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European Piracy Crackdowns 219

Posted by Hemos from the lots-of-haps-over-the-pond dept.
DigitumDei writes "The British Phonographic Industry has been busy over the last half year. Their recent success which netted them £50,000 in out of court settlements is certainly not going to be the end of it with the UK courts forcing 6 ISP's to release information on a further 31 file sharers. The ISPs have 14 days to comply. And once located will be offered the opporunity to settle out of court. 'We would particularly advise parents to check what their children are doing on the internet and make sure that they are not breaking the law by filesharing illegally,' said Geoff Taylor, BPI General Counsel." And in other news, the oldest and largest ISP in Sweden, Bahnnof was the subject of a raid that netted what looks to be the biggest results in Europe ever; as well papper writes "The Swedish organization Antipiratbyrån, which has nothing to do with Swedish goverment, recently got hacked. This was both revenge for and an attempt to stop similair raids like the one who took place this friday, against the ISP Banhof. During the raid several FTP-servers were seized. On the hacked site the responsible group, AUH, posts some private e-mails about an alleged informer and makes threats to release more information and of course there is the mandatory braging. The site is located at Antripiratbyran with a mirror elsewhere and a translated verison also online (although it seems unreachable at the moment). "
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European Piracy Crackdowns More

European Piracy Crackdowns

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  • ehm first post? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Boibo ( 861139 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:03AM (#11931663)
    anyway, saw this on their site day or so ago, and i think its cool APB is the most hate institution in sweden, but they have had like 150 or so open cases with people all over. With alot of it going on on TV in sweden this is just the begining.. Btw, baunhoff (spelling?) where their OWN ISP.. so they cracked down and got their self shut down. And now they try and use a off-shore (as in usa) webhost.

    • Re:ehm first post? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Emil Brink ( 69213 )
      Regarding the spelling, it's Bahnhof [bahnhof.se]. Two 'h':s in there. This is actually a German word, meaning "railroad station". Not sure why a Swedish company would name themselves in German, but there you go. Btw, it looks as if the submitter could have done with an "(sp?)" marker as well, heh.
      • even more silly, a support call to Telia (other swedish ISP) a few years ago sounded like this:

        Caller: Why can't you do X? Bahnhof does X.
        support tech: Well, Bahnhof is a German ISP and they use a completely different system than us, X simply cant be done with swedens' telephone systems.
        Caller: meh....

  • It is not all dark... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pig Hogger ( 10379 ) <pig.hogger@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:05AM (#11931673) Journal
    A man in Rodez, France has been cleared [google.com] (in French, sorry, use the fish) Of piracy charges; the court determined that since he did not mass redistribute the movies he downloaded, he was not guilty of what the movie studio accused him. Furthermore, the court said that given the copy-tax people pay on media and computers, they are entitled to private copy, JUST AS THE LAW ALLOWS.

  • British Phonographic Industry? (Score:5, Funny)

    by stupidfoo ( 836212 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:05AM (#11931675)
    Crazy kids! Downloading Phonographs!

    Is there much of a British Pornographic Industry?
    • Crazy kids! Downloading Phonographs!

      Today, their main purpose is giving the derring-do to the chinamen selling pirated phono-graphs from the boot of their tin lizzies. I refuse to dance the Charleston to a counterfeit phono-graph. Huzzah!

    • "Crazy kids! Downloading Phonographs!"

      Wow, and if you think that's wacky, the NAACP stands for the National Association of Colored People, when "colored" has been politically incorrect for half a century now!

      And guess what the 2nd "T" in AT&T stands for -- "telegraph!"

      Seriously, it's interesting that people start tripping on the "P" in "BPI" whenever it's posted. I'm guessing that it's because many Slashdotters are teenagers, and organizations that have been for around for longer than they have

      • It's called a joke. Poking fun at a clearly dated name.

        Anyways, a lot of companies simply change what their initials stand for, or just remove any meaning from their initials. See 3M or BP for example.

        3M now stands for "3M", instead of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. BP is simply BP now (for all practical purposes). They are no longer British Petroleum.

        • " It's called a joke. Poking fun at a clearly dated name."

          Correct. It's clear that the GP was trying to be funny. I should have been more careful in my point: I don't know why so many Slashdotters find that old company names are funny. I stand by my theory that it's because many Slashdotters are teenagers, and thus haven't run into a whole lot of old company names yet.

          You can add KFC your list as well. They still fry 'em and they're purportedly still chicken, but frying isn't so friendly of a conc

        • tho off topic, i do believe that BP now stands for Beyond Petroleum."
        • "Anyways, a lot of companies simply change what their initials stand for, or just remove any meaning from their initials. See 3M or BP for example."

