TorrentFreak Email Update |
- ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer
- How To Catch BitTorrent Pirates, A Trolling Course
- Rights Group Demands Cash So Libraries Can Read Books To Kids
| ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer Posted: 15 Mar 2012 04:02 AM PDT
The deal involves content owners, such as recording labels and movie studios, monitoring peer-to-peer networks including BitTorrent for copyright infringements and reporting instances to Internet service providers. The ISPs have agreed to take steps to “educate” allegedly infringing customers through an escalating system of notices, warnings, and other measures. While it was big news at the time and a very hot issue, since mid-2011 very little has been reported on the progress of the deal. The initial announcement said that ISPs would start implementing the alert system by the end of last year, but this obviously didn’t happen. However, according to the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), the organization responsible for administering the scheme, all parties are on target to initiate the programs by July 12th this year. “The members of the coalition are making significant progress at developing a cooperative system to educate consumers and deter copyright theft,” a spokesperson told TorrentFreak. “CCI is working to implement what is an unprecedented effort and is proceeding on pace with the MOU. We will have announcements in the near future that will include the naming of the [anti-piracy monitoring] partner and details on how CCI and the technology partner will work together.” According to CNET this positive outlook was confirmed by RIAA CEO Cary Sherman. During the Association of American Publishers’ annual meeting yesterday, Sherman reportedly announced that ‘most’ of the major ISPs involved in the so-called “graduated response” (such as Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable) Sherman said that the process hadn’t been easy, with each ISP having to establish their own database to keep track of repeat infringers, the very people whose habits the studios hope to change. So come July, what changes should customers of the major ISPs expect? Those not engaging in file-sharing on P2P networks will probably notice very little (cyberlocker sharing is not covered), apart from ultimately having to help finance the scheme through their ISP bills. For those who choose to download and share popular music from EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, or do likewise with movies owned by Disney, Sony, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner, things will change. Under a White House and lawmaker supported "Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) published last July, ISPs will send advisories to alleged copyright-infringing customers. The first so-called ‘Initial Educational Steps’ will advise customers that copyright infringement is illegal and a breach of the ISP’s terms of service, that legal alternatives are available, and that continuing to infringe may have consequences including account suspension or termination. The Acknowledgment Step, reached when an Internet subscriber is accused of additional infringements by rights holders, will see ISPs send Copyright Alerts requiring acknowledgment of receipt from account holders along with a pledge to end infringing activity from the account. Should several attempts at ‘educating’ a subscriber fail, ISPs will be able to send a Mitigation Measure Copyright Alert which again requires customer acknowledgment. It will advise that a customer has received prior warnings and as per the ISPs terms of service, a ‘Mitigation Measure’ will now be applied to the account. Mitigation measures can include throttling of upload or download speeds, a temporary reduction in service quality to one step above dial-up, redirection to a landing page so that the customer can be further ‘educated’, or even account suspension. No ISP has yet agreed to the latter and no ISP is allowed to disable VOIP, email, security, or TV services. Source: ISPs To Begin Punishing BitTorrent Pirates This Summer
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| How To Catch BitTorrent Pirates, A Trolling Course Posted: 14 Mar 2012 02:27 PM PDT
The lawyers in question track alleged BitTorrent pirates and threaten to take them to court. But, as is common with these schemes, all people have to do is pay up a settlement fee and the whole thing simply goes away. Critics of these practices have described the people involved as ‘copyright trolls,’ and some of the defendants are fighting back. DGW, for example, is currently involved in a class action lawsuit where the law firm is accused of fraud, abuse and extortion. Considering the above, it came as a surprise when we learned this morning that the DGW law firm is presenting an educational webinar under the umbrella of the American Bar Association. Titled “Finding Anonymous Copyright Infringers,” the course promises to teach fellow lawyers all the tricks they need to catch those pesky pirates. According to the announcement, part of the webinar will “focus on the hot topic in copyright litigation involving federal litigation against the backdrop of torrent and live web-streaming.” During the webinar participating lawyers will learn more about “utilizing pre-discovery subpoenas [...] and a variety of other legal tools to