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RIAA/MPAA vs. xMule Author, EarthStation 5 1107

Two bits of news in the ongoing battle between the RIAA/MPAA and the rest of the internet: One P2P company, apparently based in Palestine, has thrown down the gauntlet to the movie industry. Meanwhile, a developer of another P2P tool who unwisely chose to live in the USA has been shut down (mirror) by the RIAA.
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RIAA/MPAA vs. xMule Author, EarthStation 5

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  • by InterruptDescriptorT ( 531083 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:14AM (#6754738) Homepage
    this is getting fucking ridiculous.

    It saddens me as a developer that you can't even deign to write a P2P add without the assumption that it will be used for sharing copyrighted materials and thus shut down by the RIAA/MPAA. It's really amazing to see what lengths these bastards will go to to protect their industry after a major, earth-shattering shift in their profit model.

    I urge everyone reading this to be very diligent in your boycott of buying new music or going to see movies. I haven't bought a CD in 22 months and haven't seen a movie since (believe it or not) 1999. You can't cheat and plead, just one movie! It's the Matrix! I have to see it. Nothing but the bottom line is going to get through to these people. If these folks don't get the message and soon, you may find yourself asking for permission to write anything on your machine that moves bits around.
    • It saddens me as a developer that you can't even deign to write a P2P add without the assumption that it will be used for sharing copyrighted materials and thus shut down by the RIAA/MPAA.

      No kidding, just posted to the Mandrake Cooker list:

      > > Could we get some kind of p2p solution up and running? With so many
      > > people wanting to keep a local cooker tree, it would seem self-evident
      > > that we should be taking advantage of this technology. A cooker torrent
      > > would be excell

    • by varith ( 530137 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:21AM (#6754828)
      The problem is that the entertainment industry is using dropping revenue as proof that they need to implement tighter controls to prevent file sharing. So any boycott may be backfiring!
      • by Anonymous Coward
        First of all, Boycotting is very easy.

        You see, some of the worst movies ever made were from the past few years. (Think Gigli).

        Tell your friends about how the media industry bought off scumbag politicians and circumvented your constitutional rights with the DMCA. About how they are targetting college kids (who are eternally broke thanks to a f*cked up higher educational system in this country) - and grandmothers. The boycott approach will only show the illogic in the media industries plan.

        Also remind t
      • by bigpat ( 158134 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:00PM (#6755241)
        I've been boycotting the music industry since 1996, not because of the RIAA, but because I don't care about music enough to buy it. Nor do I care enough about music to go through the hassle of downloading it, I'll stick to just listening to brainless pop or classical on the way home if I happen to get tired of NPR and the BBC.

        "The problem is that the entertainment industry is using dropping revenue as proof that they need to implement tighter controls to prevent file sharing. So any boycott may be backfiring!"

        They can use it as proof, but that does not make it proof. It is very easy to show that with the increased popularity of Napster that Music sales went up, but when Napster was shut down music sales went down. I don't think that is proof that file sharing increases sales of music, but it certainly shows that their proof is garbage.
        • by Fizzlewhiff ( 256410 ) <jeffshannon AT hotmail DOT com> on Thursday August 21, 2003 @01:07PM (#6756150) Homepage
          I've been boycotting the music industry since 1996, not because of the RIAA, but because I don't care about music enough to buy it

          That's not a boycott. That is just you making a choice. It is the same as me, a non-smoker, saying I have boycotted the tobacco industry. If you're not in the market and you don't buy then it is not really a boycott is it.

          We can argue all day that the music industry sucks and the bands all suck but when the bands sell out concert venues in 30 minutes then someone must like them. But why aren't their CD's selling? In 1983 I'd pay full price for a Billy Squire tape for a couple good songs. In 2003 I don't have to. Is P2P to blame? Hell yes. It might be hard to prove using sales figures. You can't look at a pile of receipts and figure out why there are more or less but when you look around at the popularity of P2P, the volume of files online, and the volume of comments HERE and other places as to why people trade there is your proof that P2P is hurting the industry.

          This post will probably be modded as troll or flamebait but it is pretty close to the truth.
          • by Newer Guy ( 520108 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @01:51PM (#6756605)
            See, in 1983, before CD's came out, LP albums cost about $6.98, and tapes about the same. Then CD's came out, costing TEN DOLLARS MORE! The industry's excuse was that CD's cost more to make, "better sound forever", and other rubbish. Now we know these all were lies. CD's now cost about 1/10th as much to press as records cost at their cheapest (and I'm speaking 2003 dollars here which are worth about half of 1983 ones). CD's STILL cost almost 20 bucks apiece. The record companies' excuse is that inflation has finally caught up, which is more bullshit. In essence, they TRIPLED the price of CD's over LP's, got rid of LP's (to remove choice), got rid of singles (to make sure that you HAD to pay $17.98 to get the ONE song you liked), raped the consumer for over 20 years, formed cartels (which would have been illegal in 1983!) and now when the consumer finally has the ability to fight back they respond by bribing our lawmakers to maintain the status quo by passing the DMCA, throwing the Constitution out the window in the process. Yep..sure sounds like an upstanding business model and a fair deal for the consumer, huh?
            • CD's don't always cost about $20. Sure, I can go to the record store in the mall and pay that or and I can go to places like Target, Borders, Best Buy, etc and pay $3-$7 less for the same CD, maybe even less online. I don't see that as the industry sticking it to the customer. There are other factors involved there. Consumers need to be smarter. Not all stores sell at list price. Don't pay $20 for a CD that you can get for $14 down the street.

          • there is your proof that P2P is hurting the industry.

