piracy posts

Music Pirates Spend More on Tunes Than Non-Pirates, Finds Poll

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Nov 3rd 2009 at 7:28AM

In their never-ending game of finger pointing, music executives have blamed everyone and everything under the sun for the industry's woes. But after learning about a new study from the U.K., the suits might have one less scapegoat, and a little more cause for concern.

According to the Independent, a new poll commissioned by Demos, a U.K. think tank, found that people who admit to illegally downloading music on the Internet (10-percent of respondents) actually spend more money on music than their non-pirating counterparts. On average, one of these pirates spends about $126 a year on music, while the average respondent who said they don't pirate only spends around $54.

Tags: business, download, filesharing, government, illegal, internet, music, piracy, riaa, top, web

Audio/Video, Celebrities

French President Sarkozy Accused of DVD Piracy

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Oct 8th 2009 at 5:54PM

Known for his anti-piracy views, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has once again been accused of being the pot that called the kettle black. According to Huffington Post, a French newspaper is reporting that Sarkozy illegally made 400 copies of a DVD and gave them to diplomats at a conference. The film in question is a 52-minute documentary on Sarkozy, himself, called 'A visage decouvert: Nicolas Sarkozy.' The distributor only gave the president 50 copies, which, apparently, just wasn't enough. Sarkozy burned a few hundred more, but didn't stop there, either. The President, or whoever actually made the copies, worked up a new DVD jacket and replaced manufacturer Galaxie Presse's logo with that of Sarkozy's own presidential 'AV Service.'

If you're keeping count at home, this is Sarkozy's second brush with copyright infringement. This means, according to his own policy, Sarkozy is just "one strike" away from being out. What, we wonder, does Sarkozy's musician wife think about his lack of respect for copyright law? We'd imagine somebody's going to be in, how do you say? Le doghouse. [From: Huffington Post]

Tags: copyright, dvd, expire-images:2010-10-9, france, government, illegal, nicolas sarkozy, NicolasSarkozy, piracy, top

Audio/Video, TV

Simon Cowell's Label Searching for Source of Leaked Song

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Aug 29th 2009 at 8:02AM

'American Idol' curmudgeon Simon Cowell's SyCo record label is on the hunt for music pirates who have gained access to, and leaked, the yet-to-be-released song "Don't Let Me Down." The song, which features Justin Timberlake, is performed by SyCo recording artist Leona Lewis, the 2006 winner of British talent show 'The X Factor.'

According to Reuters, SyCo and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have enlisted the help of police in both Europe and the States to track down the bandits. In a public statement, the IFPI's Jeremy Banks said, "Such pre-release leaks, however they are sourced, are highly damaging to our members who invest considerable budgets in marketing and promoting music ahead of release." Yeah, particularly if the leaked song is so terrible that no one who hears it will actually want to buy the album.

Tags: expire-images:2010-8-29, law, music, p2p, piracy, simon cowell, SimonCowell, top

Video Games

Student Arrested for Modding Game Consoles for Profit

by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Aug 5th 2009 at 6:34AM

Some folks online are up in arms over the arrest of geek-supreme Matthew Crippen, a student at California State University at Fullerton. According to the charges, Crippen was illegally modding gaming consoles to play pirated games, and doing so for financial gain.

Modding game consoles is, in fact, a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Note: Don't post pirated products, unless you want to garner the attention of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office (ICE) and the Entertainment Software Association (as Crippen did).

Federal prosecutor Mark Krause told KPCC that Crippen had advertised his consoles online. When ICE agents raided Crippen's home in May, they recovered over a dozen modded Xboxes, PlayStations, and Wiis. Robert Schoch, ICE special agent in Los Angeles told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, "Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal." Crippen was released on $5,000 bail and faces a maximum of ten years in jail.

After the raid, Crippen was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of violating the DMCA, each of which carries a maximum of five years imprisonment. Harsh, but perhaps not the "ridiculous" affront the online community is sobbing about. [From: NBC Dallas-Fort Worth and KPCC]

Tags: crime, digital millennium copyright act, DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct, dmca, homebrew, matthew crippen, MatthewCrippen, modding, piracy, top

Audio/Video, Computers

BU Student Ordered to Pay $675K in Music Downloading Case

by Evan Shamoon (RSS feed) — Aug 3rd 2009 at 6:01AM

In yet another piece of news set to clarify the fact that the record industry still has its head lodged firmly up its own ass, a federal jury on has ordered a Boston University grad student to pay $675,000 to four record labels for illegally downloading and sharing music online.

