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Isohunt Founder at Center of U.S. Torrent-Tracking Legal Battle - Via Threat Level:
Gary Fung remembers years ago when the first computer he operated was a Pentium 90.
His programming skills have grown considerably since that first computer and his mastery of Pascal. Combined with his business acumen, the 25-year-old Fung now heads the popular BitTorrent search engine Isohunt and two tracking sites, Podtropolis and Torrentbox.
The Motion Picture Association of America claims in a lawsuit that Fung is a copyright scofflaw of the highest order -- facilitating the theft of millions of its copyrighted works hosted in tiny pieces resting on servers and individuals' computers worldwide. read more »
Internet Mysteries: How Much File Sharing Traffic Travels the Net? - Via Threat Level:
How much of the traffic on the internet is peer-to-peer file trading?
Everyone seems to agree it represents a lot of the traffic, but the truth is no one knows (with the possible exception of the ISPs and backbone providers in the middle, and they aren't telling or sharing raw data).
One of the most recent reports on P2P traffic came from a traffic optimization firm called Ellacoya in June 2007. Their report said that http-based web traffic had overtaken peer-to-peer traffic on the net, thanks to streaming media sites like YouTube. read more »
The Freenet Project - Freenet 0.7.0 release candidate 2 now available:
24th Apr, 2008 - Freenet 0.7.0 release candidate 2 now available
Freenet version 0.7 Release Candidate 2 is now available for public testing. Release Candidate 2 features many bugfixes and a number of usability improvements.
Freenet is a global peer-to-peer network designed to allow users to publish and consume information without fear of censorship. To use it, you must download the Freenet software, available for Windows, Mac, Linux and other operating systems. Once you install and run Freenet, your computer will join a global, decentralized P2P network. You will be able to publish and consume information anonymously, either through your web browser, or through a variety of third party applications. read more »
Slashdot | Freenet Releases 0.7.0rc2 - Via Tech at Slashdot:
evanbd writes
"The Freenet Project has announced Freenet 0.7.0rc2. From the announcement: 'Freenet is a global peer-to-peer network designed to allow users to publish and consume information without fear of censorship. Freenet 0.7 is a ground-up rewrite of Freenet. The key user-facing feature in Freenet 0.7 is the ability to operate Freenet in a "darknet" mode, where your Freenet node will only talk to other Freenet users that you trust. This makes it much more difficult for an adversary to discover that you are using Freenet, let alone what you are doing with it. 0.7 also includes significant improvements to both security and performance.' Of course, for those of us who don't know anyone else running Freenet, or simply prefer it, there's also a non-darknet mode available."
(Read Original Article - Via Tech at Slashdot.)
Analysis: Despite Blogosphere Reports, RIAA Retains Legal Muscle Under Howell Decision - Via Threat Level:
The blogosphere is celebrating a recent Arizona federal judge's decision that, at first glance, seems to portend the death of the Recording Industry Association of America's thousands of pending copyright infringement lawsuits against Kazaa file-sharers.
But that's simply not the truth. In fact, the opposite might be true under Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake. read more »
Universities Baffled By Massive Surge In RIAA Copyright Notices - Via Threat Level:
In the last 10 days, universities around the country have seen more than a 20-fold increase in the number of filesharing takedown notices from the recording industry, in an unexplained spike that seems focused on colleges in the Midwest.
The spike is not matched by an increase in actual file sharing.
"Universities are getting as many notices from the RIAA in one day as what they would typically get from all content owners in a month," says Mark Luker, a vice president of higher education technology advocate Educause.
Indiana University says that starting on April 21, the Recording Industry Association of America began sending 80 legal notices a day to the university, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Typically, the university handles less than 100 such notices a month from the RIAA, the Motion Picture Association of America and HBO combined. read more »
Arizona Judge Shoots Down RIAA Theories - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Atlantic v. Howell, the judge has totally eviscerated the RIAA's theories of 'making available' and 'offering to distribute.' In a 17-page opinion (PDF), District Judge Neil V. Wake carefully analyzed the statute and caselaw, and based on a 'plain reading of the statute' concluded that 'Unless a copy of the work changes hands in one of the designated ways, a "distribution" under [sec.] 106(3) has not taken place.' The judge also questioned the sufficiency of the RIAA's evidence pointing towards defendant, as opposed to other members of his household. read more »
Big Victory in Atlantic v. Howell: Court Rejects RIAA "Making Available" Theory - Via EFF: Deep Links:
The district court in Atlantic v. Howell today denied the recording industry's motion for summary judgment against Mr. and Mrs. Howell, two lawyer-less defendants caught up in RIAA's litigation campaign against file-sharers. EFF filed an amicus brief on their behalf in the case and participated in oral argument. read more »
AT&T Denies Resetting P2P Connections - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
betaville points out comments AT&T filed with the FCC in which they denied throttling traffic by resetting P2P file-sharing connections. Earlier this week, a study published by the Vuze team found AT&T to have the 25th highest (13th highest if extra Comcast networks are excluded) median reset rate among the sampled networks. In the past, AT&T has defended Comcast's throttling practices, and said it wants to monitor its network traffic for IP violations. read more »
FCC Hearings at Stanford: Towards a Consensus on ISP Transparency? - Via EFF: Deep Links:
Yesterday, the FCC held a second hearing in its investigation of Comcast's use of forged RST packets to interfere with BitTorrent and other P2P applications. Free Press has a page linking to written testimony, statements, and audio and video recordings from the Stanford hearing.
