Broadcasting

p2pnet news view RIAA | Music:- “Skwerl got himself hauled in by the FBI today over this whole GNR/Chinese Democracy leak fiasco, which seems to mean that people take this whole copyright thing pretty seriously.”

That’s Johnny Firecloud on Antiquiet.

“We weren’t going to make a big spectacle of this, since it’s obviously a pretty serious situation, but the plankton hacks over at the Los Angeles Times managed to pick up on the story and run it a highly suspicious impressive two hours after the incident went down,” he says, “So here we are.”

Two hours after it went down, huh? Hmmm.

Wonder who could’ve (would’ve?) told the LA Times?

“A man accused of posting nine previously unreleased songs by the rock band Guns N’ Roses on a website where they could be accessed by the public was arrested at his home early today on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws, authorities said,” says the story in question.

“Kevin Cogill, 27, is accused of posting the songs, which were being prepared for commercial release, on the Internet blog Antiquiet in June, according to an arrest affidavit. The site received so much traffic after the songs were posted that it crashed, the affidavit states.

“Cogill admitted to posting the songs when he was questioned by an FBI agent, according to the affidavit. He was arrested at his home in Culver City this morning and is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles later today, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Craig Missakian.”

The case was slated for 2:00 pm at LA District Court on 255 E. Temple and obviously, by 2:25 Pacific, there’d been no updates —- not that we could find, at any rate.

But, “In all likelihood, he’ll be back fighting the good fight from his couch by this evening,” says Antiquiet.

It’s good to see the LA Police department doing such a fine job on behalf of Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG and their RIAA.

Well done, lads.

That is indeed Chinese democracy for you.

Meanwhile, “Okay,” says G4TV.

“Great. You win.

“So when the hell is Chinese Democracy finally coming out, Axl!?!?”

Stay tuned.

GNR/Chinese Democracy leak - New Guns N’ Roses online leak, May 8, 2008
Antiquiet - Abbie Hoffman, Where Are You?, August 29, 2008
Los Angeles Times - Blogger arrested, accused of posting 9 unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs
G4TV - Guns N’ Roses blogger arrested, August 27, 2008

p2pnet news view | Security:- The Apple iPhone passcode lock, which lets users set a four-digit pincode to limit access, can be easily bypassed, say Ryan Naraine and Dancho Danchev on ZDNet.
And all it takes is a few finger taps, they point out.

What’s troubling is: the vulnerability was fixed by Apple (advisory) for iPhone v1.1.3 and iPod touch v1.1.3 back in January this year, says the post.

But all is not lost.

ZDNet reader zrds suggests setting your home button ‘Settings->General->Home Button’ to ‘Home’.

That’ll, “effectively negate the issue,” he promises.

ZDNet - iPhone passcode lock rendered useless, August 27, 2008

p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Turkish freedom of speech supporters staged what amounted to an online strike to protest the country’s YouTube ban.

And they won.

“Access to YouTube had been blocked since May in the latest of a series of bans triggered by the posting of videos deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish state,” says The Guardian.

The decision to unblock the Google video site came after 412 web and blog sites shut themselves down, “after campaigners revealed that 853 websites in Turkey had been blocked as a result of court orders,” it says.

Web page visitors were greeted with, “The access to this site is denied by its own decision” in response to the official, “The access to this website is prevented by court order”.

Websites can be blocked under Article 5651 of the Turkish penal code for a range of offences including insulting Atatürk, child pornography and encouraging suicide, says The Guardian.

In March, “A year ago to the month, Turkey barred YouTube saying some of the posts were insulting to Ataturk,” said p2pnet, continuing »»»

At the time, ‘According to Turkish media, there has been a “virtual war” between Greek and Turkish users of the site, with both sides posting insulting videos,” stated the BBC.

Insulting Ataturk or ‘Turkishness’ is an offence which can result in a prison sentence.

Then in January a Turkish court once again blocked access because of clips which allegedly insulted Ataturk.

Now, “A court in the capital of Ankara ordered the ban at the request of a prosecutor who had argued the clip was disrespectful to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who died seven decades ago, the Anatolia news agency said,” according to the Associated Press.

The bans on YouTube and other sites, “have hurt Turkey’s image at a time when its restrictions on free speech are under scrutiny owing to its EU membership bid,” adds The Guardian.