Even more absurd is the number of songs he "stole": 30. The student, Joel Tenenbaum, is being asked to effectively pay $22,500 for each incident of copyright infringement, beyond the standard $750 per song fine, due to the fact that his actions were willful.

Tenenbaum claims to be thankful that he wasn't given the maximum fine of $4.5 million (sarcasm?), but his lawyer, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, said he plans to appeal the decision because he was not allowed to argue a case based on fair use.

Tags: bu, college, crime, lawsuits, music, piracy, students, top

Computers

Amazon Apologizes For Its 'Big Brother' Move on Kindle

by Leila Brillson (RSS feed) — Jul 24th 2009 at 3:57PM

When Amazon.com went into Kindle devices across the country to delete unauthorized copies of 'Animal Farm' and '1984' by George Orwell, the irony was certainly not lost on users. A Big Brother move, no doubt, especially because no one was informed of the invasion of privacy -- and customers thought the reclaimed content had been legally purchased. Amazon did issue refunds, but the blogosphere earlier this month took the story up en masse. Customers, feeling betrayed, came out of the woodwork to express their frustration. Charles Slater, an exec with a Philadelphia sheet-music company, told the New York Times, "I never imagined that Amazon actually had the right, the authority or even the ability to delete something that I had already purchased."

Although Amazon released a lackluster apology on July 17th (its explanation was that a distributor uploaded the material without permission), the online mega-retailer did little to stop the bleeding. The anti-digital rights management (DRM) crowd protested the remote deletion and claimed this type of infraction was the core problem with rights-controlled media.

Tags: amazon, big brother, BigBrother, business, drm, ebooks, jeff bezos, JeffBezos, kindle, mistake, news, piracy, top

Audio/Video, Web

'Casual' Pirates Courted by Legal Music Streaming Sites

by Kaiser Hwang (RSS feed) — Jul 20th 2009 at 8:15AM

The Internet made pirating music as simple as clicking a few buttons in a program, much to the dismay of record companies around the world. Those same companies tried to control the music through the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM), but failed miserably. Only now are the record companies realizing that a large majority of people only pirate music because it's simply the easiest and most accessible way to find and listen to music. These "dinner party pirates" are not out to prove themselves to anyone, or stick it to the man -- they just want to listen to music. Give them a good solution, and, in theory, piracy will drop while revenue increases.

According to the New York Times, that's exactly what's happening in Britain with young music-streaming start-ups like Spotify and We7, which stream music for free and make revenue through site advertising. These sites have found immense growth in a fairly short amount of time (Spotify's revenues have doubled every month since launching this past February), while studies conducted by research firms Music Ally and Leading Question show that piracy among British teens has dropped almost in half since December 2007. While in no way a full solution to music piracy, the results so far are promising.

Tags: drm, mp3, music, piracy, spotify, top

Computers, Web

French Hackers Give the Finger to President Sarkozy's Internet Bill

by Caleb Johnson (RSS feed) — Jul 10th 2009 at 4:10PM

In an effort to expose flaws in a controversial bill, a group of French hackers recently stuck it to the man with some new software. The man, President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, can't be too happy about it either.

The 'HADOPI Router,' named as a snarky tribute to Sarkozy's law, allows its creators to access and use password-protected Wi-Fi networks by hijacking a router without the account holder having any clue, according to BoingBoing. The goal is to prove that Sarkozy's Hadopi agency, which uses network forensics to track down illegal file-sharers, is unreliable and fairly ridiculous. The bill allows courts to take action against parents who might not even have shared files, but are deemed 'negligent' because they pay the ISP bill that was illegally used, according to TorrentFreak. To highlight this, the hackers found a way to make a router send traffic through a random variety of networks in a neighborhood, creating a number of muddy and false trails that would be nearly impossible to accurately trace.

