Category: Intellectual Property
Pirate Bay founders fined a further £87,500
Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij have been fined a further one million Swedish kronor (£87,500) after failing to heed a court order asking that the torrent site be shut down. EMI Music, Universal Music, Sony BMG and…
Metal Gear movie "probably wont happen"
It seems like a match made in cinema/gaming heaven, but those waiting for a Metal Gear movie better stop holding their breath. According to Hollywood producer Michael De Luca, the project is in no-mans land without any super high-tech…
Five reasons why the Pirate Bay was right to sell up
Two days after the Pirate Bay announced their to-hell-with-the-copyright video service the last thing we were all expecting was for Peter Sunde and Co. to cash in their legendary download service. But they have.
2) Seeders get paid
GGF has realised that they’re going to need something special to win the PB community’s trust and to keep them coming back for more. So they’re prepared to go one better than offering a free service and that’s by actually paying people to host content.
I’ve always slightly begrudged the quite reasonable no leeching policy so at least next time my internet connection drops through the floor and I can’t even search Google without it taking three days to load the page, at least then I’ll know that there’s cash in the bank for my pains.
3) ISP calming
GGF is looking into developing technology to make power-grids of P2P computers taking the load further off ISPs than they already will be doing by decentralising downloads in the first place. I can’t stand the whinging of the ISPs whether it’s about iPlayer or any other service. It’s not our business to look into the future of data usage and charge accordingly but it is theirs and if they’ve made some errors then that’s their problem.
So, if the ISPs problems are eased and their whinging silenced, then I’m a much happier man.
4) Artists get paid
The one slight pang of guilt from file sharing is that the artists don’t get paid. They’re the good guys in all this. We love what they do and they should be rewarded. The good thing now is that GGF will pay for having licensed music and movies on the network, so that’s exaclty what will happen.
We don’t know, as yet, whether that’ll be done on a per download basis or a flat fee but I don’t suppose that matters. Sadly, “artists” getting paid is very often a cloak for the fat cats getting their cream but at least this should shut the whisker lickers up along with the ISPs.
5) The Founders deserve some cash
They’ve created something incredible and fought the good fight balls out for as long as I can remember. You tell me they don’t deserve their pay day.
I appreciate that it’s not the most obvious of buys but, for one of the 100 most visited sites on the web, £4.7 million is not a lot of cash. Why? Well, one reason is because the Founders wanted to sell to the right people and, in my book, that’s enough to leave their reputation clean.
They could do with some revenue to help pay the £2.3m damages for the lost court case and can use the change to start proceedings against Sweden for the violation of human rights.
Conclusions
For all my reasons, all five of them, I’m still slightly gutted they’ve sold up. The Pirate Bay was one of the last outposts of the first age of the web – the age of the user. As much as GGF may have much of its heart in the right place, the idea of a piracy service being 100% legal just doesn’t sit right.
We’ll no longer be able to raise that skull and crossbones high but, more to the point, if it’s not legal, we won’t be able to get all the wonderful hacked, cracked and stacked software before it’s even on official relase. And that was half the fun of it in the first place.
My last thought though, the last chink if light, is about the Video Bay. Is that part of the deal or is it a strategically placed new arena for the founders to take the fight?
The Pirate Bay launches Video Bay beta
You would think that the guys over at the Pirate Bay might lay low for a little while, given the on-going court case and the possibility of jail-time.
But no, their fight against (or should I say, for) copyright infringement shows no sign of relenting – in fact it is showing clear signs of accelerating with the beta release of the Video Bay.
Nothing actually works on the Video Bay at present apart from a couple of test video clips that are a little temperamental. Visitors are presented with a homescreen that states: “This site will be an experimental playground and as such subjected to both live and drunk (en)coding, so please don’t bug us too much if the site ain’t working properly.”
Pirate Bay Spokesman Peter Sunde said it might be a while before the site is launched properly. “It will be done when it’s done, in the future, in like a year or five,” he said.
The Video Bay will aim to rival YouTube with streaming video content. Unlike YouTube, however, there will be no removal of content that may infringe on copyright legislation.
Considering the huge fan base that already exists at the Pirate Bay and the fact that many of these fans are tech savvy – expect the Video Bay to
Nokia to ditch DRM by 2010
While most had their eyes on Stephen Fry at the Nokia N97 launch, some keen bods were busy pumping the execs for information and it seems they pumped well. It turns out that Nokia is planning on phasing out the DRM on their Comes With Music package meaning that users will be able to download tracks as MP3s and actually keep their tunes.
It’s always been the desire of the mobile giant to go DRM-free but ultimately the decision has always been down to the labels who have never exactly been first to come round to new digital ideas.
It seems, though, that the big wigs have softened/modernised their attitudes since deals like the DRM-free one between Virgin and Universal and it looks as all with CWM will reap the rewards as of 2010.
A Nokia spokesperson said: “Nokia is committed to going DRM free on the Nokia Music Store in 2009”.
“Comes With Music offers great value and even with the DRM in place, it continues to have great appeal to our consumers. We are constantly discussing with the music industry about how to evolve Comes With Music and further enrich the proposition we currently have”.
It’s not clear if this evolution will continue to involve an all you can eat service if it is to be DRM-free but, given the extent of the CWM catalogue, I’m looking forward to finding out.
(via ME & Pocket Lint)
Pirate Party wins two seats in the EU elections
Labour may have lost serious face but it’s been a night to remember for the Pirate Party in the EU elections. The Swedish based political group will have won two seats with a 7.1% share of their national vote when the Lisbon Treaty passes increasing the Scandinavian county’s number of MEPs from 18 to 20.
