manager,” the police investigator writes.

Needless to say, Lanning wasn’t too happy with the fact that the other 53 complaints were simply ignored. He says he has evidence to back up every single complaint but for some reason the police investigator didn’t even consider them.

“There are no words that can adequately describe exactly how I am feeling right now, they have blatantly lied, and as if that isn’t bad enough, they have ignored the evidence which proves all of my complaints against them …and we are supposed to trust the police? Is this what people can expect of our justice system? Unbelievable!” Lanning told TorrentFreak in a comment.

Lanning’s complaints

After giving it some thought Lanning has now decided to fight the result of the police investigation, hoping that they will then take a closer look at the complaints. He has filed an appeal with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

“I am following through with this as a matter of principle, what they have done and the way they have done it is reprehensible, the police being used and manipulated by a private organisation for their own ends is totally wrong in so many ways,” Lanning told us.

“The police failed to follow their own policies and procedures as set out in the Police And Criminal Evidence Act (PACE), they abused their authority and the legal system, not only that, the way I was treated and the way I now feel, they violated any trust I might have had in them, everyone should be appalled, it could be you next time!”

“What makes this whole situation even worse is that they are now lying to try and cover this whole fiasco up. I have evidence proving that they lied, they also have evidence proving they are lying, hmmm… what do you reckon on the chances of them mysteriously losing or erasing that evidence all of a sudden?” FileSoup’s owner said.

Some might wonder why Lanning would continue to follow this up even though his case was dropped earlier this year. He is a free man now and no longer at risk of being prosecuted for his involvement with FileSoup. Lanning, however, wants to see the police admit their alleged wrongdoings.

The arrest, the police investigation and the court case made a huge impact on the BitTorrent admin’s personal life. Many of his belongings taken during the raid were trashed or never returned, but the emotional roller-coaster and the failed attempts to have his many complaints heard have also taken their toll.

“I am after justice, it’s plain and simple, those who have done wrong need to be held accountable and those wrongs put right, the system needs to be changed drastically and things put in place to avoid this happening again in the future,” Lanning said.

“It’s about time that somebody physically makes a stand for their principles to stop this type of abuse from happening, if that someone has to be me, well then so be it.”

Source: BitTorrent Admin Continues Fight Against Police Abuse

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