Leaked Report Reveals Music Industry's Anti-Piracy Strategy

A confidential internal report of the music industry outfit IFPI has been inadvertently made available online by the group itself. Penned by their Head of Internet Anti-piracy Operations, the report details the global strategy for the major recording labels of IFPI. Issues covered include everything from torrent sites to cyberlockers, what behavior IFPI expects of Internet service providers, the effectiveness of site blocking, and how pirates are accessing unreleased music from industry sources.

The IFPI report says it has 5 possible reactions to a threat:

1. Take down
2. Disruption
3. Investigation
4. Lobbying
5. Litigation

IFPI splits illicit content availability into two sections:

1. "content held on users' computers" and distributed via P2P networks such as BitTorrent, Gnutella, DirectConnect, eDonkey and Ares.
2. "content held on central servers", including file-hosts and cyberlockers.

IFPI is also keeping a close eye on the downloading and sharing of content across mobile data and other wireless networks. IFPI worries that these networks are providing here-and-now streaming of content via all-you-can-eat plans. Making matters worse is that IFPI reports challenges when it comes to matching an IP address to a subscriber.

The recording group also reports that Apple and Android architectures are encouraging the creation of 3rd party music apps. IFPI say they are crawling both the App Store and Google Marketplace and are focusing on "quick take down agreements" with Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Palm to remove apps they don't like. They are also mulling an expansion of their "payment provider program" to target "rogue" Android app developers.

Unauthorized music sites

IFPI say they have identified in excess of 50 Russian and Ukrainian pay MP3 download sites. The group reports that law enforcement authorities have "secured evidence that the illegal sites are annually stealing hundreds of millions of dollars" which is creating opportunities for money laundering and tax evasion investigations. IFPI say their next steps will include strangling the sites' finances with the help of payment processors, recovering proceeds of crime, and developing asset confiscation.

Disruption of revenue streams

IFPI's advertiser strategy is based around the "disruption of revenue streams" to unauthorized sites by several methods. In the report they speak of a "structured notice and take down program targeting Google's AdSense and DoubleClick advertising networks," plus "out reach" to IASH and IAB to implement "comprehensive infringing block lists." IFPI says it also initiates direct contact with advertisers to flag when their ads appear on infringing sites. Agreements are said to be in place with VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, CTIA, Monitise, PaySafeCard and PhonePayPlus to strangle finances to unauthorized sites.

EU ignores will of the people after ACTA was rejected

The European Parliament rejected ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, with a large majority on 4 July 2012, but just one week later the EU is trying to push back the rejected agreement through the back door, that is, through CETA, the EU–Canada trade agreement that includes measures similar to ACTA.

The negotiations between EU and Canada on CETA started in November 2009 and will probably be ended by the end of this year. Just like ACTA, the trade deal has been drafted in secret but leaked documents, dated February 2012, have shown parts of ACTA being introduced in this new agreement.

MEP Nigel Farage drew the attention over the similarities between ACTA and CETA:

If the commission has a glimmer of respect for the voice of the people it would change CETA as soon as possible and stop trying to bring ACTA into legislative life by stealth. ACTA is like a Frankenstein which has been bolted together and keeps on moving. It is dangerous and must be brought to an end immediately.

Michael Geist:

The backdoor ACTA approach creates enormous risks for Canada's trade ambitions. Given the huge anti-ACTA movement, the Canada-EU trade deal could face widespread European opposition with CETA becoming swept up in similar protests.

Porn IP complaint attorney gets fined

In January, a federal judge in Dallas imposed $10,000 in sanctions on the Texas-based lawyer Evan Stone and required him to pay $22,040 in attorneys' fees. Mr. Stone, in his zeal to get the names of those who illegally downloaded a German porn flick Der Gute Onkel, had knowingly sent out subpoenas without the court's permission.

From The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. District Judge David Godbey used words like "wanton" and "grave" to describe Mr. Stone's conduct. The judge accused Mr. Stone of transforming the use of subpoenas "from a bona fide state-sanctioned inspection into private snooping."