Basically, the hackers are trying to tell the French government what many folks already know: It's difficult to identify a person based solely on an IP address. Correctly identifying someone is important, too, especially in court. But since Sarkozy's bill only allows five-minutes for the judge to rule on a case, this attempt at 'digital justice' will most likely fall on deaf ears. [From: BoingBoing and TorrentFreak]

Tags: filesharing, france, hack, isp, law, nicolas sarkozy, NicolasSarkozy, piracy, top, wifi

Downloads

Woman Fined $1.9 Million for Downloading 24 Songs

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Jun 19th 2009 at 9:12AM

Jammie Thomas-Rasset didn't know how good she had it.

Back in 2007, the Minnesota mother made national headlines as the first person sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement to actually take the case to trial (instead of settling out of court), after she was charged with downloading copyrighted songs through the P2P network, Kazaa. At the trial's conclusion, Thomas-Rasset was found guilty of illegally downloading 24 songs and was fined $10,000 for each one, amounting to a total of $240,000 in damages. But the case was deemed a mistrial by the judge and Thomas-Rasset waited two years for a retrial. Yesterday, the single mother of four was found guilty again, but this time ordered to pay a mind-boggling $80,000 per song -- $1.9 million in all.

Throughout the trials, Thomas-Rassett has always pledged her innocence, but juries have been incredulous. In fact, as part of her testimony in this trial, Thomas-Rassett suggested -- for the first time -- that her children or ex-husband might have been the downloading culprits. If the jurors didn't buy into the defendant's attempt at implicating her children, we couldn't imagine it helped to bolster her image in their eyes.

Tags: download, illegal download, IllegalDownload, jammie thomas, JammieThomas, law, lawsuit, mp3, piracy, riaa, top

Web

Missouri Family's Christmas Card Photo Stolen for Czech Ad

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Jun 16th 2009 at 9:20AM

Instances of personal photos being poached from the Web and used for nefarious purposes abound. Typically, those stories involve the dissemination of incriminating images, which are then used to implicate or embarrass the owner. Typically, anyway.

A Missouri family recently learned that a holiday photo had been plucked from the Web. But, instead of being used for shady purposes, the image was being displayed as an advertising tool in the Czech Republic. According to The Telegraph, Jeff and Danielle Smith, and their two children, originally used the photo as a Christmas card and posted it online for friends to see. Last month, one of those friends living in Prague happened to notice a blown-up version of the photo, displayed in a local grocery store's window. You can see the original photo here, and the Czech advertisement, here.

The store owner, who said he would happily apologize for using the photo as a promotional device, admitted to finding the image on the Web, but said he believed it to be computer-generated. Ms. Smith said she understands the mix-up, but will add an identifiable watermark to future uploaded photos -- sound advice for anyone.

Tags: family, photos, piracy, privacy, top, watermark, weird

Audio/Video

Dog Sniffs Out 35,000 Pirated DVDs

by Lee Bains (RSS feed) — Jun 5th 2009 at 12:45PM

The most powerful weapon to have recently emerged against the high-tech, big-money industry of DVD piracy comes in an unlikely package: knee-high, four-legged, and covered with black hair.

Wednesday, according to the AFP, the worldwide arm of the Motion Picture Association of America (called, simply, the Motion Picture Association) announced that 35,000 pirated discs had recently been located in several Malaysian warehouses -- by none other than a black lab named Paddy. Trained to sniff out chemicals integral to the bootleg discs, Paddy was given to the Malaysian government by the trade association, itself. Thanks to the dog's nuanced sense of smell, Malaysia's ministry of trade and consumer affairs was able to shut down the six different warehouses in possession of the pirated goods. The Motion Picture Association, which has reported that the companies it represents lost a total of $6.1 billion to pirates in 2005, is of course quite pleased with the work of its canine cop.

On top of being a curse to pirates everywhere, ol' Paddy must be a pretty tough film critic, to boot. After all, to him, pretty much every movie stinks. [From: Yahoo/AFP]

Tags: animals, dogs, dvd, mpa, mpaa, pets, piracy, pirates, top

Audio/Video, Web

Music Pirates More Likely to Buy Music, Study Says

by Peter Mychalcewycz (RSS feed) — Apr 22nd 2009 at 7:47PM

In a twist on conventional logic, a new study reported in the Guardian has found that piracy, so often blamed for the continual downturn in music sales, may actually be sustaining the industry.

