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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/18/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
Here's the real issue. Over free, public wifi networks, it's virtually impossible to find out who is committing the piracy. The MPAA is scared sh*tless that the trend towards public municipal networks like those proposed for big cities (New York, L.A., Las Vegas etc), some of which are currently under construction, will provide a safe haven for pirates, shielding them from any legal actions.
So we look at the MPAA's playbook. Find the most vunrable target and bring charges. Get a compromise ruling from a low level judge and build on the precident set by that case. This buys some time while they push for legislation requiring users of a public network to register to access the service, making them easier to ID.
Small town with only a few users... They have an ideal target there. The town officials decided to fall on this grenade for the rest of us. They'll comply with requests and back down from the fight, keeping it out of the courts for as long as they can. Rather than fight back through the courts, (where they may very well lose), they'll stall long enough to wage a PR war. Once the public is sufficiently outraged and the local jury pool influenced, their poised to win any legal battle. The MPAA will back down, declaring it a victory for themselves, but in reality, they won't get what they want. #wifi
11/15/09
11/13/09
While industry cabals and multinational corporations hire think analysts and consultants to find new and exciting ways to figuratively, if not literally rape every man, woman and child. And, as corrupt and inefficient as it can be, "big government" is the only thing that comes close to stopping them. And in this case, it seems to have failed.
What I don't understand is why the city would listen to the MPAA at all. What terrible precedent does this set? Who gave the MPAA this sort of power over government?
Furthermore. How does the MPAA actually know about the download? There is zero information concerning how the MPAA became aware of the download. #wifi
11/13/09
11/13/09
"The MPAA focuses most of its efforts on catching the source of the [pirated] movies." -- Heh, sure.
""We target piracy at its source," she [the VP of corporate communications for the MPAA] said. "We really focus on keeping the product out of the market in the first place."" -- I'll say.
"LaVigne has done some homework and found a program that would prevent the illegal downloads from happening in the future; however, it would cost the cash-strapped county about $2,900 to implement, $2,000 for equipment and then $900 annually for the filtering program." -- I'm sure that's a sacrifice the MPAA is more than willing for you to make.
Good read if you wanna see what everyone else outside our little tech circle is hearing. #wifi
11/13/09
@Kirkaiya:
@not_a_virus.exe.vbs:
The MPAA don't have the power to do this, likely they just bullied the administration into doing it. They don't have the ability to actually pull the plug though. If the town administration stood up to them and said no this wouldn't have happened. #wifi
11/13/09
As much as I like Boing Boing, and as much as I hate the MPAA, this strikes me as a very misleading article. #wifi
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/14/09
11/13/09
Unless he used a laptop with solar panels...
Alright everybody, time to shut down the sun. #wifi
11/13/09
11/13/09
Read the article linked in the one on Boing... They got a letter telling them to stop sharing the movie and in response the owner shut it down.
11/13/09
We must not forget, as cool as he may be, Cory Doctorow (and boingboing) is prone to the most extreme hyperbole that the universe has ever witnessed, ever. #wifi
11/13/09
And - worse - doesn't this just open the door to a new form of vandalism, where bored miscreants with laptops can drive around any town (or airport, whatever) with free WiFi, and *intentionally* download something, with the intent of pissing off the entire town.
In fact... I have a car. And a laptop. And those people over in Shelbyville really suck!
11/13/09
Even better,
People around the states should start downloading stuff in wireless networks around MPAA and RIAA people.
Make the downloads extra nasty in content to sic cops on them too! #wifi
11/13/09
11/13/09
It was a Hannah Montana movie! #wifi
11/13/09
11/11/09
(and I meant "side" because the tracker is back up)
11/12/09
Last year it took 2 months to get the site back after the tracker came back. Thats all the info anyone knows since the site admins stay quiet about these things. #torrent
11/11/09
I just got today an obscure, hard to find, out of "print" japanese app-thing which I was looking for over an year now thanks to torrents!
Bit surprizing even, considering how torrents aren't exactly good for rare and obscure stuff... but it had one single lonely active seed, took almost a day for 500Mb file, but it's here now!
And no, it's not porn... or it would've been easy to find.
Also: c'mon Demonoid!
11/11/09
10/28/09
The reason for my misunderstanding is because I am getting OEM upgrades for the systems that I purchased this year, and as such, the manufacturers are sending me fresh copies.
Again, thank you all for the clarity on this matter : ) #windows7studentedition
10/27/09
10/27/09