Posts Tagged ‘P2P’
Spanish Government Destroys P2P and Basic Freedoms [File Sharing]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on December 2nd, 2009
The Government of Spain, one of the last bastions of legal peer-to-peer file sharing, has approved a law that'll obliterate some of the most basic human rights, like freedom of speech and due process. All in the name of money.
There's a whole bunch of greedy "artists"—represented by the SGAE, the Spanish version of the RIAA, and some cinema associations—who most of the times are used by the Spanish socialist government to support their political agenda. I say greedy because, in Spain, there's an "artist tax" on everything that can be used to record something. You buy a CD to do data backup at work? Doesn't matter, the government's friends assume you are a thief copying stuff, and charge you an extra for it. Maybe you want a new camera to record your newborn baby? Well, that's more expensive too because of the "artistic" tax. Want an iPod? Pay extra. A DVD-R unit? Give them more money.
Their argument for that tax was that, since people were pirating music and movies using the internet, the artistic associations should get a cut of all media and gadgets that could be used to copy music and movies. I can argue that I don't give a rat's ass about the mostly lousy music produced in Spain, not to talk about their craptastic movies, but it's ok. Let's say that I accept that premise and gladly pay the extra, even while it destroys the presumption of innocence. P2P was legal in Spain—and still is—and everyone was happy.
Everyone but them. They wanted more, and they got it as an obvious favor, returned by the socialist government now in power. After passing the law hidden in another law, the artist associations can now close any web site they want, without a court order. They only have to argue that the site may be used to share media, and the Minister of Culture will have to the power to close the site without any judge giving the go ahead, a true "Cultural Police." Goodbye democracy, hello National Socialism. What's more, they also want to be able to close the Internet connection of any user who uses the internet for P2P sharing, also without any due process.
This leaves everyone without any defense. The artists associations and the Minister of Culture can shut down a business that can be perfectly legal, without having to answer to anyone. Just because they say so. Or they can close the internet connection of someone who wasn't doing anything wrong. All without confronting any judge with any solid evidence. This means that the business or user would have to go to court to defend themselves after the damage is done, something that requires money.
In other words, no due process, no presumption of innocence, just shutting down web sites because someone with no judicial power says so.
They want to get their money from the artist tax and destroy P2P at the same time, demolishing some Spanish Constitutional rights in the process. Needless to say, this has originated a huge response by Internet users, Human Rights activists, journalists, and bloggers, who have signed a manifesto against it. Also needless to say, nobody in the government will do anything about it, which is one of the reasons why I don't live in my home country anymore. [MuyComputer—Google Translation]
Viacom Top Lawyer on Obliterating Peer-to-Peer Users [Blockquote]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 17th, 2009
Michael Fricklas is Viacom's general counsel, the company's top lawyer. I can't tell if he actually felt bad when he said the above at a recent meeting with Yale Law students. I kind of feel an evil, dark smile inside.
Even as part of a big company, and as a consumer, and as a guy who loves technology and loves gadgets and all the interesting things that are happening on the Internet, I kind of agree with [the criticisms] I actually care a lot about fair use… What we're really focused on in our business right now is the exact copy.
I really don't get it. If he really thinks this, why doesn't he advise another course of action? Señor Fricklas, no comprendo. [Ars Technica]
More Tips for Torrenting Your Brains Out [BitTorrent]
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on November 11th, 2009
Just about every BitTorrent trick you need to know that we haven't shown you, Maximum PC covers in their BitTorrent guide, like remote management, rolling your own torrents, and even getting somebody else to do the dirty work for you.
The other major bit they're missing—where to get torrents where the policies are a little, um, flexible—we've got you covered. If you've got more tips, shower the comments with 'em. [Maximum PC]
Wi-Fi Direct enabling P2P communications amongst WiFi wares, scaring Bluetooth half to death
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on October 14th, 2009
Filed under: Wireless
Wi-Fi Direct enabling P2P communications amongst WiFi wares, scaring Bluetooth half to death originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | CommentsFCC to propose new net neutrality rules disallowing data discrimination
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Gadget News on September 18th, 2009
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Filed under: Wireless, Networking
FCC to propose new net neutrality rules disallowing data discrimination originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsUK Music claims unity on filesharing
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on September 16th, 2009
But the industry remains divided on whether it wants filesharers to have their web access suspended
The music industry claims to have reached a unified position on illegal filesharing but it remains unclear whether it will maintain its demands for persistent filesharers to be suspended from the internet.