            Personally, I don't care if it is anymore. If someone can tell me what is unfair or uncapitalistic about a band making all of it's money through live concerts, and distributing cheap mp3's or CD's for little to no money at all.......a situation that doesn't involve any middle men (record companies) and relies solely on word of mouth to bring the cream of the crop into the public scene (seems to have worked for websites so far).......if someone can show
      • by Greedo ( 304385 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:48PM (#6755925) Homepage Journal
        Exactly! The obvious solution is to start text messaging everybody [slashdot.org] instead of going to see a movie or buy a CD.
      • the solution is (Score:3, Interesting)

        by alizard ( 107678 )
        Buy your music and your video whenever possible from independent artists NOT connected with RIAA/MPAA.

        Once the industry tracking organizations demonstrate that the money spent on entertainment has simply shifted to organizations not involved with the *AA organizations, it's all over.

        No more piracy as an excuse, and a bunch of companies we don't like will be forced to find new business models or die under new management or in the case of the record companies, new owners.

    • Hrmmmm. From your sig " I'm gonna drink 'till I reboot! - Bender, Futurama" I would also have to add that given the media consolidation happening with large corporations owning music, movie, television, newspaper and internet companies, you might have to swear off your Futurama as well.

    • I just got about 52 GB of music from a friend of mine, and you know what? I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. A lot of this shit either underground bands or uncommon stuff, and even the popular stuff I don't care if I didn't buy it. To pull an axiom from The Matrix:

      The RIAA is a system, AC. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around and what do you see? Guitarists, Drummers, Mixers, Singers...the very minds of the people we're trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so innerred, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will that they will fight to protect it. Are you listening to me, AC? Or were you looking at the free lesbian porn?
      • by operagost ( 62405 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:49AM (#6755127) Homepage Journal
        Now I understand the mindset of Arab Muslim terrorists, who think it's okay to kill innocent people because they're part of the evil Zionist system.
    • by Chas ( 5144 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:41AM (#6755051) Homepage Journal

      Not that I'd de-advocating this sort of stance. I'd really prefer that my money not go to these money-grubbing [NAUGHTYS].

      But think on this for a second. These idiots don't even have a NODDING acquaintence with common sense, or even REALITY. All they'll see, and yammer about, when sales plummet is "It's filesharing!" "It's texting!" "It's freedom of speech!"

      No matter what, they're utterly incapable of believing tha that their sales dropoffs are actually due to:

      1. Death of dinosaur markets, resulting in a narrowing of profit vectors.
      2. Death of niches no longer favored by the consumers, resulting in FURTHER narrowing of profit vectors
      3. A tighter, more fiscal-necessity-oriented economy
      4. The decreased efficacy of marketing and promotion in a society that has "peer" review instantaneously available on a global telecommunications network.
      5. An market already HIDEOUSLY bloated by a massive amount of content being released
      6. Alternative forms of entertainment competing for the consumer dollar in said economy
      7. The shoddy market research which results in the greenlighting of...
      8. A growing preponderance of "crap" product being shoveled out to the public which then DON'T get consumed. Tying up resources as product languishes on shelves. For the distributor, the point of sale, and the artist.

      Need I go on?

      In short, no matter what people do, or do not, buy, the likes of the MPAA and the RIAA will merely blame-shift so they don't have to accept responsibility for their own [NAUGHTY]-ups.

      • 9. The RIAA has not changed their product/business model in about 20 years. Yes, there have been new bands, but their product, the thing that we give our hard earned money for, has not changed since the release of CDs. The MPAA has done so with DVDs and especially the extras that come with them. To me a DVD video is a much better value than and audio CD.

        It floors me that the RIAA cannot seem to make enough money to keep themselves happy, when just about everyone from 12->25 wants their products! I c
      • by enjo13 ( 444114 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @01:05PM (#6756132) Homepage
        Your wrong, kind of.

        The MPAA and the RIAA are quite aware of why they're not making money. They don't truly beleive that filesharing and text messages are killing their business. The people running these things are many things, but stupid is not one of them.

        What they are really interested in is providing the perception of being victims. They are hoping to use this perception that they are failing at the hands of college-age criminals in order to garner anti-competitive protections for their business. Even if they may be making less money than before (is that even true?), media remains a TREMENDOUSLY good business for established players. By establishing themselves as victims, they can prevent new distribution channels (like P2P) that they can't control from allowing new competitors to emerge.

        In the end, that's what this is about. The Theater->Video->Tv chain is a tightly controlled one for the members of the MPAA (the RIAA has similiar in CD->Radio). When indepednent film makers can start to distribute quality work over alternative distribution channels it is in the best interests of these companies to shut them down.

        One thing to consider.. if the RIAA wasn't seen as the victim of 'stealing' on Napster, does the DMCA even get passed? I doubt it.. Much like the airline industry bail-outs. Without 9/11 the Airlines would have a much more difficult time getting money out of our government, but since they are seen as 'victims' of the increased fear after 9/11 it is much easier for them to get these kinds of concessions.

        These laws are not born out of hatred for the American consumer, but generally on really wanting to do the right thing. After all, if the MPAA is being stole from then we should do what we can to fix that. The problem is, our representatives are having trouble seeing the difference between justice and manipulation.
      • Let me simplify: The record and movie industry is dealing with the effects of competition.
    • by Kaa ( 21510 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:53AM (#6755170) Homepage
      It saddens me as a developer that you can't even deign to write a P2P add without the assumption that it will be used for sharing copyrighted materials and thus shut down by the RIAA/MPAA.

      Sure you can. Grokster and Morpheus won their court case, remember?

