Newsflash: RIAA now required to present actual evidence in piracy trials

Another delightful legal misstep on the part of the indefatigable RIAA.

CNet: Mistrial for RIAA's $222,000 defendant

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Duluth, Minn., declared a mistrial in the case against Thomas, who was charged in October with violating copyright law by making 24 songs available for others to download on the Kazaa network.
Davis set aside the verdict on the grounds that he misguided the jury, telling jurors that simply the act of making a copyrighted song available for sharing amounts to infringement. The judge first indicated in May that he was considering granting a new trial.
...
The Recording Industry Association of America argued that the jury instructions were valid. "Requiring proof of actual transfers would cripple efforts to enforce copyright owners' rights online--and would solely benefit those who seek to freeload off plaintiff's investment," RIAA attorney Timothy Reynolds wrote in a court filing.

Oh no, imagine the terrible burden involved in actually proving that a crime occurred, rather than that it could have potentially occurred. Poor, poor RIAA.

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Breaking News: Music Industry Still Doesn't Get It

Unbelievable:

Marketnews Gadget Talk: SAC Wants to Charge You $5/Mo. For Using the 'Net

That headline might sound misleading, but it's actually not. The Songwriters Association of Canada (better known as "SAC") wants to charge Internet users $5/mo. in order to compensate artists for music that's illegally downloaded. The reason I say the headline is not misleading is because really, what SAC would be doing is charging all Internet users $5/mo., whether they download music online or not.

Wow.

Just wow.

It's hard for me to formulate a diatribe response to this that doesn't include lots of profanity.

This is exactly like receiving a speeding ticking before you even leave your driveway, and it's exactly as unfair. I don't download music illegally, but if SAC actually got away with making this asinine surcharge happen, I would start pirating music immediately. With gusto. I would be the terror of the Seven Seas. Hey you bastards, I've paid the fine, I might as well do the crime!

Does anybody in the music industry actually think before they speak?

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Yar, It Be The Last Saskatchewan Pirate!

Bein' in further honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

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MUTINY at Digg.com!

Avast!

In an incident that resembled a digital version of the the sacking of Maracaibo, Digg.com bit off more than it could chew when its attempt to comply with the demands of the movie studios antagonized its users into open revolt.

NYT: In Web Uproar, Antipiracy Code Spreads Wildly
Sophisticated Internet users have banded together over the last two days to publish and widely distribute a secret code used by the technology and movie industries to prevent piracy of high-definition movies.
The broader distribution of the code may not pose a serious threat to the studios, because it requires some technical expertise and specialized software to use it to defeat the copy protection on Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. But its relentless spread has already become a lesson in mob power on the Internet and the futility of censorship in the digital world.
An online uproar came in response to a series of cease-and-desist letters from lawyers for a group of companies that use the copy protection system, demanding that the code be removed from several Web sites.
Rather than wiping out the code — a string of 32 digits and letters in a specialized counting system — the legal notices sparked its proliferation on Web sites, in chat rooms, inside cleverly doctored digital photographs and on user-submitted news sites like Digg.com.

Yet another example of the futility of trying to clamp down on web users who are damned and determined to do what they are going to do.

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Study finds that Canadians love their pirated merchandise

Following up on my earlier blogging about Canada's pre-eminence in the world of software piracy comes this press release from CNW Group about Canadian's willingness to purchase pirated goods.

TORONTO, Feb. 27 /CNW/ - A significant number of Canadians - two-fifths of the population - acknowledge purchasing counterfeit goods, a new POLLARA survey finds. Twenty-eight percent of respondents to the national poll admitted knowingly purchasing counterfeit products, while 12 percent said theyfound out later. The combined figure is slightly more than triple the proportion found inthe United States by Gallup. There, just 13 percent of Americans purchased,copied or downloaded imitation or counterfeit products. The Canadian numbers give cause for alarm because according to the RCMP,organized crime is a "primary actor" in Canada's multi-billion dollar marketfor counterfeit products. Interpol has found that the profits from selling counterfeit goods are being used to finance international criminal organizations and global terrorism. "This is a dismaying number, much higher than expected. It shows that ourgovernment's failure to effectively address intellectual property crime hasled to wide-spread acceptance of product counterfeiting in Canada," said Brian Isaac, Chair of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network (CACN) Legislation Committee, and a partner with Smart & Biggar, Canada's largest IP law boutique.

But Canadians aren't all a bunch of scurvy dogs, the study finds:

However, the poll, conducted by POLLARA on behalf of the CACN, anon-profit coalition united in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy,also revealed that, when Canadians are informed that proceeds of the counterfeit market go to organized crime, the vast majority (86 percent) would be less likely to buy counterfeit products. "If there is a silver lining here, it is the evidence that Canadians will refrain from buying counterfeit goods when they know about the involvement of organized crime," said Lorne Lipkus, Chair of the CACN Education and Training Committee and a partner with Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus LLP, a leading anti-counterfeiting law firm. "This tells us that, if we pass the right laws, empower our police forces, and educate our citizens, then we can solve this problem."

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Canada joins the Axis of Evil

IIPA Wants Canada on Priority Watch List for Piracy
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has recommended to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab that 14 countries be added to a Priority Watch List for piracy, including Canada. This list is reserved for countries that are infected with high levels of copyright piracy, and/or deny effective market access to copyright industries. China and Russia remain the Alliance’s main concerns.
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The report pegged Canada as a leading manufacturer and exporter of bootlegged movies, and illegal devices that facilitate pirated activity, like “modification chips” used to allow counterfeit games to be played on videogame consoles. In fact, it names the unauthorized camcording issue in Canada as nearing “crisis” levels: in 2006, 20-25 per cent of pirated DVDs discovered were sourced back to Canada! Highly “guilty” regions for piracy include Vancouver/Richmond, BC; Calgary, AB; Toronto/Markham, ON; and Montreal, QC.

I think this is bad news for all of us. American interests are painting us as a rogue state who defies U.S. foreign policy, plus we have oil. We all know what happens to rogue states who have large oil reserves...

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Microsoft Vista a Hit...with Pirates!

Yahoo! News: Pirated Windows Vista on sale in China on global launch day

Much has been made of the simultaneous launch of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office, but even more noteworthy is the fact that both the legit and counterfit versions of Vista shipped on the same day.

I don't know if this represents a new High or a new Low in technology. Maybe it's an example of market efficiencies, or true vertical integration.

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Software Pirates on Cracking Microsoft Vista: "LOLZ W3 R 7EET HAXXORSSS!!1!/"

Inquirer.net: Microsoft Vista cracked. The whole cycle starts again

DESPITE Microsoft's anti-piracy measures, cracked copies of its Vista operating system are already available on torrent sites, it's claimed.
One cracked version is called VistaBillGates and comes with a product key, and an "activation crack" that bypasses Vole's activation process.
Apparently Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition has also been cracked. So far Microsoft has refused to comment about hacks, but claims it is working hard to stop pirates.
Apparently the weapon it will use is software that deactivates pirated copies of Windows Vista by sending a patch through Windows Update that can invalidate certain product keys.
No doubt the pirates have already worked their way around that one and it will only be countless legitimate Vista users who will find themselves suffering in the crossfire between Vole and the pirates.

Yes, well, nobody saw that coming, did they?

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