The DEB was rushed “through parliament last April”, says Australia’s IT News, going on: “The British government will soon debate anti-piracy measures under its Digital Economy Act that could see internet service providers (ISPs) bear a quarter of the cost of sending copyright infringement notices”.

“It’s a bizarre way of doing things.”

That was TechDirt’s Mike Masnick on the farce foisted on Britons  by the corporate entertainment industry.

“With the Digital Economy Bill as their means, Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels  are being allowed to throw due process into the garbage can”, I quoted him at the time, adding “Click here to wade through the Hansard transcripts — if you can stand the pain”.

Masnick went on>>>

“Charles Arthur did a nice job blogging the debate, which mostly consisted of a bunch of MPs pointing out how ridiculous it was that this bill was being rushed through without any real debate, followed by Digital Britain Minister Stephen Timms (who has been known to not even remotely understand this issue) got up and basically said “well, too bad.”

As you read through what happened, it’s almost all people protesting what’s in the bill as well as the lack of discussion on the bill, followed by Timms saying:

“My sense is that there is a pretty broad acceptance across the house… that legislation is appropriate for dealing with it. There is definitely significant harm to the creative industries… estimated at £400m for the music, film and TV industries in the impact assessment of the bill… this is a very serious problem.”

That £400 number is totally made up (apparently, at yesterday’s event various other numbers were thrown around as well).

But the bigger point is that Timms is basically lying.

There was not “pretty broad acceptance” in the house that the legislation was appropriate, or even that there is significant harm to the creative industries. The debate was almost entirely against the bill. Still, as with yesterday, the chambers were not particularly full for the debate, but a bunch of MPs who don’t really understand or care about this issue showed up at the end and voted, so the final tally came to: 189 votes to shove it through, and only 47 against.

The only real “concession” was the dropping of the hugely controversial clause 18, giving the gov’t excessive powers to adjust copyright law in the future. Of course, when that first came out, I wondered if the whole point of clause 18 was to draw the fire of consumer groups, let it be dropped, while everything else got shoved through. It looks like that may be what happened. Update: Or not. Further analysis from folks suggests that while Clause 18 may not have made it into the bill, what was in the clause did, in fact, still make it into the bill. So it’s even worse than before. Lovely.

Those who wanted a full debate on the bill basically had no chance. Despite criticizing the bill heavily, the gov’t basically said the debate was over, and apparently those who had been debated started shouting “Nooo!!!” As Arthur writes in his live blog:

That big shout of “Nooo!!!” could have been a thousand souls crying out as one at the sight of the government shoving through 41 clauses of a bill

And there you go. The entertainment industry gets its ridiculous anti-consumer copyright law with no real attempt at debate or amendment in the House of Commons. Concerns raised about how this bill could force the blocking of Wikileaks or the shutdown of internet access at small business? Ignored.

“Of course, as with every other country that passes such backwards legislation, don’t expect it to do anything to actually help the entertainment industry as it continues to seek backwards looking legislative solutions, rather than forward looking business model solutions”, sates TechDirt, adding:

“The legacy entertainment industry will surely celebrate this ‘victory,’ but let’s check back in a bit and see what it did to their bottom lines.”

Meanwhile, Digital Opportunity, A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth, the report mentioned at the top of this article, states “Lawmakers need to use evidence to shape copyright policy and not be swayed by ‘lobbynomics’’.

“On copyright issues, lobbying on behalf of rights owners has been more persuasive to Ministers than economic impact assessments,” according to Professor Ian Hargreaves, who led the review.

As Hargreaves noted in his foreword “the Review was needed, the PM said, because of the risk that the current intellectual property framework might not be sufficiently well designed to promote innovation and growth in the UK economy.

“No one has yet discovered a mechanism for incentivising the deceased,” the report noted, urging the government to limit regulation to “the provision of incentives to creators”.

Existing copyright laws negatively impacted the economy in a variety of ways, by forbidding consumers from changing the format of copyrighted material, preventing libraries making digital archives and blocking researchers’ access to copyrighted data, says IT News.

(Cheers, Phil)

p2pnet view P2P | Freedom | Entertainment |

Digital locks, usage based billing, throttling, web censorship, and they are also strong supporters of the new iPod levy on digital objects that play digital files. They are also willing to give some leeway on Net Neutrality as long as ISPs comply with some simple rules. Retain everything on everyone for no less than 180 days, “for law enforcement purposes”. Ya, right, and I also write articles for Forbes… The data retention caveat is primarily to appease the demands of the MAFIAA in order to begin exploiting their customers in the courts. As near as I can tell, not being Canadian, is that Canada has the closest balance between consumers and content providers in the known world.