      The xmule situation is very unclear. There are three not necessarily related things happening:

      (1) The guy got a subpoena. That's basically a court order saying "come talk to us". He is not under arrest and so far hasn't been charged with anything. Hysterics about federal jails and moving to Mexico seem to be quite uncalled for.

      (2) His ISP cut him off for "unacceptable use". Looking at cable providers' Terms of Service, it seems you can't do anything but browse the web anyway, so I am sure he broke some clause there. Likely he's been running a server on his connection which most ToSes prohibit. Tough luck. Dump the cable and get a DSL line instead.

      (3) He is getting close to his bandwidth limit. Well, that's the consequence of popularity. Nothing earthshattering there.

    • There are many fine forms of entertainment that aren't controlled by the RIAA/MPAA, and don't agree with them. Live near Baltimore? See a John Waters film at The Charles. Music? Dischord, Touch and Go, Archenemy, Fueled By Ramen (geeks ought to like that label). I went to see Eleni Mandell last Wednesday; it was her first time in Baltimore. It's CRIMINAL that she doesn't get more attention, as she's a wonderful artist (and really nice in person). Far more criminal than some kids depriving Britney Spe
    • > It saddens me as a developer that you can't even deign to write a P2P add without the assumption that it will be used for sharing copyrighted materials

      It saddens me that people can't be coerced into reading a single word of an article without jumping to conclusions. THEY ADMIT THE FUCKING PURPOSE IS TO STREAM MOVIES ILLEGALLY! Read The Fucking Article (since I obviously have to spell EVERYTHING out for you). It is some Arab people writing the software to SPECIFICALLY piss off MPAA/RIAA. Granted, I
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Palestine isn't a nation, it is under Israeli occupation, and since Israel is allied with the US, it will soon extradite these people to the US so they can be prosecuted. Either that or blow them apart in a helicopter raid. There is no place in the world that is safe from RIAA/US control.
  • Full text of article (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mskfisher ( 22425 ) * on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:16AM (#6754756) Homepage Journal
    He mentions having reached 90% of his bandwidth allocation for this month, so I would guess a Slashdotting wouldn't help things.
    Here's the full text of the article, to hopefully stem some of that tide.

    Today's Featured Article I've been personally shut down...


    Thursday, August 21 2003 @ 12:46 AM CDT
    Contributed by: Un-Thesis
    Views: 788
    Apparently I have been subpoenad, personally, on 8-17-2003 by an as-yet unknown entity under the DMCA clause, because of xmule, when it went on to gov'ment radar w/ the e-matters.de alert :P The subpoena lasts, suposedly, until Dec 6, when i must stand infrotn of a federal appellet court

    100% of My job is online
    100% of My school is online
    100% of My friends are online
    100% of My hobbies are online

    and if i can't use a comptuer at all, they might as well put me in a federal
    prison taht allows me to read and purchase any book i want...

    As of 7:43AM MST (-7 UTC) my personal internet connection was shut down due to "unacceptable use". It took me 6 hours to finally contact my ISP customer support, a local cable modem provider, because they were swamped with MSBLASTER calls.

    I was redirected to a 1800 number who redirected me to some other number, etc, until i finally reached a federal clerk's office in Washington, D.C. who informed me that it *seems* as though I have been personally subpaened by the USA Gov'ment on behalf of the RIAA. They told me that they were limited in their search for information due to the late hour (8PM EDT (-4 UTC)), but that the prosecuting body that issued under hte auspicies of the DMCA and NOT in the same category as the other 8,000+ copyright violation affidavits issued by the RIAA in recent months.

    Additional bad news: xmule.org has reached 90% of its allocated monthly bandwidth. It is the 19th. I am very incapable of rectifying this decision w/out knowledgeable outside assistance in the United States (due to telephone communication required). If you can help me set up the other webserver, please contact me at 520-296-3408.

    Unless DRASTIC action is taken within the next 48 hours, or my internet connection is restored, xmule.org forums will be permanently shut down until the bandwidth issue can be resolved.

    Supposedly, the subpaena was filed on 8-17-2003. For those that know, the e-matters.de published xmule ni its security bulletin, thus, probably, raising us to teh level of teh RIAA's notice for the first time. Since I am the only american developer, and since i am really the only main developer, it seems they struck at the source.

    I have not received written or otherwise announcement of the subpaena, and i still do not know the ramifications of my injunction. I may be able to use dialup or even DSL, cable is certainly out, or I may be completely barred form teh internet (this message might be illegal)

    At this point i *know* i will need to hire a civil rights attorney, and if I am not liable to a prison sentence, then I might be able to leave the United States to either Mexico or Canada, at which point i will also need money to relocate...So any donations are greatly appreciated. PLEASE use the Amazon donation box, since it requires no online access by me, while paypal erquires a connectino.

    I wont' know what my options are until some time tomorrow or later. Development of xMule seems to be the most likely target of me, since I have downloaded very little copyrighted material over the last, o, 6 months. I figured that before i found out i was banned completely from the internet i would send this mesasge...

    Keep it real...weclome to the Fourth Reich of Amerika.

    Un-Thesis
  • by borgdows ( 599861 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:16AM (#6754759)
    (...) Earthstation 5 is at war with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Record Association of America (RIAA), and to make our point very clear that their governing laws and policys have absolutely no meaning to us here in Palestine, we will continue to add even more movies for FREE.
    (...)
    ES5 (http://www.es5 .com) does not require any signups, registration, credit cards and/or any other personal information to watch the first rate streamed movies like TERMINATOR 3, BRUCE ALMIGHTY, MATRIX RELOADED, etc. Our secure software protect our users who use our P2P application and there is nothing that you can do to stop us, says Ras Kabir, president of Earthstation 5 (http:/www.earthstation5 .com).
    (...)
    Ras Kabir's warning to the RIAA and the MPAA, "The next revolution in P2P file sharing is upon you. Resistance is futile and we are now in control".

