Russian Music Site Down, Sister Site Up

“A music download site that was the poster child for U.S. anti-piracy crusaders and an obstacle to Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization has been shut down by Russian authorities, according to the U.S. government.The victory, however, was short lived: The same company behind Allofmp3.com has launched a similar site that resembles the shuttered service, provides the same legal disclaimers and sells songs at a fraction of the price of iTunes.

Moscow prosecutors declined to comment on whether allofmp3.com had been shut down, leaving it unclear if the government was behind the site’s disappearance.”

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Gotcha! New MPAA Site Tries to Trick Users Into Illegally Downloading Movies

“MediaDefender Inc, the “leading provider of anti-piracy solutions in the emerging Internet-Piracy-Prevention (IPP) industry” has launched a website called “MiiVi” dedicated to busting those who both like to download copyrighted content as well as those who already have.

The site is apparently the latest ploy in the ongoing battle against illegal file-sharing and literally takes the game to new heights. It offers WHOLE DOWNLOADS of movies as well as the ability to download and install a “miraculous” new program that offers “fast and easy downloading all in one great site.” There’s just one problem: the site’s registered to MediaDefender Inc. and it’s army of prying eyes are just nipping at the bud to take down those who are unaware.”

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The RIAA Is Now Going After University Of Washington Students

“Dear Student:

I am writing to inform you of a development that could become a serious issue for some of our students–the law governing downloading and sharing of music and video from the internet. Under copyright law, it is illegal to download or share copyrighted materials such as music or movies without the permission of the copyright owner. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in recent years has taken an aggressive approach to stopping this illegal downloading and file sharing. This has put many students at the nation’s colleges and universities at some legal risk. I write first to caution you against illegally downloading or sharing files. Your actions when you do so are traceable and could result in a significant financial penalty to you. Second, I want to inform you about a new process the RIAA has initiated and the University’s role in this process.”

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TorrentSpy Crumbles Under The Pressure, Removes Copyrighted Content

“TorrentySpy has implemented an automated filtering system, FileRights, that removes links to copyrighted material amidst a court order that was filed last year by a handful of Hollywood Studios, which now requires TorrentSpy to track user activity.”

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Yo! MPAA…What Gives? Your Profits Are Up!

Since you’re making more money now, how about nixing the lawsuits?

“The motion picture industry is back on course.

After a disappointing 2005, the six major companies have received official confirmation from the MPA that their all-media revenue from filmed entertainment — comprising money from home video, television, theatrical and pay TV — expanded by 8% in 2006 to reach $42.6 billion.”

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AT&T To Start Scanning Their Network For Pirated Material

“In a move that could send ISPs tumbling down a slippery slope toward serving big media companies before consumers, AT&T has decided to start targeting pirated content being moved across its network. How exactly they’ll do that isn’t clear, but there doesn’t seem to be any real way of them detecting what materials being sent are copyrighted without them prying into every file people send online. But hey, what’s wrong with that? We should trust AT&T! It’s not like they spy on us for the government already or anything.”

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RIAA Targets 395 More College Students

“Pre-litigation settlement letters sent to 19 different universities in this latest crackdown on P2P and file-sharing programs on college campuses.

The RIAA has begun a new round of campus piracy crackdowns with 395 students at 19 different universities being sent pre-litigation letters.

This is the latest installment of its “education and deterrence campaign” that the RIAA launched earlier this year that focuses on P2P and illegal file “trafficking” on college campuses (I still love how they refer to it as trafficking and sharing).

These pre-litigation notices also offer students the continued chance to settle out of court at a “discounted rate” using their p2plawsuits site.”

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MPAA Accuses TorrentSpy Of Concealing Evidence

“The courts have for the first time found that the electronic trail briefly left in a computer server’s RAM, or random access memory, by each visitor to a site is “stored information” and must be turned over as evidence during litigation, according to documents seen by CNET News.com. Jacqueline Chooljian, a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles, issued the decision while presiding over a court fight between the studios and TorrentSpy, the BitTorrent search engine accused of copyright infringement in a lawsuit filed last year by the film industry. On May 29, Chooljian ordered TorrentSpy to begin logging user activity, including IP addresses, and turn the data over to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).”

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RIAA And MPAA Fund Anti-Piracy Politicians

“With the new election season hotting up in the United States, and scuffles between states for presidential primaries, you do end up wondering about the election process. With Representatives having to be re-elected every two years, it is vital for them to be seen to be doing something, no matter how effective, or necessary the action is.With seventeen months still to go until election time, (and the previous election only 7 months ago) some congressional candidates are already accepting contributions for their November 2008 campaign run from so called “political action committees” (PAC). In this article we’ll be looking at two of them; RIAA’s “Recording Industry Of America Inc. Political Action Committee” and MPAA’s “Motion Picture Association of America Political Action Committee”.”

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Russian ATM Runs On Unactivated Copy Of Windows

“but seriously, who skimps on a product activation code when running a multi-million (billion?) dollar banking operating?”

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