The surprising report, from the BI Norwegian School of Management, was based on a study of approximately 2,000 online music listeners over the age of 15. Researchers discovered that the people who admitted to downloading free music (legally or illegaly) were actually 10 times more likely than their law-abiding peers to pay good money for downloadable music. For the sake of accuracy, all of those who claimed to have bought music were required to present proofs of purchase. According to the Guardian, these figures -- if accurate -- identify pirates as the largest segment of online music consumers.

We aren't mathematicians, but it would seem that these so-called "pirates" are the ones putting the most "booty" in the music industry's coffers. The gray area in this never-ending dispute just got a little broader. [From: Guardian.co.uk]

Tags: file sharing, FileSharing, music, music industry, MusicIndustry, piracy, top

Computers

Pirate Bay Server to be Displayed in Museum

by Evan Shamoon (RSS feed) — Apr 20th 2009 at 8:04AM

You may or may not be cool with the Pirate Bay's activities -- the infamous peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing site allows users to share copyrighted music, movies, and other forms of media -- but you can't deny its cultural impact.

Clearly, Sweden's National Museum of Science and Technology can't deny it either: One of the Pirate Bay servers, confiscated by police last year, is now included in the museum's exhibit of inventions that impact people's lives. The museum bought the server from the Pirate Bay for the equivalent of $243.

As for the controversy? Well, there's that too: Officials at the museum say that the reproduction of copyright-protected material has been around for a long time, comparing the activities of the Pirate Bay to cassette tapes, which were themselves controversial in the '70s.

For those keeping score at home, last week a Stockholm court sentenced four Pirate Bay founders to prison. Interestingly, the verdict came down not for illegally hosting content, but for operating a site with "sophisticated search functions, simple download and storage capabilities, and a tracker linked to the website." [From: AP/Google]

Related Links:

Tags: piracy, pirate bay, PirateBay, sweden, top

Audio/Video

Cops Bust 'Hannah Montana' Movie Pirates, Find Huge Stash of Bootlegs

by Tim Stevens (RSS feed) — Apr 15th 2009 at 11:28AM

Couple Arrested for Filming Hannah Montana Movie, Cops Find Pirate Stash

Two years ago a 19-year-old was busted for recording a few seconds of the ending of the 'Transformers' movie, supposedly so that her little brother could see it. There was a lot of public debate, but it certainly seemed like the girl, Jhannet Sejas, was being made a scapegoat. Since then, there have been plenty of other folks prosecuted for similar offenses, but the latest one is a bit more spectacular; when Baltimore police arrested an area couple this weekend for recording 'Hannah Montana: The Movie,' they were lead to the recovery of a stash of modern pirate booty.

The couple, Gerardo Arellano and Maribel Fernandez, were caught in a South Barrington movie theater using a camcorder to record the movie, according to the Baltimore Sun. A search of their home by police uncovered a DVD duplication machine that they were using to pump out thousands of copies of bootleg movies. Police uncovered 44,000 copied CDs and DVDs. While we're not exactly sure of the legal ramifications of that many instances of copyright violation, we're guessing that numerous years in jail and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines are in order. Ouch. [From: BaltimoreSun.com]

Related Links:

Tags: bootleg, copyright infringement, CopyrightInfringement, crime, hannah montana, HannahMontana, kids, mpaa, piracy

Audio/Video, Web

Unreleased 'X-Men' Movie Already Surpasses 1M Illegal Downloads

by Warren Riddle (RSS feed) — Apr 8th 2009 at 8:04AM

The latest 20th Century Fox, Marvel Comics movie, 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' has raced to the top of almost every most-downloaded list on the Web, even though it won't officially hit theaters until May 1st. A leaked, unfinished copy of the film appeared on the Net last week, and has already been downloaded over one million times from the site BitTorrent. The film occupies the most popular spot on several other streaming torrent sites as well, including PirateBay and TorrentFreak.