Note that I did not call Canadian Copyright balanced, but the closest balance I have seen in the free world. Similar to Spain and Denmark (which both are about to change rapidly, and will no longer be examples), Canada has some of the last vestiges of consumer friendly snippets in its’ copyright regime that few other countries enjoy. And yet, year after year, the MAFIAA places Canada on the Special 301 report, mainly because they refuse to bow to the cartel’s demands – digital locks, iPod levies and data retention for civil prosecution. I thought I would never type that headline, but in the face of overwhelming lobbying by the MAFIAA, Telcos, ISPs, content providers, and the aging musicians, anytime the public themselves gets and inch back from the draconian copyright cartels, it has to be considered a win. With the elections looming, the parties have put their cards on the table…

The Conservatives:

• want anti-spam legislation, which is good
• defended the fair dealing reform of C-32
• pressured the CRTC to reconsider Usage Based Billing (UBB)
• refused to budge on the digital locks provision, including electronic device levies
• want steadfast lawful access legislation requiring ISPs to retain data on its’ customers, “for law enforcement purposes”. More like the first step in facilitating copyright infringement lawsuits similar to the ones we have here in the United States, the “pay-up-or-else” business model
• mostly want to just sweep this under the carpet until after the election

After protestors to the Digital Economy Strategy compiled over 300,000 signatures in protest, the National Democratic Party (NDP) took notice, and modified their platform accordingly…

The NDP want:

• enshrinement of “Net Neutrality”, forcing ISPs to be “dumb pipes”, and nothing more
• to end price gouging and net throttling by prohibiting Usage Based Billing, with clear rules for ISPs that will be enforced by the CRTC
• introduction of a bill for copyright reform to review Canada’s stance concerning international obligations, while balancing consumer and creator rights
• to rescind the 2006 Conservative industry-orientated directives, and require the CRTC regulator stand up for public interests, and not just Big Content and the telecommunications industries (namely Bell/Rogers)

So, it looks like there is going to be copyright reform in Canada, whether Canada wants it or not. The question remains, will the Canadian people stand up for whats right?

It seems they already have with the massive protests concerning C-32 and all the publicity it has created. Dr. Michael Geist does an impressive job of keeping the public on Canada informed concerning copyright issues, and you should really read his blog if you are Canadian, and even if your not Canadian, it gives you very good insight in how the MAFIAA is attempting to subvert governments all over the world to their demands.

What it looks like to me is the NDP is pro-consumer, while the Conservatives are pro-MAFIAA. A rather oversimplification I realize, but it is not hard to see where loyalties lie in reading the Digital Economy Platform for each party. So the question remains; will Canadians vote in the NDP and potentially get some consumer friendly legislation out of the deal, or will Canadians vote for the Conservative party, that apparently wants to serve up Canadian citizens to the MAFIAA as hors d’œuvres?

Stay Tuned…

surfer – p2pnet
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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They’ve re- elected him to the board, “rejecting the views of proxy advisers who say health issues may impair his ability to serve”, says Bloomberg News, going on:

“Jobs, 56, was re-elected with 12 other nominees at the shareholder meeting today in Salt Lake City, with 74 percent of the votes cast backing the group, according to a preliminary count. The Apple executive, absent from the meeting, owns 7.3 percent of Disney and is the largest shareholder.

“The advisory group Glass Lewis & Co. recommended investors withhold support for Jobs, citing his absence from meetings. Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc., stopping short of urging rejection, said Jobs’s attendance and ‘recent leave of absence from his primary employer, raises questions about his ability to fulfill his responsibilities as a director’.”

Jobs recently handed the reins of power to Apple COO Tim Cook when he went on another medical leave, saying “I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can”, p2pnet said recently.

But is he dying?

According to Radar Online, which in turn quotes supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer, Jobs had been “attending the Stanford Cancer Center” where Patrick Swayze “sought radical chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer before his death in September, 2009″.

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Bloomberg News – Steve Jobs Re-Elected to Disney Board Over Health Concerns, March 23, 2011
p2pnet – Is Steve Jobs close to death?, February 17, 2011
Radar Online – Steve Jobs Receiving Treatment At Cancer Clinic Where Patrick Swayze Was Patient, February 16, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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Says the Telegraph >>>

Beautiful, glamorous, sexy, the actress was almost as well known for her colourful personal life as for her gigantic acting talent (remember her in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Giant?). For decades, she was one half of the world’s most famous couple: she and Richard Burton married, divorced, re-married, amidst rows and passionate reunions that were played out in public nightclubs and newspapers around the globe. The two volcanic actors sparked more gossip than Brangelina ever could. Unlike Angelina Jolie, Taylor never claimed to be earth mother or save the world: her full attention was, always, directed at herself and the love of her life (of the moment).

In later years, her high-maintenance character, peerless jewellery and many husbands turned Dame Elizabeth into a camp icon. She was feted more by Elton John and Gianni Versace than by the world’s playboys. But her appeal, even as her health grew more fragile and her beauty more a shadow of its former self, hardly wavered: for this was one star who never concealed the sadness of her celebrity life. There is no point in denying it: she cut an unhappy figure – so intensely so, that her personal tragedies became public dramas in themselves. Whether it was her broken heart or her broken health, Liz Taylor hid nothing from the public she loved. But they loved her back, right to the end.

“She survived a brain tumour, suffered from a heart condition and reportedly broke her back on five separate occasions”, says the Guardian.

“In later life, she was largely confined to a wheelchair as a result of osteoporosis. Yet until today, there was something resilient about Elizabeth Taylor – a fighting spirit belied by her famous good looks. ‘I’ve been through it all, baby,’ she once boasted. ‘I’m Mother Courage’.”