The Guardian - Turkish court lifts YouTube ban after online censorship protest, August 26, 2008
p2pnet - New Turkish YouTube ban, March 15, 2008
BBC - Turkish court bans YouTube access, March 7, 2007
blocked access - Turkey censors YouTube - again, January 22, 2008
Associated Press - Turkey Blocks Access to YouTube Again, March 14, 2008

p2pnet news view Freedom | Products:- Mac clone maker Psystar says Apple’s allegations of copyright infringement are “misinformed and mischaracterized”.

It argues its OpenComputer product is shipped with a fully licensed, unmodified copy of Mac OS X, and that it’s, “simply ‘leveraged open source-licensed code including Apple’s OS’ to enable a PC to run the Mac operating system,” says CNET News, quoting Pystar founder Rudy Pedraza as saying he wants to make Apple’s Mac OS “more accessible” by offering it on less expensive hardware than Apple.

Suing Apple under the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, federal laws meant to “discourage monopolies and cartels,” Apple’s, “tying of the Mac OS to Apple-labeled hardware” is an, “anticompetitive restrain of trade,” says lawyer Colby Springer.

Psystar is looking for a ruling that voids Apple’s EULA, “and is asking for unspecified damages,” says the story, adding:

“Apple will have 30 days to respond to Pystar’s counter claim, and so far has declined to comment on the case.”

So is Pystar folding? Not even nearly.

“Recently, our sales team has received several inquiries as to whether or not our systems are still available,” says its site, going on

Psystar is definitely still shipping Open Computing products and we’ve introduced our restore utilities to enhance the computing experience for our customers at no extra cost. We strive to provide the best computers we possibly can and are actively improving all of our products taking all your valuable feedback into consideration.

And to really rub it in, it’s now offering the OpenPro Computer at $1,155 with a base configuration of:

• Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 preinstalled
• 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor
• 2GB of DDR2 800 memory
• nVidia GeForce 8600GT with 512MB of RAM
• 20x DVD+/-RW SATA drive
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 8 rear USB Ports
• 7 channel Integrated Audio SPDIF and Optical Output

But you have to provide your own mouse and keyboard.

Thinks : wonder how many Apple fanbois will be buying one of these? (Secretly, of course )

Stay tuned.

CNET News -Psystar responds to Apple suit, will countersue, August 26, 2008

p2pnet news view | Off Topic:- Of great religious and historical significance, the Dead Sea Scrolls comprise 1,000 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven caves in and around the Wadi Qumran, says the Wikipedia.

They include, “practically the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 AD, and preserve evidence of considerable diversity of belief and practice within late Second Temple Judaism,” it states.

Now each of the “thousands of fragments” will soon be available to everyone online, says the New York Times.

Digitizing them all will probably take one to two years, and even then they won’t all be available online, it says, pointing out the project is led by Greg Bearman, late of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It’s long been, “very difficult for senior scholars to get access,” says the story, quoting Jonathan Ben-Dov, a professor of biblical studies at the University of Haifa.

But once the project is finished, “every undergraduate will be able to have a detailed look at them from numerous angles,” he says.

New York Times - Israel to Display the Dead Sea Scrolls on the Internet, August 26, 2008

p2pnet news view | Off Topic:- “Dear One,” said a p2pnet Reader’s Write from Raymond Williams (raymondwilliams2@centrum.cz - IP: 127.0.0.1).

Dear One. Isn’t that nice?

Posted, it went, from a Yamousokoro refugee camp in the Republic Of Cote D’Ivoire, “I know this mesage will come as surprise to you, though we’ve not met or see each other before but i believe this dive grace from God to help me.

“Please do not ignore this my proposal to you but try to help me out.”

Perish the very thought!

It continued »»»

My name is Raymond Williams The son of (Late Chief Adam Williams) Who lost his life in the course of the crisis here in Cote D’ivoire on the 7th of November last year on his way to there company (Nestle Food Plc)

My father willed in cash, the sum of $8.7 Million US Dollars which he deposited in a Fixed/Suspence account here in Abidjan Cote D’ivoire in west Africa, with enabling conditions for the release of the fund which are as follows:

(1) That I must be 22 years or above.

(2) That upon request for the release of the fund, there must be evidence of investment intentions especially outside the west africa

3)The fund Must be transfered into a co-benefiiary account abroad I contact you therefore to confirm if you can absorb me in partnership in your company or possibly advise me on any investment opportunity in your country

When I reach agreement with you, the bank will release my fund into an account that you shall nominate and I will come over to you to commence business partnership with you and the fund

I expect your urgent response including your addresses, your telephone and fax number

Thanks for expected cooperation Please Email: raymondwilliams2@centrum.cz

My regards,
Raymond Williams

So what do you think, people? Shall I follow this up?