    OMG! It's what I call a man who has BALLS!!
    • by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:30AM (#6754926) Homepage
      OMG! It's what I call a man who has BALLS!!

      He certainly does. Calling Bruce Almighty a first class movie takes something special.

      Cheers,
      Ian

    • by Trigun ( 685027 ) <evil.evilempire@ath@cx> on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:58AM (#6755228)
      They are anti-establishment. Their software is the epitome of ideals held by hackers everywhere.

      From the article:Earthstation 5 also has a FREE multi-user Voice and Video chat system,
      FREE Dating system, provides FREE video streaming of first run movies, FREE
      ten SEX channels, FREE live Sporting events, and will be releasing soon a
      Voice over IP application providing FREE local and international telephone
      calls to its users to communicate with each other.


      They are attacking the old bricks-and-mortar businesses, in an attempt to force them to change their ancient business practices. And good for them! Information wants to be free, but content doesn't have to be. These companies had better start releasing their music/movies/services to the unwashed masses in a proper and timely manner or people are going to do it for them.
    • Normally I would joke about something like this, but ... well, ok, I'll still joke about something like this.

      Way to go, **AA. Hope you got bomb sniffing equipment outside your buildings. We all know what happens when you piss off the Palestinians. KA-BOOM!!!! That is one terrorist bombing I don't know that I'd feel angry about (as long as they didn't get any hapless civilians walking past outside or any protesters busy pissing on the doors in protest).

      -Ab
    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:33PM (#6755733)
      And from this [gonze.com] mans blog :

      So I just tried installing ES5 on my Windows machine. The first thing
      it did is attempt to connect to an IP in the Gaza Strip. The
      administrator for that IP block is someone with an earthstationv.com
      email address. Then my keylogger warning program popped up and
      complained that the program had attempted to hook to my keyboard. I
      killed it, and ran an uninstall. The uninstall failed because some of
      its DLL's were still 'in use' despite no matching processes. I rebooted
      and was able to do a successful uninstall manually. Afterwards, I
      checked my registry and removed a fresh entry from "Intertrust," a
      company that makes DRM software.

      Overall, an entertaining experience.
    • and to make our point very clear that their governing laws and policys have absolutely no meaning to us here in Palestine, we will continue to add even more movies for FREE.

      So is the MPAA going to go after these guys, or just wait for Israel to bulldoze the right house ? There's a joke in here about Jews controlling the media, but I have a feeling people would take it too seriously.
  • Oy. (Score:5, Funny)

    by NaugaHunter ( 639364 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:17AM (#6754773)
    That's all we need. The MPAA and RIAA getting involved in the Middle East. I wonder if Big Oil will like the competition.
  • Palestine? (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by BTWR ( 540147 )
    Do they mean Palestine, Texas... or Palestine, West Virginia?

    Wait! Maybe they mean the middle-eastern country "Palestine" that the Jordanians and Egyptians gave to their Arab brothers when they controlled 100% of Gaza, West Bank and Jerusalem from 1948-1967.

    (oh, wait a second, that never happened...)
  • This guy's talking about being barred from use of the Internet as a result of a DMCA subpoena. WTF? Is this sensationalism or is there legal basis for this claim?

  • The terrorist wannabes are attacking people in a country known to harbor terrorists.

    Perhaps the MPAA/RIAA are just jealous.

  • Hard to say anything. They didn't sign any international copyright agreements. And I think Israel's a little to busy with Hamas currently to do anyhing about file traders.

    Viva la es5!

  • It's Idiotic. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Yes, there is a problem with digital rights management. Yes, Hollywood DOES have the right to make money. No, you do NOT have the right to broadcast their copyrighted info, and even the most fanatical, devoted, peer to peer sharing folks will agree.

    Why exactly is this on slashdot? It's not a freedom movement. In no way can it be given a good slant. It's out-and-out copyright infringement. Period.

    Even the most cockeyed activists have to see that far from making Hollywood "wakeup", this kind of thing
    • Re:It's Idiotic. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:31AM (#6754942) Journal
      You have the right to do anything you want until the state takes that right away. The ES5 live in a country where american copyright is not recognized. You may argue that what they are doing is unethical. You might have a point, law does not dictate morality.

      Now users of this software may be be breaking the law, but I would argue that they are doing nothing unethical. After all law does not dictate morality.
    • Re:It's Idiotic. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Dunark ( 621237 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:46AM (#6755098)
      ...Yes, Hollywood DOES have the right to make money. ...

      No they don't. They have the right to TRY to make money by making movies that people want to see. They have no right to expect a profit if they make crap, no matter how much they spend making the crap.
      • The problem is (Score:4, Insightful)

        by phorm ( 591458 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:46PM (#6755906) Journal
        People don't download the crap. They don't even download the good stuff to avoid getting crap. They download to avoid paying.
        Now, I'm no fan of any of the money-hungry lawsuit-happy big corps out there, but you have to use your head a bit. The RIAA business model is based around singles and one-hit-wonders. To get one decent song you want, you have to shell out for a whole CD or Album which often otherwise contains crap.

        It's not about the expense of CD's themselves... I find that a CD with 90%+ good content is worth the bucks (if it weren't funding the RIAA)... it's about getting a shitty value for our dollar.

        Now with movies it is different. Unless you go to opening night (and that's your choice) there are loads of movie reviews out quickly. The MPAA even admits that text messaging [slashdot.org] is speeding this process. Now, are these idiotic lawsuits a good thing? No.