In a statement ahead of a 29 September deadline for comments in the government's illegal filesharing consultation, umbrella group UK Music says "government intervention is extremely welcome".
The position statement follows the emergence of opposing views within the music industry over the last fortnight. Artists including Blur drummer Dave Rowntree have attacked government proposals to suspend the internet connections of persistent filesharers.
But the record labels and industry lobby groups have welcomed the prospect of such laws.
UK Music head Feargal Sharkey said last night the group had joined with the Entertainment Retailers' Association and the Music Producers' Guild to compile a common response to the government's consultation.
The Music Producers Guild and UK Music member Basca (British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors) had been part of a group condemning proposed laws. That camp also included the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), including Annie Lennox, Rowntree and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason. FAC were not part of last night's joint position statement.
Asked about bringing together all strands of the industry, Sharkey said:
"Conversations will progress over coming weeks and days to ensure the industry can go out there with a clear vision on how we want government to help us going forward."
A clear view of the future
The UK Music statement stopped short of providing details on whether the coalition of groups supports the proposals to suspend the broadband connections as a last resort.
"We are very much settled now on what we think will be our common response on September 29," said Sharkey.
Asked about the broadband suspension issue, he said: "UK Music have agreed a position on it and will reveal it on the 29th."
"We are affirming to the industry and to the outside world that we do have a clear view of our future and how we achieve that."
Some industry groups have openly criticised the big-name artists for their very public comments that filesharing can be beneficial to musicians. But Sharkey rebuffed suggestions of a growing rift in the UK music industry.
He said the debate around what measures were needed to curb filesharing had been a "very productive exercise" and claimed it had in fact brought various parties closer together.
"It's important that we all know we have a future and it can be very successful, should we as an industry decide to make it so," he said.
The position statement says tackling the issue of unlicensed peer-to-peer file-sharing is critical to the future of the music industry and to "enabling a commercial environment where sustainable, licensed digital services can prosper."
"UK Music would like to clarify that all our members remain committed to supporting proposals that will benefit the future growth and sustainability of our commercial music industry," it says.
"In context of an evolving licensed digital music market, we believe that government intervention is extremely welcome and that, subject to assessment, Ofcom should be granted appropriate and proportionate powers as directed by the secretary of state."
"The purpose of these powers is to encourage users of unlicensed P2P networks towards existing and future digital music services."
The statement follows a motion yesterday from the National Union of Journalists and broadcasting union Bectu, fully backed at the TUC conference, condemning filesharing and demanding more action from internet service providers (ISPs).
Many ISPs have expressed concerns over how proposed laws will be enforced and how this will be funded. They say they are also worried that the wrong people could be penalised, while consumer groups warn the planned laws could infringe the rights of internet users.
Lammy: help us tackle online piracy
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on September 3rd, 2009
Labour minister to speak at Motion Picture Association of America in Washington
Film studios and record labels should not rely on the threat of legal action to force consumers into buying their products, but instead work to help people understand the impact of filesharing, according to intellectual property minister David Lammy.
Lammy is adding his voice to the debate on how to tackle online piracy following revelations that Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, is mulling new laws to cut off the broadband connections of filesharers. While Lammy confirms that the government will continue to put new policies in place, he also argues that the industry needs to play its part by providing attractive alternatives to illegal films and music.
"Tackling supply isn't enough. We need to tackle demand as well," Lammy is due to say in a speech to the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington today.
"Many otherwise law-abiding people believe they are causing no harm when they buy or download illegal copyright goods. They think that creators and business have already been well paid for their work. I want us to reach out to those people. To take to them the message that what they're doing is wrong."
Referring to proposals by Mandelson to cut off the broadband connections of internet users who illegally download music, he adds: "We're not standing still. New work against illicit P2P filesharing, including possible suspension of internet access for persistent infringers, and increased penalties for IP infringement, online and offline. We are sending a clear message: when it comes to piracy and infringement, 'digital is not different'.
"But, as I've already said, enforcement is not enough. It is only one part of the story. Consumers, and that means anyone with access to a computer or a cellphone, have taken a look at copyright and don't like what they see. That creates challenges for you in the film industry and for government."
Lammy cites apparent inconsistencies in copyright law, citing the example of a CD owner who wants a copy on his MP3 player. "Is he breaking the rules or just refusing to be ripped off?"