Mr. Stone appealed the sanction to the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit swept Mr. Stone's arguments aside, saying he never raised them in the lower court so they weren't preserved for appeal. The court was unsparing in its criticism of Mr. Stone:

No miscarriage of justice will result from the sanctions imposed as a result of Stone's flagrant violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the district court's orders. Stone committed those violations as an attempt to repeat his strategy of suing anonymous internet users for allegedly downloading pornography illegally, using the powers of the court to find their identity, then shaming or intimidating them into settling for thousands of dollars, a tactic that he has employed all across the state and that has been replicated by others across the country.

Blowback from IP Imperialism

TechDirt warns us about the dangers of patents and how China is using them to harm foreign competitors:

For many years, US companies and government officials complained publicly and privately that China just didn't "respect" patents. They would point to how various Chinese companies were famous for making knockoffs of various products as evidence of this, and they'd put strong diplomatic pressure on China to both "respect" foreign patents more and beef up its own patent system. Of course, for years, we've been warning about just how stupid this is. China recognizes that patents are really a protectionist tool, and is using them as such. It has certainly increased its patenting effort... but nearly every single major patent lawsuit in China has been about punishing foreign companies and blocking competition to domestic Chinese companies.

Chinese companies and politicians must be laughing at just how self-defeating the Americans and Europeans are. Despite it being obvious that patents harm the economy, American companies and politicians will still continue to insist that China needs to "strengthen" its patent system and EU Commissioners like Karel De Gucht continues to promote ACTA. If ACTA (the so called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) would come into play, Chinese companies would be able to enforce their patents in the US, Canada and the EU, harming even more companies.

Freelancer.com acquires scriptlance

Freelancer.com just acquired Scriptlance and merged all Scriptlance accounts into its site. Scriptlance users can log into the freelancer.com site by using the password recovery option on that site. Fill in the email address you used to sign up with Scriptlance and freelancer.com will send you a new password. Your username remains the same.

EU rejects ACTA, but fight is not over.

Good news for anyone making money online in an honest way. ACTA, the controversial trade agreement that was drafted in secret between the US, Canada, Japan, the EU and a few other countries, was rejected by the EU Parliament after a long anti-ACTA campaign by online activists.

As Dave Neal from The Inquirer wrote:

This is a victory for everyone except corporate cartels

Open Rights Group:

This victory was thanks to your continued pressure which helped ensure that at every step of the way Europe's representatives voted to reject the provisions within ACTA. We know that MEPs have been inundated with emails and calls from people who, just like you, have fought tirelessly in the defence of our freedoms

ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, was officially intended to fight online piracy, but as liberty advocates, privacy groups, bloggers, lawyers, quickly pointed out, the overly broad language of ACTA would have made it possible for politicians to use ACTA against political opponents and activists. ACTA would also have allowed major corporations to harass and ultimately shutdown its smaller competitors through the use of questionable patents. And it would have made it possible for corporations or politicians to silence news outlets when those outlets wanted to release information damaging to the corporations or politicians.

No matter how hard the pro-ACTA lobby tried, it could not stop the waves of opposition that the draconian treaty attracted and as more and more people protested so it became harder for supporters to convince anyone that ACTA should be approved.

Now What?

We will have to remain vigilant. EU commissioners like the Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht have already stated that they will not let this slide. Chances are the Commission will reintroduce ACTA, possibly with some tiny cosmetic changes, on a later date. Apparently, the internet and the freedom to communicate, exchange ideas and do business with people all over the world, is so threatening to the EU Commission that it is willing to ignore the will of the people.

Mail-order houses

Until round 1940 it was possible to buy a house by catalog. In 1908, Sears Roebuck started to offer house kits in their catalogs. The kit, which included the entire house, with numbered parts and instruction booklets, paint and nails. The first mail-order house is credited to Aladdin Company, who started offering the houses in 1906. I wonder if someone is selling house kits online these days.