        However, to turn the buck around, is expecting to get away with downloading perfectly good movies just to avoid paying for them a good thing either? No! The MPAA does make good movies. Over the last year I've seen lots of em (American Wedding being the latest). They were worth my cash, and if the MPAA went after users who were providing bootleg/P2P movies I think that would be great. Going after the programmers is dumb... but everyone else is trying to freeload a quality product.

        Come on people, you don't believe that anime [slashdot.org] should be "pirated", so why should movies? Want them to cost less, protest the huge f***ing wages going to bullsh*t actors or producers. Don't watch the movie. But if you go out and download Revelations insteading of paying to see/buy it... then you're no better them them... you're just being a greedy bastard.

        In summary. Nope, we don't have to pay for the crap. But the stuff being downloaded isn't crap, or at least it's in demand, or it wouldn't be downloaded. I won't be buying any RIAA music anytime soon, but I will be seeing Revelations in the theatre, as it shoudl be. How about you?
    • Re:It's Idiotic. (Score:3, Redundant)

      by Kaa ( 21510 )
      Yes, Hollywood DOES have the right to make money.

      Really? A RIGHT to make money? How do I get one of those?

      Hollywood (just like everybody else) has a right to TRY to make money. It goes hand-in-hand with the right to fail miserably.

      Yes, it's illegal to publish copyrighted material on P2P networks if you don't have proper license/permission. So what? Jaywalking is illegal, too. So is speeding. So is not paying state's sales tax on stuff bought mail-order. And your point is?
  • by kindbud ( 90044 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:18AM (#6754792) Homepage
    No other press releases that I can find on prnewswire.com have had their company website URL link made inactive. Looks like the MPAA/RIAA can strongarm Prnewswire to remove what they allege are offending links from press releases, even if its a corporate website.

    Watch out Apple, your press releases may be next to have links disabled.
  • by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:20AM (#6754820) Journal
    Earth Station 5 is spyware free, adware free and contains no popups and/or annoying advertising. Earth Station 5 is located both in Gaza and in the Jenin Refugee Camp of Palestine.

    HTTP error 506:

    Server has been ran over by an Israeli tank.

  • by dowobeha ( 581813 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:22AM (#6754837)
    OK, so here's a question for you....

    Most countries are signatories to one or more copyright treaties that commit them to recognizing and protecting international copyrights. They are therefore more or less prohibited from allowing the explicit breach of copyright declared in this PR release.

    But who is responsible for enforcing copyright in an occupied country? Palestine has been recognized by the UN as an occupied territory, with Israel as the occupying power. With little real power, is the Palestinian Authority still supposed to enforce copyright restrictions? Or is that for Israel to do?

    The same situation would apply, I assume, in Iraq. America is the occupying power, so I would think the same criteria should apply as in the Israel/Palestine situation. There is no true Iraqi government to enforce copyright, but on the other hand it seems a bit absurd to think that American laws should govern Iraq.

    Interesting situation....

    • by superyooser ( 100462 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @01:57PM (#6756667) Homepage Journal
      Palestine has been recognized by the UN as an occupied territory, with Israel as the occupying power.
      "The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity... In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism. It has also been a "conceptual" war for the ownership of the term "Palestinian" which has been transferred over to the Arabs, whereas before 1967, 'Palestine' has always been synonomous with the land of Israel."
      - Zahir Muhsein, PLO Executive Committee member, to Dutch newspaper Trouw, March 31, 1977
    • by sometwo ( 53041 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @03:39PM (#6757778)
      Cannibals capture three hunters an American, a Briton, and an Israeli," begins a classic Israeli joke. The first two hunters make last requests typical to their nationalities, then it is the Israeli's turn. He asks that he be punched in the face.

      The surprised cannibal grants the wish, at which point the Israeli pulls out a gun, shoots the chief, and frees himself and his friends. The American and Briton, furious, demand to know why he prolonged their terrifying experience when he had the power to free them all. The Israeli replies: "What? Are you mad? The UN would have condemned me as the aggressor.
  • Cuts both ways (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cyranoVR ( 518628 ) <cyranoVR@DEGASgmail.com minus painter> on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:23AM (#6754850) Homepage Journal
    IMO The Earthstation 5 dudes are pretty arogant and naive to to think that their foreign location prevents the RIAA from taking action. Since they are in Palestine and outside the US borders, I would imagine that the RIAA has a carte blanch to unleash mercenary hackers/crackers upon their servers. I really doubt the Israeli gov't will do anything to protect them.

    And now that I think about it...Israeli-US relations...bulldozers...the apache strike-helicopters are probably powering up even as I write this.

    Provided this whole thing isn't some kind of hoax of course.
  • The amazingly out-of-touch theme of the web site.

    Hey! 1997 called! They want their web developer back!

  • probably hoax (Score:5, Interesting)

    by guybarr ( 447727 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:28AM (#6754907)

    I'm not a speaker, but AFAIK "Ras Kabir" is arabic for "large head"
    definately a pseudonym.

    What's more, with the fighting in the west-bank over the last two years,
    I doubt that people there had time to run any OS project, let alone one with "15 million active online users" cocurently. Especially entertainment-oriented.

    This "declaration of war" is probably a hoax, and I wouldn't be surprized if kooky conspiracy-theories actually turn-out true in this case ...

