Chris Dodd Speaks At India’s Movie Convention: In Consequence India Orders Site Blocking
FICCI FRAMES is the annual movie convention in India, and last Wednesday Mumbai held the event. Here, Chris Dodd, MPAA’s CEO and a vocal supporter of SOPA, spoke about piracy issues, invoking the usual reasons, sounding more and more like propaganda. As such, Indian ISPs are now ordered to shut down 104 websites that are allegedly facilitating access to copyrighted data.
This year’s event, in partnership with Japan, attended several important names, including MPAA’s CEO Chris Dodd who started his speech by saying:
“I am honored to be here to celebrate with all of you something else that unites our two countries: movies. Like America, India is a nation where movies matter. And as in America, movies matter not only to the richness of your culture but to the vibrancy of your economy and the prosperity of the Indian middle class.”
“Two years ago the Indian film industry was a .2 billion industry. Two years from now, in 2014, it is estimated to exceed billion, which is incredible. The industry contributes an estimated 5 million to the Indian economy each year and supports an estimated 1.8 million jobs. As the trade body for the Hollywood entertainment industry, MPAA could not be more delighted,” he added.
After sweetening the crowd with how “amazing” the movie industry is, he added:
“Content theft threatens the health of our industry and the prospects for its future success. According to a report by Ernst & Young, movie theft costs the Indian film industry nearly a billion dollars each year and threatens more than half million Indian jobs. I bring this up not to cast a shadow on your success but rather to invite you to join us in common purpose. Content theft is a global problem and we must have a global commitment to solving it. This is an important opportunity for the Indian government to move forward with strong protections against online theft. We encourage the Indian film industry to reject as we have, the false argument that you cannot be pro-technology and pro-copyright at the same time and we applaud India’s aggressive plans for broadband and cable TV digitization.”
It’s funny though that he didn’t say a word on why the MPAA lacks any sort of impartiality, especially when it comes to independent artists, or on how tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in “second-hand” movies while USA’s economy was plummeting, and blaming piracy was the convenient solution; but omitting problems in his own backyard is what Chris Dodd does best.
However, these are issues that don’t concern the Indian Government. As such, a Kolkata court has ordered all 387 ISPs in India (yeah, that’s right, ALL of them) to block access to 104 websites, after IMI (Indian Music Industry) filed suit against them. According to IMI officials, each website involved in this lawsuit had hosted some infringing data; therefore, the court agreed that blacklisting them is the viable solution. Four injunctions on January 27, February 7, and March 1 and 2 implemented the blacklist.
Initially the movie group had targeted 300 websites, but the list was narrowed down to 104, as they were considered the most dangerous, said IMI officials. Now, about how they intend to block all those portals, there are three ways: DNS blocking, IP blocking or URL blocking by deep packet inspection, each raising its own concerns. DNS blocking, for example, can be easily circumvented (we often wrote about this matter) by simply typing the site’s IP address instead of its URL. IP or URL blocking is not of much help either, so cutting the access to a portal is still a big problem.
While European courts target only specific sites, ruling against one site at a time, India’s authorities are not wasting time, and adopt a more direct (to put it delicately) approach. Portals like Facebook and Google are soon to apply censorship on their materials, including obscene images of gods and goddesses.
A good run for Chris Dodd’s plans of spreading this “cancer” abroad, if we consider the epic fail of SOPA and ACTA in the States.
Hollywood & MPAA Go After Hotfile. EFF Steps In to Defend the FileSharing Site
It’s open season for file-sharing hunting. Fueled by their recent victory against MegaUpload (which further led to the suicide of other filesharing sites), the entertainment industry is now seeking to take down file-sharing site Hotfile
On March 5 a lawsuit was filed against Hotfile which is accused by the giant studios Disney, Fox, Universal, Sony Pictures and Warner of “copyright infringement on a mindboggling scale.”