          Or just got the opposite. Remember when there used to be restaurants called 'Kentucky Fried Chicken'? No more...for some reason, it is now just KFC....with no mention of what it stands far.

          When did eating fried chicken become non-PC?

      • Wow, and if you think that's wacky, the NAACP stands for the National Association of Colored People, when "colored" has been politically incorrect for half a century now!

        I thought that coloured was the politically correct term, and that nigger and coon and wog were the ones frowned upon? Are we supposed to call them black now? And who is it who decides this, and from who do they get their authority?
    • Is there much of a British Pornographic Industry?

      No

      Remember, the world would be a wonderful place if french cooked, germans made cars, british were policemen and italians were lovers. And a wretched place if germans cooked, french made cars, italians were policemen and british were lovers. So you better look up IPI.

  • "The British Phonographic Industry" (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:05AM (#11931676)
    Did anyone else read that wrong?

  • Boycott (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Laglorden ( 87845 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:07AM (#11931681) Journal
    Appenrently they have the right break in and look through other peoples stuff if they think there are some "pirated" things there.

    What happens if I don't want them looking through my private mail/pictures/documents?

    They will not stop this stupid behavior unless we hit them where it really hurts, their wallets.

    So, don't buy another CD, don't see another film, dont rent another DVD and don't buy any programs from the companys sponsoring "Antipiratbyrån" until they stop this foolishness!

    • Re:Boycott (Score:4, Insightful)

      by datadriven ( 699893 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:12AM (#11931708) Homepage
      While I agree with what you're saying, I don't see it happening. People are sheep. Big business (e.g. MPAA, RIAA) will continue to take advantage of them because they don't know/care how to stand up to those institutions.
      • Time to slaughter 95% of the sheap

        I figure god has it in his todo list

        "#82773. at 2012/dec - initate pole flip, let in the cosmic rads, let the cleansing begin"

    • Re:Boycott (Score:5, Interesting)

      by LocoMan ( 744414 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:15AM (#11931725) Homepage
      Yeah, the last 100 slashdot boycotts really worked... ;)

      Anyway, if you really plan on doing this (and getting enough people to do it), then be sure to really let them know why you aren't buying their stuff... otherwise you'll just give them ammo (hey, sales are lowering, that's because of piracy, we need more lawsuits!!!)

      • be sure to really let them know why you aren't buying their stuff... otherwise you'll just give them ammo

        Yep! Sending in a letter will take the ammo right out of their guns!

        Then they couldn't lobby and blame the losses on piracy, because that would be like dishonest or something.

        -

    • Re:Boycott (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:27AM (#11931831) Journal
      Appenrently they have the right break in and look through other peoples stuff if they think there are some "pirated" things there.
      No they don't, and some ISPs refuse to play ball. Apparently worldwide anti-piracy organisations are stepping up their efforts, and in the Netherlands, BREIN (our own anti-piracy org) has started to send out cease-and-desist letters to ISPs, with the request (demand, more like) to forward the letter to their customers whose IP address appears on the list of known filesharers. At least one ISP, XS4All, has replied along the lines of: "We are not an extension of anti-piracy orgs, and we will not forward any letters for them or release customer information to them, without a court order".
    • So when people stop buying CD/DVDs etc, they will have to get their money through court cases like this instead. The people that are concerned about these raids probably arent buying too many CDs anyway. pretty pointless boycott.
    • Such an effort will have ZERO impact as long as you ignore the other half of the equation.

      People also have to stop downloading RIAA/MPAA stuff.

      As long as people demonstrate a demand for their product (either by buying or downloading), the industries will have ammunition to bring to their favorite congresscritters.

      In fact, doesn't downloading instead of buying make the industries' case for them?

      Stop buying and downloading RIAA music. Stop buying and downloading MPAA movies.

    • Re:Boycott (Score:2, Interesting)

      by NickeB ( 763713 )

      So, don't buy another CD, don't see another film, dont rent another DVD and don't buy any programs from the companys sponsoring "Antipiratbyrån" until they stop this foolishness!

      People don't buy CDs, rent DVDs or buy programs. They download.
      A lot of people claim to live by the line of "If I like what I downloaded, then I'll buy it" which is complete crap. Very few people I know that download a lot actually buys what they like. I'm not saying this kind of person doesn't exist, I'm saying that they're

    • Re:Boycott (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ScentCone ( 795499 )
      So, don't buy another CD, don't see another film, dont rent another DVD and don't buy any programs from the companys sponsoring "Antipiratbyrån" until they stop this foolishness!

