MediaDefender Busted September 15, 2007
Our friends over at torrentfreak recently discovered a huge cache of internal emails that were made public from MediaDefender. The sole purpose of MediaDefender’s “Miivi” site was to trick people into uploading copyrighted material, and bust them for it. These emails discuss everything from Miivi to fake torrents.
From the TorrentFreak article:
“When TorrentFreak reported that Media Defender (MD) was behind the video site MiiVi, they cast doubt on us. Now, in what is surely the biggest BitTorrent leak ever, nearly 700mb of MD’s emails have gone public. When MD’s Randy Saaf found out we rumbled MiiVi he said, “This is really f***ed.” This is too, but much more so.”
So give it a read, it’s very enlightening stuff.
Big Media Cult Leaders February 9, 2007
If you think the way big media bosses (RIAA / MPAA / TV Studios) treat their customers is fair, think again. This video is scary how well it meshes with the tactics of media (crime) bosses.
Anti-DRM day is October 3rd September 1, 2006
Defective by Design is organizing Anti-DRM Day on October 3. They are asking for ideas and handing out prizes for things like Best Idea, Best Action, Best Team Action, Best Photo, Best Blog, Best Video and more.
“Clear your schedule for a world wide day of action against DRM. On Tuesday October 3rd we will all be taking action to raise the stakes and attempt to increase awareness to the threats of DRM - in a very significant way.”
There are some good ideas up already like a Post-it Plague and Get arrested for violating your own copyright. You can even do something as simple and easy as print an anti-DRM image on a plain piece of paper and tape it to your car window.
Free Download 8, Don’t Download This Song! August 22, 2006
Weird Al has released a song about file sharing entitled “Don’t Download this song” (thanks BoingBoing!). You can download it from his MySpace page or from www.dontdownloadthissong.comtracks/DDTS.mp3 when the server recovers from the millions of pirates trying to download it.
The lyrics are a hoot,
“You don’t want to mess with the RI-double-A
They’ll sue you if you burn that CDR
It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandma
Or a seven year old girl
They’ll treat you like
the evil hard-bitten criminal you are…”
and
“…don’t download this song
or you’ll burn in hell
(and you deserve it)…”
It’s good to see artist’s standing up for what they believe in.
RIAA gives children of dead defendant 60 days to grieve August 12, 2006
One of the many thousands of people being sued by the RIAA, Larry Scantlebury, passed away before the case was resolved. So the RIAA is graciously giving the family 60 days to grieve before they depose Mr. Scantlebury’s children. From the Warner Bros. v. Scantlebury motion filed August 8 in Michigan
“3. Plaintiffs do not believe it appropriate to discuss a resolution of the case with the family so close to Mr. Scantlebury’s passing. Plaintiffs therefore request a stay of 60 days to allow the family additional time to grieve.”
Thanks to Recording Industry vs The People for reporting this story.
Update:
The RIAA has dropped the suit out of “an abundance of sensitivity“. Isn’t that special.
Down with the lawsuits July 17, 2006
For those of you who may not have participated in the defectivebydesign.com campaigns, they have announced that wednesday July 19th they will be hosting a conference call with Ray Beckerman who is the leading attorney fighting the lawsuits against the RIAA. This conference call is open to the public and the details will be posted on their website Tuesday July 18th at noon pacific time. Details can be found at the link above and more information about defective by design can be found at their website at http://defectivebydesign.com
Update: The audio and transcripts of the call are now available on the site as well for those of you who missed it.
We aren’t all pirates? July 10, 2006
Then why do we all get treated like pirates? IPac has a post on the LA Times article “We aren’t all pirates” that talks about the entertainment industry’s efforts to keep their dusty old business model afloat in the new world of the Internet, and computers, and all those filthy pirates.
From the IPac post,
“The Hollywood cartels want complete control over every and all digital device that is capable of playing back media in any form. PERFORM would cripple satellite radio and Internet radio. SIRA would also cripple Internet radio. The Broadcast Flag would cripple HDTV. The Audio Flag would cripple digital radio. And IPPA (DMCA 2.0) would throw every file trader in jail for 10 years.”