From the suit:
Hotfile is responsible for billions of infringing downloads of copyrighted works, including plaintiffs’ valuable motion picture and television properties. As with other adjudicated pirate services that came before it, from Napster and Grokster, to Isohunt and Limewire, Hotfile exists to profit from copyright infringement. As with those other adjudicated infringers, the evidence is unmistakable that Hotfile actively fosters the massive copyright infringement that fuels its business.
The plaintiffs complain that 90% of the content distributed via Hotfile consists of copyright infringing files, and almost all those who use the site download and upload illegal material.
The accusations go even further saying that Hotfile has “the temerity” to pay users to upload files that infringe copyrights.
“Hotfile’s own economist acknowledges that Hotfile’s practice of paying uploaders (Hotfile’s so-called ‘Affiliates’) based on how many times their files are downloaded induces the uploading of ‘popular’ (i.e., infringing) content,” the suit reads. “Additionally, unlike previous adjudicated infringers, which facilitated access to content stored on users’ computers, Hotfile itself physically stores all the infringing content on its own servers, giving it an unprecedented ability to stop the infringement — an ability Hotfile chooses not to exercise.”
Of course that the ever-present MPAA (The Motion Picture Association of America for those till ‘virgin’ in these matters) was there to back up the accusations claiming that Hotfile is a “haven” for repeat copyright infringers, and should be closed immediately.
“Defendants even admit that they formed Hotfile ‘to compete with’ Megaupload”, the filing says on page 10. “More than 90 percent of the files downloaded from Hotfile are copyright infringing, and nearly every Hotfile user is engaged in copyright infringement,” said the MPAA.
In its defense, Hotfile said its policy is to remove copyright infringing content upon request. Its filtering system is similar to the one used by YouTube to block the viewing (and listening) of copyright protected content.
According to the company, their service “uses fingerprinting technology to block the uploading of files identified as infringing on copyright holders’ rights. Hotfile has recently upgraded its fingerprint technology to vCloud9, the latest, state-of-the-art fingerprint technology provided by Vobile”.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the organization that fights to protect our freedoms in the networked world said Warner is deliberately using an unreliable “automated dragnet technique” to send out takedown notices to potential copyright infringers. It also argues in an amicus brief that that the movie studio is the one that should be held responsible for copyright claims which are false.
“EFF urges the court to firmly reject Warner’s strained analyses and hold it accountable for its improper takedowns,” says the brief.
While copyright owners have been given by Congress the right to protect their works copyright laws, lawful copyright users have also been given the right to protect themselves against copyright owners who act in bad faith and abuse of takedown notices.
“Any company could sidestep accountability for improper takedowns by simply outsourcing the process to a computer,” says the foundation.
“What is worse, copyrights owners would have a perverse incentive to dumb-down the process, removing human review so as to avoid the possibility of any form of subjective belief. The tragic consequences foor lawful uses are obvious: untold numbers of legal videos would be taken down, whether or not the uses were fair or even licensed” it adds.
EFF then goes on explaining how given this unhealthy context the potential for mischief is greatly increased:
“Let’s say that Warner does not like competition from Universal. It could set a computer to search through Universal’s online presence, with the loosest possible settings, and issue takedown to Universal’s ISP for spurious claims. Nor is this scenario far-fetched: anticompetitive uses of the DMCA take down proves are commonplace.”
From CourtHouseNews release:
The foundation says that malice need not be a deliberate lie, as Warner claims, but “the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that malice may be shown by evidence of a grossly inadequate investigation. Hunt v. Liberty Lobby, 729 F.2d 631, 643-44 (11th Cir 1983).”
The brief adds: “These lines of authority recognize the injustice of absolving misfeasors who took steps to avoid gaining actual knowledge of their improper acts, as Warner did in implementing a system it admits ‘is bound to produce some errors.’ …
“Congress intended … to impose a meaningful deterrent, ensuring that copyright holders have the requisite good faith basis before initiating an extra-judicial process that would potentially take protected expression offline.”
