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Irish Record Labels Win, Court Reinstates “3 Strikes” For File-Sharing
Megaupload Search Warrants Ruled Illegal by High Court
SurfTheChannel Owner Found Guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud

Irish Record Labels Win, Court Reinstates “3 Strikes” For File-Sharing

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 03:54 AM PDT

Following a 2009 agreement between the labels of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and Eircom, customers of the Irish ISP would find themselves warned should their file-sharing activities be tracked by rightsholders.

The so-called “graduated response” process would complete after a customer had received three warnings – at this point their Internet would be cut off. But by October 2010 things we starting to go wrong. Due to a mix up, Eircom sent out around 300 warning letters to completely innocent subscribers.

The error meant that Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) got involved in the process. The immediate outcome was bad for the labels. In December the DPC ordered “3 strikes” to be brought to a halt on privacy grounds.

This decision was later challenged by the ‘Big Four’ labels of IRMA – EMI Records, Sony Music, Universal and Warner – who said that the DPC ruling effectively disabled their ‘lawful’ agreement with Eircom.

Yesterday, the labels’ appeals bore fruit. At the Commercial Court, Mr Justice Peter Charleton ordered the Data Protection Commissioner’s decision to be quashed, a ruling which gives IRMA and Eircom the green light to continue with warnings and disconnections.

Justice Charleton said that the DPC notice was invalid due to the Commissioner failing to provide any detailed reasons why it had been issued. The Judge went on to question whether it had any basis in law.

Although privacy issues were the key motivator behind the DPC’s ruling, Justice Charleton said it was not clear how privacy might have been compromised by the detection and punishment of individuals who engage in unlawful Internet file-sharing.

The Irish Recorded Music Association said last night that it would now “press ahead” with its three strike regime. Expect other ISPs to come under pressure soon.

Source: Irish Record Labels Win, Court Reinstates “3 Strikes” For File-Sharing

Megaupload Search Warrants Ruled Illegal by High Court

Posted: 28 Jun 2012 12:22 AM PDT

A case that seemed, just 5 months ago, to be a veritable David and Goliath fight is certainly living up to its billing.

The battle between Megaupload (David) and the US Government and the MPAA (Goliath) started out with a flurry of blows against the New Zealand based site staff, but in recent weeks the blows have all been falling stateside.

Today, the New Zealand High Court ruled that the search warrants used to raid Dotcom’s mansion were illegal, casting uncertainty over the entire ‘Mega Conspiracy’ case.

An earlier ruling by High Court Justice Judith Potter concluded that a previous search and seizure order was invalid because of improper paperwork. The documents were later corrected.

In the ruling, Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann declared the warrants illegal, noting that they were not adequately descriptive of the offenses Dotcom was accused of.

“Indeed they fell well short of that. They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid,” she said.

In addition, the data removed from New Zealand by the FBI (which they claim was ‘not stolen’, since it was ‘only data’) was also ruled to be illegally obtained, and should not have been taken out the country.

“…the release of cloned hard drives to the FBI for shipping to the United States was contrary to the February 16 direction under section 49 (2) of the MACMA [Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act] that the items seized were to remain in custody and control of the Commissioner of Police. This dealing with the cloned hard drives was therefore in breach of s49(3) of the MACMA.”

Winkelmann also voiced concerns over police conduct, questioning if their actions in January amounted to unreasonable search and seizure, with a preliminary view that they did. Along with these concerns came a note that the raid could be considered trespass by the police, not something the elite anti-terrorist team used for the raid will want on their record.

Perhaps the biggest setback for any prosecution relates to what evidence was collected. An independent, and appropriately experienced High Court lawyer will now conduct a review of the evidence to determine what is and is not relevant to the charges Dotcom faces.

Anything deemed not relevant will be returned to Dotcom, and not provided to the US. Anything deemed relevant will be copied to both Dotcom and US authorities for use in court.

While the ruling does not amount to the unequivocal quashing of the search warrants and the invalidation of any evidence collected through them, it is a significant win for Dotcom. Meanwhile a request for the cloned hard drives to be returned (presumably without being copied) has been made to US authorities. The amount of respect for the New Zealand legal system held by US authorities may be inferred by the time it takes to comply with the request.

As for the extradition hearing? That’s still going ahead.

Source: Megaupload Search Warrants Ruled Illegal by High Court

SurfTheChannel Owner Found Guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud

Posted: 27 Jun 2012 07:35 AM PDT

At its height in 2010, SurfTheChannel.com was among the most-visited streaming link websites on the Internet with more than 400,000 visitors a day. This popularity didn’t go unnoticed by the UK and US entertainment industries, who went to extremes to bring the site down.

Aside from the use of an undercover agent to gain access to the defendants' house under false pretenses, the case also witnessed the unprecedented involvement of US authorities in a UK court case, in which a defendant in the US was offered a deal after agreeing to cooperate and testify in a trial overseas.

Initially, it appeared that a criminal prosecution wouldn’t be progressed, but eventually the case went ahead after all. The trial against SurfTheChannel owner Anton Vickerman and his wife Kelly started at the Newcastle Crown Court last month and came to a conclusion today.

The Court found owner Mr. Vickerman guilty of conspiracy to defraud by "facilitating" copyright infringement. Mrs. Vickerman faced the same changes but was found not guilty.

Today’s landmark ruling is the first in which the owner of a linking website was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the entertainment industry.

A previous attempt at making the same charge stick with the prosecution of 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.

SurfTheChannel

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FACT was quick to herald the Court’s verdict.

"This was a criminal conspiracy for criminal profit to fund a criminal lifestyle and Vickerman is now paying the price," FACT Director General Kieron Sharp says, commenting on the case.

FACT further informs us that they will continue to go after pirate websites in the future.

“We look at piracy in all forms with a particular focus on those facilitating access to pirated content by running sites, hosting servers, obtaining the source material and often profiting from their activity by generating revenues from membership, donations and advertising.”

Lavinia Carey, Director General of the British Video Association, hopes that the verdict will deter others from starting similar websites so legitimate alternatives can thrive.

“These businesses are relatively new and should not have to compete against pirate websites that do nothing to reinvest in the production of new films and programmes. The verdict in this trial makes it evident to all that copyright theft will not be tolerated and that such sites are criminal operations,” she says.

The UK Pirate Party on the other hand is very worried about the verdict.

“This was not a case brought using copyright law. The interest groups involved couldn’t present a case of copyright infringement and instead decided to press for the use of the common law offence of “conspiracy to defraud,” Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye told TorrentFreak.

The Party is also worried about the intensive cooperation between private interest groups and law enforcement.

“In addition to flying in the face of recent findings in similar cases, this prosecution was driven by private interests, it is well known that the very groups representing the victim helped with the investigation, were present at the arrest, given access to the evidence and were present at police interviews.

“This is deeply concerning. Add to that the unorthodox and intrusive measures reported to have been used during the investigation and the pressure put on overseas witnesses and it becomes deeply worrying,” Kaye says.

Vickerman is scheduled to be sentenced July 30th and is facing a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

Source: SurfTheChannel Owner Found Guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud

The Pirate's Press

Thursday, 28 June 2012