At the previous hearing at Harvard Law School, Comcast attracted criticism for filling the auditorium with paid attendees. This time around, the telcos declined to participate at all. They sent proxies in their place: a conservative think tank called the Phoenix Center, freelance tech pundit George Ou, and one ISP: Lariat.net of Wyoming. It's a pity that ISPs aren't willing to participate in public debate about their own practices. read more »
ISPs Say P4P Negates Need for Net Neutrality Regs - Via Slashdot:
Donut hole hole writes "AT&T and Comcast are using recent successful P2P trials to argue to the FCC that there's no need for strong traffic management or net neutrality rules. 'Comcast's statement, filed with the FCC on April 9th, hails an announcement by P2P developer Pando Networks that its experiments with P4P technology on a wide variety of U.S. broadband networks have boosted delivery speeds by up to 235 percent. This news, Comcast vice president Kathryn A. Zachem wrote to the Commission, "provides further proof that policymakers have been right to rely on marketplace forces, rather than government regulation, to govern the evolution of Internet services."' Looks like Comcast only likes P2P technology when it can be used to serve its political and regulatory agenda."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
European Parliament to Sarkozy: No "Three Strikes" Here - Via EFF: Deep Links:
Despite last minute attempts by the French government to divide them, European<
MEPs today voted decisively against "three strikes", the IFPI-promoted plan to
create a class of digital outcasts, forbidden from accessing the Net if
repeatedly accused by music companies of downloading infringing content.
In a vote held today, hundreds of MEPs supported language
which declared termination of Internet access to be in conflict with "civil
liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality,
effectiveness and dissuasiveness", all core values of the European Union. read more »
Lawyer Banned for Threatening File-Sharers - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
S. Hare brings us a report from TorrentFreak about a lawyer working for a Swiss anti-piracy group who was recently given a 6-month ban for her attempts to intimidate file-sharers though letters threatening fines and court fees. Elizabeth Martin demanded 400 Euros each from "hundreds of thousands of file-sharers," and suggested that they would have to face large settlements if they did not comply. The Paris Bar Council took exception to this and instituted the ban. Martin worked for Logistep, a company who has had trouble following laws in the past. read more »
Making Available != Distribution, Says Court in London-Sire v. Doe - Via EFF: Deep Links:
Same day, two federal courts, two different rulings on "making available."
As we mentioned yesterday, a New York court in Elektra v. Barker gave a boost to the recording industry by ruling that an offer to distribute a file on a P2P network can infringe the distribution right, even if no one ever actually downloaded it from you. Well, on the same day, a Massachusetts court in London-Sire v. Doe ruled just the opposite, holding that "merely exposing music files to the internet is not copyright infringement" (we just received the ruling today). read more »
Comcast Plans Major Shift in Approach to “Network Management” - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:
Comcast, in a joint statement with BitTorrent, announced plans for a significant change in the way it responds to network congestion. As noted in a recent post , revelations last year that Comcast sometimes interferes with its subscribers’ P2P upload traffic sparked fears that carriers might play favorites and prompted complaints that led to a pending FCC proceeding on the question of “network management.” CDT isn’t eager to have the FCC adopt formal rules on network management, but having carriers affirmatively degrade selected traffic poses real risks to innovation and competition. read more »
RIAA Says Andersen Class Action 'Is Long on Rhetoric' and ' Scandalous' - Via Threat Level:
The Recording Industry Association of America is lodging a hyperbolic response to a racketeering lawsuit filled with its own hyperbole, a lawsuit accusing the music industry trade group of engaging in a racketeering enterprise via its litigation tactics.
The RIAA claims a lawsuit filed two weeks ago by an Oregon woman the group wrongly accused of pilfering music via the Kazaa file-sharing network "is long on rhetoric, hyperbole, and scandalous allegations that appear calculated not to state viable causes of action but rather to garner maximum press coverage, which it has done." read more »
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