She was 79.

(Cheers, Andrew aka comeoncomcast)

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Telegraph – Elizabeth Taylor, the first star to expose the dark side of celebrity, dies, March 23, 2011
Guardian – Elizabeth Taylor dies aged 79, March 23, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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(Cheers, surfer)

Follow me on Twitter.

March, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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“Today’s post centers on a silly feud between bickering members of the big, new dysfunctional AOL family — TechCrunch and Moviefone — now under the viselike embrace of headmistress Arianna Huffington. But it’s also about who owns the news and what can happen as a result.”

Nicely put, as only InfoWorld’s Robert X. Cringely can do it.

It also highlights a collaboration between a Hollywood studio and Fa$ebook resulting in a really dumb game that’s also a thinly veiled data mining operation.

A(ss)OL, as the company was once popularly know, now owns all three, as well as Engadget and others, with la Huffintgon presiding, and TechCrunch’s Alexis Tsostis saw a screening of Summit’s The Source Code which, says the story, “sounds like yet another truly lame Hollywood take on high tech. (Plot synopsis: Military guy uses computer ’source code’ to enter the brain of a terrorist and prevent him from blowing things up. Think ‘The Matrix”‘ meets every other ‘thriller’ you’ve ever seen.)”

Tsostis interviewed the star of the film (Jake Gyllenhaal) and “wrote a brief, less-than-reverent blog post about how the movie is being marketed to geeks, including an unbelievably silly Facebook ‘game’ the studio concocted to promote the film”, it goes on.

Result?

“Apparently, the post was not enough of a blowjob for Summit, and they let it be known to the AOL person at Moviefone who hooked us up with them in the first place”, says Alexis on TechCrunch.

This generated a smarmy email from Moviefone/AOL Television.  It went like this:

“First wanted to thank you for covering Source Code/attending the party, etc. But also wanted to raise a concern that Summit had about the piece that ran.”

(Did Moviefone/AOL Television think they were sending a telegram? You know, where you have to pay for words used?)

Summit “felt it was a little snarky and wondered if any of the snark can be toned down?” – says the email, adding >>>

I wasn’t able to view the video interviews but I think their issue is just with some of the text. Let me know if you’re able to take another look at it and make any edits. I know of course that TechCrunch has its own voice and editorial standards, so if you have good reasons not to change anything that’s fine, I just need to get back to Summit with some sort of information. Let me know.

Says Alexis, it “deserves a re-publish here for the following reasons” >>>

a) We’ve made a loose promise that if AOL ever asked us if we could change our coverage in any way, that we’d immediately publish it. Moviefone is part of AOL, so here you go. [What's a "loose promise"?]

b) It highlights a key difference between the Hollywood and Silicon Valley media ecosystem. Granted, it’s common for the press to trade access for positive coverage across all industries (eh hem, Apple), but nowhere is it more prevalent than in the stratified environs of the movie and television industry. It’s almost like a petri dish for media manipulation.

c) What I didn’t understand when writing my candid opinion about the movie and its marketing strategy was that Summit thought that by inviting me to their party they were basically buying a puff piece. The thought never crossed my mind, mainly because I cover startups, and startups, unlike Hollywood stars, want to talk to the press.

“And while it’s inappropriate, it’s not surprising”, she says. “What is surprising, and sad, is that Moviefone/AOL actually tried to comply with their request and asked us to change our post.  It’s not just sad, it’s wrong.

“So no AOL, and Moviefone, and Summit, I will absolutely not tone down my snark. This is Silicon Valley, not Hollywood.”

What got Summit’s knickers in a twist?

Said her TechCrunch review, “What’s more interesting than the story line is the fact that the Summit Entertainment has built the Facebook game ‘The Source Code Mission’ in order to promote the film, the first ‘cross-platform, trans-media campaign that transports audiences into the movie narrative using social media game play’,” adding:

“Okay but what does this buzzwordgasm mean? Well that fans can scan in Microsoft Tag codes they find on Source Code movie posters and other sundry swag, or visit Facebook or the movie’s actual site (http://mission.enterthesourcecode.com/) in order to complete ’social media tasks’ which basically amount to posting thinly veiled promotion about the movie onto their Facebook walls. If a user completes all five tasks, their profile image becomes part of a ‘movie poster’ on the Enter The Source Code website, Influencer Project style.”

The Fa$ebook thingie

The hero, captain Colter Stevens, has “recruited you to Enter The Source Code” (DA DA!), says the movie Fa$ebook thingie, stating >>>

CLICK CONNECT TO GET STARTED!

In SOURCE CODE, Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) has 8 minutes to find the bomber of a commuter train. But he needs your assistance.

Your mission is to help him gather clues by completing the 5 tasks below.

Click “Connect” to get started now!

1. Identify
Log in to Facebook Connect. Your profile image will become your identity.

2. Inform
Where are you stationed? Post your location on your Facebook wall.

3. Investigate
Post something you overhear in a nearby conversation, or something you see in your line of sight.

4. Locate
Use Google Maps to locate the nearest train station and record your distance from it.

5. Recruit
Select a Facebook friend to help you on your Mission.

And “After you complete these 5 tasks, your profile image will become part of an animated movie poster on the SOURCE CODE website”, it says.