      Or, maybe go back to actually paying for expensively produced entertainment so that the entire industry doesn't feel the need to bother with this crap and will look silly when they do. Every time someone decides to "punish" them for protecting their rights by declaring "I wouldn't normally ever pirate anything, but now I'm g

  • Translation... or not. (Score:5, Funny)

    by kunwon1 ( 795332 ) <dave.j.moore@gmail.com> on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:09AM (#11931693) Homepage
    The first paragraph or so of the hacked version of their site, as translated by InterTran [tranexp.com]. Either InterTran leaves something to be desired as a translation tool, or the hackers who hit the site leave something to be desired as far as proficiency in the swedish language goes. You decide:

    Hi and greet to AUHs nya home in cyberrymden! We have displaced in here behind they precedence proprietor stayed outcast frn Internet liked a body as braces away kill and unwanted organ. We have as it were yourself wondered very about what as actually happened with Bahnhof and as wes is , formerly youngest , almighty arga s feels wes ourselves exhort that divide that information but s mnga as possible. All for that yous also ska kunna become arga , and that eras friends ska become arga and their friends and s forth until Internet gator is full by an mad mob as sound AUH! AUH! AUH! and am claiming Ponténs blood!
    • Maybe I'm a bit slow on the take, but it sounds like a horror movie.

      Did you translate Troll 3(Sweedish Collectors Edition)?
    • Oh now i know how it feels to se your language beeing bashed by the fish! haha "Nya home in cyberrymden".. wow.
      • I'd be interested in how english appears to a native speaker of another language when it's been automatically translated. I've heard that native speakers of other languages see english as incredibly backward and whatnot... it's probably even worse than this.
        • Ehm, they told me (in school) that swedish belongs to the most hard to learn languages in the world. Now if thats truth or not i dont know, but one fact remains: we do have some unusual grammar. But for me english and swedish is just as good (or bad), so its just the same for me.

    • A swede translates... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Hi and welcome to AUH's new home in cyber space!

      We have moved in here after the former owners got rejected from Internet like a body rejects dead and unwanted organs. We have, like you, wondered what actually happaned at Bahnhof and since we are, except young, very angry we feel requested to share this information with as many as possible. All because you should be able to be angry too, and so that your friends can be angry and their friends' friends and so forth until the streets of Internet are filled wi

    • Re:Translation... or not. (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That translation is horrible. The original was written in fairly good swedish (minor grammmatical errors). The translation software seems to have a problem with the swedish special characters (a very common problem in the computer world).

      A good translation: "Welcome to AUHs new home in the cyberspace

      We have moved in here after the previous owners were rejected from the internet, just like a body that rejects a dead or alien organ.

      Just as the rest of you all, we have been wondering what really happened at

    • Re:Translation... or not. (Score:5, Funny)

      by jjeffries ( 17675 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:49AM (#11931996)
      The first paragraph or so of the hacked version of their site, as translated by InterTran. Either InterTran leaves something to be desired as a translation tool, or the hackers who hit the site leave something to be desired as far as proficiency in the swedish language goes. You decide:

      To make that desision easier, here's that same text, translated from English to Sweedish and back by InterTran:

      The first paragraph or so if hack version of their site, so translated wide InterTran [tranexp.com]. Either InterTran blade somewhat to be desired as translation utensils , ors the hack whom hits gardens leave somewhat to be desired as far as cleverness in the Swede language am going. Yous decide :
    • I'm Swedish. Frankly, the translation is a lot more entertaining than the original.

      "Dark is the suede that mows like a harvest."

  • Good Grief... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Robotron23 ( 832528 )
    'We would particularly advise parents to check what their children are doing on the internet and make sure that they are not breaking the law by filesharing illegally,'

    Its amazing that government authorities still aren't aware that in most cases, its pretty damn clear to a child (over the age of 11 anyway) whether they are filesharing illegally or not. They should be responsible for checking their actions, not the parents.

    • Re:Good Grief... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by kunwon1 ( 795332 )
      Good idea. Hold 11 year old children responsible for their own actions, not the parents. While we're at it, let's issue them credit cards so they can pay for the PC and the 'net access they need to illegally fileshare. Oh, but they'll need money to pay it off... well, other countries use child-labor, why not the good 'ol U.S. of A? I mean, are we really any better than Cambodia, really?
    • Doesn't matter if the kid knows it's legal or not. The parents will be held responsible and end up paying the bill. So they better keep a good eye on little Bart. Perhaps legal training for babysitters could be the answer?
      • Sorry, in Sweden a parent will not be responsible for the children in such a case. The child will be the one sued and can in fact get to pay. The ammount is typically lowered with age (the youger the less) but can still be substantially. If one does not have money, it will stick arround until one DO get money, which can typically be well later in life when one grow up. But in no case will the parents have to pay anything (unless they want of course).