If so, there are bound to be costs involved, but I’m sure scores of you will want to kick in for a share of the loot.

Just imagine, part of $8.7 Million US Dollars could be yours !!!! (maniacal cackle).

No need to stay tuned

p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- “A judge ruled Monday that a defendant had willfully and intentionally destroyed evidence of his P2P activities after being notified of pending legal action by the RIAA,” says Ars Technica, going on.

“Furthermore, since it was done in bad faith, it ‘therefore warrants appropriate sanctions’.”

The case centres on Jeffrey Howell, who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his personal computer.

That got him into trouble with Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA which maintained that it’s illegal for someone who’s legally purchased a CD to transfer that music to his computer.

But, the story goes on, “Judge Neil V. Wake denied the RIAA’s motion for summary judgment, ruling that ‘a distribution must involve a “sale or other transfer of ownership” or a “rental, lease, or lending” of a copy of the work. The recording companies have not proved an actual distribution of 42 of the copyrighted sound recordings at issue, so their motion for summary judgement fails as to those recordings.”

“After that ruling, it appeared as though Atlantic v. Howell was headed for a bench trial this fall …….”

But, “According to the RIAA’s brief, Howell destroyed evidence on four separate occasions after first receiving the prelitigation settlement letter and later being served with the lawsuit,” says Ars Techinca

The RIAA’s forensics experts found that Howell uninstalled KaZaA and deleted everything in the shared folder, reformatted his hard drive, downloaded and used a file-wiping program, and then nuked all the KaZaA logs on his PC.

Wake will tell Howell, who represented himself, what’s in store for him and, “presumably the amount of damages he’ll have to pay,” in a written order, it says.

Meanwhile, “Come to think of it, Jammie Thomas, the first defendant to go to trial in the RIAA’s campaign against file sharers, was also accused of destroying evidence, says Jon Healey in the Los Angeles Times, adding »»»

Thomas had her computer’s hard drive replaced after the alleged infringements were detected but before she was sued. What is it with all these unreliable hard drives?!?

Should file sharers be bringing a class action? But I digress. The EFF’s Fred von Lohmann said in an e-mail that Howell’s experience highlights “how difficult it is to defend these cases without a lawyer.” The RIAA had lawyers and experts arguing that evidence was destroyed in bad faith, Von Lohmann wrote, while Howell was on his own — and “he clearly wasn’t able to adequately articulate his side of the story.”

On the other hand, if you’re going to admit to using Kazaa, as Howell did, it’s probably a good idea not to mess with your hard drive, even if it goes bad. Howell claimed he downloaded only porn, but hey, the porn guys sue too.

Stay tuned.

2,000 music recordings - Rip your legal CD? You’re a thief: RIAA, December 31, 2007
Ars Technica - RIAA wins P2P case after defendant reformats hard drive, August 26, 2008
Los Angeles Times - RIAA nears win (by default) in Atlantic vs. Howell, August 27, 2008

p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Apple has appointed itself the guardian of what you should read online, and what you shouldn’t.

On the heels of our Case of p2pnet’s Internet Piracy post, here’s another comic book story.

Only this time it’s not because a dodgy pic-book is out there, it’s because it isn’t.

Apple is in the middle of it all and it’s guilty of the same crime committed by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG.

In the same way the Big 4 labels turned a then relatively minor online happening —- mp3 file sharing —- into a major event, publicizing it to the hilt so everyone, instead of a few enthusiasts, knew about it, Apple has decided to do the same for an online comic.

“Murderdrome has been banned by Apple,” says InfuriousComics, going on »»»

 This is due to the part of the sdk that suggests content must NOT offend anyone in ‘apple’s reasonable’ opinion. Here at infurious, we would love to work with Apple to ensure a content rating system can be put in place to allow material that is no more offensive than many of the R rated films available to download on iTunes. PLEASE leave a comment committing your support to us - we’ll forward ALL of these to Apple, so that we can ensure that not only Murderdrome, but that ANY comic submitted to Apple doesn’t fall foul of the same censorship.

Apple, “may be worried that iPhone users don’t have quite enough braincells to figure out that if they buy something called Murderdrome, they are not going to get a Disneyfied version of Peter Rabbit and the Flopsy Bunnies,” says Jack Schofield in The Guardian.

“Or maybe they are just being protective of the huge number of iPhone buyers who are under the age of 14 …… Either way, couldn’t the problem be solved by having a ratings system, as InfuriousComics suggests?”