You also get a badge “for each task completed” which you “can share with others”.

Wowee!

But you have to have proven IQ of 10 or below to be eligible, says the fine print.

Who gets to share the data mined, one wonders?

No need to answer.

(Cheers, catflap)

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InfoWorld – AOL and the Fight for Editorial Independence, March 16, 2011
la Huffintgon – AOL swallows the Huffington Post, February 7, 2011
TechCrunch – AOL Asks Us If We Can Tone It Down, March 15, 2011
TechCrunch – Jake Gyllenhaal Movie ‘Source Code’ Markets Itself To Techies, March 12, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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Giving entertainment cartel — sorry, Obama government — IP czarina Victoria (seen here with US vice president Joe ‘Hollywood’ Biden) a hearty Attagirl, “We thank Victoria Espinel for recognizing the danger posed to our workforce by theft, both in the online and physical marketplace, and by making the protection of the creative workers and their craft a top priority”, says Pisano, going on:

“These legislative recommendations address the evolving marketplace and new ways that criminals are stealing, trafficking, and profiting off the creative work of the millions of men and women who work in our industry. Among the proposals is a recommendation to classify streaming, now a common method of illicitly distributing television and motion pictures, a felony under appropriate circumstances.”

Pisano adds >>>

Closing the legal gap between two methods of equally destructive illegal behavior – unauthorized downloading and streaming – adds more clarity to intellectual property law and, frankly, makes good common sense. Both the House and Senate are examining this issue and we look forward to working closely with them and the Administration to combat this escalating threat.

Translated, adding “more clarity to intellectual property law” means making it even more obscure than it is already, giving cartel lawyers even more ways to confuse the issues.

Nor does Pisano explain what constitutes ‘illegal streaming’, or who decides exactly what that is.

Meanwhile, “US president Barak Obama has ordered the set up of two interagency ‘advisory committees’ to theoretically oversee his government’s enforcement of intellectual property laws”, said p2pnet recently, going on:

“In fact, they represent further hijacking by the entertainment cartels of taxpayer funded resources meant to serve the public, not corporate entities which answer only to their shareholders and investors.

“ ‘A senior advisory committee composed of members of the president’s Cabinet will help update the government-wide strategy for IP enforcement as mandated by law’, says The Hill.

“This would more properly read ‘as mandated by Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels’.

“ ‘A second advisory committee will help coordinate enforcement efforts by the administration’, says the story, noting, ‘Both committees will be chaired by Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel’.”

Stay tuned as the corporate movie and music industries slowly but surely turn the Obama government in a cartel division.

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p2pnet – Obama’s new copyright ‘advisory committees’, February 10, 2011
The Hill – White House establishes intellectual property advisory committees, February 11, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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Since he was fire — sorry, resigned from — the MPAA, Dan ‘The Joker’ Glickman has been spiraling ever downwards in new jobs, now coming to rest at the Aspen Institute (?).

He “succeeds founder Dick Clark, a former US Senator, who is retiring after nearly 30 years leading the program”, says the organisation, adding:

” Glickman will be based out of the Institute’s Washington, DC headquarter offices and begins in his new position on April 1″, an appropriate date, we feel.

Will this be his last new job?

Stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter.

another bullshi – Dodd confirmed as new MPAA boss, March 3, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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She “sent out an emotional thank you message to dad-to-be Benjamin Millepied, gushing, ‘I’d like to thank my beautiful Benjamin who choreographed the film and has now given me my most important role of my life’.”

And ex-Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (right) saw that as an opportunity to generate ink and bytes, launching a “scathing rant” at Portman, accusing her of “encouraging impressionable youngsters to have children out of wedlock”, says the Toronto Sun.

Huckabee is quoted as telling radio host Michael Medved, “You know Michael, one of the things that’s troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, ‘Hey look, you know, we’re having children, we’re not married, but we’re having these children,’ and they’re doing just fine.

“But there aren’t really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can’t get a job, and if it weren’t for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that’s the story that we’re not seeing, and it’s unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of (out-of-wedlock children).”

Now you know.

The story doesn’t say if Huckabee dispensed similar pearls of wisdom about Bristol Sheeran Marie Palin, the eldest daughter of ex-Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

Palin — Bristol, that is — also got pregnant when she wasn’t married and is now reportedly making lotsa bucks lecturing on teen pregnancy, another opportunity denied to most unwed teen mothers.

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Made for Mums – Pregnant Natalie Portman and new mum Penelope Cruz at the Oscars, February 28, 2011
Toronto Sun – Mike Huckabee slams pregnant Portman, March 4, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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Failed presidential candidate Chris Dodd has been named as the new official mouthpiece for Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures, the corporate movie studios known colloquially as ‘Hollywood’.

He replaces Dan ‘The Joker’ Glickman, another ex-politician who transferred to Refugees International after his sudden and unexpected departure from the MPAA (Motionless Picture Association of America).

Glickman didn’t last long there either and his last known job was “senior fellow in residence” at the Bipartisan Policy Center (?).

