Darknet

Is Scrabulous 'piracy'?

NY Times: Online Scrabble Craze Leaves Game Sellers at Loss for Words. The companies that own the rights to the Scrabble board game say Scrabulous, a popular online knockoff, is piracy.

Verizon rejects Hollywood’s call to aid piracy fight

NY Times Bits blog: Verizon Rejects Hollywood’s Call to Aid Piracy Fight.

Swedes file charges against Pirate Bay four

IDG News: Swedes file charges against Pirate Bay four.

Big haul by canine pirate patrol

Associated Press: Canine patrol discovers pirated DVDs.

Pirated copies of 'Sicko' film posted online

LA Times: Pirated copies of `Sicko' film posted online.

I doubt that Michael Moore has a major problem with his movie circulating online, given his desire to have as many people as possible see it. (He's not quoted in the article.)

AT&T, studios to work on anti-piracy effort

Associated Press: AT&T effort to stem Internet piracy raises privacy concerns.

In a break with other Internet service providers, AT&T Inc. will work with Hollywood studios and recording labels to devise technology that identifies offshore content pirates who use its network to upload illegal copies of movies and music.

Although details remain sketchy, the effort worries privacy advocates, who fear the San Antonio-based company could become a beat cop, monitoring which Web sites customers visit and what computer files they share.

Technology officers from several entertainment companies met June 5 in San Antonio to discuss the effort, which could take months and quite possibly fail to produce a solution that would be technologically feasible and protect customer privacy. ...

Warner’s digital watchdog widens war on pirates

NY Times: Warner’s Digital Watchdog Widens War on Pirates.

What youth culture wants

CBS News: The 'Mash Up' Culture. Teens Use Technology To Mix, Match And Create Their Spheres.

According to the Horatio Alger Association's State of our Nation's Youth 2005 report, the percentage of Internet-using teens that downloaded music for free dropped from 44 percent to 40 percent between 2004 and 2005, while the percentage that paid to download rose from 17 percent to 24 percent in the same time period.

The Pirate Bay: Here to stay?

I missed this story a while back, from Wired News: The Pirate Bay: Here to Stay?

To international observers, The Pirate Bay's defiant immunity from copyright lawyers is somewhat baffling. But in Sweden, the site is more than just an electronic speak-easy: It's the flagship of a national file-sharing movement that's generating an intense national debate, and has even spawned a pro-piracy political party making a credible bid for seats in the Swedish parliament.

Darknets, the MPAA and digital media

Monday's "The future of darknets" panel at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (here's the Digital Convergence track sessions) in Austin, Texas, was a highlight for many people, gauging by the reaction I've received. One woman came up to me at my book signing immediately afterward and said, "That was the most emotional, passionate panel I've ever seen!"

Credit goes to the audience, which was incredibly engaged and energetic. It turned out to be a sort of digital media revival meeting.

I led things off by showing this four-minute video about darknets, mash-ups and digital culture: All about darknets (11mb, MPEG-4).

We then discussed darknets only peripherally, with the subject turning to piracy and Hollywood's outdated business models. Speakers like Kevin Smokler and Michael Verdi stood up and challenged MPAA spokeswoman Kori Bernards to explain why the movie studios are moving at a glacial pace. Others discussed Hollywood's miserly view of fair use.

I was moderating and couldn't take notes, but Medialoper and Derek Powazek blogged it and Chuck Olsen grabbed some good video. More from Sahu and analoghole.

Here's the hour-long podcast mp3 of the session.

Technorati tags: podcast, videoblogging, personal media, SXSW, SXSW2006, geeks, piracy, copyright, darknets, MPAA

TV is the fastest-growing target of file sharers

LA Times news service: TV shows are the hottest illegally downloaded files.

Amanda Palmer hardly fits the profile of an Internet outlaw, but her obsession with the ABC show Lost makes this self-described ''bubbly, nutty mum'' the television industry's worst nightmare.