German Anti-Piracy Action: FileSharing Site Closed, Arrests Made
Skyload.net shut down, operators arrested
The hunt for filesharing websites is acute both in US and Europe. Recently German media has been reporting the shutting down of a major file locker site in the country – Skyload.net.
Reports say that the termination action was led by Dresden Attorney General’s office following a complaint filed by GVU, Germany’s copyright agency. The action included the arrest of Skyload’s operators who have been accused of uploading more than 10,000 movies to Kino.to with which they collaborated via a paid affiliate program.
Dresden Attorney General’s office conducted the shutdown in response to a complaint led by that country’s copyright agency, GVU.its operators arrested.
According to TorrentFreak, German authorities have arrested “Maik P”, probably Maik Pätzold, owner of the Skyload.net domain; and “Marcel E”, presumably Marcel Edler, who is listed with Pätzold as a contact for Skyload.net’s hosting provider, Virtuell-host.de (which is also currently offline).
At the end of last year, as part of probably the largest European anti-piracy operation, the 27-year-old administrator of movie streaming portal Kino.to (which was then shut down) received a sentence of 3 years in prison following charges of criminal copyright infringement.
According to authorities, after Kino.to’s termination, Skyload.net carried on the uploading, using this time other sites such as KinoX.to.
While Ireland’s Three-Strikes Is Put to Rest, the Government Considers Site Blocking
Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner ordered a halt on the three-strikes system due to its conflicts with privacy policies and the failure of Irish ISP Eircom to properly apply the graduate response system.
It all started in 2009 when IRMA (Irish Recorded Music Association) had reached an agreement with the Eircom on the issues of illegal file-sharing. According to this agreement Eircom, supervised by IRMA members, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, was to introduce the graduated response system.
In December 2010 Eircom said that it would be “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.” However, things went wrong when Eircom sent 300 warnings letters to the wrong people.
The mistake was not taken lightly by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner which started an investigation to establish the legality of the three-strikes system. According to the report, the DPC has decided to put a halt to the practice.
“Now both the courts and the official DPC are beginning to realize the fundamental right of people to access the Internet, and not to be monitored while they do so,” says lawyer TJ McIntyre of Digital Rights Ireland.
Although things looked bleak for the industry, another report was released yesterday from which we understand that site-blocking is considered as an alternative solution.
According to The Irish Times, Seán Sherlock (Minister of State for Enterprise) will publish an order in early 2012 that will allow rightsholders, after obtaining a court order, to block access to infringing websites with the help of internet providers.
Which websites will be classified as “rogue” is yet a mystery. The minister’s decision was mostly influenced by EMI’s threats to sue the country if it fails to find a feasible solution against piracy. The Department of Enterprise, Innovation and Jobs replied to EMI that the order will be published and applied as law next month.
Blocking on File-sharing site Fileserve Lifted, Controversy Remains
The UK’s IWF (Internet Watch Foundation) is a self-regulatory body founded in 1996 and dedicated to combating online child sexual abuse content in partnership with police, government and the online industry. This means it has the right to impose certain measures against websites that facilitate the spreading of child pornography (and that it’s pretty simple since all major web providers in the UK are subscribed to it); however, it doesn’t always hit the nail on the head, like in the case of file-hosting service Fileserve.
Initially, the site was blocked by UK ISPs because a certain link was wrongfully believed to be related to child abuse pictures, but IWF has reconsidered its decision.
According to ZDnet, due to the IWF’s block, UK internet users couldn’t access their personal files or download other files. Of course they were not very happy with the blocking and since they didn’t know who to blame for it they’ve complained to their ISPs. Soon, Fileserve posted a clarifying message saying that the IWF “recently implemented changes that may affect your download ability on the site”.
Methods and reasons for blocking websites have become extremely hot and debatable issues and in the wake of the U.S. government’s efforts to implement the already infamous anti-piracy bill called the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), the term ‘censorship’ seems flammable as ever generating waves of protests on the Web, likely to be seen in the streets as well.