Now Dodd is slated to start work on March 17 to “revive” the MPAA’s “diminished influence”, as the New York Times puts it.

The story has association spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman objecting to the contention that the MPAA’s “heyday had passed, pointing to a long list of accomplishments in recent months”, a major victory coming last May “with the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of home entertainment technology to prevent consumers from recording pay-per-view movies”.

Kaltman “also cited the organization’s work in encouraging colleges and universities to address movie theft on campus”, says the story.

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sudden and unexpected departure – Ex-MPAA boss Glickman’s new new job, June 23, 2010
New York Times – Motion Picture Industry Group Names Ex-Senator Dodd as Its New Chief, March 1, 2011
address movie theft – RIAA, MPAA, pressure US schools, March 22, 2008

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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But now the studios have suffered another ignominious fail.

For the second time, the Australian federal court has ruled iiNet can’t be held liable for for something its customers might, or might not, have done.

“Justice Dennis Cowdroy’s landmark February 2010 ruling was upheld in which he dismissed allegations by Hollywood studios that Perth ISP iiNet had authorised its customers to infringe copyright online”, says Australian IT.

Now the company wants bygones to be bygones, imparting a little spin of its own.

“While fighting iiNet in the courts, many of these movie studios have signed content deals with us
through our television service, fetchtv”, says iiNet CEO Michael Malone (right) in a company statement.

“The success of fetchtv was a clear and successful demonstration of the benefits of these partnerships and Australians’ strong desire to access affordable legitimate content.”

(Cheers, Filip and Tom)

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Australian IT – AFACT online copyright appeal against iiNet dismissed, February 24, 2011
company statement – iiNet again welcomes Federal Court Judgment, February 24, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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But the figures about job losses and economic impact are just plain wrong, said Glyn Moody in an email.

Here’s his Open post in the subject >>>

I’ve noted elsewhere that there is a major piece of FUD being put about by content producers: that piracy causes massive damage to a country’s economy. But as that post explained with regard to the BSA’s claims about the harm of software piracy, here’s the reality:

Reducing software piracy will not magically conjure up those hundreds of billions of dollars of economic growth that the BSA invokes, or create huge numbers of new jobs: it will simply move the money around – in fact, it will send more of it outside local economies to the US, and reduce the local employment.

The basic idea is really pretty simple to understand. When people make unauthorised copies of content or software, they save money. But that doesn’t mean they put it in a bank: human nature being what it is, that money is generally spent elsewhere in the local economy.

And yet despite the simplicity of this crucial idea, report after report seems to have difficulty grasping it. Here’s another [.pdf], this time on film piracy, put together by UK Ipsos MediaCT and Oxford Economics for AFACT (the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft). The top-line “results”:

6,100 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs were forgone across the entire economy (equivalent to more than six times the number of job cuts announced by Telstra in October 2010) including nearly 2,300 forgone directly by the movie industry and retailers. These impacts of piracy on employment persist as long as piracy persists.

Allowing for effects on other industries, some A$1,370m in Gross Output (Sales) was lost across the entire Australian economy.

This was equivalent to a loss of GDP of A$551m across the Australian economy – reducing national economic growth and Australia’s ability to invest in its future.

Tax losses are A$193m, representing money that government could employ for other social uses in areas such as education and healthcare.

What’s sad is that the report does try to make reasonable assumptions about piracy:

We do not assume that every pirate version equates to a lost sale.

We do allow for ‘sampling’ – those who see an authorised version subsequent to the pirate version are not treated as contributing to lost revenue. In fact, we make the very cautious assumption that no lost revenue results from piracy if any authorised version is seen subsequently.

We do allow for ‘over-claim’ – we apply a ‘downweight’ to those claiming they would have paid for an authorised version (had the pirate version not been available).

But this laudable attempt at rigour is completely undermined by the fact that nowhere in the report is there any recognition that all this “lost” money does *not* disappear, but is simply channelled elsewhere in the Australian economy, where it might actually create more jobs than it would if spent on films (because of revenue outflows to the US, and the fact that local money would be spent on more labour-intensive industries like retailing or catering.) Similarly, it *does* produce tax revenue for the Australian government, just from different sources.

“It would be far more conducive to producing an honest debate about the *real* effects of unauthorised copies on national economies if these key facts were included for a change; by continuing to ignore them, these misleading and one-sided reports amount to little more than industry propaganda”, Moody adds on Open.

And on BSA reports, if it “sounds too bad to be true” it “might not be true”, p2pnet has quoted Britain’s The Economist as saying, referring to numbers from another ‘piracy study‘ commissioned by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).

“The association’s figures rely on sample data that may not be representative, assumptions about the average amount of software on PCs and, for some countries, guesses rather than hard data,” it said.

“Moreover, the figures are presented in an exaggerated way by the BSA and International Data Corporation (IDC), a research firm that conducts the study. They dubiously presume that each piece of software pirated equals a direct loss of revenue to software firms.”

