Film makers tackle ISP over pirated movie files The Local
Four film companies have filed a motion in a Swedish court to force TeliaSonera to release details about the operators of the Swetorrents file sharing website. But so far, TeliaSonera has vowed to protect the privacy of its customer, with the internet service provider (ISP) saying it had no plans to release any information about the site`s operators. In a suit filed last week in Södertörn District Court south of Stockholm, the four film companies, Svensk Filmindustri (SF), Pan Vision, Filmlance International and Yellow Bird, are seeking to utilize a new Swedish law to make it easier for copyright holders to get information about the operators of websites suspected of facilitating illegal file sharing. The law, passed on April 1st, gives copyright holders the right to seek a court order compelling ISPs to release information that allows rights holders to identify parties behind IP-addresses which can be traced to suspected acts of copyright violation.

Strength in their numbers: More Church of Scientology defectors come forward with accounts of abuse Tampabay
They are stepping forward — from Dallas and Denver, Portland, Las Vegas, Montana — talking about what happened, to them and their friends, during their years in the Church of Scientology. [Comment: eye opener and an eye-popper]

Apple tries to silence [11-year old] owner of exploding iPod Australian IT
Apple attempted to silence a father and daughter with a gagging order after the child’s iPod music player exploded and the family sought a refund from the company. The Times has learnt that the company would offer the family a full refund only if they were willing to sign a settlement form. The proposed agreement left them open to legal action if they ever disclosed the terms of the settlement. Mr Stanborough contacted Apple and Argos, where he had bought the device for 162 pounds ($324). After being passed around several departments, he spoke to an Apple executive on the telephone. As a result of the conversation, Apple sent a letter to Mr Stanborough denying liability but offering a refund. The letter also stated that, in accepting the money, Mr Stanborough was to “agree that you will keep the terms and existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential”, and that any breach of confidentiality “may result in Apple seeking injunctive relief, damages and legal costs against the defaulting persons or parties”. “I thought it was a very disturbing letter,” said Mr Stanborough, who is self-employed and works in electronic security. He refused to sign it.

Journalist hunts for acid-spitting Mongolian death worm News AU
Armed with explosives, two men are heading to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert to  find the fabled acid-spitting and lightning-throwing Mongolian death worm. The worm has never been documented but some Mongolians are convinced it  exists. They call it Allghoi Khorkhoi, or “intestine worm” because it  resembles a cow’s intestine and is about 1.5m long. The worm apparently  jumps out of the sand and kills people by spitting concentrated acid or  shooting lightning from its rectum over long distances, NZPA reports. (Seriously.)

Ripped Off News? Or Spreading The News? TechDirt
It appears that some (certainly not all) in the mainstream press still seems to have problems understanding the value of getting people to talk about what they reported on. They seem to come at this viewpoint from the old line of thinking that a reporter reported on the story and that was it…. Over the weekend, just such a situation cropped up, when Ian Shapira, a writer for the Washington Post wrote about how he felt when the blog Gawker wrote about one of his articles. At first, he was thrilled. It was validation. In fact, he called it “one of journalism’s biggest coups.” He should have stopped there, because he was right…. But after excitedly telling his editor about it, his editor claimed that Ian was “ripped off” by Gawker…

The AP Will Sell You a “License” to Words It Doesn’t Own Laboratorium
The Associated Press has become so deranged, so disconnected from reality, that it will sell you a license to quote words it didn`t write and doesn`t own. Here, check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grimmelm/3783346365/ I paid $12 for this license. Those words don`t even come from the article they charged me 46 cents a word to quote from (and that`s with the educational discount). No, they`re from Thomas Jefferson`s letter to Isaac McPherson, in which Jefferson argues that copyright has no basis in natural law. [Comment: I say we copyright the letter "e". Anyone who wan to use it must pay p2pnet 46-cents.]

