January 2010
33 posts
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[These findings] highlight the relationship DRM... →
ARS Technica: BitTorrent census: about 99% of files copyright infringing
It has never been a secret that the majority of files being shared over BitTorrent are movies and music that are likely being shared illegally. (Sorry, Linux distro nerds.) Princeton senior Sauhard Sahi confirmed this recently after setting out to survey the content available on BitTorrent and, although there are caveats to...
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"Scaling The (Fire) Wall" is an Everyday Thang in... →
This reminds me of being in the office of a major international market research firm for two days in GuangZhou. To get to various sites, I was simply directed to various computers around the office. “You need to check Yahoo Mail? Use that one”. This was the total oposite of a shady business, but these work-arounds were just routines that had faded into the background.
BEIJING—For...
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The Answer to The China-Google Problem? Bootleg...
Wall Street Journal:
In China, Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattering Google
Goojje.com, a spoof of Google’s Chinese site, was reportedly founded by a female college student in Guangdong and put together by a group of about 20 people around the country, according to Chinese media. Its Chinese name (谷姐, whose Mandarin pronunciation is Romanized as “gujie”) is a pun that can be translated...
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Could A Business That Used an Unliscensed Font In... →
From TorrentFreak, back in August (story has been updated this weekend)
At 5pm Geeker was finally allowed legal representation, where he questioned that surely “downloading” was a civil issue, not a criminal one. However, the movie industry anti-piracy group FACT are known to frame things differently. In previous cases they have insisted that donations are profit and therefore constitute a...
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“As cynical as I may be sometimes about the haternet, I’m still find myself...”
–
-me.
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Torrents, Torrents, Torrents....In The Attic!
Ditchwalk:
And trafficking in stolen content on the internet is not like trafficking in drugs. People who deal drugs move a physical object through three dimensions in a vast landscape. The ability of law enforcement to find drug dealers and their drugs is limited by the scale of the effort, by the complicity of people throughout the distribution chain, and by the ease of secreting drugs at all...
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“We have sent letters to the RIAA and the MPAA repeatedly letting them know that...”
– TorrentFreak -US Military BitTorrent Users Targeted By MPAA/RIAA
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The Obama administration is backing $675,000 in... →
Oh for chrissake…Great precedent to validate, guys - totally reasonable. Did anyone actually read the arguments?
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Amazon's New Royalty Plan All Because of Apple? →
Also, Apple has been known to make its competitors practically obsolete, so Amazon had better shake hands with more organizations — and perhaps stop its objections to the Google Book settlement and kill off its DRM — in order to stay afloat.
Applezon? Amazapple? Adam’s Apple?
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“One other advantage of 3-D that has encouraged the film studios is the fact...”
– Times of London.
*No reference for this.
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Thanks for the Tip!: "Better Late Than Never:... →
Who needs R5 release dates when this guy is announcing that not only does he have an AVATAR DVD screener and you don’t - but he also knows James Cameron personally, and you do not, and that James Cameron has “shot the film to succeed in 2D”. I guess it’s a special lens that insures profit and enjoyment?
Anyways, Mike, thanks to your bragging, file sharers now know that...
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BitTorrent Community OiNK’s Founder Cleared of... →
In October 2007, Alan Ellis, the owner of the popular invite-only BitTorrent community OiNK.cd, was arrested in Middlesbrough, UK. The first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing, Ellis was just found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud in a Teesside Crown Court.
Glad I just started following @film_girl @mashable - props!
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Everything You Need To Refute a File-Sharing Legal... →
This is aimed at UK folks being specifically targeted right now by ACS:Law (a lawyers’ group), but has good advice for anyone who receives a cash-demand letter from someone representing an Intellectual Property. Ahem.
The group publishing this FREE, dowloadable book (.pdf) is called BeingThreatened. They get extra props for using the a term that calls it what it is: “Speculative...
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Prosecution Gets Desperate, Delusional, and Way...
Are they kidding? We all wished that we could buy an OiNK membership…at any price.
Jared at ZEROPAID says:
Running a site isn’t free and it’s only fair that users donate a few dollars to help defray the costs. As for allowing users to buy invites I can’t imagine that was allowed for the simple reason that OiNK mods were notorious for vetting invitees, and would routinely ban members who...
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Release Group ToXiC gets their hands on another... →
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Is Netgear The Borg?
Home Networking
What if you could chat online with your work colleagues while you’re having breakfast at home in your kitchen? And what if, at the same time, your daughter could send a digital photo to Grandma while your son was downloading MP3s? Wouldn’t it be great to listen to digital music coming through your surround sound home stereo? Or stream family videos you have just...
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WatchWell, that was awkward.
Also, if you listen very closely, you can hear………………….that he doesn’t make any sense.
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Sarkozy's 'New Year's Wish': Investigate Google →
If Sarkozy has his way, France will tax Google and other search engines, Web portals, and Internet service providers and turn that revenue over to the music and publishing industries, according to reports in multiple French newspapers and news services. Under the plan, the government would also partially subsidize “music cards” that the country’s youth could use to buy songs...
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Unknown MASTERMIND Hacks Into Timbo's Mainframe.
Timbaland Says Someone Tried To Sabotage His Relationship With Jay-Z
MTV:
Tim explained that someone hacked into his engineer’s e-mail and stole the files of Blueprint 3 songs “Venus vs. Mars” and “Off That,” the first to be leaked from the album. He said they hadn’t determined a destination for “Rumors,” though they thought it wasn’t...
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“Controlled leaks are almost always the solution to a problem. In this case, it...”
– Mac Observer:
* to light a fire under a recalcitrant partner
* to float the idea of the US$1,000 price point and gauge reaction
* to panic/confuse a potential competitor about whom Apple had some knowledge
* to whet analyst and observer expectations to make sure the right kind and number of...
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Ahmadinejad's Website Hacker Is Extremely Ballsy →
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Internet pirates find 'bulletproof' havens for... →
From The Guardian.
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More On eBook Piracy, Or Lack Of It. →
The list of most pirated eBooks of 2009 is mostly filled with geek manuals, dating tips and self-help guides. At the end of the year, Dan Brown, Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer and J.K Rowling were the only best selling authors that made it into the top 25.
One of the explanations for this apparent ‘lack of piracy’ is the fact that eBook readers are still an exclusive gadget. When compared to...
Having fixed Africa and AIDS, Bono tackles...
Boing Boing:
Ah yes, the “noble effort to stop child pornography,” always good to lead with that one when you’re proposing draconian net-trawling tactics.
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“A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the...”
– Note to Negativland: Bono is looking out for the little guy; the struggling artist!
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Sony Accidentally Leaks "Armored" DVD Screener To... →
Oops! Thanks, Sony! It’s now all over Bit Torrent, naturally.
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Usher's ''Raymond Vs. Raymond'' Album Leaked... →
Uhhh…Thanks for the citation, Nicholas. :(
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“Ha ha - there’s a release group called “FoxNews”.”
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UP IN THE AIR Screener Leaks.
Release group CAMELOT got their hands on a DVDSCR of this hotness — presumably another Oscar screener.
New Peter Jackson Movie Leaks Two Weeks Before... →
The Lovely Bones has leaked in DVD Screener Quality from PrisM Group.
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“Plagiarism is necessary. It is implied in the idea of progress. It clasps the...”
– - Comte de Lautréamont