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p2pnet – Australians are robbing Hollywood blind, February 17, 2011
Open – The Economic Consequences of Piracy, February 17, 2011
p2pnet – Spain ‘ravaged’ by piracy!, June 1, 2010
piracy study – The Economist angers BSA, June 15, 2005

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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‘Economic consequencesof movie piracy, AUSTRALIA’, an exciting new screenplay scripted by IPSOS MediaCT and Oxford Economics (?) for MPAA appendage FACT (other name, Federation Against Copyright Theft) makes these two statements as though they’re accurate and originate with reliable sources >>>

• 6,100 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) jobs were forgone across the entire economy (equivalent to more than six times the number of job cuts announced by Telstra in October 2010) including nearly 2,300 forgone directly by the movie industry and retailers. These impacts of piracy on employment persist as long as piracy persists.
• Allowing for effects on other industries, some A$1,370m in Gross Output (Sales) was lost across the entire Australian economy.
• This was equivalent to a loss of GDP of A$551m across the Australian economy – reducing national economic growth and Australia’s ability to invest in its future.
• Tax losses are A$193m, representing money that government could employ for other social uses in areas such as education and health care.

And # 2 >>>

• Direct consumer spending losses to the movie industry, i.e. cinema owners, local distributors, producers and retailers, were A$575m – equivalent to more than three times the combined revenues of AFL clubs Collingwood, Hawthorn, Carlton and Geelong.
• A third of the Australian adult population (aged 18+) is active in some form of movie piracy (downloading, streaming, buying counterfeit, borrowing unauthorised, burning), with an estimated 92m pirated movies obtained or watched in the 12 months up to Q3 2010.
• Both borrowing and viewing pirated copies are high volume piracy activities. Overall the highest volume of pirated movie content is from receiving digital copies of movies – an activity that accounts for a quarter of all pirated movies.
• Just under half (45%) of all people consuming pirated movies claim they would have paid to view the movie via an authorised channel had the unauthorised channel not been available.
  A$1,370m

Meanwhile, somehow, somehow, Hollywood routinely reports mind-bending, eye-popping revenues in the billions of dollars, year after year, each year better than the last.

No need to stay tuned.

(Cheers, Filip)

Follow me on Twitter.

February, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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But ‘not if we have anything to say about it’, states Hollywood’s MPAA (Motionless Picture Association of America)

Hotfile “facilitates the theft of copyrighted motion picture and television properties on a staggering scale and profits handsomely from encouraging and providing the means for massive copyright infringement”, says the Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures outfit, going on:

“Hotfile’s business model encourages and incentivizes users to upload files containing illegal copies of motion pictures and TV shows to its servers and to third-party sites, so unlimited users can download the stolen content – in many cases tens of thousands of times.”

Incentivizes? heh. Good one.

What to do? What to DO?

Sue ‘em, of course.

“Hotfile is operated by Anton Titov, a foreign national residing in Florida”, says the MPAA in a statement implying foreign nationals are undesirables.

“The studios are suing Hotfile and Titov for direct infringement for unlawfully distributing copyrighted works, inducement of infringement, contributory infringement and vicarious infringement, for actively promoting, enabling and profiting from their users’ copyright infringement”, spouts the Hollywood organ.

Says MPAA mouthperson Daniel Mandil, “Digital theft is not just a Hollywood problem. It’s an American problem. More than 2.4 million hardworking, middle-class Americans spanning all 50 states rely on the motion picture and television industry for their livelihoods. For all these workers and their families, digital theft means declining incomes, lost jobs and reduced health and retirement benefits.”

Middle-class, eh? By default, it means all those two-faced, stinking rich, coke-sniffing, lying Hollywood executives are still on easy street.

No need to stay tuned, but for more on this feel free to contact:

MPAA Los Angeles
Elizabeth Kaltman
(818) 995-6600
Elizabeth_kaltman@mpaa.org

MPAA Washington, D.C.
Howard Gantman
(202) 293-1966
Howard_gantman@mpaa.org

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February, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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That’s the main premise of a manifesto so far (5:31 am Pacific) signed by 1,827 people.

The trouble is: by signing it they effectively label themselves as thieves when nothing has been stolen, and no one has been permanently, or in any other way, deprived of something they used to own.

And can you illegally download a movie? When you opened your net account, did you sign a contract promising never to download copyrighted material, if you even know that’s what it is?

There’s also a third problem. You have to use either Fa$ebook or Twitter to sign the DON’T MAKE ME STEAL Digital Media Consumption Manifesto.

So if you’re not on either of them, and lots of people aren’t …

Meanwhile, here’s the manifesto >>>

Pricing

In general I want the pricing model to be simple and transparent. I don’t mind a slight difference in pricing between movies with regard to the age of the movie.

Rentals should not exceed 1/3 of the cinema price.
Purchases should not exceed the cinema price.
Monthly flat rate prices should not exceed 3 visits to the cinema.
Pricing of TV shows is about 1/3 of movies.
Payments are for the content, not bandwidth.

Languages

I can obtain the audio in every language produced for the content.
After purchasing a movie, all the languages are available.
Fans are legally allowed to create and share subtitles for any content.

Convenience

The content I paid for is instantly available.
Content is delivered without ads, or infringement warnings.
I can find movies or TV shows by year, director, language, country, genre, IMDB ID, etc.

