Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 9 Nov 2009 13:16:43 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091109/0932206853.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091109/0932206853.shtml dropping its lawsuits against individual file sharers after realizing that Danish law made it almost impossible for the industry to win those cases. However, as pointed out by brokep, the international wing of the recording industry, the IFPI, wasted little time in trying to spin the news in its favor (Google translation of the original). The IFPI insists that the lawsuits won't stop, but just that the anti-piracy organization was realizing it needed more detailed evidence -- and this means that it will now start seizing computers to get evidence. Now, the Google translation trips up over the word "beslagslaeggelse," but multiple Danish speakers have confirmed that the word means "seize" or "confiscate." Of course, that raises some questions about why a private organization representing record labels has any right to seize computers of individuals. I think they were better off when they just admitted they were going to give up on the counterproductive legal strategy.

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]]> um,-wow http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20091109/0932206853 Mon, 9 Nov 2009 01:29:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091106/1523206840.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091106/1523206840.shtml drop all of its lawsuits after it became clear that individuals were basically winning them all (Google translation of the original, found via brokep). Basically, the courts acquitted most of the individuals accused of private file sharing, with the one exception being the case where the guy confessed. And, the nature of the rulings in the acquittals made it clear that it was virtually impossible to win a lawsuit against individuals for file sharing. Of course, we have no doubt that the industry will continue to use other means, such as via regulatory capture, to continue to look for ways not to give consumers what they want.

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]]> nice-work http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20091106/1523206840 Mon, 6 Apr 2009 17:55:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090405/1335514389.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090405/1335514389.shtml antipiracy law in effect, it seems that one industry is getting a nice boost: apparently there's a lot of new interest in encrypting your internet traffic, and services that provide encrypted VPN services are getting lots of new business. This, once again, points out that near total pointlessness in playing Whac-A-Mole over file sharing. It just become an endless game where each side continues to elevate itself, and it makes it that much more difficult in the end for the entertainment industry to do what it will inevitably be forced to do anyway: start building business models that embrace file sharing. But the further they push users of such services underground, the more and more difficult they'll find it to embrace these services down the road. Each attempt to knock out these services or their users only comes around to backfire on the industry itself.

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]]> keep-whac'ing-that-mole http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090405/1335514389 Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:21:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081023/1843252631.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081023/1843252631.shtml some new "antipiracy" legislation is about to be introduced.

The plan is to require service providers to hand over the details on anyone who a copyright holder has "probable cause" to believe is file sharing. How that probable cause is determined remains something of an important open question. Just seeing the IP address shouldn't be enough, but it's not clear if the courts will agree. What will be more interesting is to see how the Swedish citizenry reacts to the introduction of this bill. While it hasn't caught on much elsewhere, the Pirate Party actually does have a decent following in Sweden, and the political party has already expressed its extreme displeasure over the wording of the bill.

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]]> the-pirate-bay-force-is-strong-there http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081023/1843252631 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:44:45 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081021/0141162603.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081021/0141162603.shtml International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and yet, that's all I can think about when I hear Microsoft announce that today it's celebrating "antipiracy day", during which it will try to highlight everything the company is doing to combat unauthorized file sharing. Odd, then, that this would be the same company that in the past has admitted that it greatly benefits from piracy of its own products, in establishing worldwide standards and in competing against open source alternatives. The company, apparently, is a bit conflicted. In the meantime, anyone have tips on "talking like an antipirate?" I'm guessing it will include such strawman phrases as "it's just like stealing a physical product!," "all content creation would stop," and "content creators deserve to make money!"

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]]> not-as-much-fun http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081021/0141162603 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:18:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080129/021823106.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080129/021823106.shtml claims that the recording industry's investigative techniques may be illegal. While court cases alleging these techniques are illegal are still pending in the US, in Europe there seems to be a lot more support for the idea. In the Netherlands, for example, a court ruled that having ISPs hand over IP addresses to the recording industry would be a violation of privacy laws. Given last week's discussion on whether or not IP addresses should be considered private, this seems relevant.

However, over in Switzerland, the story is even more complicated, as Swiss officials have specifically told an "anti-piracy" company to stop some of its tactics. Specifically, in order to get around laws that say you can only obtain IP addresses from ISPs in a criminal, rather than civil lawsuit, the company gets Swiss officials to file criminal charges, gets the IP address, files a civil suit with it, and then drops the criminal case. Whether or not you think getting IP addresses is a violation of privacy, it seems clear that this company has gone well beyond the spirit of the law in getting them and using them in civil suits.

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]]> sneaky,-sneaky http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080129/021823106