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| The Pirate Bay Partners With Academic Researchers to Counter Propaganda Posted: 09 May 2012 03:57 AM PDT
The notorious BitTorrent site is encouraging visitors to take part in the survey into people’s file-sharing habits and their views on copyright enforcement. The study is a follow up to a similar survey last year, in which 75,000 people from all over the world participated. One of the main goals of the project is to counter entertainment industry propaganda. The researchers want to document how the Internet creates new social norms in society, and to what extent these norms are, or should be, reflected in relevant legislation. “This research is first of all aiming at creating a better base of knowledge for policy makers. Without adequate information it is impossible to adapt the legal systems in a legitimate way,” Måns Svensson, PhD in Sociology of Law at Lund and study manager told TorrentFreak. “Further, this research is important as a counterweight to the propaganda produced by various actors. Through the follow-up survey we are able to register changes and trends; and also we have the opportunity to ask some new questions, for example related to the recent demands on UK ISPs to block The Pirate Bay.” Svensson told TorrentFreak that the Pirate Bay is the perfect partner to carry out this type of research. Among other things, the first study revealed that Pirate Bay users show a great interest in VPN services and other anonymizers. With this second survey the Cybernorms group wants to see how the findings of the first study developed over time. “We are very curious of how the use of anonymity services has developed during the last year. A survey conducted earlier this year in Sweden indicated a growing use among file sharers of VPN services for anonymization. We think that we have reason to believe that intensified enforcement strategies will accelerate this development,” Svensson said. In addition, the survey also give the researchers the opportunity to delve deeper in people’s responses to recent Pirate Bay blockades, such as the one that was ordered in the UK last week. “We are also curious to learn more about the specific techniques used for online anonymity and the techniques for avoiding blocking. This time we are breaking down the data on a national level which means that we will be able to compare legal strategies with the actual behavioral changes.” Svensson stresses that he and his colleagues have a responsibility as social scientists to monitor the responses to more repressive anti-piracy laws. Thus far this has resulted in a few interesting insights. For example, they found that changing the law doesn’t mean that people’s norms will change. Instead, the gap between law and file-sharer’s morals widens. “Our research has shown that tougher legislation actually does have an effect on the amount that people file share copyright protected media. However, this legislation has no effect on the social norms of society,” Svensson said. “People still don’t think it is wrong to share files. What we have is a deterrent effect due to enforcement actions, but an effect that lacks societal support. This is a dangerous development that in the long run risks undermining the trust in the democratic society.” Readers who want to help out with the research are invited to take part in the survey. Next week all results of the first survey will be published to the public. Source: The Pirate Bay Partners With Academic Researchers to Counter Propaganda
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| Major Cyberlocker Movie Pirate Faces 5 Years In Prison Posted: 08 May 2012 09:18 AM PDT Online he was known as “Stainless” and according to the MPA-affiliated anti-piracy group chasing him down, he was Later this month the now 29-year-old will go to court to face charges of copyright infringement on Hollywood blockbusters such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. According to the Anti-Piracy Union, the piracy activities of Stainless date back to 2006 and are on an unprecedented scale. He allegedly uploaded thousands of movies and TV shows to cyberlocker file-hosting sites before publishing their links online in order to facilitate downloads. Initially Stainless is reported to have used RapidShare and Hotfile, but later used a web service called Multiload to upload to several sites at once. One of the main sites listed by Multiload is Hellshare and Stainless reportedly had around 11,500 files stored there. Exactly how many of those were infringing is unclear. Nevertheless, Stainless still stands accused of significant infringement. He is alleged to be responsible for the piracy of more than 2000 movie and TV shows including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and a selection of local movies. Not helping Stainless’ case is the fact he was the moderator of so-called ‘warez’ forum. As is increasingly common in these cases, the damages claim made by the studios is significant. They claim that Stainless cost them more than $4 million and as a result when he goes on trial later this month he will face between six months and five years in prison, plus a fine. “The way they estimated the damages is simply ridiculous,” Mikulas Ferjencik, vice-president of the Czech Pirate Party told TorrentFreak. “The Czech Pirate Party believes that it should be up to the copyright monopoly owners to prove that they were actually damaged by downloads. We think that the current setup, where copyright monopoly owners receive the ‘average market price’ multiplied by three, is unconstitutional.” The Czech Pirate Party, know for their provocative actions including setting up their own file-sharing sites, have courted controversy again recently. In setting up their new web portal located at Pirat.cz, they blatantly copied the design of the Czech Republic’s biggest search engine, Seznam.cz, fueling a considerable online debate and an interesting outcome. “Seznam.cz admitted that what we did is actually fully legal and they even drew another version of the Piráti.cz logo for us using their font – the one we originally used was just an imitation,” Ferjencik concludes. Source: Major Cyberlocker Movie Pirate Faces 5 Years In Prison
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The Pirate Bay renamed itself to The Research Bay today for a collaboration with the Cybernorms research group at Lund University.
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