Pressure upon Virgin Media and TalkTalk to Block File-Sharing Site
After internet service provider BT was forced to block the file-sharing website Newzbin2, two other ISPs, Virgin Media and TalkTalk are pushed into doing the same by the Motion Picture Association (MPA).
Earlier this week the movie industry watchdog sent both ISPs letters stating that it would obtain the court orders to impose the block and asked such an order would be opposed in some way, ZDNet reports.
While both Virgin Media and TalkTalk (the latter which fought against the introduction of the Digital Economy Act that imposes drastic anti-piracy rules) said they will comply to the blocking order if the law asks them to, Virgin Media also added that they believe “such deterrents need to be accompanied by compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, which give consumers access to content at the right price”.
This also comes after the BPI (the British Phonographic Industry) urged BT to prevent internet users from accessing The Pirate Bay, citing the Newzbin2 ruling as a precedent.
One error leading to another…
LibraryPirate.me: Torrent Site for Desperate Times
Soon a new college year will kick-start. This usually means that students must dig deep into their pockets to get the necessary study books, and they don’t come cheap. However, this situation is about change as a torrent administrator decided to educate the masses regardless of the deepness of their pockets.
The struggle of students to get a job in order to pay for college is an old issue.
“According to a study conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, textbook prices have increased FOUR TIMES the rate of inflation of other finished goods for the period of 1990-2009,” the admin of LibraryPirate.me told TorrentFreak.
LibraryPirate’s (founded over a year ago) purpose is to help students by providing free textbooks from various domains.
“Our mission is simple and specific,” LP’s admin explains.
“To revolutionize the digital e-textbook industry and change it permanently.”
Real-world business rules shouldn’t be applied when it comes to textbook pricing, he believes. Not to mention the annual updates that make last year’s textbook obsolete, just as this year’s version – with its 6% annual price uplift – becomes the dictated choice.
“The Government Accountability Office reports that the average student spends about 00 on textbooks each year, or 26 percent of their yearly tuition [source, pdf]. Publishers defend their actions claiming increased expenses in updating this supplementary material are only being passed along to the student,” he explains.
“While there is a need to keep information current, most of what is taught in big introductory courses simply isn’t going to change that much from year to year, or even from decade to decade. For example, Calculus was invented 300 years ago however new editions of textbooks are released like clockwork.”
A monopoly on the market has been established and maintained by a small group of textbook publishers. They are also taking steps to maintain this power, discouraging student use of the pre-owned books market by offering discounts of 20% on their eBook products, but then disqualifying the purchaser from selling the product by implementing DRM.
“New Textbook legislation was introduced by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (H.R. 4137), which passed 380-49 in the House and 83-8 in the Senate on July 31. The bill was signed by President Obama on August 14 and went into effect July 1, 2010,” LP’s admin explains.
“The bill aims at making textbook publishers more up front with students about textbook pricing and also forces them to sell some additional course materials separately. While this is a start, it is clear now that these measures have done nothing to prevent the continued rise in inflation of textbooks and new digital course material.”
LibraryPirate’s admin goal is to put an end to this reign by creating, as he calls it, an open access movement.
“Open source textbooks alone will, without a doubt, turn the textbook industry on its head by taking away the power from the major publishing companies,” he explains.
“Those with access to e-textbook resources — students, librarians, scientists and professors have the responsibility to share this knowledge openly with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the majority of universities do not utilize open source textbooks today. Professors continue to require students to buy hundreds of dollars in textbooks and ‘kiss the ring’ of textbook publishers.”
This has not yet become something solid so, for the moment, the students are left at the mercy of the textbook publishers. LP’s admin promises to soon meet the demands of such a task by making all textbooks open for everyone to use and distribute. LibraryPirate.me has already 1.000 textbooks indexed in its database and hopefully it will continue grow strong.
