tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post4899882778796455708..comments2024-03-29T11:10:02.290+00:00Comments on The IPKat: BREAKING NEWS: The Pirate Bay four convictedVerónica Rodríguez Arguijohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05763207846940036921noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-57688553229434300652009-04-21T11:31:00.000+01:002009-04-21T11:31:00.000+01:00Anonymous immediately above. Erm, how will closing...Anonymous immediately above. Erm, how will closing PB alienate customers? The only ones who are inconvenienced are those who use PB i.e. the non-customers. As for EMI having financial difficulties - yes that must please PB because then they'll have less source material. Doh!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-40242490265802881332009-04-18T11:39:00.000+01:002009-04-18T11:39:00.000+01:00If anyone in here thinks that shutting down TPB wi...If anyone in here thinks that shutting down TPB will achieve anything, could they please raise their hand. Other than alienating even more the consumers, that is.<br /><br />Content providers need to change their business model and accept the fact that the free circulation of copyrighted contents over the internet is something that is here to stay. The technology is here and is getting better.<br /><br />Seriously, think about what the horizon looked like when Napster was shut down. Now look at where we are today.<br /><br />The RIAA, MPAA, thier european equivalents and the collecting societies are just pathetic.<br /><br />Oh, by the way, did you guys hear about EMI going through financial difficulties? Yea, I am sure that shutting down TPB is going to turn things around for them...right.<br /><br />*shakes his head*Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-64863931008771542372009-04-18T11:35:00.000+01:002009-04-18T11:35:00.000+01:00I use the piratebay to share materials with permis...I use the piratebay to share materials with permission from rights-holders. The technology is not aware of rights. Is it just me, or have these men been convicted on the basis of their provocative attitudes, rather than for their actual deeds?Paul Jakmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-89042267116819237452009-04-17T23:30:00.000+01:002009-04-17T23:30:00.000+01:00But its deeply puzzling that US based firms (or ra...But its deeply puzzling that US based firms (or rather their lawyers) do insist on sending DMCA take-down notices to sites that operate completely out of the jurisdiction. We (in Europe) do not have anything with the technical sophistication of OCILLA (the relevant part of the DMCA) - that has good and bad points - in general a vanilla notification is enough. <br /><br />I've seen quite a lot of material (more now I've looked at the pirate bay site) which is astonishingly bone-headed in this respect.Francis Daveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10228026893626221724noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-42329005043603218302009-04-17T18:54:00.000+01:002009-04-17T18:54:00.000+01:00One might not expect TPB to follow DMCA takedown n...<I>One might not expect TPB to follow DMCA takedown notices, given that the DMCA is American legislation, and therefore does not apply to extraterriorial acts. </I> <br />No duh. The point is, rather obviously I thought, that at least some of the time Google does what it's told rather than ignore and/or try to fight it in court.CS Clarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-41729211640850338282009-04-17T17:57:00.000+01:002009-04-17T17:57:00.000+01:00One might not expect TPB to follow DMCA takedown n...One might not expect TPB to follow DMCA takedown notices, given that the DMCA is American legislation, and therefore does not apply to extraterriorial acts. Or are we now to harmonise our national laws to US legislation on which we have little direct democratic influence?<br /><br />The impact on Google is likely to be minimal, but perhaps greater on other content-search providers, who now (in some jurisdictions, at least) may feel that they are required to follow an active policing policy rather than be regarded as content-neutral service providers. As one who understands the bittorent technology reasonably well, I note that TPB effectively provided a digital dating agency between those with particular content and those who were seeking it.<br /><br />Much, as has already been mentioned, appears to be to do with intent. Amstrad vs CBS in the UK establishes that even a predominant use of a product to infringe copyright does not establish liability; nonetheless the way in which TPB apparently encouraged copyright infringement among its users could well be used to distinguish in a case similar to TPB in the UK.<br /><br />Content-search providers beware - make sure your image is squeaky-clean, even if many of your users aren't, and the law will follow...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-53499477673417516122009-04-17T15:58:00.000+01:002009-04-17T15:58:00.000+01:00Dusting off my criminal law books, aware that I'm ...Dusting off my criminal law books, aware that I'm thinking specifically of English law, it seems that the distinction between Google and Pirate Bay is intent. Google is an active index for the internet, Pirate Bay's intent seems to be to provide an index solely for directing users, who know that they want to download files which are probably copyright, to places where they can find such files. This, again in English terms, is aiding and abetting and would make Pirate Bay an accessory if a file was downloaded illegally as a result of a link from them. Google, as far as I can see, doesn't expressly do this.<br /><br />Personally I'm pleased with the result, although it can really only be regarded as an intermediate decision. Practically, I wonder if the result will be an increased use of Digital Rights Management rather than further recourse to the courts by rights holders.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-32273309345105205692009-04-17T14:26:00.000+01:002009-04-17T14:26:00.000+01:00@Tara
