Tiago Pires wins the Rip Curl Capitulo Perfeito
Tiago Pires has conquered the inaugural Rip Curl Capitulo Perfeito, in Supertubos, Peniche, Portugal. The only Portuguese surfer in the ASP World Tour defeated Ivo Cação in the final heat.
Supertubos was the perfect venue for this type of event. Spectators out in the sand saw the best tube riders enjoying two-metre wave barrels and offshore winds that only Peniche can pump.
"We had very good wave. It's a one day event, so you got to be lucky to get a full day of great waves. The ocean was in top form from the first to the last round and we could put out a show", said winner Tiago Pires, who scored a 10-point ride.
Despite having a fractured wrist, Ivo Cação managed to surf incredible waves and got to the final against Pires.
Google Fights For Your Rights To Share
Following accusation that Hotfile is promoting piracy, Google is now trying to intervene and protect the locker service from Hollywood’s wrath.
The previous month Google filed a brief at Florida’s federal court, speaking for Hotfile. The MPAA is claiming that Hotfile is harboring pirates and their infringing data. In their struggle to curb piracy, record and movie companies are interfering with Web companies and their interests, creating issues instead of solving problems.
In 2011 the Stop Online Piracy Act started a never before seen reaction from both web companies, and people as well. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and many other great companies started a campaign to speak-out against SOPA, eventually forcing authorities and politicians to shelf the legislation. Although web companies are not pro-piracy, they have the will to defend Internet’s freedom of expression.
In Hotfile’s defense Google invokes the Digital Millennium Act (DMCA), the piece of legislation that has been providing safe harbor for websites like Youtube, Facebook and Wikipedia since it was voted and passed in October 1998 by US’ Senate, and signed by then president of all Americans Bill Clinton.
In the brief Google states that safe harbors “have helped facilitate the development of the Internet as a robust and revolutionary platform for free expression, creativity, and economic opportunity,” and its intentions are to remain as such.
On the other side, the MPPA highlights the fact that Hotfile’s success is a clear statement that it facilitates piracy.
“In less than two years, Hotfile has become one of the 100 most trafficked sites in the world…That is a direct result of the massive digital theft that Hotfile promotes,” said the MPAA.
But the movie studios are not as innocent as they want us to believe. Critics argue that Hollywood’s studios have been promoting piracy themselves (at least passively) by adopting the practice of “windowing”, overwhelming the public with their massive production; that, combined with poor marketing, and the unwillingness to adjust their prices to the economy of those less fortunate European countries leave the viewer with two options: either wait for the release or pirate it.
Another explanation for Hotfile’s predicament would be UltraViolet, a digital storage locker belonging to several big studios, a place where users can store their purchased movies – the threat is obvious.
“It is not the job of Hotfile, or any internet company to affirmatively monitor their services for possible infringement,” said Google.
The big industries, however, managed to make few allies, such as ISPs willing (more or less) to help them. A good example would be US’ major internet providers Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner (among others) to implement a graduate response system, commonly known as the three-strikes system.
While online piracy remains a big problem for the creative (a bit of an understatement to call them creative) industries, the internet organism fights for its survival in an environment that was supposed to be (right from the start) free and fun to be part of.
ACTA Wants Congressional Support
ACTA or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is not so favored by the Obama administration. As such, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) is asking the presidential administration to secure the success of the treaty.
The agreement implies that US’ laws on piracy should be applied overseas. At the time neither the US nor any other country passed ACTA into law.
In his statement, Ron Wyden said:
“I believe Congress should approve binding international agreements before the U.S. is obligated to comply with those agreements. This a point where the administration and I disagree and is particularly true on matters that impact our nation’s ability to implement policies that encourage innovation.”
The legislative proposal issued by the senator raised concerns within US’ three branches of government. Several legal advisers suggested that the country’s Congress should approve the agreement as it helps the US to keep its current copyright laws in line – the financial penalties in the States are up to 0.000 per infringement in a civil lawsuit.
“It’s a huge deal whether Congress signs it or not,” said Sean Flynn, a scholar at the American University, Washington College of Law intellectual-property.
“The reason it is a big deal, because this is what this agreement does, it tells domestic legislatures what its law must be or not be. These type of agreements are the most important to go through legislative approval and go through a public process and commenting on what the norms are of that agreement. The reason, it locally restricts what the democratic process can do.”
According to ACTA, any participating nation must “set statutory damages at a level to deter infringement.”
For the treaty to be passed, six nations must approve it. Among the countries debating the act we find Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and the US.
Ron Kirk (United State Trade Representative) said that the Obama administration doesn’t need congressional approval.
U.S. negotiators were careful to ensure that the ACTA is fully consistent with U.S. law,” Kirk Wyden wrote in December. “For that reason, Congress will not need to enact legislation in order for the United States to implement the agreement.”