Like thousands of other British fans, the 30-year-old personal assistant can't bear to wait the nine months it can take for new Lost shows to air in England. So, soon after the closing credits roll in America, she downloads each episode off file-sharing networks.

And most alarming to TV industry executives, Palmer admits not a twinge of guilt.

''It's TV, isn't it?'' she said. ``It would probably be different if it was a movie. If it is free on everybody's TV, why worry about it?''

The $60 billion TV industry has a simple answer to Palmer's question: Because the future of free TV may depend on it.

Though still far behind music, television shows represent the fastest-growing type of files downloaded online. As Internet speeds increase and software improves, almost anyone can get high-quality bootlegs of such popular shows as Desperate Housewives, 24 and The O.C. -- minus the commercials that make ''free'' TV free.

As Palmer can attest, piracy has never been easier.

Software such as BitTorrent makes pirated material easy to download, episodic TV ensures a fresh supply of content and portable devices such as Apple's iPod create an appetite for video.

'In the same way that the original Napster was synonymous in the minds of virtually everyone who used it with free music, today if you say `BitTorrent,' they're thinking television,'' said Eric Garland, chief executive of BigChampagne, a research firm that tracks online traffic. ``Even people who are not eye-patch wearing pirates think nothing of grabbing a show from BitTorrent.''

In fact, some people now use file-sharing as a source of on-demand programming, outpacing the industry's efforts to set up their own pay-for-view services. Instead of programming a VCR or digital video recorder to record the latest episode of FX's Nip/Tuck, these users simply download it the next day.

Clicking the mouse instead of the remote has dramatic implications for the TV industry.

Producers of popular programs often take in as much as a third of their revenue from foreign sales -- a pot of money that presumably would evaporate if overseas downloading catches on. In addition, producers also rely heavily on the profits that flow from the DVD compilations of their biggest hits. ...

Piracy's global scope

LA Times: Piracy Spins a Global Web. The bootlegging of 'Spider-Man 2' began with a 'cammer' in a New York theater. Within hours, DVDs were on sale in Asia.

'Anti-piracy' memory chip arrives

San Jose Mercury News: Anti-piracy memory chip arrives.

Hollywood teams up to fight movie piracy

Wire services:

The six major Hollywood studios have formed a joint venture to research and create technologies to prevent movie piracy, industry officials said Monday.

The non-profit group will be called Motion Picture Laboratories and will have a budget of more than $30 million for its first two years.

Numerous private companies are working on methods to jam camcorders used to illegally tape movies in theaters or prevent consumers from sending copies of DVDs across the Internet.

Piracy czar targets China's lax enforcement

San Jose Merc: Piracy czar targets China's lax enforcement.

Napster exec on life after piracy

BBC News: Napster boss on life after piracy. In the second of a series of occasional interviews with key players in the entertainment industry, the BBC News website speaks to Brad Duea, president of online music service Napster.

Mob pirates: Menace or myth?

Abby Christopher in Wired News: Mob Pirates: Menace or Myth?

In the latest public relations strike in the war on copyright infringement, the music and film industries are sowing fears that content piracy, like drug trafficking before it, is being taken over by organized crime syndicates.

The problem is that the evidence -- so far, at least -- is lacking. ...

Feds bag camcorder-wielding warez dealer

InternetNews.com: Camcording Warez Dealer Bagged by Feds.

Federal officials scored their first arrest Wednesday under a newly enacted law prohibiting the recording of movies in theaters. The arrest is part of a wider Department of Justice campaign against major online distributors of illegal software, music, movies and games.

Curtis Salisbury, 19, of St. Charles, Mo., was charged in a five-count indictment claiming he used a camcorder in movie theaters to copy recent theatrical releases. He then uploaded the copies to a computer network for distribution. ...

Bush to appoint chief pirate hunter

Wire services: Bush to appoint chief pirate hunter.