    • Re:Good Grief... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by OldeTimeGeek ( 725417 )
      its pretty damn clear to a child (over the age of 11 anyway) whether they are filesharing illegally or not. They should be responsible for checking their actions, not the parents.

      Parents are legally liable for the actions of their children. Just because the child knows/doesn't know that downloading copyrighted material is illegal doesn't release their parents from responsibility.

      • Actually, in Sweden, this is not the case, parents are not responsible in that way you describe at all. See my post just a little bit above this one.

    • Re:Good Grief... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SimReg ( 99053 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:24AM (#11931799) Homepage
      Funny, I always thought parents were there to raise their kids, teach them what is right and wrong (including legal and illegal), and correct them when they do something wrong/illegal.

      Any parent who lets their kids continue doing illegal, wrong, or hurtful things is not parenting. So the government encouraging parents to actually be involved with their kids lives is a Good Thing.
    • You might be supprised how many people (incl. parents) believe that because they pay 50$ per month to their ISP, they are legally allowed to download music.

    • Re:Good Grief... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by papik ( 677463 )
      its pretty damn clear to a child (over the age of 11 anyway) whether they are filesharing illegally or not.

      I think that there are many parents that don't have even the slightest idea that downloading songs or movies from the internet could be illegal.
      I know some and they don't believe me when I tell them.

  • Maybe I'm stating the obvious (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    But Piratbyran is PirateBay, the torrent site (www.thepiratebay.org) ;

    And the site targeted is Antripiratbyran

  • Settlements (Score:5, Informative)

    by Peden ( 753161 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:13AM (#11931716) Homepage
    The Danish version of the Swedish anti-piracy organization is funded by the settlements, and money from the industry. Absolutely none of the money from the settlements will ever reach the artists.

  • Unreachable? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Redwin ( 805980 )
    "although it seems unreachable at the moment"

    After being posted on /.

    Never!
  • I have to admit, as a user I am starting to get worried. Its not even a week since the related story on Aussie ISP raids [slashdot.org]

  • Oh hell... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NickeB ( 763713 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:19AM (#11931757)
    That's bahnhof, not bahnnof or banhof.

    I'm a bit split at how to take this. APB (Translated: "The bureau of anti-piracy") is using illegal methods and a lot of money to track down and convict pirates. I believe we all agree that APB generally sucks. Right?

    But defacing the website to publish information about private citizens is in my view worse. There's currently several campaigns going on which aims at terrorizing Pontus Pontén (chief asshat of the APB) by sending hate SMS, e-mail, snailmail. His own kids have gotten several death threats for fucks sake. What kind of message does that send?
    There have also been several attempts to break into the APB locales, in at least one case using heavy tools.

    APB uses methods thate are questionable to say the least, but this response will only strenghten the public view that pirates are evil anarchists that ought to be hung.

    Sweden is a democracy, and we have freedom of speech. I'd like to encourage everyone to protest openly.

    Has the RIAA or the MPAA ever provoked this kind of responses?
    • Yeah, you're right about the name. I'm sorry for getting it wrong, among other things. And this time it seems to before than another defacing, from what I've heard they hijacked the domain.

    • Re:Oh hell... (Score:3, Funny)

      by dj245 ( 732906 )
      But defacing the website to publish information about private citizens is in my view worse. There's currently several campaigns going on which aims at terrorizing Pontus Pontén (chief asshat of the APB) by sending hate SMS, e-mail, snailmail. His own kids have gotten several death threats for fucks sake. What kind of message does that send?

      Give us the dubloons and the mp3's and nobody gets hurt! Arr!

    • Re:Oh hell... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Pig Hogger ( 10379 )

      But defacing the website to publish information about private citizens is in my view worse. There's currently several campaigns going on which aims at terrorizing Pontus Pontén (chief asshat of the APB) by sending hate SMS, e-mail, snailmail. His own kids have gotten several death threats for fucks sake. What kind of message does that send?

      It sends the message that they are dirty slimeballs and they will rightfully deserve to be against the wall when then people get pissed-off enough at them.

      When y

      • Damn Right! I will murder your children to prove I am allowed to download mp3s! Hurrah!

        PS. You are mental.

      • I still remember last time Total didn't want to properly shutdown an oil platform they had in the Northern Sea, Total gas stations started blowing up in Germany and elsewhere.

        Needless to say they changed their mind after the first couple of them blew up.

        Wacky Norse.