Thanks for filling in the blanks. It sounde...@Tara<br /><br />Thanks for filling in the blanks. It sounded like a statement that would be made by one of the defendents or their supporters given its limited connection with reality.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-54283566419175148662009-04-17T14:10:00.000+01:002009-04-17T14:10:00.000+01:00The Google analogy was brought up during the trial...The Google analogy was brought up during the trial, but it seems more part of TPB's brilliant PR strategy than their not-quite-as-brilliant defence.<br /><br />Although Google might not quickly and easily remove links from search results, it does follow DMCA takedown procedures with its other properties such as Blogger and, of course, YouTube (sometimes nor <A HREF="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/kafka-in-bloggerland-the-mysterious-world-of-the-dmca.ars" REL="nofollow">very fairly apparently</A>).<br /> <br />As well as the difference in attitude and helpfulness between Google and TPB, you can also look at the differences between TPB and the torrent site Mininova, which has comparable revenues to those claimed for TPB. <A HREF="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/torrent-search-engine-mininova-earning-1-million-a-year.ars" REL="nofollow">Mininova says</A> that it complies with requests for take downs.<br /><br />I'm curious whether they will end up with larger damages to pay if they keep it going for years while they go through an appeal process that they end up losing, and whether they need specific grounds to appeal beyond not liking the verdict.CS Clarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-34996479178691149152009-04-17T13:40:00.000+01:002009-04-17T13:40:00.000+01:00Peter Sunde (one of the co-founders) has repeatedl...Peter Sunde (one of the co-founders) has repeatedly claimed that TPB is analogous to Google. TPB does not host the content itself on a central server, it is merely an index or directory which allows users to identify and connect with those who have the desired material; like Google, TBP provides a link to content which is located elsewhere on the internet. Google is just as capable of facilitating copyright infringement as a BitTorrent site. <br /><br />There are, however, some technological differences: While Google ‘crawls’ the whole of the internet (to whatever extent this is possible), TPB is limited to .torrent files (some of which are uploaded by PB users themselves). Additionally, TPB technology uses trackers and ‘swarming’ methods which allows thousands of users to download content simultaneously – not possible using a traditional search engine. <br /><br />The main difference, as I see it, lies in the ideologies behind BitTorrent and Google. TPB, borne of a large piracy movement, has consistently flouted copyright owners requests to take down material which they had identified as infringing (look under ‘Legal’ on TPB homepage, under which they have published emails from copyright owners and TPB's derisive responses). Google, on the other hand, have attempted to assist the content industries by removing offending links. Importantly, the search engine is seen as fulfilling wholly legitimate purposes by the public; facilitating copyright infringement is a minor symptom of the services it offers.Tara Trainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17694421295937045867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-36135973595838404382009-04-17T13:21:00.000+01:002009-04-17T13:21:00.000+01:00The difference between Pirate Bay and Google is pr...The difference between Pirate Bay and Google is presumably in the intent. Had they chosen a less confrontational name than Pirate Bay, (how about thecosysharingclub.com?), then the sentence, if not the verdict, would have been different.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-79895606152356212192009-04-17T12:55:00.000+01:002009-04-17T12:55:00.000+01:00Pirate bay is in effect a bit torrent search engin...Pirate bay is in effect a bit torrent search engine - it provides links to torrents hosted on other servers which a user can then download. If you use Google to search for a pirated mp3 or torrent file of your favourite music/movie hosted on another site then Google is operating in a manner which is directly analogous to Pirate Bay.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-7509449082376621762009-04-17T12:19:00.000+01:002009-04-17T12:19:00.000+01:00In a report on the expected verdict this morning o...In a report on the expected verdict this morning on BBC Radio it was said that a guilty verdict could have an impact on search engines such as Google.<br /><br />Does anyone know where that suggestion came from and how it could possibly be true?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-25110762845101258842009-04-17T11:49:00.000+01:002009-04-17T11:49:00.000+01:00Whether your loyalties lie with the content indust...Whether your loyalties lie with the content industry or the technological community, this trial is far from over. An appeal in this case was inevitable regardless of the outcome of the trial, and the defendants have, as expected, promised to take their case to the higher courts. <br /><br />I wonder, having regard to the time it takes for an appeal to move through the higher courts (there is speculation that this will go to the ECJ and the Swedish Supreme Court), whether BitTorrent technology will be pertinent in a few years. The speed at which the law moves may mean that technology, in the end, will prevail.Tara Trainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17694421295937045867noreply@blogger.com