Tag Archives: MAFIAA

How federal agents became the movie industry’s copyright enforcers

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“What brought them to an Ohio shopping mall to jump an unsuspecting local nerd?  In 2008, Congress passed the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property, or PRO-IP Act. Suddenly, protecting the trademarks and copyrights of American companies became a huge priority for a number of law enforcement agencies, including ICE.  Soon, ICE was enforcing American intellectual property rights all over the globe. In 2009, the agency arrested 266 people in IP investigations, busting people who sell counterfeit movies, stream pirated content on websites, and sell licensed NFL gear. ICE more than doubled that number of arrests over the next two years.”

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/federal-agents-google-glass-mpaa-theater-enforcers/

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IP address does not prove online piracy, says landmark US ruling

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“A US federal judge wrote that a suspected internet pirate should not be prosecuted solely because his computer’s IP address was identified by a film studio. Copyright holders seeking to take offenders to court often put fake movie files online, record the hundreds or thousands of IP addresses that download it, and then provide that information to the courts in an attempt to identify and sue hapless users on the other side of the screen.  Washington District Judge Robert Lasnik said this week that the rationale begins with the assumption of guilt. Lasnik also said that there was no proof that the person who could wind up facing a lawsuit was in fact the person who chose to download ‘Elf Man’.”

http://rt.com/usa/ip-address-online-piracy-judge-990/

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Google Glass-wearing moviegoer interrogated by Homeland Security

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“An hour into watching Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit wearing his prescription version of Glass, he said, he’d been abruptly pulled from the theater and interrogated at length by ‘feds,’ who accused him of attempting to pirate the movie by recording it.  He also says theater employees had asked about his glasses in the past and never complained about him wearing them or asked him to take them off. Instead, he describes agents roughly yanking the glasses off his face during the film and five to ten cops and security guards waiting outside the theater.  As the Glass user base expands, we may well see patrons being asked to prove that they’ve turned off their glasses as well as their cellphones.”

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/21/5331748/google-glass-wearing-movie-patron-questioned-for-piracy

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Keiser Report: Let’s Encrypt the Internet! featuring Kim Dotcom

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“In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the word ‘because,’ the humble conjunction which ‘exploded with new grammatical possibilities’ in 2013. So the news that the FBI and Department of Justice have ‘lost faith in the value of bitcoin,’ because concern trolling. And the news that the FBI has stopped enforcing the law and is, instead, ‘protecting national security,’ because MPAA. In the second half, Max interviews Kim Dotcom about Chris Dodd, the MPAA, Hollywood’s failed business model and an encrypted internet and crypto-currencies.”

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We need your help to keep working for European digital rights

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“We had a major success with our case against mass surveillance which led to an Advocate-General’s opinion that the Data Retention Directive is incompatible with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights – and we are confident that this will lead in a few months to a judgment from the European Court of Justice which will give greater privacy rights for all Europeans. In February we applied to be an ‘amicus curiae‘ in a case brought by record companies demanding internet blocking in Ireland. The judge gave a detailed decision. However, the upshot was that we did not succeed in our application. What’s more, costs were awarded against us.”

http://www.digitalrights.ie/support-us-in-2014/

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The case against Kim Dotcom, finally revealed

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“Much of the information is likely what was gleaned from the servers that were copied, searched, and ultimately seized by US law enforcement. But prosecutors have also convinced several heavy users of Megaupload, identified so far only by initials, to testify against Dotcom and his comrades about how they used the system.  The purpose of the massive evidence dump is to get Dotcom extradited from New Zealand, where he has been wrapped up in legal proceedings for the 23 months since his mansion was raided. The US hardly got the quick handover they wanted—not only is Dotcom out of jail, he’s free to do business. This year, he launched a new site simply called ‘Mega.'”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/us-unveils-the-case-against-kim-dotcom-revealing-e-mails-and-financial-data/

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Shocking Tales of 11 of the Most Over the Top US Police Paramilitary Raids

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“Recently, AlterNet reported on the wrongful police raid of an organic farm suspected of growing marijuana in Arlington, Texas. The massive SWAT team raid lasted for more than 10 hours and resulted in the seizure of vegetables and flowers—but no marijuana was found on the premises.  This is not the first time police have used paramilitary tactics to raid people’s properties to enforce regulatory laws in the absence of any justifiable threat of harm. Here’s a list of the most outlandish SWAT team raids across the country.”

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/shocking-tales-11-most-over-top-us-police-paramilitary-raids-and-innocent-people?paging=off

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Think NSA Snooping Is Bad? Check Out MPAA Theater Security

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“Hollywood studios are urging theater operators to crack down on in-theater camcording with the deployment of night-vision goggles, low-light binoculars and security cameras.  The latest version of the Motion Picture Association of America’s ‘Best Practices to Prevent Film Theft‘ (.pdf) also suggests old-school surveillance, like ‘random bag and jacket checks for prohibited items’.  Camcording is a federal felony carrying a maximum 3 year penalty. The District of Columbia and 41 states also have their own laws against it. The MPAA guidance urges theater employees, who are eligible for $500 rewards, to call the police immediately if they think illegal filming is occurring.”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/11/mpaa-theater-security/

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RIAA: Bitcoin Makes it Hard to Track or Seize Pirate Bay Donations

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“The RIAA alerted the U.S. Government to several notorious pirate websites this week, including The Pirate Bay. While the inclusion of the infamous torrent site doesn’t come as a surprise, the RIAA did raise a novel issue. The music labels point out that The Pirate Bay has embraced the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which they believe makes it harder to seize and trace the site’s funds. While the former is certainly true, a quick look at TPB’s Bitcoin wallet easily reveals where the donation money is being spent.”

http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-bitcoin-makes-it-hard-to-track-or-seize-pirate-bay-donations-131030/

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Kim Dot Com resigns from Mega to pursue plans for NZ political party

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“Internet mogul Kim Dotcom said on Thursday he was resigning from his new venture Mega to focus on fighting extradition to the United States and his plans for a New Zealand political party.  The 39-year-old, who was arrested when armed New Zealand police involved in the US probe raided his Auckland mansion, confirmed that he had resigned as a director of Mega at an August 29 board meeting. Dotcom said he was still working on development of a web-based music service called Megabox. The extradition case has dragged on in the courts and is subject to numerous appeals, with Dotcom estimating earlier this year that his legal bills could exceed US$50 million.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/05/kim-dot-com-resigns-from-mega-to-pursue-plans-for-his-new-zealand-political-party/

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