piracy

Andrew Keen and the piracy argument

I'm about three months late, but I finally got around to reading Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur, in which he blames the current crop of Internet sites and users for eliminating the concept of expert knowledge, destroying the concept of intellectual property, and breaking down hundreds of years of Western culture. He even trots out the old "save the children" argument that we've been hearing since 1995--pornography, predators, and pedophiles, oh my! (People always seem to miss that fourth "p"--parental oversight.)

Keen has some valid points, unfortunately they're buried … Read more

NBC says bye to iTunes, hello to piracy and lost revenue

In news that comes just weeks after iTunes' loss of Universal Music Group, NBC has officially canceled its contract with iTunes, citing the need for stricter piracy controls and higher pricing that Apple was unwilling to provide. That said, NBC will still continue to sell its programming on iTunes until its contract runs out in December.

In other words, January will be the month that NBC sees a severe increase in the piracy it's trying to so hard to curb.

I'm not quite sure what any of these companies are thinking. First, Universal Music Group steps away from the third-largest music retailer in the world because it thinks iTunes is suffocating it, then NBC walks away to make more money and stop people from stealing its media. But what both companies don't understand is that they need Apple far more than Apple needs them.

Let me paint a scenario for you of what happens as soon as NBC pulls its programming off iTunes.… Read more

These pups lick pirates

Anti-piracy pooches are rushing to the MPAA's rescue.

Two specially trained Labradors recently uncovered thousands of bootlegged DVDs during police raids in Queens, NY., according to the Motion Picture Assoc. of America. In addition to the scores of bogus films, the raids netted three arrests.

Three-year-olds, Lucky and Flo, are believed to be the first dogs trained to recognize the polycarbonate scent of optical discs, according to the Motion Picture Assoc. of America.

To teach the dogs to track down the discs, the polycarbonate scent was placed on tennis balls, which were then hidden. The dogs were taught to … Read more

TorrentSpy judge decides RAM is stored information

A federal judge issued a decision on Monday that would have required TorrentSpy, a BitTorrent search engine, to hand over information about its users had the company not ceased operating in the U.S. a day earlier.

TorrentSpy, accused of encouraging movie piracy in a lawsuit filed by the film industry last year, was ordered in June to provide the studios with user information found in the company's computer RAM. The site, which is often used by file sharers to find bootleg films, had long promised to protect the anonymity of visitors.

TorrentSpy filed an appeal and argued that … Read more

Share news stories without permission, get fined?

If you're fond of occasionally circulating the full text of news stories to amuse your workmates, you may be in the clear, copyright law-wise. But systematic copying and blasting of articles for money-making purposes could get you into trouble, as evidenced by the latest settlement reached by an antipiracy trade group.

The Software Information & Industry Association (SIIA) on Thursday announced a $300,000 truce with a California-based market research company called Knowledge Networks over the company's distribution of "press packets" containing copyrighted news articles without permission or licenses. (Here's a PDF of the press release.) … Read more

Feds' raids hit alleged mod chip smugglers

Look out, modders: federal customs agents have just announced a new crackdown on the smuggling of "illegal" devices that enable gamers to play pirated wares on Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 2 and other consoles.

As part of an ongoing investigation into the sale and distribution of such "circumvention devices," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from 22 offices said they raided businesses, storefronts and residents in 16 states on Wednesday. They reported executing 32 search warrants, but there was no word on whether any arrests were … Read more

Report: Facebook axes third-party app Audio over copyright issues

VentureBeat reports that Facebook has removed a popular application from its third-party developer platform over potential copyright issues. The application, called Audio, allowed users to upload MP3 files and share them with their friends--yup, that's a recipe for copyright disaster.

Facebook had already axed the app once before, according to the article. It appears that Audio had been created by a single developer, not an existing company.

<>As VentureBeat's Eric Eldon points out, this shows that Facebook is taking terms-of-service violations seriously when it comes to the Platform, which was launched in late May and catapulted … Read more

New bill backs prison time for piracy 'attempts'

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may not have a lot of pals in Congress these days, but he has nevertheless found someone willing to pursue the dramatic copyright crackdown lurking on his legislative wishlist.

Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) introduced a bill last week that appears to take its cues from controversial proposals circulated by the Justice Department chief in recent years, which include stiffer prison sentences for copyright-related crimes and creation of entirely new categories of punishable activities.

Notably, under Chabot's bill, called the Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act of 2007, it would be a crime not only to … Read more

Future Implications: The fight against piracy

Finally! For the first time, I can say that the government has gone after the group of people it should be targeting: large pirating cartels.

Earlier this week, US and Chinese officials announced they successfully nabbed a group of Chinese individuals who were allegedly in possession of $500 million of software. That's right -- the government finally took the fight to the bad guys and moved away from the battle against 75-year old Aunt Sally who doesn't know any better.

For years, this has been a pet-peeve of mine. Just like the RIAA in its bid to rid … Read more