Consumerist
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funny
"Don't Copy That 2" Might Scare You Straight, If You Have Never Heard Music Or Seen A Video
At first we thought this was a new Black Eyed Peas video, but then we watched from the beginning and realized that it's actually an attempt to convince you that you should not copy that. Our favorite bit starts at the 2:24 mark, when the little girl's criminal activity leads to government agents bashing down the door to her house and attacking her poor mama.
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file sharing
The Pirate Bay Bought For $7.7 Million, Plans To Evolve Into Legitimate P2P Service
The Swedish gaming company Global Gaming Factory X AB has purchased The Pirate Bay for $7.7 million, and plans to transform the embattled file sharing site into a legitimate peer-to-peer service. "We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site," the buyers said in an ambiguous statement. The Pirate Bay's current administrators did offer up one undeniable truth to comfort the site's fans... More » -
qwest
Qwest Says It's Throttling Customer's Online Video Streaming, Then Says It's Not
Update: It turns out the problem is with OpenDNS, not Qwest. The original post is below. More » -
comcast
The Comcast Throttling Scandal And Its Consequences, Summarized
NPR spoke with Daniel Roth, a senior writer at Wired Magazine, over the file sharing fiasco that Comcast found itself in about a year ago—the one where a Comcast customer discovered that the company was secretly impersonating his computer to interrupt bittorrent transmissions. More » -
tools
Use Google's M-Lab To Test Your Internet Connection
Google has assembled a suite of free tools (developed by researchers, not by Google itself) that let you measure things like BitTorrent throttling, upload/download speeds, and last mile snafus. In exchange for "free," the test data is being made public to enable further study of broadband connections. You might want to bookmark the site for future reference when you're trying to figure out what's going on with your ISP.
M-Lab [Google]
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walmart
Walmart Shuts Down Music Store, Deactivates DRM-Protected Songs
Last week, Walmart sent out emails to its online music store customers letting them know that on October 9th, 2008, they will no longer be able to play any DRM-crippled tracks. Unlike Yahoo, which did the right thing by offering free replacement downloads of unprotected songs when they killed their DRM program, Walmart simply brags about its new unlicensed model and tells you to burn your protected tracks to CD if you really want to listen to them in the future. Good job, Walmart, there goes another betrayed consumer into the welcoming arms of digital piracy. And another. And another... More » -
dmca takedown notices
The Methods That Target DMCA Violators Are Flawed
When we read stories like Tanya Andersen's and consider the countless others who have been wrongfully targeted by trade groups like the RIAA, it becomes evident that the system by which DMCA takedown notices are issued is very far from perfect. For the uninitiated, DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices are official statements which assert that an artist's or company's intellectual rights have been violated (i.e. copyright infringement) and often threaten legal action against an individual. In a study conducted by the University of Washington, researchers proved that this system is seriously flawed, according to the New York Times. In one experiment, the team received takedown notices from the MPAA which accused 3 laserjet printers of downloading the latest Indiana Jones movie and Iron Man. More, inside... More » -
Comcast has defended its BitTorrent blocking by saying it only does it when network congestion is high, but a new study finds that they're doing it basically all the time. [The Inquirer]
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shady
Azureus: Other ISPs May Also Be Throttling BitTorrent
Azureus has released data that suggests that Comcast may not be the only ISP throttling BitTorrent, says TorrentFreak: More » -
BitTorrent tracking site The Pirate Bay was raided by Swedish Police, and now the site claims they found evidence that the chief of police who called the raid was in the employ of Warner Brothers. [The Pirate Bay]
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Trent Reznor's "free sample" music marketing experiment is a success. [Ars Technica]
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net neutrality
Video Of Comcast's Opening Remarks During Net Neutrality Hearing With Seats Stuffed By Company Employees
Here's a video of Comcast VP David Cohen's opening remarks during the FCC hearing on Monday, the one where Comcast bused in employees. These employees all wore yellow highlighters to identify themselves to company organizers. Note the two guys wearing yellow highlighters in the beginning (one tucked into his metal studded leather jacket, the other tucked into his hair like a daisy). They leave as soon as the talking starts. Guess it wasn't that interesting for them. Also note how tiny this room was. For a hot-button issue, you would think they would get a bigger venue. Unless, of course, they didn't want too many people showing up. ArsTechnica has a good summary with quotes of what went down during the panel discussion. -
net neutrality
Comcast Stacks FCC Hearing Seats With Sleepy Shills
Comcast admitted to paying its employees to sit in at a F.C.C. hearing on net neutrality at the Harvard Law School today, depriving angry protesters from their right to sit in those folding chairs. Despite the venue being filled to over capacity, keeping some people from entering, not everyone inside seemed appreciative of their privilege. One Comcast employee admitted on tape, "I'm just getting paid to hold someone's seat, I don't even know what's going on." According to SaveTheInternet.com, the Comcast employees, "arrived en masse some 90 minutes before the hearing began and occupied almost every available seat, upon which many promptly fell asleep." The stacked audience's behavior was limited to wearing a yellow highlighter, sleeping during the proceedings, and loudly applauding when Comcast VP David Cohen got on the mic. More » -
bittorrent
Comcast: No Thanks FCC, Blogosphere Polices Us Just Fine
In the brief Comcast filed arguing that they doesn't need the FCC telling it how not to throttle its customers' internets, Comcast came up with a pretty special explanation:
The self-policing marketplace and blogosphere, combined with vigilant scrutiny from policymakers, provides an ample check on the reasonableness of such [network management] judgments.
So after dissing on the relevance of blogs, Comcast turns around and says that it takes blogs seriously enough that they're a sufficient proxy for FCC regulation. The lawyer that came up with that one deserve a very big M&M cookie.Comcast: The Blogosphere Will Keep Us Honest [IP Democracy] (Thanks to Ninja of the DC!)
Comments Of Comcast Corporation (PDF) -
Comcast has quietly changed their terms of service following the BitTorrent backlash to protect their ass a bit more. [Ars Technica]
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comcast
FCC To Investigate Comcast's Bittorrent Blocking
The FCC announced that it will investigate complaints against Comcast for disrupting BitTorrent traffic. Then again, it wasn't a formal announcement, it was in response to a question posed by Consumer Electronics Association's CEO Gary Shapiro in an interview before a live audience during the big electronics expo. "Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," is what FCC Chair Kevin "Pretty Boy" Martin said exactly. "Sure" is not a word one uses to make a strong statement. He may have just been playing to the crowd. C'mon, it's CES, he knew if he said otherwise he could find a bunch of geeks sitting on his car in the parking lot looking to "reformat his harddive," if you know what I'm saying. More » -
file sharing
EFF Confirms Comcast Mucks With BitTorrent
The elite cyber-squad freedom fighters of the The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released findings today that Comcast does indeed meddle with peer-to-peer file sharing. They're also giving away some software you can install to test your own ISP. The FCC still has yet to respond to complaints and reports of Comcast's interference.
EFF Releases Reports and Software to Spot Interference with Internet Traffic [EFF]
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net neutrality
Tell The FCC, Congress To Support Net Neutrality
Net neutrality advocates are gathering momentum to take Comcast to the woodshed for an old fashioned populist beating. Comcast believes that deliberately destroying connections to the popular communications protocol BitTorrent amounts to "reasonable network management," which the FCC permits. Advocates figure if they can't ride the net neutrality pony to Congressional passage now, it will forever lie dormant in the stable munching on BitTorrent packet hay. More »
bittorrent
New York, 3:50 AM
Mon Nov 9
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