Despite claims that ACTA does not allow authorities to monitor internet traffic, the abusive behavior of organizations like the MPAA and the RIAA speaks otherwise.
John John Florence takes the Telstra Drug Aware Pro 2012
John John Florence and Courtney Conlogue have conquered the Telstra Drug Aware Pro, in clean 3–4 foot (1.5 meter) surf and perfect clear sunny skies.
Florence’s performance at this event will go down as one of the most dominant in the event’s history. Florence has collected five of the top ten single wave scores and the top thee two-wave heat totals thanks to his full repertoire.
Florence defeated fellow Hawaiian Olamana Eleogram in the Final by scoring two 9-point-rides, for mixing huge power gouges with technical aerials.
"I’ve been having a lot of fun this week," Florence said. "The waves are are a lot like at home, even the wind when it’s good for airs is a lot like Hawaii. The waves have been fun in all of my heats. I’m so stoked to win".
"This gives me a lot of confidence going into Bells because I hear the waves are similar. I was so stoked to make the Final with Ola (Eleogram), I’ve grown up surfing with him and to have him in the Final with me at Margaret River was great."
Pirate Bay Founders To Execute Prison Sentence In Three Separate Locations
Founders of Pirate Bay – Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neik and Gottfrid Svartholm, all charged and convicted in 2009 for copyright infringement are to execute their sentence in three different location spread around Sweden. Sunde’s lawyer is assuring that an appeal to this decision is to be filed soon.
Two days ago Carl Lundström received the news, informing him that he’s eligible to execute a 4 month “jail” sentence in the community. Alongside, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Svartholm, Lundström are also found guilty of copyright infringement in TPB’s case, each bound to execute the sentence to different prison spread around Sweden’s territory.
Also Neij (TiAMO), Sunde (brokep) and Svartholm (Anakata) will be executing their sentences in three separate ‘Category 2′ prisons.
“We have three levels of security and we have put them in institutions with normal security,” Helena Lundberg, Chief Officer of Probation, told Swedish news site DN.
As for Fredrik Neij, he will spend 10 months in Kriseberg prison in Malmö, Sweden. Gottfrid Svartholm will serve a one year sentence in Mariefried, located at approximately 65 km away from Stockholm. Rumors say that Svartholm may as well be considered dead, as his location remains unknown. Also a spokesperson for TPB, Peter Sunde is eligible of executing an 8 months sentence in Västervik Norra. However, his lawyer Peter Althin suggested that an appeal may be filed in the following months.
“I won’t go into it right now but it will come in the spring, we hope. It is our goal that [Sunde] will not have to sit out the sentence,” said Althin.
Alongside jail time, the convicts are likely to pay a 46 million kronor (,78m) in damages, During the investigation authorities found out 225,000 kronor (,149) in cash belonging to Lundström, but failed to find any valuable assets for Neij, Sunde and Svartholm. According to the three masterminds behind TPB, two things can happen from now on: one is that Hollywood and the IFPI shouldn’t have hopes of getting any money, and second that the portal (TPB) will keep on going regardless of the outcome of this fiasco.
kirseberg prison: photocredit TF
Mariefred prison: photocredit TF
Västervik Norra prison: photocredit TF
(via TorrentFreak)
Rapidshare Ordered To Apply A Filter System For Pirated Data
Germany’s court of law has decided to dictate the popular file-sharing portal Rapidshare to apply filtering policies.
Following the actions of several parties complaining about RapidShare, a German court of law instructed the website to apply a filtering system to block infringing data present within their servers.
After debating the issue, the court decided the RapidShare can be easily found guilty for facilitating access to infringing materials, due to its users’ activity. Unlike Megaupload, Rapidshare’s model is based on a structured file storage and sharing platform, thus keeping its distance for piracy.
On that sense, the company reduced anonymous ufile sharing speed to 30 KPBps, redirecting people to choose an account from which monitoring can be done. Problem is that many pirates prefer anonymity, avoiding authorities efforts to catch them.
The responsibility lies now on Rapidshare’s shoulders, setting a precedent for similar services that may be forced to scan their servers for pirated content, allegedly reducing pirated data.
Whether this will work out or not, is pretty much up to the approach Rapidshare will chose to take; a decent warning should be highlighted though – once you do this road, there’s no turning back, and we have plenty examples to back up this claim: just take a look at the recent developments in this file-sharing world, where really important names were shut down or just accepted their faith and went legit.
Mike Prickett suffers decompression accident to save diver
Mike Prickett, the underwater cinematographer who captured stunning footage for "Riding Giants" and "Step Into Liquid", has suffered a severe diving accident when he was filming a commercial video in Rangiora, Tahiti.
The 47-year-old Hawaiian filmmaker dove down 220 feet to save another diver who was sinking. Prickett shared air with the man and then had to go straight to the surface without decompressing.
"He used up all my air. I'm glad I was able to rescue him and he could walk away from the incident. I want to thank my family and friends for their prayers", Mike Prickett told KITV News.