    • But defacing the website to publish information about private citizens is in my view worse. There's currently several campaigns going on which aims at terrorizing Pontus Pontén (chief asshat of the APB) by sending hate SMS, e-mail, snailmail. His own kids have gotten several death threats for fucks sake. What kind of message does that send?
      • Not to take away from your main point (which I agree with) but one of the messages I get from this is "if you play dirty, your opponents will play just as dirty

  • Beyond "piracy" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eddy ( 18759 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:21AM (#11931774) Homepage Journal

    I'm sure this will all end up the same old discussion all over again, but this case with Bahnhof actually goes beyond "piracy", it's a question of judicial security.

    What seems to have happened is this; APB (these are an umbrella org. for Sony and the other big giants) went to a court to get a warrant to search against Bahnhof. They listed the material they were after; Lisa Miskovsky, Kylie, Peter Jöback, Rebecka Törnqvist, Santana, The Ark, Totta Näslund(!!) and Ulf Lundell were some of the artists they mentioned. Anyhow...

    They went in, shut the company down for the whole day (no one was allowed to use their computers for the rest of the day -- you can imagine how easy it is to run an ISP when you're not allowed to touch a computer) and found, they say, nothing of the material they used to get their warrant. Nothing!

    Now, they did find other material, which they tipped off the police about (seeing as that would have to become a criminal case) the servers.

    Now the question is; is it now basically acceptable to lie or just make up material for the search warrant? Should a consortium of large companies be allowed to put a million SEK in escrow, and then shut down another company while looking for anything illegal?

    I don't think I've adequatly expressed all the problems (and known details) here, but this is big.

    Swedes should look here [visionweb.se] (JO-anmälan) and here [skriver.nu] ("Piratjaktens Faror -- Om balansen mellan personlig integritet, rättssäkerhet och upphovsrätt")

  • Piratbyrån (Score:3, Informative)

    by yeager74 ( 604610 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:22AM (#11931779) Homepage
    There seems to be a misunderstanding here.. Piratbyran (The Pirate Bureau) http://www.piratbyran.org/ AntiPiratbyran (The Anti-Pirate Bureau) http://www.antipiratbyran.org/ The mirror of the hacked site is available at: http://ak.webcust.prq.se/Arga.unga.hackare_2k5_rev enge.is.sweet.htm Quick translation: AUH = Angry Young Hackers We have moved in here after the previous owners got repelled off the Internet, just like a body repell dead and unwanted organs. We have, just like you, been wondering about what happened at Bahnhof (the ISP who got busted) since we are, young of course, very angry so we feel that we need to share the information with as many people as possible Just so you also will be angry, and that your friends and their friends and so on.. until the streets of Internet are full off angry mobs who scream AUH! AUH! AUH! and demands the blood of Pontén (the lawyer from Antipiratbyrå) Daniel

  • Going underground... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zog The Undeniable ( 632031 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:26AM (#11931812)
    This will just reinforce the new "digital divide" - those who know how to bypass anti-copy controls and exchange files anonymously, and the others who end up paying for stuff. The hackers/crackers are always one step ahead; all the **AA/BPI can do is make it a little more difficult for J.Random Surfer. The easy days of Napster are long gone, and Kazaa isn't what it used to be.

    In fact, cutting out 90% of the activity may well satisfy The Man. I can't see that it's worth spending millions chasing down people swapping files among their friends via FTP, private newsgroups etc.

    • There are plenty of places where you can still get the latest movies, games, applications etc.
      Some of these place are only for the chosen few, but even the average surfer has found his way to the paid newsservers. Traffic is just going to shift from one place to the other, and when they start busting people in one place, the others will move quickly. It won't be long and people will start using (more) secure connections for their warez needs.
    • Nope.

      Joe Surfer will continue to download music with the help of his friend the nerd. Freenet and such networks is functioning today and only needs a good gui and youre off to pirateland. Sharing will also increase over physical mediums like cdroms, dvds etc like in the old days. This will in no way stop piracy, just drive it underground where it cant be touched.

      To really get to filesharing the media industry has to get their costomers to like them again and lower the prices so that piracy becomes a burdo
    • The difference between violating copyright and not violating copyright is not a "digital divide"; it's the difference between people who choose to violate copyright and people who don't. There is no inalienable right to someone else's work, nor is there any fundamental right or freedom lost by not being able to get it.

  • Learning from the Yanks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Stiletto ( 12066 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:26AM (#11931818)

    If they can't make money selling their product, the'll make it by collecting "piracy" settlements. The margins are probably better, too!

