Recording Industry Breaks Down Doors Of Australian ISP For Using BitTorrent
from the but-what-actually-happened? dept
Last year, the recording industry's private police force in Australia, the Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), raided the offices of Sharman Networks, the makers of Kazaa. They were using a rarely used feature of the Australian civil court system that lets private parties get warrants and raid the property of those they're accusing in civil suits. Apparently, the industry was so thrilled with such Anton Piller orders, that they're using them again. This time, they sent this private police force to break down the door of an ISP that used BitTorrent. The details are very muddy, so it's not at all clear what's going on here and how involved the ISP actually is. If it's just customers of the ISP using BitTorrent, then it's hard to see how the ISP is responsible at all. Furthermore, there are a ton of perfectly legitimate reasons to use BitTorrent to distribute files. The whole point of BitTorrent is that it helps in the actual transport of files among users. It has nothing to do with the search functionality of finding files. In other words, if you're going to attack someone for using BitTorrent, you might as attack them for using FTP or HTTP. It's just a protocol -- it has nothing to do with the content at all. Still, this whole thing certainly makes you wonder why Australia allows private organizations or individuals to raid other private organizations or individuals. What recourse is there? While the folks from this private police force claim that "these raids are a new and important development in our fight against Internet music piracy," it certainly sounds a lot like an abuse of power to bully companies. At least this time they didn't say (as they did after they raided Kazaa): "Internet music piracy is finished in Australia."
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
Good.
I hope corporations continue to get more brazen in their tactics. That is the only way people are going to see them for what they are: giant greedy monsters.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
No Subject Given
"Sharman"
Shaman Networks successfully employs protective spells against nasties like MIPI
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: No Subject Given
Heh. Fixed. Thanks!
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
raiders of the first torrent
welcome to the real neverland .
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Say what you want...
Say what you want, but the most prevailant use of a technology is what determines the fate of a technology.
If I sell "bongs" in my store the cops will bust me for selling drug paraphenalia. Who cares that one guy out of 100 wants it to smoke his herbal cigarettes.
The fact is that 99.99 percent (my figure based on download bytes) of Bit Torrent traffic is the trafficking of copyrighted material.
Yes there are legitimate uses for file sharing networks. BUT WELCOME TO REALITY! MOST PEOPLE USE THEM TO DOWNLOAD MUSIC/MOVIES/SOFTWARE (all of which they do not intend to pay for).
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Say what you want...
I don't know what the actual statistics are, but I have downloaded several gigabytes of material via bittorrent - and it was all legal - linux iso's and freely distributed videos mainly.
-George
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Say what you want...
Plant a fake site (hint: try the above) and see the statistics from there. The trouble with this is that merely downloaded copyrighted stuff is quite legal in Canada, for example.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Say what you want...
I've got news for you, it might have been that way early on (and I doubt the 99.99 percent) but it just ain't so anymore.
MANY game companies now use bit torrent to deliver updates, notably World of Warcraft to name one...and with their user base and patch size, they can account for a lot of traffic.
Someone else mentionned linux ISOs, Mandrake paved the way for that (although I may not be aware of companies that used it before them, they feature it rather prominently).
So why don't you just put the coffee cup down, have some valerian, calm down and think it through.
Most people (shall I say 99.99 percent like you?...nah) speed when driving, that is illegal. Should we make cars illegal? What about guns? They're made to kill things...shall we make them illegal?
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Say what you want...
Well, yes on the gun bit....
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Say what you want...
Moron.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Good.
IT'S SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Add Your Comment