Choice And Release Dates

The release date is global. There are no limits regarding the country you live in.
I can download nearly every movie ever made.

Rights

I can watch the movie on any device, without any differences in how the movie is presented.
Movies are not bound to the service provider, and must be DRM-free.
I can easily understand my rights regarding movies that I rent, buy, or stream at a flat rate

Stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter.

February, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

He was a studio dancer.

You can see a much younger Obama as the barman in this music video shot in 1987 in an athletic club studio in West London, England.

Under the pseudonym Versey Slate, he was paid the equivalent of $2.50 an hour and had to fetch tea for the singer when he wasn’t on-set.

Click here for the full monty, and start watching at about 0:55.

The video went on to become one of the most (in)famous online with the star getting all of the credit and Obama, who performs some impressive stunts, none.

But he fixed that years later.

(Cheers, Em)

Follow me on Twitter.

January, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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The first of the trilogy (or so we were told) was great, the second, meh, the third, pffft.

Now we’re in for The Matrix 4 and 5, says Slashdot, quoting AintItCool quoting Reeves as stating he “met the Wachowski’s (no emphasis on the word brothers), for lunch over Christmas and stated that they had completed work on a two picture script treatment that would see him return to the world of the matrix as Neo”, going on >>>

Says the brothers have met with Jim Cameron to discuss the pro’s and con’s of 3D and are looking to deliver something which has never been seen again. keanu stated that he still has an obligation to the fans to deliver a movie worthy of the title “The Matrix” and he swears this time that the treatment will truly revolutionise the action genre like the first movie.

Promises, promises.

Still, with Cameron involved, the two Canadians might pull it off.

Follow me on Twitter.

AintItCool – The Keanu talks MATRIX 4 (3D) & Warners pays $5 million for Wachowski’s HOOD starring Will Smith?!?!, January 23, 2011
Slashdot – The Matrix Re-Reloaded, January 24, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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So when are we going to read about what must be scores of Hollywood insiders who are posting them?

Way back, then MPAA boss Jack Valenti wanted the practice of sending out ’screeners’, movies on closed lists meant to tout them as Oscar possibles, halted.

But still they’re very much out there and as far as we can see, more and more of them are turning up on the P2P networks.

Currently online are screeners for Frankie and Alice, Mindhunters, Tideland and Blue Valentine [edited clip from an index site], to name only four.

“For awards consideration ONLY. Property of Paramount Pictures Corporation” is on downloads of True Grit, the remake of the famous John Wayne Flick which is now widely, and readily, available online, said p2pnet recently, going on:

“But who put it there?

“It certainly wasn’t a kid with a cam. And it’s appearance is very, very far from being a unique occurrence.

“Screeners for new flicks, before and after official release, show up online all the time. But where’s the outrage from official Hollywood screamer the MPAA?

“There’s rarely a murmur.”

Stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter.

halted – ‘Paranoia-tinged screening’, November 23, 2004
p2pnet – True Grit screener online, January 3, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed

Constructed for the US Chamber of Commerce, it’s “about counterfeiting and ‘piracy’ in general terms”, we said, going on, “But, big surprise, file sharing gets most of the attention.

“According to the company, it’s responsible for more than a quarter of the guestimated $200 billion in lost sales.”

The MarkMonitor “findings” are a “call to arms for both government and the private sector”, says Hollywood’s MPAA, going on >>>

As the report demonstrates, a small number of rogue websites are generating mind-boggling traffic in pirated content. Billions of visits to these easily searchable websites — the vast majority of which are hosted in North America or Western Europe — translate into billions in lost revenue and lost American jobs. At a time of economic hardship, government and industry simply cannot stand by and allow businesses built on theft to flourish unimpeded and thereby handicap legitimate innovation and job creation. These websites and their operators are in our backyards; their lawlessness cannot be tolerated. We call on all concerned parties to redouble their efforts to address this scourge through vigorous law enforcement and robust inter-industry cooperation.

We will also work closely with Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy and House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith to secure passage of effective legislation to stop these rogue websites. All those concerned about the most creative and innovative sectors of our economy should do the same.

At least the latter two sentences reflect reality.

For “secure passage” read “create”.

Messrs Leahy and Smith are enthusiastic supporters of the entertainment cartels and will no doubt bend over backwards to be helpful.

Stay tuned for something from the RIAA?

Follow me on Twitter.

p2pnet – New schlock-horror ‘piracy study’, January 12, 2011

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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In a CNET News comment piece headed up Stopping illegal file sharing a low priority for DOJ?, “after reading reports from the FBI and Department of Justice about efforts to protect the nation’s intellectual property, I was stunned to find so few cases involving online file sharing”, he says.

Stunned?

The RIAA filed some 40,000 anti-file sharing subpoenas against innocent Americans, including very young children. But the Big 4 extortion unit only managed to get two cases in front of a jury, both of which did more to further besmirch the already dirt-smeared names of the Big 4 record labels who rule corporate music — Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but headed by a Canadian) — than to have any appreciable impact on downloading or uploading.

All the failed, six-year Big 4 Sue ‘Em All campaign achieved was to massively publicise both practices.