President George Bush said he would appoint Chris Israel, deputy chief of staff at the Commerce Department, to coordinate efforts to force China and other foreign governments to crack down on the piracy of movies, music and software.

The creation of the position of Coordinator of International Intellectual Property Enforcement at the Commerce Department is a response to claims by American technology and movie companies that fake copies of their copyrighted goods cost them billions of dollars a year in lost revenue.

``This is a good opportunity to have one person working on intellectual property, and coordinating all the different agencies,'' said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

Israel's top priority will be piracy and counterfeiting in China, said Gutierrez. Israel is a former executive for New York-based Time Warner.

How the studios are encouraging piracy

To some observers -- including this cartoon from Norway -- it sure seems that the Hollywood studios are encouraging piracy ... because they're not providing a legal way to obtain their product digitally.

Swedes undeterred by online piracy ban

Mattias Karen, Associated Press: Swedes Undeterred by Online Piracy Ban.

Unless Swedes have suddenly changed their habits, about one in 10 became a criminal on Friday when a ban on sharing copyrighted music and movies over the Internet took effect at midnight.

Swedes are among the most prolific file-sharers in the world. Industry groups estimate that about 10 percent of Sweden's 9 million residents freely swap music, games and movies on their computers, making the Scandinavian country one of the world's biggest copyright violators. ...

All well and good and interesting, but then the reporter goes on:

Globally, the movie industry alone is estimated to be losing $3.5 billion to $5.4 billion a year to Internet piracy.

No, no, no!!!

As the MPAA's own website says, the $3 billion-plus in losses is due to hard-goods piracy: DVDs and video compact discs.

The MPAA makes no estimate of how much it may be losing because of Internet piracy. How many times do we have to repeat this before the news media gets it?

Centropy taunts FBI

After the FBI busterd a warez group earlier this week, Centropy -- one of the movie release groups I profile in Darknet -- released a copy of "Herbie: Fully Loaded" on Thursday, along with a note: "Hey you stupid bitches FBI you FORGOT ME!!! And don't think I'll make it easy on you to catch me!!!"

Reported the LA Times:

The MPAA has been trying for years to disrupt groups such as Centropy, with little success.

"These are the most tech-savvy, secretive, paranoid online pirates out there," said the MPAA's Malcolm. "They don't meet. They don't have annual conventions in New York City…. These are very, very difficult groups to crack, and these investigations take quite a lot of time."

Check out The Prince of Darknet for more.

FBI busts piracy net

San Jose Merc: FBI sting busts piracy net.

Warez groups are described as being run like a kind of co-op, with every member having some responsibility for keeping the enterprise going. Warez is pronounced ``wares'' and comes from the word ``software,'' according to the Internet dictionary Wikipedia. It is used to describe groups trading copyrighted material. Once a term confined to the computer underground, it has become more commonplace in recent years.

The hierarchy includes ``founders'' or ``leaders'' who form the group and scout for new members; ``scriptors'' who build the site; and site operators who take over the day-to-day running of it. ``Equipment suppliers'' provide the hardware for the site -- the role apparently played by undercover agents in the sting. ``Suppliers'' provide the pirated material. ``Encoders'' devise methods for circumventing copyright protection, and ``couriers'' gather it and put it on the site. Users obtained free unauthorized access to software or bartered for it on the sites, according to the affidavit.

$50 million for 'Star Wars' -- piracy aside

Associaed Press:

The last of the ''Star Wars'' movies has done what no movie in history has ever accomplished -- sold $50 million worth of tickets in a single day.

''Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith'' grossed $50,013,859 from showings at 3,661 theaters and more than 9,000 screens around the country Thursday.

NDTV.com:

Saturday, May 21, 2005: (Los Angeles):

The new Star Wars movie has just been released in theatres, but bootleg copies are already for sale around the world and on the Internet.

This is perhaps the most glaring example yet of a highly sophisticated global industry that costs Hollywood more than $4 billion an year. ...