Click here and then click here to see what got Apple’s knickers in a twist.

Meanwhile »»»

Stay tuned.

Internet Piracy - ‘RIAA’ NCSC comic book debacle: V, August 26, 2008
InfuriousComics - Murderdrome - KILLER APP, August 26, 2008
The Guardian - Apple bans comic book on iPhone, August 27, 2008

p2pnet news view | Movies:- Unlikely as it may seem, Sony seems hell-bent on getting back into the DRM business. And many (most?) of the big Hollywood studios are apparently playing along.

DRM —- Digital Restrictions Management consumer control —- has never worked, and it never will.

It can’t. Because if you can see it or hear it, you can copy it and DRM has been all-but dropped by even its most ardent supports, the major record studios.

“DRM, digital rights management is quite possibly the holy grail of the music and movie industry, allowing them to control exactly how DRM protected content is used, distributed and above all can be tracked right down to the individual end user,” we quoted Sander Sassen as saying.

We went on, “It might be more accurate to say the entertainment industry wishes DRM allowed it to control how content is used, but as things stand, it’s a largely unfulfilled dream.”

Nothing has changed since p2pnet posted that in 2004, but Hollywood just won’t give up and now a new DRM “initiative” that’s been “tentatively” dubbed Open Market, may be on the way, says TechCrunch.

It is, of course, axiomatic that whenever Hollywood or its MPAA, or anything connected to it/them, says ‘open,’ it means the exact opposite.

Open Market was first proposed last year by Sony Pictures and, “all of the major studios” are, “already on board,” says the story, although, “notably absent” is Apple and the various Walt Disney studios which are, “strongly backing the iTunes/Fairplay scheme”.

You’ll remember Sony’s disastrous attempt at DRM through its rootkit spyware program. It concealed consumer management software on its music discs. When buyers played the music, the spyware, which was also dangerous to their computers, was automatically planted without their knowledge or consent

Sony is still suffering fall-out.

And Apple’s in-house ‘Fairplay’ (same applies to ‘fair’ as it does to ‘open’) DRM has probably caused it to forfeit more custom and customers than it’ll ever know.

Partners in crime

Open Market (.pdf here), “is a set of policy decisions and a software and services framework that will allow interoperability of various formats and DRM schemes that are currently splintering the market,” says TechCrunch, continuing »»»

A key part of Open Market will be a neutral third party to manage device registrations and movie purchases/rentals to ensure interoperability. This “domain” provider will manage services that let users register devices (PCs, televisions, mobile devices, etc.). Any movie purchased from any service provider can then be watched on a registered device.

Supposedly a whole slew of companies are supporting the effort. Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Time Warner are on board. Retailers like Amazon, Target, WalMart, Comcast, MovieLink and CinemaNow are also said to be participating.

However, by the time Sony and its partners in crime get their act together, argue about who gets what, sign contracts, accuse each other of reneging, sue each other for breach of contract, come up with counter-projects, sue each other for again, and so on, their former ‘consumers,’ now transformed into customers with free choice and the will to exercise it, will have taken off over the horizon and out of sight.

Meanwhile,  people will always be able to use one analogl or digital means or another to copy anything they can see or hear.

Period.

Jon Newton - p2pnet

Los Angeles Times - xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, August , 2008

p2pnet news view | Cool Stuff:- “Enter Ubiquity,” says Mozilla Labs.

Ubiquity?

The object of the exercise is to connect the Web with language, “in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily,” says Mozilla.The overall goals are, it says, to explore how best to:

• Empower users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)
• Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone–not just Web developers–to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)
• Use Trust networks and social constructs to balance security with ease of extensibility.
• Extend the browser functionality easily.

Interesting.

Initial prototype

As part of this announcement, “we’re also releasing an early experimental prototype to demonstrate some of the concepts of Ubiquity and the possibilities that it opens up,” says Mozilla, continuing »»»

This release is meant as a illustration of a concept and mainly focuses on the platform. The next release will explore interfaces that are closer to features that might make it into Firefox.

Install the prototype and you’ll be presented with a tutorial to get you started.

Ubiquity 0.1

• Lets you map and insert maps anywhere; translate on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg and twitter; lookup and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax highlight any code you find; and a lot more. Ubiquity “command list” to see them all.
  
• Find and install new commands to extend your browser’s vocabulary through a simple subscription mechanism
  
• Read about Ubiquity In Depth, or see a number of the commands in action (with screenshots) in the Ubiquity Tutorial.