Among the “significant” prosecutions the DOJ listed in 2010, only one involved the illegal distribution of digital media over the Web, writes Sandoval.

“In April, the DOJ won a conviction against the operator of USAwarez.com, a site that the feds claim used the Web to distribute pirated movies, games, and software”, he says. “The man was sentenced to more than two years in jail. Contrast this one conviction with the scores of sites that stream pirated movies and the millions of people around the world who use peer-to-peer networks to access unauthorized copies of films, TV shows, e-books, and games.”

CNET News goes on to repeat the hoary old “Media companies say piracy costs the U.S. economy billions and kills jobs, harming actors and musicians as well as caterers and truck drivers” line, continuing, “A bill introduced in the Senate last year called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act would have given the government sweeping power to shut down U.S.-based pirate sites as well as the authority to order Internet service providers to cut off access to similar sites overseas.”

But “Opponents called the legislation censorship” and “The bill never got out of the Senate and its future is unclear.”

Tsk tsk.

As for the DOJ, “it appears the FBI and other agencies under its umbrella are making plenty of arrests for counterfeiting and copyright infringement”, says Sandoval, “But the kind of cases the department pursues speaks volumes.”

‘Protecting the health and safety of U.S. citizens’

In a 28-page report report, “the DOJ provides a list of its priorities”, says the post, continuing:

“No. 1 is protecting the health and safety of U.S. citizens. The DOJ reported that it successfully prosecuted people involved in the sale of fake cancer drugs, phony airplane parts, and dubious pharmaceuticals. Who can argue with that?”

Indeed. So why bring it up?

“Next on the DOJ’s list was taking down organized criminal networks, followed by the prosecution of large scale commercial counterfeiting”, says the OpEd, and, “Last was protecting the country’s trade secrets and battling economic espionage.”

But “the DOJ had little to say about digital music or movies”, he says, observing, “The only other action involving digital media in the DOJ’s report besides the USAwarez prosecution was a seizure last June of nine alleged pirate site domain names as part of a joint operation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.”

Riiiiight.

“With the shut down of domain names of nine alleged ‘movie pirate’ sites, taxpayer funded copyright cops, acting for, and on behalf of, Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels, have massively escalated their corporate-controlled attacks on P2P communities”, said p2pnet at the time, noting:

“Not at all incidentally, ‘Piracy is theft’, Hollywood Joe Biden, vice president of the United States of America, recently said in support of the corporate entertainment cartels, going on, ‘It’s smash and grab. It ain’t no different than smashing a window at Tiffany’s … ‘

“The occasion ‘was the unveiling of Victoria Espinel’s official strategy to “combat intellectual property theft”, as posted on the White House blog‘”, said p2pnet.

Biden was there with her, we had another CNet News story stating, and, “Through reporters”, she “issued a warning to those who infringe on U.S. intellectual property rights”, it said. “We have committed to putting you out of business,” it also had her stating, “adding that copyright owners who are losing money to piracy can rest assure [sic]  ‘help is on the way’.”

Biden and Espinel’s comments will be “welcomed by the large Hollywood studios and recording companies”, said CNet News, noting “The Obama administration has appeared very sympathetic to their antipiracy efforts.

Department of Homeland Security

In his comment piece, “It should be noted that ICE is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and not the DOJ”, says Sandoval, adding:

“In November, ICE oversaw a seizure of an additional 82 site domains, some of which were distributing digital music and films online. There’s no mention of arrests in either ICE operation.”

Riiiiight.

That was the ‘operation’ of which the EFF’s Corynne McSherry said, “It’s hard to believe that this kind of action is the best use of the Department of Homeland Security’s resources. What investigations didn’t occur while the DHS spent its time and energy pursuing the agenda of large media companies?”

Says Sandoval:

“But in the report, the DOJ says it has a team consisting of 40 attorneys specializing in computer crime and Internet protocal [sic] law that ‘places a high priority on fostering international cooperation and coordination in its IP enforcement efforts.’ The group participated in an international investigation that brought down a Chinese seller of counterfeit Cisco networking hardware. So, the DOJ’s long arm extends into other countries, but apparently not to protect media.”

“The music and film industries can point to some successes in their antipiracy efforts over the past year”, says CNET News, adding:

“But for all the talk about the political might of big entertainment companies, when it comes to protecting copyright, it appears more and more that they’re on their own.

Not even nearly. This kind of argument is, however, extremely useful to the Hollywood and Big Music cartels, which never stop in their efforts to hijack even more of the publicly funded agencies and manpower resources in the interests of their shareholders and investors.

No need to stay tuned.

Follow me on Twitter.

CNET News – Stopping illegal file sharing a low priority for DOJ?, January 7, 2011
massively escalated – The NinjaVideo manifesto, July 1, 2010
p2pnet – ICE steps up for Hollywood, Big 4 labels, July 2, 2010
CNet News – Biden to file sharers: ‘Piracy is theft’, June 22, 2010
EFF – U.S. Government Seizes 82 Websites: A Glimpse at the Draconian Future of Copyright Enforcement?, November 29, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma

Gandhi World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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