  • swedish law (Score:3, Informative)

    by ardiri ( 245358 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:33AM (#11931878) Homepage
    swedish law is messed up.

    software piracy falls into the same group as prostitution. its illegal to perform the "act", but its not illegal to exist. if that makes sense.

    for example, if a police office catches a prostitude selling services to a gentleman, a crime is being committed. however, prostitutes are legal citizens - and, even their tax is declared so.

    the same goes for software piracy, if a company can say "hey, i downloaded this file from user X - which is a copyright violation" and the cops come and cease your computers and find the file in question - you will be convicted of sharing files illegally over the internet.

    however, if you have 1TB of TV shows and DVDR images - yet they cannot find the file they have the injunction for; you are free to go. owning the files is legal, sharing them isn't.

    there was a case with some direct connect users where a guy got busted by the cops for sharing files; however, he got his computer back with all his illegal files without any legal action been made because they could not find the file in question.

    interesting :)

  • What is the point of this? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Krankheit ( 830769 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:35AM (#11931893)
    Is the money these lawsuits still giving them a net profit after paying for the lawyers, the labour to track down the pirates, etc.? Or is the purpose of this just to set an example and scare all the other pirates away? Maybe it's the coffee, but I for one see a future where the music industry becomes almost dead due to pirating and music becomes opensource, like *BSD or Apache. Musicians no longer are paid significantly by percentages of record sales. Instead, music is freely and legally downloaded. The musicians perhaps will get their money some other way, like commercials and live performances.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Listened to Iceberg, Woo!! BASS!!! and Barfight. I must say it is pretty good, nice sound. Liked Woo!! BASS!! best. My gripes are some of the lyrics are a bit short and some of the musics seem a bit, hm, unbalanced, hard to put it into words. I like the tempo changes. Some extra minor variations in some bits would be nice, its all about detail really.

        For someone which usually does not like indie music, and has basically no musical hability whatsoever, I actually liked these.

  • Bahnhof (http://www.bahnhof.se) is spelled two times and both times incorrect...

  • From the hourses mouth. (Score:5, Informative)

    by oliverthered ( 187439 ) <oliverthered@nOSPAm.hotmail.com> on Monday March 14, 2005 @10:45AM (#11931964) Journal
    20 pages so here are some extracts...

    Hi Oliver,
    Please find our P2P fact sheet attached.
    Kind regards
    BPI Anti Piracy Unit
    Sent: 08 March 2005 16:27
    To: Tonia Howell
    Subject: P2P networks

    Hi,
    I am a small producer for a few local bands here in the UK and have been thinking about releasing some demo tracks on the P2P networks, as it seems simpler than getting air-play time.

    I am worried about recent reports in the news and advertising campaigns linking P2P networks with piracy and Terrorist activities. Although I am not a member of the BPI I would be glad of any advise on the matter.

    Reagards,

    "The unauthorised distribution of music over the internet is against the law. It infringes the
    legal rights of artists and record companies. And it's bad for music.
    The British record industry, which is responsible for the lion's share of the UK's investment
    in new artists in excess of £150 million per year cannot possibly hope to continue
    investing in new music if nobody pays for it."

    Note, 'distribution', not copying.

    "After years of widespread illegal uploading, the new legal download sites give music buyers
    the opportunity to access an enormous range of music whenever they want."

    Note, 'uploading', not downloading.

    "The UK's official download chart was launched last September, and is set to be merged
    with the UK singles chart this April."

    Note, this doesn't include bittorrent downloads.

    "CONTENTS
    1) Illegal filesharing and the music industry
    a. What is filesharing?
    b. How can I tell if I am filesharing?
    c. What's wrong with illegal filesharing?
    d. The research: why filesharing damages sales
    e. The picture in the UK
    2) Online music piracy the industry response
    a. Litigation
    b. Instant messaging & consumer awareness
    3) The rapid growth of legal music downloads
    a. The UK digital download market
    b. Broadband: opportunity for growth or the end of the album?
    4) Further information
    a. the UK's main digital music services
    b. UK Digital Music Timeline, March 2005
    c. Why illegal filesharing is wrong what the industry says
    "

    "a. What is filesharing?
    Filesharing is the activity of trading digital files with other users over the internet. Users
    trade files by downloading (to obtain them) and uploading (to distribute them).
    In this context, downloading is when an internet user obtains a digital music file from the
    internet. If this is done, for free, from an unauthorised source, it is likely that it has been
    done illegally. UK internet users can download legally from an increasing number of
    sources; see section 4a of this pack.
    The more serious activity of uploading, is when an internet user allows other internet users
    access to their digital music files. This is commonly done using filesharing programs. The
    uploader is effectively distributing music illegally on the internet. This act is unlawful
    regardless of whether or not the music was acquired illegally or legally.
    Although the technology (also known as peer-to-peer, or p2p) offers lots of potential for the
    development of legitimate services, the vast majority of songs currently available on file-
    sharing networks are copyrighted works that are being distributed illegally."

