p2pnet news | RIAA News:- In the latest contest of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG against their own customers, it’s Dutch P2P expert Johan Pouwelse versus RIAA ‘inexpert’ expert Doug Jacobson.

And it’s no contest.

Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG claim their very existence is being threatened by their own customers, whom they’ve labelled p2P file sharing criminals and thieves.

They say they’re fighting the good fight on behalf of their contracted performers.

But there never was P2P file sharing battle. The moment it became evident there was an inexpensive, efficient way to distribute digital product —- movies, music, books, games, software —- online, the old, physical way of doing things was dead. But in the manner of vested interests throughout history, the cartels believe they nonetheless can stop the tide by sheer weight and wealth alone.

Now, the RIAA is about to suffer a devastating blow against Doug Jacobson (right).

His testimony has been found to been “borderline incompetent” and his allegations of copyright infringement levelled at a 57-year-old New York home health aide “unproven” by Dr Johan Pouwelse, the internationally acknowledged Dutch expert and visiting scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

And, Pouwelse writes, Jacobson admits in a deposition that two of his reports were together based on only about an hour of effort – 45 minutes for one, and 15 minutes, for the other.

‘Factually erroneous’

Pouwelse quotes Jacobson as stating:

The Internet is a collection of interconnected computers or networked devices. in order to be able to deliver traffic on one computer or network device to another, each computer or network device, must have a unique address within the Internet. The unique address is called the Internet protocol (IP). This is analogous to the postal system and each maildrop has a unique address.

The cumulative effects of this kind of “factually erroneous” statement, as Pouwelse calls it, are severe.

“Catching a single file-sharer is not a difficult procedure. Although it is next to impossible to detect files while they are being downloaded, it is relatively easy to track down those who are offering copyrighted files through P2P networks.”

Is this another Jacobson statement, or perhaps a hack working for Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal or Sony BMG?

None of the above. It comes in a Yale Herald. article, and is a perfect example of the kinds of ” cumulative effects” Pouwelse refers to.

But the truth is: it’s almost impossible to identify someone from an IP address alone because, “networks of networks can have many duplicate IP addresses,” and a number of computers can be online with identical IP addresses, “as long as they remain behind control points, such as Routers, firewalls, proxy servers, or similar technologies,” says Pouwelse.

He also notes comparing IP addresses to regular mail is equally misleading: “this suggests an degree of accuracy, simplicity, reliability, certainty, and robustness to fraud”.

And Jacobson’s statements that people on the P2P networks, “often think they are anonymous when they distribute files,” but, ” in reality, they can be identified using the IP address;” and, “The IP address of the computer, offering the files for distribution can be captured by a user during a search of filetransfer” are equally inaccurate, says Pouwelse.

In fact, an IP address captured from the P2P network during search or file transfer can’t to identify a user, he says, going on:

“Numerous technical measures exist and are in use to make such identification impossible.

“For instance, computers can share an external IP address, computer on the same subnet work and still IP addresses, the computer can be cracked and used by others as a proxy, or one can seize control of a large block of adjacent IP addresses with a method known as ‘BGP’ hijacking.”

10-year-olds

In 2003, Big Music in the shape of Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG started their bid to maintain the status quo by attacking children and their parents, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, the people upon whom they depend not only for their profits, but for their very extistence.

They used, and are still using, America’s civil courts to try to force their customers to continue buying low-quality, high-priced cookie-cutter corporate ‘product,’ just as they’d always done.

The multi-billion-dollar Big 4 rely on bullying and bluster and the technical ignorance of US judges, and on the willingness of the mainstream media to blindly accept and repeat false statements and statistics as though they’re factual and accurate, to carry forward the specious message that they’re being “devastated” by P2P file-sharing and file sharers.

When the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) launched its so-called file sharing war, one of its first victims was Briana LaHara, a 12-year-old girl living in New York’s projects. Then last year they dropped the age requirement, zeroing in on 10-year-old Kylee Andersen.

4,000 against 7,600,000

Subpoenas are the RIAA’s weapon of choice. They’re merely written orders to appear in court. But the RIAA has been able to spin them until in the eyes of not only the public, but also all too many members of the mainstream media, they’re full-scale ‘prosecutions’ under which ‘guilt’ is a foregone conclusion.

By the time the RIAA had finished Stage One of its sue ‘em all campaign, some 30,000 men, women and children across America had been subpoenaed.

Corporate press reports gave the impression thousands of people had been successfully ‘convicted’ in court over non-existent crime of file sharing.