What nonsense. The $4 billion figure refers to bootleg DVDs and VHS tapes sold by hard-goods pirates -- not Internet piracy, a fact that sloppy reporters often overlook. But there's little evidence that people would have spent anything close to $4 billion if they had to pay full price for movie tickets or DVDs. So that $4 billion figure is something of a phantom. Hollywood never would have made that $4 billion, so how does it claim to have lost $4 billion?

Bootlegging is wrong, of course. But let's not overstate its impact.

AfterDawn.com:

On Wednesday night, a copy of the new star wars movie appeared on the Internet and spread like wild fire (as one would expect). It is a full Workprint copy of the movie featuring two massive timers on the top of the video. The fact that this is a workprint means that this originally must have come from "inside". This was not made by someone with a concealed camcorder in a movie theatre. ...

To sum this all up, the media is paying too much attention to the star wars leak and the movie industry needs to start pointing the fingers at its own people instead of P2P users/developers.

Also see this discussion on Slashdot about piracy: MPAA Blames BitTorrent for Star Wars Distribution. Including this quote from the head of the MPAA:

MPAA President and CEO Dan Glickman: 'There is no better example of how theft dims the magic of the movies for everyone than this report today regarding BitTorrent providing users with illegal copies of Revenge of the Sith.

Again, what nonsense. The fact is that Star Wars Episode 3 broke all box office records despite that fact that people could have downloaded it for free from the Internet.

The Shadow Internet

From the January issue of Wired magazine: They start with a single stolen file and pump out pirated games and movies by the millions. Jeff Howe from Wired magazine looks at the "topsites" that are terrorizing the entertainment business.

In response to the article, Marc Aniballi wrote on the Interesting People mailing list:

... What is the motivation of these "pirates?" It certainly isn't "booty;" They won't be getting rich by ripping and broadcasting media! It seems to me (having absolutely no direct personal experience of this corner of the net), that these folks do it to simply prove it can be done, and to prove they can do it better and faster. It strikes me that this makes it very difficult to eliminate this type of network. The usual methodology for crime syndicate elimination involves finding the money flow and stopping it and following it upstream - here however, there is no money flow! And since the community is very closed, highly distributed and has the best tech a "crime" syndicate could ask for, it becomes somewhat more problematic, especially introducing jurisdiction issues that can in some cases render the activity innocuous to local law!

Cutting off the head of these broadcast networks is impossible - they are hydralike, and when you take out one head, the others instantly become immune to the previous style of attack.

I have long subscribed to the concept that "soft piracy" shows the world an inefficiency that is impeding progress/evolution. In the 80s it was software piracy; the message? Too expensive and not useful enough! In western society this problem is being addressed fairly well, and piracy of software such as Windows (ignoring counterfeiters who resell, etc.) is more of a recreational sport than a serious impact on Microsoft. In the emerging economies piracy is still rampant, and will be until the average person can easily afford/justify the expense. Now, in the media world with CDs and DVDs, we have a similar situation. A VHS tape of a new release movie was $20 and a vinyl LP was $12 20 years ago. The technology has improved (one can hope!!) and volume is high enough to allow for scale economy to kick in - why are DVDs still $30+ and CDs $20+ ?!! Same game, different industry - possibly a more insidious game this time, because with software one can plainly see increasing capability with decreasing/static prices as a general trend - not so with media. (Recent developments such as iTunes aside).

In my opinion, modern soft piracy is a necessary component to technological, commercial and social evolution - so long as it is the type of piracy that is founded on fun, not profit.

Well said. Dennis Paull on the same list adds:

I am quite concerned about the possibility that the neocons will try to control who gets to use the Internet. I'm sure that laws will be written to allow that possibility.

It appears that the Darknet may become the model of secret groups that will form to preserve our political freedoms. Orwell had the right ideas. As repression increases, the need for underground communication increases.

Media companies aim to halt bootleg DVDs

San Jose Mercury News: Media companies take a whack at halting bootleg DVDs.