New Zealand’s Fresh Anti-Piracy Law Kicks In, Users Circumvent It
While New Zealand introduced its new law on file-sharing, dedicated downloaders seem determined not back down but find ways to by-pass it
Apparently the first round of infringement notices has been shot under the Copyright Amendment Act in November 2011 – New Zealand’s three-strikes system. But the response to this new legislation has not been the one expected by authorities, an article by Donald Clark reads. Instead of curbing piracy, the Act has only pushed pirates to find new ways of downloading content.
“I was at a BBQ recently, where I was in a minority – being the only person who actually paid for his movie loads (well, at least to the degree I only break Apple’s iTunes terms and conditions, rather than the law, with my iTunes US subscription, which allows me to buy more movies and TV shows than are available on iTunes NZ),” Donald further writes.
But not everyone is trying to hide from the law; one person told Donald: “I’m just waiting for my first letter”, as he was using RapidShare.
Once a former head of the government broadband network company Reannz, and a former advisor to the Prime Minister, Donald Clark concluded:
“It’s hard to escape the conclusion that people sharing copyrighted material have simply switched mechanisms.”
“I suspect that there has been little net-change in the sharing of copyrighted material.”
A relevant presentation (held at the NZ Network Operators’ Group of the WAND Groupshows the numbers on how traffic flowed in NZ (full notes here).
By using new ways of measuring traffic, the group can accurately identify the “purpose” of a packet. The technique is called “mildly penetrative packet inspection”, and here are some of its features:
- Requires only 4 bytes of application payload instead of full DPI
- Examines first payload-bearing packet in each direction only
- Classifications based on payload signatures, size and ports
- This all results in a much “lighter” measurement burden, whilst still achieving 95% accuracy (or 70%-80% when port 80 flows are excluded). This places it well above other packet-inspection-lite approaches.
The image below is a graph of measurements taken in January 2011, September 2011, and January 2012 – when the three-strikes system was introduced to New Zealanders.
While the overall traffic was constant, when the three-strikes law was introduced on the 1st of September 2011 a 75% drop in measured p2p traffic was recorded, following the same course on January this year. But that’s not all, as secure tunneling and remote access protocol traffic volumes doubled during this period, proving that internet censorship is not doing well.
Turntable.fm Turns the Tables in its Favor: Signs Contract With 4 Major Labels
On Tuesday, at the SXSW festival Turntable.fm made the big announcement through co-founders Billy Chasen and Seth Goldstein: the company has signed licensing deals with all four major labels during a panel called “Turntable.FM: The Future Of Music Is Social”
If your dream is to be a DJ, Turntable.fm may be the place to start as it offers a chance to a handful of users to mix up for more than 200 listeners in virtual rooms, each having its own musical theme. Besides that, DJs can choose from a catalog provided by MediaNet, or even upload their own work, whether it’s something they’ve recorded or a bespoke remix.
As such, due to the nature of these services the licensing process was complicated. Before having any licenses signed, the service obtained .5 million in funding from Union Square Ventures and a positive feedback from both the press and the public. However, signing with the record labels was mandatory, if the service should survive the rough and unpredictable cyberspace.
“We went into it without being worried about [licensing]. I didn’t, and still don’t know what the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] stands for,” said Goldstein.
“We didn’t know about the restrictions, the per-play rates, international [licensing differences], and the publishers, and the PROs [Performing Rights Organizations] — it was all gobbledegook … Intellectually, it [was] a huge challenge to navigate through a lot of these partnerships and label negotiations.”
Aided by digital music lawyer Debbie Newman, Goldstein and Chasen turned Turntable into a legitimate and hopefully profitable business. The service has already launched a mobile application for iPhone and iPad, so that you can listen to your favorite DJs wherever you go.
Are Brazilian surfers preparing to conquer the world?
Adriano de Souza, Heitor Alves, Miguel Pupo, Raoni Monteiro, Gabriel Medina, Alejo Muniz, Jadson Andre, Willian Cardoso and Thiago Camarao are playing the big surfing game at the 2012 ASP World Tour.
In the last decade, Brazilian surfing has become a major player in the world's biggest wave riding circuit, with a growing number of surfers winning and reaching the highest honors.
So, is Brazil preparing to take over and dominate the sport of surfing? The pro elite has always been dominated by two anglophone countries - USA and Australia - and only a few countries had the opportunity to challenge the English superiority - South Africa, Portugal, France, UK, among others.
Brazilian surfers have been working better to bring their surfing skills to a maximum level of performance. There are several factors that may explain the rise of surfers like Adriano de Souza and Jadson Andre.
The number of WQS events held in the land of samba has steadily increased in the last ten years. From Fernando Noronha to Rio de Janeiro, official ASP surf contest flourish everywhere. At the same time, local surfers are winning these competitions.