http://www.filesharinghelp.com Filesharinghelp 1.5 Filesharinghelp.com Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:40:01 +0000enFilesharinghelp.com ©2007lite@filesharinghelp.com lite@filesharinghelp.com http://www.filesharinghelp.com/forums/news.gif http://www.filesharinghelp.com 40 40 Filesharinghelp.com Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:14:40 +0000
View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=22066 Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:13:26 +0000
The complaint (PDF) was filed in mid-July and was just uncovered by attorney Ray Beckerman on his blog. In it, MediaSentry is accused of continuing its "unlicensed and illegal actions" in Michigan even after being informed by the DLEG in February 2008 that its activities could be in violation of state law.

Under Michigan state law, a private investigator is defined as an entity that investigates "the identity, habits, conduct, business, occupation,... activity,... transactions, acts,... or character of a person" or secures "evidence to be used before a court."

CMU points out in its complaint that the fruit of MediaSentry's labor is exhibits attached to RIAA complaints, and CMU lists eight Doe cases involving 99 suspected P2P users filed in Michigan federal courts between May 3, 2007 and May 28, 2008. In each of the lawsuits, the RIAA referred to MediaSentry as a "third-party investigator" that gathers evidence of copyright infringement.

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=22065 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:51:08 +0000
These provisions have strong support from the content industry, but have been targeted with widespread criticism from the academic community and advocacy groups such as Educause. The push for mandatory filtering at universities began in 2007 when the RIAA published a list of top piracy schools and the MPAA claimed that piracy on university campuses accounts for 44 percent of the movie industry's annual losses to piracy. The group later retracted this claim when it was discovered that the numbers were grossly inflated. The RIAA followed up its top piracy school list with a litigation and propaganda campaign which included the development of a web site to handle automated settlements, but soon faced serious setbacks in court.

The MPAA also developed an Ubuntu-based software toolkit for detecting file-sharing on university networks, but was forced to discontinue distribution of the software when they were hit with a Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown notice. The MPAA had violated copyright law by failing to adhere to the General Public License under which Ubuntu is distributed.

The RIAA and MPAA have vigorously lobbied for a legislative solution at both the state and federal levels. Pressure from the content industry compelled Congress to begin investigating the issue.

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21668 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:49:46 +0000
The new "Switzerland Tool" will reveal if a user's network connection has any restrictions on it from ISPs.

"It's up to concerned Internet users to investigate possible network neutrality violations, and EFF's Switzerland software is designed to help with that effort," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney.

"Comcast isn't the first, and certainly won't be the last, ISP to meddle surreptitiously with its subscribers' Internet communications for its own benefit."

Switzerland is an open source, command-line software tool designed to detect the modification or injection of packets o f data by ISPs. The tool detects changes made by software tools believed to be used by ISPs such as Sandvine and AudibleMagic, advertising systems like FairEagle, and a number of censorship systems.

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21667 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:24:53 +0000
That's what a Bronx woman did Monday in New York federal court. Denise Barker is accused of file sharing eight songs on the Kazaa network in 2004. If found liable, she faces fines under the Copyright Act of $750 to $150,000 per song.

Barker's attorney, Ray Beckerman, admitted the woman file shared and challenged the constitutionality of the Copyright Act, the law under which the RIAA sued Barker and thousands of others. The fines the act authorizes for each download is unconstitutionally excessive and against U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Beckerman said.

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21659 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:24:11 +0000
Three commissioners on the five-member FCC have signed off on an order that finds Comcast violated federal rules by purposely slowing the transmission of video files shared among users of the application BitTorrent.

Comcast has said it delayed the files to assure that enough bandwidth remained available for other users on its network. But the company did not disclose its practices until public interest groups and the video-sharing site complained to the FCC, alleging that the company had set itself up to be a secret gatekeeper of content, picking and choosing which applications to favor.

Comcast continued to defend its practices, even as it and other carriers have begun exploring alternatives for discouraging heavy-bandwidth users.

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21658 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:23:13 +0000
The 24-year-old's flat was raided in October as part of an inquiry into the OiNK website, where pre-release music was shared, according to police.

He is suspected of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said inquiries were continuing in the "highly-complex" case.

View: Original Article
]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21657 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:56:18 +0000
“We don’t want to act like police and feel that a system similar to that in the UK is a deep invasion of privacy," said Annika Kristersson of internet and telecommunications company Tele2 to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

"It would entail us having to spy on our customers."

The comments come on the heels of an agreement reached by Britain’s six largest internet service providers (ISPs) to do more to combat internet piracy.

The memorandum of understanding, which was brokered by the UK government at the urging of music industry association BPI, calls upon the signatories to work with music and other copyright holders towards a “significant reduction” in illegal filesharing.

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21644 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:55:25 +0000
It turns out that the MPAA will do pretty much anything to obtain information about BitTorrent sites and its users. Back in 2006, they made a deal with a “hacker”, better known as Robert Anderson, to steal e-mail correspondence and trade secrets from TorrentSpy.

The hacker later admitted that this was indeed true, and in a surprising turn of events, he switched sides, and joined TorrentSpy. The court case between the MPAA and TorrentSpy eventually led to the downfall of TorrentSpy, but it turned out that the MPAA was also interested in intel on The Pirate Bay.

Cnet cites court documents showing that Anderson wrote to the MPAA: “We can provide the names, address, and phone (numbers) of the owners of Torrentspy.com and Thepiratebay.org — along with evidence, including correspondence between the two companies.”

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21643 Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:54:50 +0000
The UK Government has also refused to rule out users paying an annual levy to download, with money then channelled back to the rights holders and the artists receiving a bigger slice of the monies. It insists the proposal is not part of the consultation with internet service providers and the BPI, formerly known as British Phonographic Industry.

The recommendations follow the agreement between ISPs and the music industry on clamping down on illegal downloading, which will cost the recording industry up to £1bn over the next five years.

It is thought that around 6.5 million Britons have downloaded music and films illegally over the past year.

View: Original Article ]]> http://www.filesharinghelp.com/internationalforums/index.php?showtopic=21642