All of the code underlying the Ubiquity experiment is being released as open source software under the the GPL/MPL/LGPL tri-license.

Click here to see, and hear, Aza Raskin, head of Mozillan Lab’s user experience, go into detail.

p2pnet news view | Advertising:- “All the parts of the internet are on the iPhone,” promises Apple in a UK TV advertisement.

But they’re not, two people complained to Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority.

The ad misleads consumers by over-hyping the unit’s Net capabilities, they said.

So the agency has ordered the TV ad mustn’t be broadcast again in the same form, says The Guardian.

The ad showed the, “navigation prowess of the iPhone, with images zooming in on a weather forecast for Cape Town and a map of how to get to Heathrow airport,” says the story.

But the ASA received two complaints saying the claim was misleading because the iPhone doesn’t support Flash or Java, “which are both integral to many web pages”.

“Advertising pre-vetting service Clearcast said the ad had been given the green light for broadcast after a ‘demonstration and the advertiser’s assurances’,” says The Guardian, adding:

“However, the Advertising Standards Authority said that claims made by Apple implied that ‘users would be able to access all websites and see them in their entirety’.

“Because the ad had not explained the limitations of the iPhone, the ASA concluded that ‘the ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone’.”

The Guardian - Apple iPhone ad banned over misleading internet claims, August 27, 2008

p2pnet news view | P2P:- In the bad old days a press gang was a Royal Navy posse which scoured dockyards and booze halls looking for victims to “press” into service.

In 2008, ‘press gang’ has a different, and very unhealthy (for freedom of speech), connotation.

In September, 2007 , “Today we’re launching a new feature on Google News that will help you quickly and easily find original stories from news publishers - including stories from some of the top news agencies in the world, such as the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, UK Press Association and the Canadian Press - and go directly to the original source to read more,” says Google on its site.”

That was from p2pnet’s GNS: Google News Service.

I went on, “Can’t surfers do that already? Yes, but, ‘Duplicate detection means we’ll be able to display a better variety of sources with less duplication,’ says Google.

” ‘Instead of 20 ‘different’ articles (which actually used the exact same content), we’ll show the definitive original copy and give credit to the original journalist’.”

But, looked at another way, “instead of being able to choose from posts which, although they may carry agency copy, might also have different interpretations and slants of the events being discussed, readers will only have access to materials presented by the agencies Google is in bed with,” I said.

And one year on, it’s getting really silly.

These days, after identifying a topic, I more often than not skip past the ‘news’ sections and go straight to one or other of the search engines.

That way I’ll get not only the lamescream headlines, but stories on the blogs, specialist and not-specialist sites. You name it.

Google and Yahoo  search engines are great. But their ‘news’ sections largely feature sterile pap.

The same wire ’stories’ are slavishly regurgitated verbatim, in many cases, in one corporate press item after another.

On Google and Yahoo, news diversity?

What’s that?

(Sorry for the rant )

Jon Newton - p2pnet

p2pnet news view | P2P:- Italy’s father Antonio Rungi was planning an online beauty contest for nuns. But he’s had to suspend the project.

His blog was down when we went for a look. “Blog in costruzione,” it says at the moment.

Rungi says his pageant was, “misinterpreted as traditional beauty contest, with parades and more”.

A Google cache translation goes on »»»

Someone has played above even with indecent pictures. But it was expected of a kind. What that was not in ideas and in my projects and my collaborators. We intend to make a “competition” in the broad sense as it was and is to present the inner beauty and overall Sisters, which can not be limited to only appearance (if there is not to be despised) to raise awareness and sisters institutions of belonging.

Or as Nothing To Do With Arbroath sums it up »»»

An Italian priest and theologian said yesterday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.

The “Miss Sister 2008″ contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image.

“Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life,” Rungi said. “This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible.”

Stay tuned

Nothing To Do With Arbroath - Italian priest organizes beauty contest for nuns, August 25, 2008

p2pnet news view | TV:- What’s been around as long as civilization? Porn. Pornography.

Says Microsoft’s Encarta, “Pornography, films, magazines, writings, photographs, or other materials that are sexually explicit and intended to arouse sexual excitement in their audience. Deriving from the Greek words porn? (’prostitute’) and graphein (’to write’), the word pornography originally referred to any work of art or literature dealing with sex and sexual themes. Pornography is one of the most controversial forms of expression. Societies have long debated whether pornographic works should be subject to censorship, and the question of how to distinguish between artistic works and pornography has perplexed governments ever since they began to take freedom of expression seriously.”

