Clouseau and the RIAA
p2pnet.net news:- SafeMedia has taken a page out of BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin’s book.
Navin used an OpEd in CNET to pump BitTorrent as part of the solution to the woes of American universities being attacked by the Big 4.
Now SafeMedia, maker of something called Clouseau, a fail-safe (it says) anti-p2p technology, is doing the same.
“Congress is stepping up its crackdown on Internet piracy on universities in an effort to help the entertainment industry and higher education work together,” says a Safemedia puff piece. “Nineteen universities have received letters demanding they curb piracy or Congress ‘will be forced to act’.’
Unless, of course, they use CLOUSEAU !!!!!
Inspector Jacques Clouseau is the ridiculous, inept French cop in the Pink Panther series. He gets everything it’s possible to get wrong, wrong. And when he does succeed, it’s by mistake.
SafeMedia says Clouseau, “was designed from the ground up specifically to stop all P2P Internet piracy no matter where it originates world wide, it is safe and invisible, causes little or no latency in the network, it is self-healing and best of all, it is a user-friendly compliance, and completely shields user anonymity.”
And it must be good. After all, it’s already been test-driven by Floriday State, the university that’s fast becoming the RIAA launch-pad for supposed anti-p2p products.
“Universities are already being forced to expend significant resources doing the RIAA’s dirty work, and they should think very carefully before implementing expensive tools like SafeMedia’s,” says the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Peter Eckersley in a careful, and illuminating, dissection of the SafeMedia anti-p2p application.
Also See:
pump BitTorrent – BitTorrent on Ohio U v RIAA row, May 7, 2007
RIAA’s dirty work – EFF unravels SafeMedia’s Clouseau, April 11, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 9th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Gov spies on citizens using telcos & ISPs. Gov get BUSTED using telcos & ISPs. Gov now jumps on **AA bandwagon and ‘legislates’ the use of Clouseau…”tested” in FLORIDA governed by jeb BUSH!!!
Just think of all the possibilities……………………………………..
May 9th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
how can it tell the difference between “illegal” and “legal” p2p? Will it consider all p2p “illegal”?
May 10th, 2007 at 2:41 am
It can’t. It just blocks certain ports. And yes, therefore it will block also “legal” p2p. Just ridiculous marketing speak to promote their product.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005189.php
Read here for details …
May 10th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Jen was term limited out of office, thank goodness
Our new Governor is Charlie Christ. He is much fairer.
May 10th, 2007 at 11:29 am
This reminds me of the trick glasses that were advertised on the backs of comic books decades ago – the ones that claimed you could see through clothes.
HA.
May 10th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
the says Clouseau is inexpensive: $500 for small business or your home LAN, so us kids are not exposed to pedphiles, and viruses. $4,500 for universities. Wow, I’m going to get me one when it comes out, so I don’t
get a warning letter.
May 10th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
From what I read, it only spots illegal stuff, because the Clouseau
only takes a peak at the tranmission to and from your computer, and
doesn’t look inside my computer. i think it allows P2P telephone like Skype, P2pTV like Joost and Babelgum, personal p2p when its a streaming like sharing photos and videos.
May 11th, 2007 at 10:12 am
SafeMedia’s Cloeuseau can see through 10′ thick concrete walls!!! Really???
Hell, if they wrote it one of their fits of Press Release Vomit or on their substanceLESS website…it must be true!!!
…or that’s the way many posters are are acting. I urge you to start using a modicum of common sense before swolling the kool-aid.
Has anyone seen any availabale whitepapers, bechmark studies, or even technical specs…the normal faire of hardware makers??? Nope! How about independent endorsement??? Nope..
Has anyone seen hype, press releases with ZERO original info, and product claims only God can make??? Yep…That is ALL SafeMedia has proven ability to produce!
Their business plan seems to be: Generate demand through cheezy PR with an angle on pressuring legislative mandate…with ZERO proof of concept!
Want a laugh? Go to their PR Firm’s web site: http://www.mayocommunications.com/home.htm …it give you a nice visual for the backhanded compliment: “Soooo early 90’s”
Clouseau is FBOS ( Flaming Bag of S#!T) technology!!! …Unless until they prove otherwise.
As far as SafeMedia being in bed with the RIAA, MPAA, et. al.??? Even the ‘AA’s have standards. Read again what the EEF said: “‘Universities are already being forced to expend significant resources doing the RIAA’s dirty work, and they should think very carefully before implementing expensive tools LIKE SafeMedia’s,’ says the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Peter Eckersley” That’s right LIKE as in Audible Magic, Packeteer, etc..
NOT the ClusterFiesta known as SafeMedia…
SafeMedia looks like nothing more than modern day Ponzi scheme, designed to bilk private investors through emotional hype with no real substance…and it is only a matter of time these yokels skip town with some poor widow’s nest egg.
Caveat Emptor my friends! & don’t step on the FBOS!