    "b. How can I tell if I am filesharing?
    If you have filesharing software (known as a client) on your computer, have music in a
    shared folder, and are connected to the internet, it's highly likely that you are filesharing
    music illegally.
    Here is a list of the more well-known filesharing clients that are used to fileshare illegally:
    Kazaa, Grokster, eDonkey, LimeWire, Overnet, Direct Connect, BitTorrent, Soulseek,
    Bearshare, iMesh, WinMX, Ares, Gnutella, GrabIt.
    The only way to be sure that no one is illegally filesharing from your computer is to remove
    the filesharing software altogether.
    Bookmark the webpage below for a simple guide to re

  • Translation (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nehle ( 784297 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @11:01AM (#11932122) Journal
    Since the link was down, here's my crappy attempt at a translation =) Arga Unga Hackare literally means Angry Young Hackers

    Hello and welcome to AUH 's new home in cyberspace!

    We have moved in here since the last owners were evicted from the internet, like the dead and unneeded organs of a body. We have, like you, wondered a lot about what really happened at Bahnhof and since we are, except young, very angry, we feel compelled to share this information with as many people as possible. So that you will be angry too, and your friends will be angry, and their friends will be angry and so on until the streets of the internet is filled with an angry mob chanting "AUH! AUH! AUH!" and demanding Ponténs[Note: Henrik Pontén, lawyer and front figure for Swedens Anti-Piracy] blood.

    From: Garfield, Dean
    Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 12:02 PM
    To: Ponten, Henrik
    Cc: Tilbury, Chad
    Subject: FW: EREC-05-007: Sweden: Authorities seize major pirate servers at Stockholm ISP

    Henrik, this is truly phenomenal. We are all very proud of you. I am
    sure you are a bit unpopular with the pirate community in Sweden right
    now. Great work.

    We'll start of slow by letting someone named 'Peter' sum up the situation

    From: peter@anti-piracy.se
    Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 9:29
    To: Tilbury, Chad; Seymour, Dan; Winter, Craig
    Subject: Swedish pirates busted!

    Hi guys!

    After 2 years of infiltrations our work finally paid of today with a
    successful raid on Sweden's oldest and largest ISP named Bahnhof.
    Bahnhof has been a source for top level piracy for several years and
    hosting some of the biggest and fastest servers in Europe.

    Hello there, Peter! It will be interesting to find out what kind of infiltration you guys have been doing

    Before long, we realize that Pater is a pretty nasty person - time to infiltrate the infiltrator. An just so you know, we have infiltrated you, your sites, your mail and your activity ever since we stole your passwords through SONG 4 years ago. I suppose this makes us more macho than you.

    From: Anders Nilsson [mailto:anders.nilsson@antipiratbyran.com]
    Sent: den 10 mars 2005 17:09
    To: 'Peter Bergstrom'

    Peter, could you send me some IRC-logs

    Interesting, Peter is mailing IRC-logs to Anti-piracy. Could this means - is Peter the bad guy? Let's continue looking and see what we'll find!

    Received: from pc003 ([80.217.208.156]) by amsfep13-int.chello.nl
    (InterMail vM.6.01.03.04 201-2131-111-106-20040729) with ESMTP
    id <20050310182216.IHDS11192.amsfep13-int.chello.nl@p c003>
    for <anders.nilsson@antipiratbyran.com>;
    Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:22:16 +0100
    From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Peter_Bergstr&#246;m <peter@anti-piracy.se>
    To: "'Anders Nilsson'" <anders.nilsson@antipiratbyran.com>
    Subject: SV:
    Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:22:11 +0100
    X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353

    Will create a few logs and dumps. Can't be used to public though.

    From: Mac Greevy, Dara
    Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 10:08 AM
    To: Sunderland, Jane
    Cc: Malcolm, John; Garfield, Dean; Tilbury, Chad
    Subject: RE: EREC-05-007: Sweden: Authorities seize major pirate servers at Stockholm ISP

    Dear Jane

    "The Swede" was central to this operation. He even shared coffee at one
    stage with the operators of the servers at the ISP's premises
    (ironically located in the same building as the Swedish program)!

    Oh my.. That's a bad Peter! Mailing from home when you're undercover is just what you need to do if you want people to find out!

    156.208.217.80.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer c80-217-208-156.cm-upc.chello.se.

    w00t! A chello address in

    • How nice of them to post his home address and social security there.. I can already imagine the identity thieves registering several credit cards and mortages with his name.