In other words, pornography isn’t necessarily obscenity. But it still has the power to spark instant outrage and it’s one of the main weapons in the entertainment cartel anti-P2P, anti-file sharing armory.

The CRTC recently approved Northern Peaks, Canada’s first officially sanctioned pornographic video channel.

But. says an OpEd in the Calgary Herald, the porn channel is, “an abomination,” and “When I read your news article on the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) decision to licence a pornography channel, my first thought was ‘What good are they?’ (The CRTC, that is),” posted Peggy Lynn Kelly in the Ottawa Citizen.

“I object to having my tax dollars run an organization that is either unable or unwilling to protect Canadian women from continued sexual degradation, objectification, and exploitation.

“Maybe it’s time to get rid of both of them, the CRTC and the pornographers.”

But the Montreal Gazette has a couple of interesting perspectives on the situation.

“Ironically, Northern Peaks’s programming will surely be more gender-balanced and ethnically diverse than any other Canadian product available,” it says, adding:

“And unlike the CBC, only those who wish to have the channel will have to pay for it.

“But if this is what it takes to dutifully fulfill the CRTC’s protectionist mandate, there’s little reason to keep this antiquated and impotent institution on life support any longer.”

pornographic video channel - CRTC-approved Canadian porn channel, August 19, 2008
Ottawa Citizen - Keep the porn channel out of Canada, August 26, 2008
Montreal Gazette - Network to give artists new exposure, August 25, 2008

p2pnet news view | Music:- Canada’s Barenaked Ladies, still suffering the after effects of seeing Steven Page, their main man, arrested on drugs charges, have something good to shout about.

A small Cessna 206 float-plane with the band’s lead singer and guitar player Ed Robertson at the controls crashed in a forest area at Baptiste Lake, north of Bancroft, Ontario, on Sunday.

But Robertson, his wife Natalie, and friends Julie and Jeff Jones, walked away unhurt from the downed aircraft.

“While there was a fuel leak and spill after the crash, there was no report of a fire after impact,” says the Belleville Intelligencer.

“Reports from Robertson, witnesses at the lake and the plane’s passengers said the plane’s crash landing, suspected after a stall, was cushioned by thick brush and trees at the end of the lake.”

Robertson received his pilot’s licence in 2005, says Chart Attack, adding:

“He hosts an Outdoor Life Network Canada series called Ed’s Up, where he flies around North America and tries his hand at various jobs. He has a cottage in the area where the crash occurred.”

Page, meanwhile, had a court appearance for a drug charge in Fayetteville, New York, delayed until October 14, says Chart Attack.

“The felony charge carries a prison sentence of up to five-and-a-half years in state prison if he’s convicted. While police say Page admitted to snorting cocaine at his girlfriend’s apartment when he was arrested, he has pleaded not guilty.”

Belleville Intelligencer -No decision on plane crash probe, August 26, 2008
Chart Attack -  Ed Robertson survives plane crash, August 25, 2008

p2pnet news view RIAA | Music:- p2pnet was the first to reveal Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG plans to turn universities across America into corporate marketing and enforcement divisions, initially using Napster as the spearhead and Penn State as the first point of penetration.

“Napster is the leader in legal online music services and provides access to over 500,000 songs,” said Rod Erickson in 2003.

Must be a Napster guy, or an RIAA minion. Yes?

No. He was the Penn State executive vice president and provost and in one of the most blatant examples of a senior university official toadying to a hard-core commercial enterprise, “Thanks to our partnership with Napster, Penn State students will be able to play songs directly from the network, download songs onto their hard drives, and transfer songs to other computers–all for no additional cost to students,” he said.

But he neglected to mention students who didn’t want to buy corporate ‘product’ through the disinterred Napster could end up as RIAA victims.

Single-use student promotion codes 

Five years on, it seems Napster which, despite endless lamescream media hype and help from the corporate music industry, has gone from one marketing failure to another, is at last pulling out of the University music business altogether.

“Napster’s decision to terminate their nationwide Napster on Campus program effectively ends their 4-year partnership with Vanderbilt,” says a post on Vanderbilt ITS News, going on:

“However, Napster has agreed to continue discounted rates for current faculty and staff subscribers, and to offer a 33% 3-month discount on Napster to Go accounts for new Vanderbilt subscribers.”

Isn’t that nice?

“Vanderbilt’s association with Napster was part of a concerted effort to provide legal music downloading options, particularly to students,” says the item, adding:

“Effective immediately, Napster will no longer offer single-use student promotion codes or new faculty discount codes. Discounted rates for current Vanderbilt faculty and staff subscribers will remain in effect.”