"Something isn't right with copyright. Not just in the UK but as a whole. And I want to do something about that," he says.
Lammy says consultations with various industry players such as Google, Universal and telecoms companies has shown "the mechanisms by which copyright operates are too complex."
His comments that the British government "will continue to put policies in place that make IP infringement easier to detect and sanctions harder to avoid" follow fierce criticism from a broad alliance of musicians, songwriters and producers of Mandelson's crackdown plans.
In a statement seen by the Guardian, a coalition of bodies representing a range of stars including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Damon Albarn attacked proposals to cut off broadband connections as expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative".
Digital rights groups have attacked the government move as a kneejerk reaction. The Open Rights Group says suspension of internet access would restrict people's fundamental right to freedom of expression.
Tech Weekly: The Open Book Alliance fight Google’s book search plans
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on August 26th, 2009
Google and copyright are the main issues in this week's podcast. Bobbie Johnson stands in again for Aleks, and he talks to Peter Brantley. Brantley works for the Internet Archive and is one of the men leading a number of organisations as part of the Open Book Alliance.
Google started a project to scan in millions of books from libraries around the world a few years ago, and despite a compromise with the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, parties such as Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo, librarians, writers and smaller publishers were unhappy with Google's plans. Bobbie finds out what their problem is with the settlement, and finds out what it's like to take on the internet's most powerful company.
Also in this week's programme, Kevin Anderson talks to Matt Mason about piracy and copyright. The issue remains a hot topic following the news that the British government is once again stepping up attempts to crack down on illegal filesharers. Mason is a former pirate radio DJ turned author, and believes that piracy is one of the biggest movements in modern life. He argues that youth culture is the driving force behind innovation and that piracy and remixing is fast becoming just another business model.
We also hear from Richard Wray, who updates Guardian Daily's Jon Dennis on the three-year struggle of a British price comparison website to become recognised by the world's largest search engine.
As ever, there's this week's news - including Nokia's entry to the computer business, Apple's latest OS update and how Google was ordered to unmask an anonymous blogger who called someone a "psychotic, lying, whoring skank".
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Mandelson web cutoff plan ‘potentially illegal’
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on August 25th, 2009
• U-turn on disconnecting filesharers surprises many
• Claims minister swayed by film and music industry
Lord Mandelson's plans to cut off the broadband connections of internet users who illegally download copyrighted music and films were attacked by privacy campaigners, internet service providers and Labour MPs yesterday as unworkable, unnecessary and potentially illegal.
The surprise decision to reintroduce the disconnection idea, which was ruled out in the government's own Digital Britain report in June, also sparked accusations that the business secretary has been swayed by secret meetings with senior figures from the music and film industry.
Tom Watson, the former cabinet minister who until recently was in charge of the government's internet policy, said the plan "will lead to accusations that the government has been captured by the big lobby operations of powerful rightsholders."
TalkTalk, Britain's largest consumer broadband provider, warned that innocent web users could be disconnected after having their connections hijacked by pirates looking to circumvent the new rules. It added that the move "will likely breach fundamental human rights".
A spokesman said: "Barely two months after the publication of largely sensible and pragmatic measures to tackle the problem Lord Mandelson has, it seems, caved in under pressure from powerful lobbyists in the content industry."
Earlier this month it emerged that the business secretary dined with Hollywood mogul David Geffen at a Corfu holiday villa owned by the Rothschild banking dynasty. Mandelson's advisers deny that this meeting included talk about how to stem the industry's losses caused by illegal filesharing. But Whitehall insiders believe the U-turn is more likely to have been caused by a prior meeting with one of the most powerful figures in the British music business, Lucian Grainge, the chairman of Universal Music, home to Lady Gaga and Rihanna.
Grainge is a fierce opponent of illegal file-sharing and is one of the government's chief industry advisers and part of the so-called C&binet – a group of executives who advise ministerial departments on fostering the creative industries in the UK.
He was consulted during the compilation of Lord Carter's Digital Britain report as part of an ad hoc "gang of five'' that included BSkyB's Jeremy Darroch, Channel 4's Andy Duncan and the Premier League's Richard Scudamore. Before the report was published he told an audience at the British Library, which included representatives of Mandelson's department: "The creators and the investors [in music] cannot exist with illegal filesharing, period. It will decimate the industry."