      Now the real question is, is that person actually who they thought it is?
      Or did they just victimize some innocent man for something he didn't do at all..

      *whistles tom dooley..*

      • Re:Translation (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Our "social security" numbers aren't secret. You need a valid ID to do any of the things you speak of. Being able to mortage a house just buy knowing a string of numbers is insane. That'd require photo ID+signature, in person

        Whereas identity theft is apparently a big problem in the US, it's pretty much unheard of in Sweden.

        • Imagine your house burning down with all your documents with it. Since you are orphan, you don't have any relatives with neccessary documentation to prove who you are either.

          Now you're stuck in a situation without any documentation about who you are. Only option is some trusted person who could identify you. With the "friends" help, you might be able to get new identity card with false name, assuming you know your place of birth and social security number. I'd assume they would ask alot more questions bef

  • Can a precedent be set? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pedrito ( 94783 ) on Monday March 14, 2005 @12:34PM (#11933153)
    I'm starting to wonder if maybe the suing of illegal file sharers and, in particular, the suing of Sharman networks, may not be a good thing.

    Follow my logic here, and in particular, I'm going to concentrate on Sharman networks, but the same also sort of applies to anyone accused of sharing files.

    Sharman is basically being sued for providing the means by which people are illegally trading files. Thus, Sharman is likely going to be held legally liable for the actions of its users. In the same way that if I make files available on my machine and you download them illegally, I am really being held liable for your illegal actions.

    Now why is this a good thing? Well, IANAL, but it seems to me this opens a terrific can of worms for other industries. By the same analogy, can we not now make gun companies legally liable for gun related deaths? Can we not make cigarette companies legally liable for smoking related deaths? I mean, really, it's the same thing isn't it? Holding the product supplier responsible for the actions of its users?

    I certainly wouldn't mind seeing these two industries sued out of business. So, if some clever lawyer can make the coming precedents cross over into these industries and form the basis for some really major class action lawsuits, I might not see all of this as such a bad thing. I mean after all, why should big business have it both ways. Producers liable when it's in their interests and consumers reliable when it's in their interests. Surely we have to decide, as a society who's actually responsible. Either way, the consumers win, I think. Either sharing files (but not downloading them) becomes legal or cigarette and gun manufacturers are liable and thus pretty much out of business.
    • >In the same way that if I make files available
      >on my machine and you download them illegally, I
      >am really being held liable for your illegal
      >actions.

      This is not really how it works. You don't get "responsible" for the copying. What happens is two different actions.

      One is making a work available to the public. This is done by the one who shares. This is typically copyright infringement in most every country in most situations.

      The other act is the copying, done by the downloader, this is infri

  • Numbers game (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Groo Wanderer ( 180806 ) <{charlie} {at} {semiaccurate.com}> on Monday March 14, 2005 @12:42PM (#11933255) Homepage
    OK people, this is a running joke and a scare tactic. If the population of England is about 52 million (according to a quick google search), and the latest round of suits targets 31 people according to the story, and if a mere 1% of Britons file share, the numbers look bleak.

    52,000,000/100 = 520,000
    520,000/31 ~= 16.7K

    Hmm, what are the odds of getting hit by a bus? Now, if the revent Slashdot stories about Britonss being the largest group of downloaders out there means that there are more than 1% downloading, the numbers get worse for the industry.

    Besides suing your customer base not being the brightest idea on the planet, just ask SCO, the odds of them doing anything appreciable are laughable. Look at eDonkey for example. The RIAA has sued thousands of users in the US, and it is putting such a dent in..... never mind.

    This is a headline grap people, and with each headline they grab the tool gets less and less effective. In the US, rounds of new suits barely make a third tier story at HardOCP.

    My prediction: News headlines, people fearing big brother, thousands of files purged. Millions shrug and go on with their lives.

    Next round: Page 4 news headlines, people mildly nervous, hundreds of files purged. Millions shrug and go on with their lives.

    Round 3: Covered in niche publications, no one gives a rats ass, tens of files purged. Millions shrug and go on with their lives.

    Round 4: Niche publications have better things to cover, cattle mutilations and CIA microwave mind control lasers trump the latest file sharing atrocities. 7 files purged and a grandmother in Cardiff wets herself. Millions shrug and go on with their lives.

    -Charlie
  • This is is a somewhat interesting development.

    See my journal entry: Swedish ISP, on national television, promotes DRM [slashdot.org]

    One of the employees of the Bahnhof ISP promoted DRM in his interview with Swedish television. It's like Alien vs. Predator. Whoever wins, the freeloaders or the overstepping lawyers, you lose.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Lets start calling it by it's real name, Phonography.

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