TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Movie Studios Compiled Scary Private Life Dossier On SurfTheChannel Owner
- Kim Dotcom: MPAA / RIAA Corrupted the U.S. Government
- SurfTheChannel Owner Sentenced to Four Years in Jail
| Movie Studios Compiled Scary Private Life Dossier On SurfTheChannel Owner Posted: 15 Aug 2012 03:58 AM PDT
The background investigation into the case was carried out by the Hollywood-funded, MPA-affiliated, UK anti-piracy group Federation Against Copyright Theft. FACT has no official powers and is a limited company in the UK, but as this article will reveal it has a surprising level of influence when it comes to obtaining information. Before being sentenced Vickerman arranged that for his side of the story to be posted on the SurfTheChannel website. In close to 20,000 words he describes the past five years as a “very British miscarriage of justice.” In addition to the story Vickerman also posted an archive containing evidence to back up his claims. Among other things, the archive contains a FACT document headlined ‘Operation Stemp – Subject Profile: Anton Vickerman’, which is a dossier of information the FACT Intelligence Unit compiled on the SurfTheChannel admin, his family, and his associates. The document begins by stating that Vickerman is believed to be the operator of two “torrent sites” – surfthechannel.com and snarf-it.org, both of which “sell copyrighted material”. It follows with Vickerman’s home address, notes that his wife lives with him, lists the make, model and license plate of her car, and indicates she was being watched as long ago as May 2008. According to FACT, Vickerman worked on the famous Suprnova.org torrent site and used several aliases including FD, Shadow, Serious, Casper and Ben Vickerman. But from here things start to get more intimate. In the next section of the profile FACT conduct a “Financial Analysis” of Vickerman, noting that he had previously defaulted on seven credit agreements. And then, just when people in the UK might incorrectly presume that their finances are a private affair, FACT notes that Vickerman had two standing loans being paid back at the rate of £209 per month and goes on to describe the details of his mortgage, how much he pays each month, and the fact that he and his wife never missed a payment.  The data gathering continues to include the personal details of Anton Vickerman’s mother and father who are both pensioners. Kelly Vickerman, Anton’s wife, was described as having two bank accounts and a credit card (with £1,025 outstanding) and an account with the comms provider BT. Initially FACT had considered that an account might have been held with comms provider BSKYB so wrote to the company asking for information – FACT apparently have “an agreement” with BSKYB to obtain information.  BSKYB responded back saying no accounts were held at the Vickerman’s address  As noted earlier, FACT incorrectly described streaming links site SurfTheChannel as a BitTorrent site, but they go even further when justifying the need to conduct surveillance on the Vickermans.  The documents go on to list the reports provided by FACT’s private investigators as they track Vickerman up and down the country during and after his meeting with a movie industry undercover operative in a London hotel. They also list requests to use covert filming techniques when an operative posed as a potential housebuyer. Part of the operative’s report and filming is shown below.  The depth of the investigation and the amount of information obtained by FACT on the Vickermans is quite remarkable. The data and correspondence collated runs to dozens of pages but perhaps what is most noticeable is the manner in which everything is presented. The whole thing looks like a police operation yet it was not – it was an investigation being carried out by a UK company on behalf of other companies in the United States. But for FACT and their Hollywood paymasters overseas, the effort will have been worth it. Four years in jail for Anton Vickerman is a very aggressive punishment and what could yet prove to be a significant deterrent to others looking to follow in his footsteps. The MPAA will be very pleased with their investment this morning, there can be little doubt about that. Source: Movie Studios Compiled Scary Private Life Dossier On SurfTheChannel Owner |
| Kim Dotcom: MPAA / RIAA Corrupted the U.S. Government Posted: 14 Aug 2012 02:59 PM PDT
The two groups gave their recommendations for future IP enforcement policy and among other suggestions offered to help out with future international actions against “rogue sites” such as Megaupload. "In this case, the Justice Department and other federal agencies are now grappling with a set of wealthy and arrogant defendants who are leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to sway public opinion against efforts to hold them accountable," the groups wrote. An interesting choice of words. Ignoring whether or not the statements apply to Dotcom or not, being “wealthy and arrogant” is by no means a crime. In fact, many people in Hollywood and the music business can easily be described using the same terms. In addition, “swaying public opinion” is one of the main goals of both the MPAA and RIAA. In a response to the name-calling, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom says the insults are a sign of weakness. According to him there is absolutely no need to “sway anything.” “They are calling me names because the case against Megaupload is a stillborn cripple,” Dotcom told TorrentFreak. “There is no need to sway public opinion because everyone can see how the MPAA and RIAA are corrupting the system by infiltrating their own people into key government positions. They are openly paying politicians and hiring public officials who are favorable to them.” Dotcom is referring to the so-called “revolving door” between the U.S. Government and the copyright industries. As a result, the MPAA and the U.S. authorities prosecuting Megaupload can be considered a close group of friends. “A recent example is the senior vice president of the MPAA Marc Miller who recently called me a ‘career criminal’ at a press briefing regarding the potential dismissal of the Megaupload case,” Dotcom says. “He is a former prosecutor and colleague of Jay Prabhu, one of the US Attorneys behind the prosecution of Megaupload. They worked together in the Computer Crime division at the Department of Justice and they jointly won the Anti-Piracy Leadership Award from the SIIA.” “Good friends help each other,” Dotcom adds. One of the most crucial employees at the MPAA is its CEO Chris Dodd, who joined the movie industry group in 2011 after serving as a senator for thirty years. “The MPAA made the ultimate hire with former Senator and Joe Biden’s best