Fox has distributed removal notices to multiple sites, but we have slight suspicions about whether or not this is a "leak." Details of the film's availability, and the repercussions of viewing it, have dominated news outlets, creating a a dramatic stir surrounding the title's upcoming release. A poll of TorrentFreak readers revealed that, of those polled, 40-percent would be "more excited" to see the film in the theater or on DVD, even if they had previously downloaded it.

If the dissemination of the unfinished film serves as a sneaky, yet brilliant, marketing ploy to inspire moviegoers to experience the finished product on the big screen, then well played, 20th-Century Fox. Well played. [From: Torrent Freak]

Related Links:

Tags: downloads, illegal downloads, IllegalDownloads, piracy, torrent, x-men, x-men origins wolverine, x-menoriginswolverine

Most Emailed Stories

Editors' Picks

Deals of the Day

http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=758444&pid=758443&uts=1256672453

http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf

'Black Friday' Deals to Watch For

Getty Images

Black Friday' Deals to Watch For

Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.

Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.

Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.

Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.

HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.

HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.

HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.

GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.

Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.

Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.

Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.

Latest Reviews from CNET.com

CNET provides the latest tech news, unbiased reviews, videos, podcasts, software, and downloads, making tech products easy to find, understand and use.

Top Product Reviews

Home Audio Reviews
9.0 out of 10
Definitive Technology BPX
Works great with Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby Digital. Full Review
9.0 out of 10
Denon AVR-4306 (black)
Incredibly well-featured 7.1-channel receiver; excellent sound quality; three HDMI inputs; converts analog video to HDMI output; upconverts analog video to 720p/1080i HD resolution; iPod and USB MP3 player connectivity; Internet radio and MP3/WMA streaming audio via built-in Ethernet port; XM Satellite Radio compatible; touch-screen remote; multizone, multisource operation; browser-based control via home network; accurate autocalibration routine. Full Review
8.8 out of 10
KEF KHT3005 (black)
The KEF KHT-3005 is one compact, beautifully designed speaker package with solid aluminum satellites that feature unique driver technology to produce incredible clarity. Meanwhile, the equally astounding dual 10-inch, 250-watt powered subwoofer delivers ultradeep bass. Full Review
Cell Phone Reviews

8.7 out of 10
SignalBoost Mobile Professional Amplifier Kit
The Mobile Professional Amplifier delivers a powerful signal boost to your cell phone. Also, it offers a compact design and easy setup. Full Review
8.6 out of 10
Wi-Ex zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL cell phone signal extender
The Wi-Ex zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL significantly boosts your cell phone reception and is easy to operate. Also, it uses a wireless connection to your phone. Full Review
8.3 out of 10
LG VX6000 (Verizon Wireless)
Compact and stylish; impressive battery life; solid audio quality; sharp color screen; built-in camera; USB ready; affordable. Full Review
Digital Camera Reviews

9.3 out of 10
Canon EOS 1D Mark III
Extremely fast, 10-megapixel continuous shooting; very low noise; highly customizable; well-designed body with weather sealing; 3-inch LCD; abundant optional accessories. Full Review
9.3 out of 10
Nikon D3 (body only)
Full-frame sensor; well designed, pro-level weather-sealed body; very low noise, even at extremely high ISOs; fast. Full Review
9.0 out of 10
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
Very low noise, high quality images; 21.1 megapixels; live view shooting; pro-level build-quality and performance. Full Review
Desktop Reviews

8.9 out of 10
Velocity Micro Edge Z30 (Intel Core i7)
Best value among midrange gaming PCs; Velocity Micro's consistently high build quality; compact case makes few sacrifices; second graphics card slot previously uncommon at this price. Full Review
8.5 out of 10
Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)
A minor specification update results in some significant performance gains; graphics upgrade an option on this 24-inch model; sleek, polished design didn't receive an update, but we won't start clamoring for a new design until the current one is at least 12 months old. Full Review
8.4 out of 10
Velocity Raptor Signature Edition Gaming PC
One of the fastest PCs we've tested; a PCI Express RAID card helps media encoding performance; typically immaculate Velocity Micro assembly; strong, three-year warranty. Full Review