“Grab every textbook you can get your hands on and scan it so that everyone in the world can have a chance at education,” LP’s admin says.
“Professors, students, and avid readers alike, it is our responsibility to do everything we can to make education available to all who seek it, and this policy flies directly in the face of the textbook publishers that are using you to line their pockets.”
There are some ethical issues that come into play. Just as the students struggle to get their hands on the very books that help them making a career, publishers need to make money as well. But what is the moral difference between downloading a movie or a textbook, even if it’s offered at unfair prices through an anti-competitive monopoly?
“While many may view the open source movement as blatant ‘piracy’, I believe they are overlooking the obvious moral imperative at play here,” TorrentFreak was told.
“Personally, this notion became very clear to me after attending college and has remained the driving motivation behind the LibraryPirate project.”
“It’s no secret that college students today are simply victims of a broken educational system. Until real steps are taken to ensure textbook material is made more affordable and accessible to students, I only see one path to moral high ground.
“So, in the historical tradition of civil disobedience, the time has come for students to declare their opposition to this private theft of education,” LP’s admin concludes.
BT Loses Case Over Blocking File-Sharing Site
Earlier this month we reported about the legal battle between MPA and UK internet service provider BT launched by the former’s demand for BT to block access to the file-sharing site Newzbin2.
Now the decision was given and it’s one that could definitely harm file-sharing and ISPs as well. Movie studios are celebrating what could become a landmark victory against a source for links where people could download digital content such as films, music and games.
Efforts from the industry to force other major UK ISPs to block file-sharing sites will probably be noticed soon.
According to Mr Justice Arnold the studios, including Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures Corporation and Disney Enterprises, “made it clear that this is a test case” which is to be followed by attempts to obtain similar orders against the UK’s other major ISPs.
A view that the industry never wants to acknowledge was also expressed by Mike O’Connor, chief executive of Consumer Focus – “What we really need is the members of the Motion Picture Association to be innovative and focus on meeting UK consumer demand legally.”
The Open Rights Group called the action against Newzbin2 “pointless and dangerous”. “There are serious risks of legitimate content being blocked… If the goal is boosting creators’ ability to make money from their work then we need to abandon these technologically naive measures,” the group added.
The legal action against BT was under the 1988 Copyright, Design and Patents Act – it was focused on BT’s capacity as an internet service provider (ISP), rather than as the source of alleged illegal files.
Hacker group says Apple developer site susceptible to phishing hacks
A group that calls itself YGN Ethical Hacker Group has identified potential security holes in Apple's website for Mac and iOS developers. Those security holes could allow malicious hackers to use the Apple Developer Connection in phishing attacks to gain access to users' login and password information.
According to information supplied to Networkworld, the group identified three potential security issues on the site, including arbitrary URL redirects, cross-site scripting, and HTTP response splitting. In particular, the ability to arbitrarily redirect to other URLs could make phishing attacks against developers login credentials more likely to succeed.
"By modifying the URL value to a malicious site, an attacker may successfully launch a phishing scam and steal user credentials," the group said. "Because the server name in the modified link is identical to the original site, phishing attempts have a more trustworthy appearance." In other words, even though the redirect will cause users to end up at a malicious site, the original link would appear to come from developer.apple.com.
Since developers use their Apple ID to access password-protected areas of Apple's developer website, such as forums, beta OS releases, and SDKs, a successful phishing attack could give hackers access to a user's iTunes Connect account, iTunes Store purchases, and more. If the e-mail address is valid, hackers could also try using password cracks to get into a user's e-mail as well.
YGN said that it alerted Apple to the problem in late April, and that the company quickly acknowledged getting the report. "We take the report of a potential security issue very seriously," Apple told YGN. However, it doesn't appear Apple has closed the security holes.
To encourage Apple to act, the group says that it will release its discoveries to the security mailing list Full Disclosure "in a few days."
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