However, by the end of last year only one person, Minnesota, mother of two Jammie Thomas had actually appeared before a judge and jury.

Her trial was as a travesty, and it’s far from over.

At the beginning of 2007, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA switched its attention from mums and dads and their children to other prey, to students, using schools as marketing, sales and enforcement divisions, and administrators and staffs as copyright cops funded not by the cartel, but by taxpayers.

At the beginning of 2008, around 4,000 US students have received extortion demands for $3,000 and up. The demands are called ‘pre-settlement’ letters and they imply students will be left alone if they sign.

However, their real purpose is to scam admissions of guilt without anyone appearing in a court, garner invaluable personal data which might be used in future court proceedings against the same students, and to provide the RIAA with material to be used in PR and propaganda blitzes.

One could be forgiven for thinking the campaign against the students is successful, with congress people queuing up to introduce legislature aimed at compelling US schools to fall into line with entertainment cartel demands.

However, as is so often the case when it comes to anything to do with Big 4 or their RIAA, nothing could be further from the truth.

In 2005 it was estimated 60 million Americans shared with each other. Given that according to Big Champagne statistics, the number of people who share each year rose steadily between 2003 and 2006, and there’s no reason to believe anything has changed. But even using 60,000,000, the 30,000 people subpoenaed barely registers, with only one person actually appearing before a jury.

Around 4,000 students have been on the wrong end of the RIAA distortion demands.

But the US Census Bureau was projecting 7,600,000 students would be enrolled in American colleges and universities by that fall.

Figure it out.

Inexpert experts

Large and small companies around the world routinely hire consultants such as Jacobson to help them with special tasks.

Jacobson’s ‘testimonies’ have been shown up to be arrant nonsense and indeed, he even achieved what must be an industry first by gainsaying himself.

His name sometimes appears in the same RIAA documents alongside MediaSentry’s, the equally discredited and unlicensed ‘experts’ Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, banned by Massachusetts State police and originally shown up as fake ‘investigators’ by Oregon mother Tanya Andersen.

But this US company doesn’t confine its activities to America. It’s also been disgraced in Canada and Holland, the latter being the location of one of its most ignominious exposures at the hands of Pouwelse .

Now it’s Jacobson’s turn.

“It’s going to be interesting when Dr Doug Jacobson, a self-acclaimed expert in software used to monitor or block p2p file sharing applications, meets Dr Johan Pouwelse, a universally acknowledged expert in next-generation p2p technology,” p2pnet posted last year, going on:

“Jacobson, based in the US, was hired by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s RIAA to ferret around in a computer hard drive owned by Marie Lindor to show she is all the RIAA claims she is.

“Aged 57, she’s a criminal and a thief, someone who illegally distributed copyrighted music ‘product’ online, according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).”

Pouwelse, based at the Delft University in Holland, was hired by Lindor’s lawyer, Ray Beckerman, “to demonstrate conclusively why ‘evidence’ derived by Jacobson during his investigation, isn’t worth a light.”

Now Pouwelse’s report is in hand, says Beckerman on Recording Industry vs The People.

And in a nutshell, the Dutch expert has found:

• There are certain procedures needed to be taken in order to establish if a certain computer is being used to make copyrighted works available for download;
• The RIAA’s expert witness’s work lacked “in-depth analysis” and “proper scientific scrutiny”;
• The reports were “factually erroneous”;
• Statements in Jacobson’s report were contradicted by his deposition testimony;
• Numerous institutions have received false claims by MediaSentry;
• MediaSentry’s techniques have never been properly tested, are overly simplistic, and fail the test for accurate peer to peer file sharing measurement;
• Verizon’s response to the record companies’ subpoena demonstrates that the subpoena used to identify Ms. Lindor’s account was flawed;
• The lack of hard drive evidence corroborating the MediaSentry claim further demonstrates the unfounded nature of Jacobson’s conclusions;
• No alternative explanations were investigated;
• No checks were conducted to determine a potential rate of error;
• No standards or controls exist;
• Jacobson’s methods are “self-developed” and “unpublished”;
• Jacobson’s methods are not peer reviewed and not accepted by the scientific community; and
• Jacobson’s investigative process was “unprofessional”.

Pouwelse concludes the Jacobson reports demonstrate, “borderline incompetence” and that the “allegations of copyright violations are not proven”.

Definitely stay tuned.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 8:26 am and is filed under RIAA News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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