pursue infringement claims against anonymous infringers.” Basically it reads like a crash course on how to become a copyright troll by the very people who pioneered the scheme in the US. Lawyers who participate in the webinar are eligible for mandatory CLE credit, and we expect that the ‘teachers’ will be compensated for their insights as well. DGW lawyers Thomas Dunlap and Nick Kurtz will be accompanied by the EFF friendly defense lawyer Paul Ticen. He is expected to address how BitTorrent users have put up a successful defense in court, which is a dangerous exercise considering the negative framing of the course. This vision is shared by Robert Cashman, a Texas lawyer defending dozens of individuals in mass BitTorrent lawsuits. “It seems awfully dangerous and stupid to get on a panel with the plaintiff attorney copyright trolls and tell them all of the defense’s strategies,” he told TorrentFreak. “The way this whole thing is set up, I am afraid it will be the plaintiff attorneys versus the lone defense attorney. I expect to see bloodshed,” he added. Whatever the outcome, we encourage participants in the course to fill us in on the details. Heck, we might even buy the CD-Rom, which will obviously be pirated by an anonymous Doe in the near future. Source: How To Catch BitTorrent Pirates, A Trolling Course
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| Rights Group Demands Cash So Libraries Can Read Books To Kids Posted: 14 Mar 2012 04:59 AM PDT
But rather than being scared of the big bad wolf, kids in Belgium have a new foe – the country’s evil copyright overlords. In quite possibly their lowest move yet, rights group SABAM are now trying to attach a price to children’s reading sessions taking place in libraries up and down the country. More often associated with music-related collections, SABAM have been contacting libraries that hold sessions where children can listen to stories read out by library staff. These, the group insists, are events held in public and are therefore chargeable. One target for SABAM is a library in Dilbeek that has been holding a twice-monthly reading hour for children. "Each time a dozen or so children attend,” library worker Alexandra Vervaecke told DeMorgen. “A while ago we were suddenly contacted by SABAM and told that we have to pay. I have done the calculations: for us it would amount to 250 euro per year.” Naturally the libraries are mulling ways to avoid paying SABAM – one option is to limit readings to older stories that are copyright free, but even that’s not easy. "Even Grimms’ Fairy Tales are on a list of works for which one must pay,” said Vervaecke. "This is because only the original version is copyright-free. In any case it's impossible to read only older texts." LINC, a non-profit organization that helps to set up public reading spots in libraries, is concerned by developments. "A few hundred euros might not sound like much, but for small libraries it is quite a lot of money and the effects will not help to promote reading", said spokesperson An Valkenborgh. “Since the report from Dilbeek we've heard from a few other libraries that have also been contacted about paying or are already paying." It’s not clear if there is a link with the increased SABAM activity in this area, but currently in Belgium it’s Jeugdboekenweek – children's literature week. Nevertheless, SABAM insist they have a right to get paid. “We have a department that actively tracks events for which royalties must be paid. It could be that they have seen a notice and thus contacted us,” said spokesman Jérôme Van Win. “For libraries there are no exceptions to the law. They are public places and so royalties must be paid for a public reading session." Only 3 months in, 2012 is proving to be a busy year for SABAM. Last month the group lost their legal battle with social networking site Netlog, with the European Court of Justice ruling that hosting sites aren’t allowed to filter copyrighted content as that would violate the privacy of users and hinder freedom of information. In a separate case originally brought by an artist back in 2004, a judge’s findings means that SABAM is now facing accusations of falsifying accounts to cover up bribe payments, abuse of trust, copyright fraud and embezzlement. Update: Although the original article at Belgium’s DeMorgen seems very clear, and despite the author of that article contacting SABAM and receiving a quote for his story, SABAM are now saying that there is a misunderstanding. While they clarify that they are able to ask for payment when a literary work is read out as a public performance, in the case of the Dilbeek library, SABAM say that the fee requested was only for the playing of music. The bottom line is that if libraries arrange a reading they do have to contact SABAM to see if the work to be read is protected. If it is then the library has to pay SABAM a fee. Source: Rights Group Demands Cash So Libraries Can Read Books To Kids
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After years of painful negotiations, last June it was 
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There can hardly be an adult in the world who didn’t enjoy being read a story as a child and for many of us recollection of these tales means reliving some of our earliest memories.| You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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