‘Inexpensive deals for students’

“We want to play nice,” p2net quoted Cindy Frank, director of service delivery and project management for information technology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, saying in 2007, continuing »»»

She’s referring to Vanderbilt’s efforts to keep on the good side of the corporate music industry and its adherents, which have so far cost it in the region of half-a-million-dollars, she states.

Blithely, she goes on:

“We’ve negotiated very inexpensive deals for students. Napster is $2 a month and offers 3 million songs. We have also spent a lot money and time marketing them. We encourage these legal methods for downloading music.”

The above bald faced admission from Frank in InsideVandy makes it clear not only is the university working —- unpaid —- for Napster, a desperately broke, hard-core commercial music marketing service, it’s also acting up-front for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

Are Napster and the Big 4 footing the bill?

No. That’s down to parents and state and federal authorities responsible for America’s educational systems.

But that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

No need to stay tuned.

Jon Newton - p2pnet

Penn State executive vice president - ‘I urge you to use Napster’, December 11, 2003

, August , 2008

p2pnet news view | RIAA News:- Two top RIAA hitmen are now being paid as corporate games industry heavies, but no worries. The Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG ‘trade’ outfit has apparently signed up and even more powerful enforcer.

“To find out if you are at risk, check your computer for programs that can share music, video or other files,” he says, going on »»»

There are hundreds but the most popular are: eDonkey, Shareaza, WinMX, BitTorrent, Limewire, Morpheus, eMule,Ares, BearShare and Kazaa.  Most of these free programs will download an icon to the desktop of the computer. In the case of Limewire.com, you can check your desktop for a Lime icon.  Another similar program, Bearshare.com, puts a Bear icon on your desktop.  To best protect your files, you should consider deleting the program.  Also, it is also a good idea to keep your virus protection software up to date to alert you to regular threats.

So who is this mine of RIAA misinformation?

None other than Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood.

It’s a shame he’s besmirched himself by acting as a corporate music industry front man. He’d previously performed genuinely meritorious public service.

In 2005, “he prosecuted former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen for orchestrating the murder of Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney in Philadelphia, Mississippi over forty years ago,” says the Wikipedia.

These days, “Mississippians, particularly those who are parents, to be aware of the dangers associated with free file sharing programs, primarily those used to download music, he says in a press statement on behalf of the corporate music industry, adding:

“If you are not careful when you download programs such as eDonkey, Limewire, Frostwire, BearShare, Kazaa and Morpheus, you can end up sharing your entire hard drive with other users.”

Thanks, Jim.

Have you asked those who provided you with this information to also find out how many of the people who elected you to office or are being innocently and wrongly victimize by the Big 4?

And do you know these “thieves” and “criminals” include young children?

Meanwhile, have you licensed MediaSentry, the RIAA ‘investigator,’ to operate in your state?

games industry heavies - Don’t sue your customers! — EA Sports boss, August 25, 2008
press statement - Attorney General Issues Cyber Warning, August 21, 2008

p2pnet news view P2P | Music:- “Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA,” p2pnet posted a while back, going on:

“What’s that all about? Well, it’s obvious. Muxtape has a problem with Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA.

“So? Doesn’t everyone? Except Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US), of course.”

But as we, and many others, have oft pointed out: Big 4 efforts to muscle anyone or anything which looks even remotely like a competition are a total waste of time.

Stomp one application and 10 more spring up.

Now, “With web music fan favorite Muxtape currently out of commission due to ‘a problem with the RIAA,’ an open source —- if no more legal —- alternative has appeared,” says SitePoint.

It’s called Opentape and it’s a, “free, open-source package that lets you make and host your own mixtapes on the web,” says the site.

Upload songs (via web or FTP), reorder, rename, customize the style, and share what you like on other sites with an embeddable player, it states unashamedly, going on »»»

Opentape’s creation and design are proudly inspired by Muxtape’s success and sleek interface. We were sad with it’s untimely shutdown and wanted to let the web mixtape movement continue.

We’ve built Opentape from the ground up (last piece directly lifted from Muxtape is the rearrange tool, if you’d like to help us rewrite this contact us).

The demo mixtape is basically a straight up clone of the Muxtape site, says SitePoint.

“The software uses PHP 5, Apache, and requires curl.”

