TorrentFreak Email Update

BitTorrent Crackdown: Police Raid Private Tracker, Others Shut Down

Posted: 25 Feb 2012 04:51 AM PST

Following the announcement this month that Sweden's Supreme Court would not be hearing an appeal of the Pirate Bay trial, entertainment industry lawyers warned that file-sharing sites in Sweden were living on borrowed time. All 150 sites with Swedish connections were advised to shut down – or else.

For Swepiracy, a private BitTorrent tracker founded in 2006, it’s now too late. On Thursday, police in Sweden and the Netherlands swooped on the 30,000 member site after it was accused by the authorities of being one of the most important locations when it comes to illegally distributing Swedish films.

Anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån said that the tracker’s operators had ignored warnings to close down and instead took measures to protect themselves. The site’s servers were in the Netherlands, but police there assisted their Swedish counterparts and took the site down.

This is not the first time that Swepiracy has been taken offline. Following a similar torrent site crackdown following the “guilty” verdict in the Pirate Bay trial in April 2009, Swepiracy disappeared for a few weeks, but reappeared before the month was out.

Now, Antipiratbyrån say they will take the operators of Swepiracy to court and seek damages “according to The Pirate Bay model.” They also warn that other sites – including The Internationals (which was recently closed down only to later reappear) and famous private tracker Scene Access – are next if they don’t comply.

Also this week, police in Gothenburg carried out a raid against an individual they say is suspected of widespread file-sharing on The Pirate Bay and another local site, Shareitall. The man denied the charges and was subsequently released.

Other Swedish-based sites have already had enough. This week the admins of eBook-focused site Bibliotik.org closed down the site of their own free will.

“Bibliotik has shutdown all operations. We are no longer able to assume the risks involved. The staff would like to apologize for the sudden (but necessary) decision and thank everyone that participated and made Bibliotik such a great place for so long. We love you guys!” they said in an announcement.

Earlier this week, Sweden’s number 2 torrent site Tankafetast shut down after its operators decided that enough was enough. At the time, Antipiratbyran confirmed they had threatened the site with legal action. However, just days later, the site has changed owners and is now back online.

Source: BitTorrent Crackdown: Police Raid Private Tracker, Others Shut Down

Sony Music Boss: Censored YouTube Videos Cost Us Millions

Posted: 24 Feb 2012 11:46 AM PST

berger For years the music industry has blamed Internet piracy for all their troubles.

Slowly, however, the record labels are starting to realize that the Internet is the future and it will ultimately do more good than harm.

One of the people who embraces this positive view is Edgar Berger, Sony Music’s CEO of international business. In a recent interview he stressed the importance of the Internet, while noting that the increase in Internet sales almost makes up for the decline in physical sales.

“There is absolutely nothing to complain about. The Internet is a great stroke of luck for the music industry, or better: the Internet is a blessing for us,” Berger said.

“You can not blame the Internet for harmful excesses. On the contrary. It has brought us tremendous new opportunities,” he added.

But with these new opportunities come new rivals from an unexpected corner. According to the Sony boss, music rights collecting agencies are now preventing innovation in certain countries.

In Germany, for example, most YouTube videos by Sony artists are blocked due to the music rights group GEMA, and not because Sony wants it that way. When asked why Sony’s music is not available on YouTube in Germany, Berger responded bitterly.

“It’s not because of us. You must direct this question to the German collecting agency GEMA, they licensed the copyright very restrictively.”

It turns out that the price GEMA want for views is too high for YouTube, and as a result the videos of some of the world’s most famous artists are blocked.

Lady Gaga’s YouTube channel in Germany

youtube

According to Berger, GEMA’s restrictive regime is not helping the artists or the music labels. In fact, he says the music industry is losing “millions in revenue”. Additionally, it’s one of the prime reasons why the digital music business is so far behind in Germany.

This is not the first time Berger has lashed out against GEMA’s practices. According to the Sony boss it’s time for the music rights group to embrace the digital age.

"We want to see streaming services like Vevo and Spotify in the German market. [These platforms] must not be blocked by GEMA any longer," he said earlier. "Artists and music companies are losing sales in the millions."

So here we have the boss of one of the largest music labels blaming another group for their repressive copyright enforcement. It’s the world upside down, but a promising change from Sony’s side.

This is not the first time GEMA has negatively entered the news this year. Last month the popular music streaming service Grooveshark decided to shut down voluntarily due to the "unreasonably high" licensing costs imposed by the music rights group.

Source: Sony Music Boss: Censored YouTube Videos Cost Us Millions

The Pirate's Press

Saturday, 25 February 2012