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Mpaa

riaa

RIAA Tech Chief: DRM Not Dead, Will Become More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine

As CNET points out, when Sony BMG became the last major label to sell DRM-free tracks, we pretty much declared DRM deader than HD DVD or Tony Stark if he got in a fight with Batman (at least for the music industry; movies are another story). But RIAA tech chief David Hughes told a panel yesterday that DRM is tech's Obi-Wan Kenobi: It's coming back and will be powerful than we can possibly imagine, but it won't be giving sage advice to budding Jedi. More »

content filtering

Verizon Says F-U To Hollywood Piracy Snitching

Hollywood wants ISPs such as Verizon to help filter and block the illegal transfer of copyrighted content. Unlike AT&T, Verizon is telling Hollywood to kiss its ass. Verizon EVP of Public Affairs Tom Tauke says they won't consider Hollywood's call to action for three reasons. More »

mistakes

MPAA: Did We Say 44% of Piracy Was Done By Students? We Meant 15%, Our Bad!

So the MPAA used to shout about a study they performed that showed that 44% of illegal movie downloading was done by college students, a figure they used as evidence that our government needed to enact some laws to keep our feckless youth population under control. The only problem? The study was complete BS, with the real figure hovering a bit closer to the 15% mark. Oops! More »

copywrong

Hollywood Puppet Congressdude Wants Harder, More Draconian DMCA With No Safe Harbor

While overseeing a hearing on the PRO-IP Act, a bill that might make statutory damages for copyright infringement even more obscene, Rep. Howard Berman, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, pondered out loud about other ridiculous copyright stuff he wants to do. Like make the DMCA an even more horrible piece of legislation by neutering its safe harbor provisions. More »

irony

MPAA's 'University Toolkit' Taken Down For Violating Copyright

Oh, this is rich. The MPAA's "University Toolkit," which is essentially spyware the MPAA asked schools to install on their servers to make sure their students weren't pirating License to Wed when they were supposed to be studying, has been taken down for copyright violation. Copyright violation! What a collection of assholes. The Toolkit is based on the GPL-licensed Xubuntu version of Linux. Its public license requires that any program written with its code have its source code released and licensed under the GPL, which the MPAA repeatedly refused to do. So, after repeatedly being ignored by the MPAA, a heroic Ubuntu developer sent a DMCA notice to the MPAAs ISP telling them to take it down. How's it feel, MPAA? How does it feel? [Slashdot via BoingBoing]

surprise

"Toolkit" MPAA Offers Schools to Monitor File-Sharing Traffic More Like a Rootkit

The MPAA is such a kind and giving organization. After compiling a list of the top 25 schools for piracy, it sent them a letter last month offering the free, super-helpful University Toolkit to track naughty file-sharing on their networks. It "can produce a report that is strictly internal and therefore confidential to illustrate the level of file sharing on [your school's] network. In addition, we will send a hard copy in the near future to your university's Chief Information Officer." Of course, the first thing it does is call home. That's before the security holes. More »

security

Ang Lee's "Lust" Spreads Sexually Transmitted PC Virus

People who didn't want to settle for the sanitized version of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution turned to the dirtier illegal download, and ended up in need of a shot of virtual penicillin. Chinese censors chopped about 30 minutes of the old hot-n-heavy out of the movie, increasing demand for a pirated copy showing the American cut. But hackers have replaced many copies of the film with bundles of malicious software causing everything from BSOD to password theft. It's known as Trojan.Win32.Mnless.zgw, though InfoWorld and others prefer "the Lust virus." At last count, about 15 of Lust downloads were poised to zap systems. Question: what's the downside for censors or the piracy-fearing MPAA? Answer: there is none. [InfoWorld]

dogs

Lucky and Flo Bring their Pirate-Huntin, Crime-Bustin' Noses to NYC

Remember Lucky and Flo, the two chemical-sniffing Labradors awarded medals by the Malaysian authorities for helping in the fight against DVD piracy? Well, they're now back in the US doing the same to US pirates. Find out whose round objects they've been sniffing now. More »