Cancelled Punjabi concert raises questions about ceremonial dagger Vancouver Sun
Hundreds of upset concertgoers spilled onto the streets of downtown Calgary after a show by a popular Punjabi singer on Sunday night was shut down in mid-performance. It wasn`t immediately clear why the concert by Gurdas Maan at the Telus Convention Centre ended so suddenly, but many patrons alleged security guards were refusing entry to those wearing the kirpan — a ceremonial dagger carried by observant Sikhs. Considering Maan`s Punjabi heritage and his wide popularity in India and abroad, some concertgoers were incredulous that security staff wouldn`t have been better educated about the kirpan`s importance to Sikhs. Wearing the kirpan is considered a central requirement of the Sikh faith. It is worn ceremonially and not intended to be a weapon. We respect Canadian laws, said Amarjit Singh, who was wearing a kirpan underneath his blazer.

UK Wants Surveillance Cameras To Watch 20,000 Worst Families? TechDirt
Slashdot points us to a story that sounds like it has to be a joke/satire, concerning a plan by the UK’s Children’s Secretary, Ed Balls, to spend £400 million to put 20,000 families (the worst families) under constant surveillance including 24-hour CCTV cameras in their homes, and private security guards checking on them from time to time… [See, http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/02/0725224/UK-Plans-To-Monitor-20000-Families-Homes-Via-CCTV?from=rss]

Copyright Cops Go After Town For Creating Little Mermaid Statue TechDirt
Apparently the small town of Greenville Michigan has a strong Danish heritage, and wanted to show that off with some artifact representing Denmark. It chose the iconic Little Mermaid statue, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story, and a similar iconic statue in Denmark. Apparently, however, the family of the artist who created the statue in Denmark is trying to clamp down and is demanding a lump sum payment or that the statue be taken down. The actual artist died in 1959…

ISPs scorn government net snoop plan The Register
The government’s plans to massively increase surveillance of the internet have come under fire again, this time from the ISPs it wants to deputise as its snoopers. LINX, a major internet peering cooperative, said in its submission to the Home Office’s consultation on the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) – which closed last week – that moves to harvest data on every web browsing session, email, instant messenger conversation and VoIP call would not “maintain capability”, as officials claim….. Sources have told The Register that this work would be carried out by GCHQ, under its ongoing “Mastering the Internet” project, which we revealed earlier this year. Contracts have already been awarded to private sector partners and hundreds of millions of pounds allocated from the secret Single Intelligence Account, the black budget which funds GCHQ, MI5 and MI6.

Even More Restriction For German Internet SlashDot
“It’s only been a few weeks since the law dubbed Zugangserschwerungsgesetz (access impediment law) was passed in the German Parliament despite over 140,000 signatures of people opposed to it. The law will go into effect in mid-October 2009. Now Minister for Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen implied in an interview that she is planning on extending the reach of the law, claiming ‘…or else the great Internet is in danger of turning into a lawless range of chaos, where you’re allowed to bully, insult, and deceive limitlessly.’

Qwest Customers Unable To Access Pirate Bay DSL Reports
According to users in our Qwest forum, Qwest users in multiple locations are suddenly unable to access popular BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay…. “what quote would you like to use. that we have tried to isolate the issue within our network and are unable to resolve the issue you are having due to the fact that the site is not within our network =and is out of our support ability, or the fact that you we will not help you further with access to a site that allows you to download illegal content through torrent files that is copyright protected?” [Comment: Ah, every torrent on TPB is illegal and copyright protected? News to me... Maybe Qwest will want to make a webpage to this effect and re-educate all of America as well (and not just their own customers)?]

Two new Mozart pieces performed BBC
Two newly discovered pieces of music written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a child have been performed in the Austrian city of his birth, Salzburg.

Copyright wish lists CBC
Some want extra levies on iPods and other music players. Others want to make it legal to record TV shows to watch later, which is technically not permitted now. Artists, technology companies, educators and others have a range of opinions on what should be included in an updated copyright law, many of which they are sharing with the federal government during public consultations that launched on July 20. In announcing the consultations, the government said it wanted to strike a balance between the interests of copyright holders and those of users of copyrighted material. Most people agree, but they have differing opinions about what should be included. Here’s a roundup of some of their suggestions….