friend Chris Dodd. They now own the ear drums at the White House. And Chris Dodd is using his influence,” Dotcom says. “The US Attorney [Neil MacBride] leading this case was a former copyright lobbyist and lawyer of Joe Biden. He is also a buddy of Chris Dodd. This gang of friends plotted the takedown of Megaupload in bad faith,” Dotcom adds. As mentioned before, Kim Dotcom and his legal team claim to have evidence that vice president Joe Biden was the one who ordered the shutdown of Megaupload. According to Dotcom the vice president admitted this in public. “At a recent fundraiser luncheon Joe Biden openly admitted and bragged that he was behind the Megaupload termination. And that he had to convince Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to back him and Chris Dodd. We have a credible witness who has provided our legal team with evidence.” Dotcom is convinced that Biden is the mastermind, and that people such as assistant U.S. attorney Jay Prabhu are nothing more than foot soldiers waiting in line to walk through the revolving door. “Who believes that Jay Prabhu, a semi-talented assistant US Attorney with little respect inside the DOJ has the balls to take down a global cloud storage business with millions of legitimate users and 4% of all Internet traffic? He is just a soldier following orders.” “And when the Megaupload case finally arrives at the bullshit graveyard Jay Prabhu might get a job at the MPAA just like his former colleague Marc Miller. That is, if the MPAA still exists after Megaupload, it’s business partners and our users sue them and the studios for damages.” While the entertainment industry and the U.S. Government succeeded in taking Megaupload out, at least temporarily, Dotcom believes that the truth will come out in the end. “The evidence of corruption is surfacing thanks to whistleblowers. This time they went too far and it’s going to bite them where it hurts,” Dotcom says. “We are innocent. We can prove it. The legal experts are siding with us. We are winning important court battles. And we have the people of the Internet on our side. The public and the media are becoming more interested in this case, making it increasingly difficult for the US government to get away with lies and dirty tricks.” Megaupload’s founder already scored a victory in New Zealand, and he believes that more will follow. “Independent New Zealand judges see right through the politically motivated maliciousness of this case and won’t become an accessory after the fact for big content billionaires in the US,” he says. According to Dotcom the public has an important role to play in turning this case in favor of Megaupload. Voting Obama out of office is a good start, as he is in the pockets of the MPAA and RIAA. “Remember the Mr President song? ‘Don’t let them get away with that’. You can start by voting for a new administration in November if Obama isn’t turning this around. Hollywood and the MPAA are only backing Obama’s re-election and can’t expect any favors from Mitt Romney. Romney is simply the better bet for a free Internet. “You have the power to send a strong message to the next President of the United States. Get involved. Tell your friends. Blog and tweet. Take your Internet back while you still can,” Dotcom concludes. Source: Kim Dotcom: MPAA / RIAA Corrupted the U.S. Government |
| SurfTheChannel Owner Sentenced to Four Years in Jail Posted: 14 Aug 2012 07:46 AM PDT In 2010, SurfTheChannel.com was among the most-visited streaming link websites on the Internet. The site had more than 400,000 visitors a day who were mostly looking for popular TV-shows. The website was a thorn in the side of the UK and US entertainment industries who went to extremes to bring the site down. Among other things, the MPAA and FACT hired an undercover agent to gain access to the defendants' house under false pretenses. The case eventually went to trial in May and today a judge at Newcastle Crown Court sentenced 38-year old site owner Anton Vickerman to four years imprisonment. Vickerman’s wife faced the same charges but was found not guilty in June. SurfTheChannel
Today’s sentencing marks the first time that the owner of a linking website has been found guilty of conspiring to defraud the entertainment industry. A previous attempt at making the same charge stick against the owner of the OiNK BitTorrent tracker failed during 2010. Although SurfTheChannel did not store any copyrighted material itself, the site did organize links to copyrighted streams on third-party sites. According to the prosecution, the website was making at least £35,000 a month. The UK Pirate Party is deeply concerned by the sentencing. “The way this issue was investigated, prosecuted and the resulting sentence are, deeply concerning, inappropriate and disproportionate given the activities that Anton Vickerman was engaged in. A four year prison sentence is twice the maximum that could have been handed down if Vickers had been charged with online copyright infringement,” party leader Loz Kaye says. "As we have said before, this was not a case brought using copyright law. The interest groups involved couldn't present a case of copyright infringement and decided to press for the use of the common law offence of "conspiracy to defraud". This offence is incredibly controversial in English law as it criminalises conduct by two or more parties that would not be criminal when performed by an individual," he added. The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the local anti-piracy group which played an essential role in the investigation, is delighted on the other hand. "This case conclusively shows that running a website that deliberately sets out to direct users to illegal copies of films and TV shows will result in a criminal conviction and a long jail sentence,” FACT Director General Kieron Sharp says. “The sentencing indicates the severity of the offenses committed and the sophistication of [Vickerman's] criminal enterprise and should send a very strong message to those running similar sites that they can be found, arrested and end up in prison." The MPAA previously noted that it would use the sentencing of Vickerman to support the extradition process of TVShack owner Richard O’Dwyer. While the two sites were indeed comparable, the crucial difference is that O’Dwyer is not charged with fraud but copyright infringement. That said, the sentencing today definitely spells trouble for UK-based website owners who operate similar streaming sites. Source: SurfTheChannel Owner Sentenced to Four Years in Jail |
Anton Vickerman, the owner of TV streaming links site SurfTheChannel, 
Last Friday the MPAA and RIAA filed a joint submission with Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel.
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