    (BTW, I'm not much of a speaker, but AFAIK "Ras Kabir" is arabic for "large head" definately a bad pseudonym )

    • Re:probably hoax (Score:3, Informative)

      by infolib ( 618234 )
      What's more, with the fighting in the west-bank over the last two years, I doubt that people there had time to run any OS project

      According to my traceroutes, they may very well be in occupied Palestine, note especially step 13 - a forwarder in Israel (.il)

      /usr/sbin/traceroute www.es5.com
      traceroute to www.es5.com (213.152.100.163), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
      [...]
      9 goldenlines-4-il-pal6.seabone.net (195.22.197.18) 66.267 ms 65.256 ms 64.544 ms
      10 212.199.28.4 (212.199.28.4) 65.075 ms 65.954 ms 65.379

  • Wow (Score:4, Funny)

    by autopr0n ( 534291 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:34AM (#6754967) Homepage Journal
    100% of My job is online
    100% of My school is online
    100% of My friends are online
    100% of My hobbies are online

    and if i can't use a comptuer at all, they might as well put me in a federal prison taht allows me to read and purchase any book i want...


    Man... get a life. Maybe taking away your computer would be a good thing :P
  • Interesting (Score:5, Informative)

    by randyest ( 589159 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:37AM (#6755004) Homepage
    From the website, it seems they do have their privacy ducks in a fairly neat row:

    ES5 #1 goal is to protect its users from intrusions to their privacy by providing encrypted traffic, random ports and IP anonymity:

    ONE CLICK PROXY SERVER - Users can send connection requests through intermediary proxy servers located throughout the world so that the download destination of a file cannot be traced by any entity whatsoever. There is nothing for the user to set-up, just right click to enable the proxy server.

    SSL - SECURE SOCKETS - Prevents monitoring of a user's uploading or downloading activity. Users can automatically deploy SSL by right clicking.

    UDP -USER DATAGRAM PROTOCOL Using UDP makes it impossible to reliably scan a useras computer to determine if ES5 is running. Also, unlike TCP connections, UDP traffic can not be easily blocked by ISPs.

    ES5 SECURITY KEY - ES5 utilizes a standard HTTP server to transmit files, but deploys a special "security key" so than only ES5 users can access your shared files.

    IP ADDRESSES - ES5 does not display user IP Address information.

    DYNAMIC PORTS- Each ES5 node uses a randomly chosen port (unless the user chooses a specific port themselves). Therefore, ISPs will be unable to identify file-sharing traffic based upon port numbers and unable to throttle back the users bandwidth.

    USER DEFINED PORT SETTINGS- ES5 provides users with "one-click" port setting options for ES5 to use port 53 (the port used by DNS) or port 37 (the port used by time service) therefore rendering all blocking attempts hopeless.

    MULTIPLE POINTS OF ENTRY - ES5 uses multiple methods for connecting to the ES5 network including IP Multicast, Usenet Articles, Web Sites, Node List Files and a several other undisclosed methods.

    PENETRATING FIREWALLS - UDP allows seamless penetration of firewalls without inconvenient setting of firewall parameters. For users behind firewalls, ES5 uses UDP to request a PUSH, where the behind-the-firewall computer initiates the connection back to the requested user's computer. PGPDisk - As an additional security feature, to all P2P programs, is that ES5 integrates seamlessly with PGPDisk (which is a free program and will be provided by ES5 to its users) that lets you encrypt your disk drives to store your P2P content. No one except you will ever be able to see your files, not your kids, your spouse, your mother, your boss, the FBI, the KGB or anyone else!

    So, the plot thickens. Whatever will the *AA do? ;)
    • Re:Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bo0ork ( 698470 )
      Well, after reading through their site, I have a few concers. Tracing UDP might require some more statistical software than tcpdump, but it's certainly doable. Now, if they went as far as actually spoof the sending address on those UDP's, that might work.

      Still, an UDP based network requires known servers or points of contact. Even if those change, they're still targets that can be traced and attacked. ES5 is a step in the right direction towards anonymous file sharing, but it's not quite there yet.

  • by heironymouscoward ( 683461 ) <heironymouscoward@yaho o . com> on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:43AM (#6755069) Journal
    1. Wonderful press release, kick the MPAA/RIAA where it hurts.

    2. Web site not slashdotted.

    3. 40kb/sec download of the software. Exactly what kind of net pipes do they have running into Jenin? Maybe download.es5.com is located somewhere else...

    4. None of this "we're just technology providers" bullshit. No, this is theftware at its best. Hey, the US has paid billions to help the Israeli state bomb the Palestinians into the stone age, it's not surprising there is not huge local support for US "intellectual property".

    The software was apparently developed in Russia, financed by Arab and Israeli businessmen. It appears to use UDP rather than TCP/IP, which is a neat idea when you are sending redundant chunks of information around, and SSL for security, which may or may not be really secure.

    The whole thing may be a hoax, I am downloading it to a test machine to try right now.

    At last, someone with the guts to sock it to those bums at the MPAA and RIAA. Yeah!!
    • by srvivn21 ( 410280 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @02:16PM (#6756847)
      [me polymorph]# dig download.es5.com

      download.es5.com. 10m36s IN A 213.152.119.5

      [me polymorph]# dig -x 213.152.119.5 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
      213.in-addr.arpa. 2H IN SOA ns.ripe.net. ops-213.ripe.net.

      In other words, download.es5.com's IP address is "owned" by ripe.net. http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/about/ [ripe.net] states in part:
      The RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) is one of Four Regional Internet Registries (RIR) that exist in the world today, providing allocation and registration services that support the operation of the Internet globally.

      The RIPE NCC performs activities primarily for the benefit of the membership in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and African countries located north of the equator. These are mainly activities that its members need to organise as a group, even though they may compete in other areas.

