Criminalising the consumer


IS IT legal to make a copy of that DVD you’ve just bought so the family can watch it around the home or in the car? In one of the most watched copyright cases in recent years, a judge in northern California ruled last month that copying DVDs for personal use was legal, given the terms of the industry’s licence and the way the copies were made.

Criminalising the consumer

economist.com

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EU Approves New Stricter Anti-Piracy Directive


The European Parliament voted yes on the new controversial directive Ipred 2 which concludes that all kinds of infringement of the intellectual copyrights will be considered criminal. The directive is actually stricter than that and even criminalizes attempts of infringing on copyrights. In theory this means that basically all video sites, P2P developers and other services used to spread material around the web is criminal. There is an exception though and that is the end-user. If this user downloads pirated material and use this only for his own entertainment, study or research he or she can not be prosecuted through the new directive. Ipred 2 has been harshly criticized from day 1 by people saying it in turn infringes on people freedom of speech and even been considered a lobby directive from the media industry.

nordichardware.com

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RIAA Seriously Smacked Down (Again) By Judge


The RIAA's track record in court hasn't been so great lately. After being forced to drop various lawsuits once it was pointed out to the RIAA that the suits were targeted incorrectly, the RIAA has tried (and failed) to get out of paying the legal fees of those they incorrectly sued. The latest ruling comes from a judge who already told the RIAA it needed to pay fees. Now he's reaffirmed the decision and explained it quite clearly to the RIAA. The quotes are absolutely worth reading at that link, as the judge highlights the fact that copyright isn't solely for the benefit of the content creator/owner, but for enriching the public domain, and that gives anyone accused of infringement strong defenses to their use of the content.

techdirt.com

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URGENT! Europeans! Last chance to save Europe from worst copyright law in the world!


A coalition of groups representing librarians, consumers' and innovators have come together to support of a series of amendments that would fix the worst parts of the proposed Directive on Criminal Measures aimed at ensuring the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRED2).

If you live in the EU, contact your MEPs and ask them to support these amendments at the plenary vote in European Parliament on April 24-26, 2007.

copycrime.eu copycrime.eu/petitionvia

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Keine Haftung für Urheberrechtsverletzungen


Im Februar 2007 hatte die ProMedia ermittelt, dass über einen Newsserver des Usenet-Providers „United Newsserver“die Aufnahme „Das Beste“ von „Silbermond“ aus dem sog. Usenet abgerufen werden konnte. Da die Aufnahme dort jedoch ohne Einwilligung der Sony BMG veröffentlicht worden war, nahm die Kanzlei Rasch (Hamburg) im Auftrag der Sony BMG den Provider auf Unterlassung in Anspruch. Dieser ließ die Abmahnung jedoch zurückweisen, weshalb gegen „United Newsserver“ vor dem LG München I der Erlass einer einstweiligen Verfügung beantragt wurde. Mit der Abweisung des Verfügungsantrags hat das LG München I jetzt klargestellt, dass der Haftung von Providern in Deutschland durch die bestehenden gesetzlichen Regelungen klare Grenzen gezogen werden.

keine-haftung-fuer-urheberrechtsverletzungen (application/pdf, 63 KB) lg_muenchen_united_newsserver (application/pdf, 928 KB) "

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This is How We Catch You Downloading


All over Europe thousands of people are being threatened with court action for allegedly sharing games like Dream Pinball 3D on P2P networks. Now, documents obtained by TorrentFreak show details of the anti-piracy company's techniques for identifying alleged file-sharers on the internet and the gathering of claimed 'forensic quality' evidence for use in court cases.

torrentfreak.com LOGISTEP AG --- ANTI PIRACY SOLUTIONS ---Logistep [wikipedia]Logistep AG vs. Meinungsfreiheit [gulli]

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Cracked HD-DVD and Blu-Ray app keys revoked


A next-generation DVD security group has responded to hack attacks that allow unfettered access to Blu-Ray and HD-DVD content by pulling the encryption keys of PC applications associated with the attack.

theregister.co.uk Hollywood hinders HD DVD, Blu-ray hack

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Sniffer dogs find second pirated-DVD haul


Two Malaysian dogs trained to sniff out DVDs have made their second big discovery of pirated movies, leading investigators to a hidden stash worth more than $430,000, a local newspaper said Sunday.

Lucky and Flo, two black Labradors, sniffed out at least 150,000 discs in a secret compartment in a shop in the capital Saturday after anti-piracy officials, acting on a tip-off, raided the place but failed to find anything, the New Sunday Times said.

reuters.com

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The Digital Freedom Campaign


The Digital Freedom Campaign holds as its core value the recognition that new technologies are essential to the creativity and innovation that have allowed this nation to thrive. Digital technology enables anyone and everyone to be an artist and an innovator - to produce music, to create cutting edge films and videos, and to reach new audiences. For consumers, it allows individuals the ability to enjoy these new works when they want, where they want, how they want and to participate in the process. These are basic freedoms that must be protected and nurtured. The Digital Freedom campaign is dedicated to defending the rights of artists, innovators, creators and consumers to use lawful technology free of unreasonable government restrictions and without fear of costly lawsuits.

DIGITAL FREEDOM - BILL OF SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

digitalfreedom.org

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CSS protection for DVD-R gets approval from DVD Forum


The DVD Forum announced today that they will officially support the burning of CSS-protected content to DVD-R discs. The forum specifically approved "CSS Managed Recording" during its 36th Steering Committee Meeting in Tokyo, which will allow users to burn copy-protected content—either from another DVD or a CSS-protected download—to a special type of DVD-R disc for use in set-top DVD players.

arstechnica.com

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BitTorrent, EMI, And The MPAA All Misunderstanding DRM In The Same Day


Earlier on Monday we had decided to ignore the stories about EMI bailing out on supposed talks to sell unprotected MP3s as well as the story about BitTorrent launching a ridiculous "authorized" movie download site that even the folks at BitTorrent seem to recognize is guaranteed to fail thanks to the inclusion of DRM. However, trying to figure out what to write about the "DRM Panel" at Monday's Tech Policy Summit has had me stumped for the last few hours until I realized that all three fit together.

techdirt.com

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WinDVD 8 Device Key Found!


Although this is my first post, I have been actively sitting in the shadows for the last 6-8 weeks reading every Doom9 thread that I could find on HD DVD and Blu-Ray decryption. I have followed the postings of muslix64, Janvitos, and Arnezami, trying my best to recreate their steps to learn even more about the under workings of AACS. I even printed out all 70 pages of the AACS Introduction and Common Cryptographic Elements document, painfully reading through this material.

doom9.org engadget.com

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