Leader of the party, Rick Falkvinge said:
“This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it’s time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples’ lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities’ mass-surveillance.”
The Pirate Party polled a total of 200,000 votes, a huge increase on the 2006 national elections when they amassed 34,918 of the Swedish electorate, and a lot of this can be linked to the high profile Pirate Bay court case during which membership of the party tripled.
There was some success of the German branch of the party who managed 1% of the national vote; a good start but not enough for a seat just yet. Looking forward to seeing their name on my ballot paper next time around.
Hard to know exactly what policies the Pirates have beyond the obvious stance against copyright infringement but, regardless, I think it’s an excellent step in EU politics to have a member voicing the kinds of opinions that would otherwise never be heard. Even if the Pirate MEPs are unable to swing any major decisions, they’ll be able to change a few perceptions on the protection of the antiquated business models of the cinema and recording industries.
(via Torrent Freak)
7 million illegal downloaders cost economy "tens of billions" – yeah okay
Seven-million people in the UK use illegal downloads – apparently costing the economy tens of billions of pound according to government advisors.
Researcher found that 1.3 million people use one file sharing site per weekday, which compared to the size of the population hardly seems like an epidemic.
The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property (SABIP) warned it may be hard to change attitudes – although some say it’s not attitudes that need to change but the industry who still charge a disproportionate amount for digital copies.0000
The government says work must be done internationally to tackle the problem.
Intellectual Property Minister, (a whole minister – is that really necessary?) David Lammy said the report put into context the impact illegal downloads had on copyright industries and the UK economy as a whole.
“This is not an issue confined by national boundaries and I am sure that other [EU] member states and their copyright industries will find this report of use in the development of policy,” added Mr Lammy.
An alliance (or “greedy-hoard”) of nine UK bodies representing the creative industries joined trades unions to call on the government to force internet service providers to cut off persistent illegal file-sharers. And everyone knows, if there is one sector you don’t want to piss off it’s the creative industries – imagine a strike, no Doctors, no Eastenders, no Holby, no One Show, imagine the chaos. Imagine the silence. Bliss.
ISPs have gallantly shirked any responsibility reiterating that it isn’t their job to police the internet.
What this all goes to show is that the government and people doing the government’s research still fundamentally don’t understand downloading.
They aren’t costing the economy tens of billions of pounds, that is nothing but propaganda and scaremongering. Using the flagging economy as a weapon to turn the screw on kids who’s downloaded the latest version of Photoshop CS4 so they can put the head of the kid that bullies them at school on a camel seems frankly, a bit much.
What these researchers are suggesting is that downloaders would buy movie, song or program they’ve torrented, P2Pd or USBd, and thats just not the case. They’d do without.
And maybe the government have realized now isn’t exactly the best time for MPs to be sounding off about freeloading: Because filling in a claims form and taking public money to clean your moat is, undeniably, far more devious, than downloading Space Cowboys.
Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones – in space! Amazing.
(Via BBC)
Second judge removed from Pirate Bay appeal
What is it with Swedish judges and their obsession with the Swedish Copyright Association and the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property? It turns out that her honour in charge of the Pirate Bay after-trial to decide whether the first hearing was presided over by a biased judge has been removed for, yes, you guessed it, bias. Nice.
Judge Ulrika Ihrfelt was relieved of her position on Wednesday and despite this further set-back and level of ridiculousness, the appellate court’s president, Fredrik Wersall, said the case would be sorted “in a few weeks at the maximum” – provided they can find someone with now preconceptions on copyright infringement presumably.
(via Wired)
RUMOUR: Apple to buy Twitter for $700m
First Facebook had a go, then the word was that Google made an offer and now the rumour is that Apple plans to buy Twitter and announce it in time for WWDC on 9th June.
The mooted price has jumped a mile from the last supposed offer of $250 million to a far healthier $700 million and according to the quote from an insider, “Apple is in late stage negotiations”.
Hard to know how much truth there is in this one. Last time it was just a meeting about advertising, apparently, so if there even is some talking between the two companies, then it could have been about a whole bunch of things. If it is about a deal, then that represents a very interesting move for what is, essentially, a hardware and software company into the world of services.
Google is fast becoming the giant of the tech world and it’s their take over of the internet that the waning Microsoft covets. Is this Apple’s first steps towards ensuring long term growth or is it just the next big company on the list to be linked with the microblogging darling. A fiver says it’ll be Twitter to buy Yahoo! next.
(via @Zee Tech Crunch)
Breaking: Pirate Bay Judge biased?
This is currently a breaking story, so we don’t have a lot of detail right now, but Pirate Bay defendant Peter Sunde has accused the judge in the Pirate Bay case, Tomas Norström, of bias. He made the accusations on Twitter, claiming “the #spectrial judge seems to be working within the copyright lobby”.
Swedish news sources claim that the judge is a member of a couple of organizations that might have compromised his neutrality in the case. Firstly the Swedish Association of Copyright (SFU) and secondly, the Swedish Association for Industrial Property. The former body also counts rights holders’ lawyers Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted, and the latter pushes for stronger copyright.
It’s unlikely that this could have a effect on the trial, as it’s come to light after the judgement has been passed. The Pirate Bay’s lawyers have had ample opportunity to raise this. It does mean, however, that the verdict of the promised appeal could turn out very different.
Several law sources have criticized the judge for taking the case under these circumstances, but the judge has resisted pressure, saying; “I have not felt that I am biased because of those commitments”.
Eric Bylander, Associate Professor of Procedural Law at the School of Gothenburg, disagrees, saying that in such a high-profile case the judge should have been more careful. Peter Sunde is promising more detail later on today, so keep an eye on this developing story.
via @brokep and Sveriges Radio P3 (Google translated)