drm ftw

AACS Copy Protection Scheme Looking Worse All the Time

Ars Technica has a lengthy piece that re-sounds the battle cry against AACS, the copy protection scheme for Blu-Ray and HD DVD—specifically, the gimpage it's bringing to both PCs and Macs in order to sate Hollywood's fears of casual piracy. More »

charity

Save Rare Films by Donating to Have Them Uploaded to the Internet Archive

Uploading movies to the internet doesn't always have to cause "injury that cannot be compensated or measured in money." By donating to the Academic Film Archive of North America's "Save a Film" initiative, you'll be spotting them tax-deductible support for the uploading of a rare film from their over 6000-title 16mm film archive for free-as-in-beer public viewing at the Internet Archive. You'll also get a DVD copy of the movie you chose to sponsor. More »

unfunded mandates

Senate Bill Could Compel "Top 25 Piracy Schools" to Use Anti-P2P Technology

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (pictured) has a fun summer vacation souvenir for institutes of higher education: His latest amendment to the Higher Education Reauthorization Act would require a college named to the list of "top 25" worst file-sharing schools to implement anti-p2p technology into its network, or risk losing some of its governmental funding. (Ohio University, natch.) More »

The University of Kansas switches to a one-strike policy for internet piracy, resulting in banishment from the residence hall internet network if caught. [Ars Technica]

fashion (or not)

Just Because You Hate DRM Doesn't Mean You Have Taste

Clearly, not all anti-DRM geeks have the impeccable taste of our own Adam Frucci, who balances smoldering rage toward the Man with a solid fashion sense. Consequently, you're looking at the third- place entry in TorrentFreak's anti-DRM T-shirt contest, because the winner—chosen by popular vote—is ugly (but you can hit the jump to check it out, along with my favorite shirt that didn't win anything). More »

pirate wars: episode iv

RIAA, Viacom, Microsoft and Others Form Galactic Empire Copyright Alliance

It is a period of civil war. Pirate torrents, striking from hidden basements, have plundered the vaults of Hollywood movie studios, the recording industry, and software monoliths, who have now formed the COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE. During the battle, pirates managed to steal copyrighted material as well as the not-so-secret plans of their LOBBYISTS and LEGAL TEAMS, with enough power to lobby and sue an entire planet. More »

who is a pirate's favorite philosopher? arrrrrrrristotle!

Piracy for Dummies

This week, as part of the Help Key column, Crunchgear's Vince Veneziani explored the topic of piracy and explained it from A to Z. If you aren't familiar with piracy, this is an excellent place to start. Vince explores a variety of areas including the basics, the different methods of pirating and even how to release material, which is something I was pretty clueless about. Hit it up. I know you are desperate to own a copy of Georgia Peach and knowing about piracy is the only way to do so. Nice write-up, Vince. (Oh, and Gizmodo doesn't condone pirating or any of that jazz.) More »

home entertainment

New Video Watermark Tech Traces Bootlegs Back to Pirates

Future set-top boxes and gateways from Thomson SA are going to come with video watermarking tech that will allow investigators to pinpoint the origin of pirated videos. The tech, NexGuard, identifies "individual copies of the films distributed digitally to cinemas or on DVD as preview copies for reviewers and awards juries." Before video content leaves a gateway or set-top box, it embeds a watermark unique to each device using the box's digital video chip. More »

home entertainment

You Might Have Just Bought a DVD, But We Still Think You're a Criminal

I love this "ad," as it makes the very good point that the only people who see those obnoxious anti-piracy ads are people who legitimately pay for either DVDs or buy movie tickets. Pirates get that patronizing crap cut out of their product. Much like the RIAA, the MPAA loves removing value from the product they want you to pay for. More »

bittorrent

BitTorrent Entertainment Network Emerges from Seedier Side of Intarwebs on Monday

The BitTorrent Entertainment Network we told you about a couple month ago launches tomorrow with "around 3,000 new and classic movies and thousands more television shows, as well as a thousand PC games and music videos." More »