      The services provided by the RIPE NCC ensure the fair distribution of global Internet resources in the RIPE NCC service region required for the stable and reliable operation of the Internet. This includes the allocation of Internet (IP) address space, autonomous system numbers and the management of reverse domain name space.


      A traceroute from my desk shows (again, in part)...

      11 bpr1-so-0-0-0.sanjoseequinix.cw.net (208.173.54.65) 50.889 ms 51.496 ms 55.282 ms
      12 208.173.54.74 (208.173.54.74) 55.430 ms 51.065 ms 50.517 ms
      13 so-5-0-0.gar1.sanjose1.level3.net (209.244.3.137) 51.761 ms 52.379 ms 55.816 ms
      14 so-7-0-0.mp1.sanjose1.level3.net (64.159.1.73) 62.741 ms 58.862 ms 51.160 ms
      15 unknown.level3.net (64.159.3.254) 114.017 ms 113.364 ms 111.183 ms
      16 so-2-0-0.mp1.london2.level3.net (212.187.128.137) 188.881 ms 189.685 ms 188.827 ms
      17 so-2-0-0.mp1.amsterdam1.level3.net (212.187.128.26) 195.189 ms 193.874 ms 194.465 ms
      18 gige10-2.ipcolo1.amsterdam1.level3.net (213.244.165.99) 191.791 ms 192.253 ms 195.587 ms
      19 unknown.level3.net (213.244.164.18) 192.521 ms 193.254 ms 192.870 ms
      20 213.152.119.253 (213.152.119.253) 193.077 ms 192.419 ms 193.005 ms
      21 213.152.119.5 (213.152.119.5) 193.729 ms 192.124 ms 194.005 ms

      So download.es5.com looks to be housed in Amsterdam (gige10-2.ipcolo1.amsterdam1.level3.net).

      Just my take on the situation.
  • ridiculous (Score:3, Interesting)

    by vida ( 695022 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:46AM (#6755103)
    This is getting more and more ridiculous, now we get supoenad *before* anything happens. What the heck happened to 'innocent until proven otherwise'?

    Let me ask you something; how can we call the US the 'free capital of the world', or 'a place where personal freedom thrive' when one can be pretty much condemned because of the connontations and possible uses that the piece of software one wrote *might* have?

    Who are we as individuals when we support and raise our stand to *free the world of tyrans* overseas, when we let this type of things happen @ home? Yes, I know. Two totally different things. The consequences of having a tyran as a ruler are definitely not the same than having a corrupt and money driven institution that proposes and passes laws; but the underlying principle is the same. Freedom, of any kind.
  • by Rogerborg ( 306625 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @11:55AM (#6755193) Homepage
    Don't keep asking what xMule is, ask Google. [216.239.53.104]
  • RIAA/MPAA (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ridgelift ( 228977 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:06PM (#6755357)
    Trying to stop file sharing is like trying to nail jello to a tree. Every time they think they've put a nail through the heart of file sharing, it just slips off the stake and morphs into something else.

    The only way government and pseudo-government (RIAA, MPAA, etc) officials will help reduce illegal file sharing is if people choose to not download files. It's all about freedom of choice, folks. So save your money from suing people and spend it on advertising, appealing to people's sense of right and wrong. Being a bully and suing some poor college student is just kicking the hornet's nest, and begs for someone like Earth Station 5 to rise up and make what they're trying to stop even worse.
  • Don't buy in to it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nahdude812 ( 88157 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:23PM (#6755609) Homepage
    As loudly as they proclaim, "Get your Illegal Warez here, we will protect you, we got nothing but illegal sutff," I don't trust them to not be a trap for users. Think about it, RIAA/MPAA set this up, make it super duper abundantly clear that the only purpose here is to be illegal, they score a two fold victory: first their case is strengthened against P2P in general, and second, they eventually sue said company and in an "out of court agreement" come away with complete logs of who did what on the network. Now they get to really sue those people, and their case is all the stronger, "More people watched Terminator 3 on the net than went to see it in theatres!"
  • by docbrown42 ( 535974 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:26PM (#6755643) Homepage
    It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, 4 years after Napster.

    The Earth Station 5 Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to provide free entertainment to the people of the internet. It's a port of call for hackers, cracker, leeches, and newbs.

    The internet can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for pr0n.

    This is the story of the last of the Earth Stations. The year is 2003. The name of the place is Earth Station 5.

    (With appologies to JMS)

  • by Un-Thesis ( 700342 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:37PM (#6755790) Homepage
    Below is a copy of my letter to my senator, McCain, of Arizona. Feel free, indeed encouraged, to email your own senator (or even others!) and representatives. You can find their addresses at http://www.senate.gov/ and http://www.house.gov/

    With respect,
    Un-Thesis
    =====================
    Dear Senators,

    Some of you have . It affected me personally on 17-Aug 03. I am the main developer of one of the few person-to-person filetrading programs for UNIX (Linux, FreeBSD, etc) machines and MacOS X.

    Apparently I was struck without warning by some DMCA clause for downloading 'copyrighted material.' In other parts of the law, you need habeus corpus, search warrants, judicial review, warning, etc. With the DMCA they merely terminate you, with no warning, with no appeal, with no representation, with no pretense of jurisdiction, based upon evidence that was 100% obtained outside the framework of any noticeable governmental or 3rd-party oversight.

    In short, it is an apparently open fascist policy prone to rampant abuse, supporting the rights of the Establishment over the People.

    My life revolves around the marvelous information transport technologies collectively referred to as the Internet. I attend a part-time university online (www.accis.edu), near 95% of my contact with my friends and family is online, 100% of my employment is online (via rentacoder.com), and my personal hobbies (www.xmule.org) and political activities (www.fearlesszippy.com, wakeup-people.com, etc) are online.