Click here for the Opentape Demo! (Resets every 15 minutes, admin password “test”, link on the bottom.)

problem with the RIAA - RIAA puts the mockers on Muxtape, August 19, 2008
SitePoint - Opentape Sticks It to RIAA with Open Source Muxtape, August 26, 2008

p2pnet news view Mobiles | Games:- Apple has turned corporate enforcer on behalf of Tetris, firing a ‘pull it or else’ order at 19-year-old student Noah Witherspoon from Atlanta, Georgia, the creator of an iPhone Tetris ‘touch’ clone called Tris.

“Well —- I’ve received notice from Apple that they’ve been contacted by The Tetris Company about Tris,” blogs Witherspoon.

And, ” That, I’m afraid, is essentially game over,” he says.

Do they have a case? Witherspoon doesn’t think so, saying he’s convinced if it went to court, the “copyright” claim would get thrown out completely.

“The trademark, perhaps not — but if I changed the name, to e.g. ‘Trys’, that would be much harder for them to argue,” he says, adding:

The trouble is, I’m a college student, and not an affluent one, and I simply do not have the time, energy, or resources to fight this battle right now.

There’s a point at which I am willing to give up and be practical, to let the world have its way with that ever-mistreated little ideal of ‘principle’. Thus, it’s with great sadness that I must announce that I’ll be pulling Tris from the App Store on Wednesday, August 27th, to remain in Apple’s systems but publicly unavailable until I work out a solution to this.

Witherspoon goes, “the approach they’re taking seems to me little more than petty bullying. They [Tetris] have little to no legitimate legal claim, and are, presumably, relying on my being a small developer with insufficient resources to defend myself. And - hey ho - it appears to be working. All I can suggest is that, if you have the slightest interest in playing Tris, you download it while you still can.

And he adds »»»

To clarify: if Apple had not told me they’d “take action” of their own if I didn’t resolve the “dispute”, Tris would be staying up. I don’t think this will be permanent; when I have the time and can find a good copyright lawyer, I’ll be figuring out exactly what my position is and how I can make Tris available again.

Notes MacNN, “The situation resembles a recent dispute over another application, NetShare, which was pulled due to conflicts with some wireless providers. The app allowed users to tether their iPhone to a computer for mobile internet service, which prompted complaints from carriers such as AT&T, who charge as much as $30 per month for a similar service.”

Click here for a download, and we have a copy here for if and when.

Good one, Apple.

Stay tuned.

blogs Witherspoon - Over, for now, August 25, 2008
MacNN - Apple pulls free Tetris clone from iTunes, August 26, 2008

p2pnet news view P2P | Music:- For the first time, thanks to the Net, music lovers can easily find genuine, affordable and, frequently, free alternatives to Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s cookie-cutter, formulaic ‘product’.

Independent artists who are all about the music, not ripping off music lovers and anyone in any way associated with them, are creating exciting new sounds people can enjoy —- without the threat of court cases hanging over their heads.

NewMusicalOrder.org (NMO for short) was launched this August to promote some of the great music legally available online.

It was founded by Dan Nash, a music-loving coder who runs Musoswire, an online store for indie bands and musicians, and Gareth Griffiths, a freelance web designer with a love of open source.

“With the advent of MP3s, illegal downloading and piracy, and the proliferation of ‘do it yourself’ record labels, many musicians (and labels) have decided the best way to reach fans in the digital age is to release some, or all, of their music for free,” says Nash.

NewMusicalOrder.org was created as a one-stop-blog with, in most cases, direct links to downloads.

And it’s not a commercial venture, says Griffiths. He lives 400 miles away from Nash and has never actually met him face to face. “It’s just two guys giving something back for all the free music,” he told p2pnet.

“We do have banners and are accepting advertising, but that’s just to cover our hosting/domain costs. We both work on the site in our own time because we enjoy working on the site and finding new music.”

And, “There are no plans to ever charge for any part of NewMusicalOrder.org,” states Nash. “That would be at odds with our free and legal music philosophy, and I can’t see that changing.”

One of the indie outfits currently featured is Fading Ways Share Vol 6, released under Neil Leyton’s Fading Ways Canadian label.

Or there’s the Super Tennis - EP from Super Tennis, an indie / emotronic (whatever that is ) outfit from North London in the UK.

Check out NMO at http://www.newmusicalorder.org.

You can also subscribe to their RSS feed or follow them on Twitter.

Not only but also, Nash and Griffiths have teamed up with p2pnet’s Jon Newton in a new site with a new way of sharing music online.

What’s it all about? Details later. For now, the name of the site is Global Midi Jam dot com, which should give you a clue.

So stay tuned