But the report stopped short of disconnecting the pirates, instead recommending that illegal filesharers should receive letters warning them their activities could leave them open to prosecution.
Believing that the government should have gone further, Grainge is understood to have had further meetings with Mandelson to push for tougher measures.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the business secretary had met many representatives of the creative industries and the government's change of stance was not the result of any single conversation.
But the music and film industry has been lobbying hard for tougher measures and Stephen Timms, who replaced Lord Carter's replacement as communications minister said: "It's become clear there are widespread concerns that the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly on rights holders."
As a result, Timms proposed that persistent illegal sharers of copyrighted material should have their broadband connections temporarily disconnected and the power to introduce this measure, if warning letters failed to have an impact on levels of piracy, should rest with the government, not Ofcom. The government hopes to have its plans for dealing with online piracy included in the autumn's digital economy bill.
But privacy campaigners say the government's new proposals could fall foul of the law — as they did in France earlier this year. Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, warned: "This proposal fundamentally reverses the onus of proof. It establishes systemic accusation. It is fraught with technical impossibility, it invites circumvention and creates a major online conflict between rights holders and users. And these are fundamental rights that are being violated.""Cutting people off the internet for allegedly infringing copyright is disproportionate," added Larry Whitty, chairman of Consumer Focus. "And to do so without giving consumers the right to challenge the evidence against them undermines fundamental rights to a fair trial."
John Petter, head of BT's consumer business, meanwhile, expressed his disappointment at the government's change of direction. "We were broadly supportive of the original plans but these changes run the risk of penalising customers unfairly."
A spokesperson for Virgin Media, meanwhile, added "persuasion not coercion is the key to changing consumer behaviour as a heavy-handed, punitive regime will simply alienate mainstream consumers. The government should be ensuring a balance of action against repeat infringers and the rapid development of new legitimate services that provide a compelling alternative to illegal filesharing."
Government confirms filesharing crackdown threat
Posted by: Gadget Boy in Technology on August 25th, 2009
The government has confirmed it is considering tough new measures to tackle illegal filesharing, possibly even cutting off the internet connections of repeat offenders
The government has confirmed it is considering a tough new crackdown on illegal filesharing, as reported in today's Guardian, saying that previous plans would take too long to implement "given the pressure put on the creative industries by piracy".
Under the tougher proposals, internet service providers would be obliged to block access to download sites, throttle broadband connections or even temporarily cut off access for repeat offenders.
Communications regulator Ofcom would report regularly to the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, providing evidence of whether such action is required against illegal filesharers.
The consultation document from Mandelson's Department for Business Innovation and Skills proposes that the secretary of state could then direct Ofcom to implement a raft of new technical measures.
Cutting off access was ruled out in the government's Digital Britain report released in June.
In the report, the then communications minister, Lord Carter, said illegal filesharers should receive letters warning them their activities could leave them open to prosecution. If that failed to reduce piracy by at least 70%, Ofcom would have the power to call on internet service providers to introduce "technical measures" to combat piracy. The most draconian penalty considered at the time was slowing down persistent filesharers' broadband connections.
Previously, it was planned that Ofcom would evaluate the action necessary to dramatically decrease illegal filesharing, but the government said that would mean the new technical measures would not be ready until 2012 at the earliest.
The music and film industries have lobbied hard for tougher measures to be introduced before this date.
"We've been listening carefully to responses to the consultation this far, and it's become clear there are widespread concerns that the plans as they stand could delay action, impacting unfairly upon rights holders," said Treasury minister Stephen Timms, who is responsible for implementation of Digital Britain.
Welcoming the move, the chief executive of music industry trade body the BPI, Geoff Taylor, said that digital piracy posed "a real threat to the UK's creative industries". "Today is a step forward that should help the legal digital market to grow for consumers," he said.
While the creative industries will be pleased, internet service providers are not only being asked to police users for illegal filesharing, but the government is also proposing that the costs of enforcement be borne by the ISPs and the rights holders.
Digital rights groups condemned the move. Calling it a "knee-jerk reaction", Jim Killock, the executive director of the Open Rights Group said: "Suspension of internet access would restrict people's fundamental right to freedom of expression. It would also fly in the face of the government's policy of universal broadband access."
He also accused that the government of making the decision based on "private conversations" and will be lodging an official complaint "about the shoddiness of this consultation process".