    In short, terminating my internet without warning has seriously halted my life. It is time we make the right to chat online a fundamental human right. The government should be allowed to restrict a person's movements (prohibit uploads, downloads, etc) by placing restrictions on the amount of data a 'criminal' should be able to send online in a given day or so (500KB should be sufficient for email, chat, etc). Such bandwidth caps are already implemented by teh vast majority of broadband suppliers throughout the nation adn would be just about as easy to implement and enforce as the current DMCA suspension of accounts.

    I just wish there would be *some* judicial process involved in the DMCA. I should have my constitutional right to a fair trial. This is above and beyond the reasons why most people download movies. People overseas download movies and music because of artificial monopoly regulations that delay the international exportation of American media by weeks and even months.

    People in America download media because they are either too poor to purchase the overpriced media, and also primarily to see if a given media is of good enough intellecutal quality to warrant purchasing, due to the unequal consumer rights 'laws' which prohibit the returning of open media.

    Generally, people download not out of nefarious intent, but because they lack real alternatives to verify the intellectual quality of any given electronic Media before purchasing.

    Thus, more consumer rights laws, less 'illicit' copyright infringement.

    Sincerely,
    Theodore R. Smith
  • Remember WASTE (Score:5, Informative)

    by cc_pirate ( 82470 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:51PM (#6755960)
    You can share with your friends (instead of 60M people) so it's less guilt factor. Plus it is over an RSA encrypted link. The best of all P2P worlds.

    http://waste.sourceforge.net/
  • by uncoveror ( 570620 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:51PM (#6755964) Homepage
    "Allah Ackbar! Earthstation 5 declares Jihad against the evil infidels of the MPAA and RIAA. May their souls roast in the pit of hell! We call on all file sharers to join the Intifada. Death to Hollywood! AHLAHLAHLAHLAHLAHLAH!!!"

    Is this the cyberterrorism the talking heads on the idiot box have gone on and on about?

  • by JoeShmoe ( 90109 ) <askjoeshmoe@hotmail.com> on Thursday August 21, 2003 @12:55PM (#6756011)
    For the "sake of curiousity" I decided that I wanted to check this site out. Particularly the claim of providing first-run movies (I'm not interested in wasting my money on The Hulk...hey I got the text page telling me it sucks, remember?). I don't know if it's the bandwidth constraints of refugee camps or the serious slashdotting but the movie stop for two minutes of buffering just about every 20 seconds.

    Frustrated, I whipped out my trusty copy of ASFRecorder. Imagine my surprise when it failed to connect! First time that has ever happened to me. So I whipped out my trusty backup copy of ASFRecorder that was recompiled with a Windows Media Player User-Agent string. That didn't work either! This was bizarre. I'm watching the video play right now (albeit poorly) in WMP but ASFRecorder with the exact same user agent is getting connection closed. I try HiDownload, again, failed, even with the same agent string! What is going on here?

    The entire thing is SWF based so I download an evaluation copy of SWF Scanner and decide to see what URL I'm actually going to. Low and behold, what is this?


    on (unLoad) {Get URL("mms://stream.es5.com:1755/es5/movies/The%20Hu lk-384.wmv" , Target = "")


    What the hell is with that blank "target" paramenter? Can anyone explain that? I have a feeling that is the problem. ASFRecorder only takes a URL, there is no place to specify a target. Ditto for HiDownloader and Windows Media Player. I confirmed that if I type the stream location into Media Player, it fails to connect. But, if I make an ASX file that links to the stream and includes the blank "target" parameter, it works!

    Okay, now it's gone beyond trying to see if The Hulk is really as crappy as everyone says. This is a mystery, and I'm hoping someone here can figure it out.

    In short, streaming file plays in Windows Media Player but it seems impossible to capture this stream using any of the tools available. Is there a solution? And why would these boneheads at war with the RIAA/MPAA bother to sabatoge downloads to begin with?

    - JoeShmoe
    .
  • A thought.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Awptimus Prime ( 695459 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @01:03PM (#6756108)

    Isn't it amazing how something so unimportant as a few studios that produce screen plays and music can drastically change the laws in a huge country full of freedom loving (wanting) people?

    The RIAA and MPAA members wealthy off our dollar. Please don't spend more money with these people unless you don't mind kissing more freedoms goodbye.

  • well (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ShadowRage ( 678728 ) on Thursday August 21, 2003 @04:19PM (#6758362) Homepage Journal
    P2P has only created a %7 loss in the industry, that's right.. 7%. not a huge number either, and the artists who are bitching, right after they complain how they're going poor, they buy a new load of sports cars. it's crap, it's greed at its finest, people got tired of the greed and found a way to extend their middle fingers, so now these greedy companies want the government to supress the people into being a controlled permanent money flow. this is where mainstream music is about to die. what;s funny is that there was also a chart showing how much cd sales have tripled from p2p. The real problem are the real pirates, who copy cd's and then redistribute them for a lower price, etc. that's what has been hurting the industry for many years.. but, the industry didnt bitch back then.. so, I think it's just whoever's the easier target, and all that is going to happen in light of this is that the mainstream music industry is going to go broke eventually, people will get wise and listen to IUMA and indie labels. you'll still have the brainwashed people who will back the industry to the grave, becuase they're used to being controlled by someone much "bigger" than them.. and really, you think about it, the industry is below us becuase their existance relies on us. same with actors and actresses, and all of the media. same with the government and all the major companies. we made them, and they forget, we can destroy them, they're trying to make so we cant now, but, you really cant whip the human will down into doing that, well, at least, not right away.

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