Icelandic bank Kaupthing threat to WikiLeaks over confidential large exposure report, 31 Jul 2009 WikiLeaks
Summary: Legal threat from lawyers representing the failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing to WikiLeaks (Sunshine Press), seeking to suppress a 209 page internal Kaupthing document assessing the credit risks of its largest clients. Our reply is first, followed by the letter from Kaupthing’s lawyers. [Comment: I like their reply.]

Feds renew dollar commitment to Canada Music Fund Montreal Gazette
The federal Canada is renewing the Canada Music Fund for five more years with an annual investment of $27.6 million. “The federal government is investing in arts and in the music industry,” Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore said Friday at a press conference at the Maison du Festival, headquarters of both Les FrancoFolies and the Montreal International Jazz Festival. “We’re standing by our artists and making an investment… We believe in Canadian music and we believe in Canadian content.” Moore also emphasized that the government is changing the structure of the Canada Music Fund to “reduce the administrative burden and increase the visibility of Canadian music on digital platforms and international markets.” The fund is allocating $900,000 to digital market development and $500,000 to international market development. On hand for the announcement were Pierre Rodrigue of MUSICACTION and Heather Ostertag of FACTOR — two funding agencies that work in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage to administer the fund along with SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada/Société canadienne des auteurs, compositeurs et éditors de musique).

Telecom operators in hot water Bangkok Post
Conference agrees users being ripped off – As these services are run by just a handful of operators, consumers are left with limited options to accept whatever packages are on offer. This way users are either being directly or indirectly ripped off and “deceived” by the unfair practices of telecom giants, concluded consumer advocates and telecom experts at Thursday’s conference on telecommunications and consumer protection in Chiang Rai.

FCC Takes On Apple And AT&T Over Google Voice Rejection TechCrunch
… the Dow Jones newswire reports that The Federal Communications Commission is looking into the Apple`s rejection of Google Voice, and has sent letters to AT&T, Apple, and Google to find out what`s going on.

B&N Claims It Must DRM Public Domain Books To Protect The Copyright On Them TechDirt
B&N “explains” why the public domain books its giving away “free” are protected by DRM: “We selected public domain titles as our free eBooks because these books are traditionally among our customers’ favorite works of literature…. Also, for copyright protection purposes, these files are encrypted and cannot be converted or printed.” So, they recognize that the works are in the public domain… but they encrypt them with DRM to protect the copyright that doesn’t exist on those works. That’s convincing.

New Study Shows How Different Generations Use Facebook Inside Facebook
… Now, a new study from Anderson Analytics shows how different generations are using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Cheezy-poofs marketed as “organic carrot stix” BoingBoing
[Comment: Product packaging/marketing at its best]

America makes nothing except weapons BoingBoing
Jon Taplin reproduces this jaw-dropping chart: Floyd Norris’s scary graph of Durable Goods Production, adding, “We have so hollowed out our industrial plant that the only thing we are now producing is weapons of war.”[Comment: To be fair America makes "organic carrot stix" and exports copyright lawsuits and fear as well.]

Victims Of The World`s Worst Industrial Disaster Continue To Wait For Justice News Junkie Post
The man and the company behind the death of 20,000 people continue to avoid the authorities, 25 years after the crime…. Union Carbide got away with committing the crime in every possible way: by avoiding the courts of India; changing its management; selling its assets to Dow Chemical Co. and by allowing Anderson to flee the country in a private jet right after the tragedy. According to Greenpeace International, Warren is alive and well in New York:… [Comment: Wait a second. An American executive can't be extradited for the mass killings of 20,000 people, the injury of 56,000 people and the poisoning of 2 generations of people, but that UK Gary guy can for "hacking" a computer w/o a firewall 10 or so years ago? Also see: http://www.bhopal.net/]

Music downloads offered on Chinese military’s new website BoingBoing
[Comment: Here we can find such timeless classics like, "Without the Communist Party There Would be no New China" and "Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention". All MP3! All free!]

David Akin on Satire and Parody Excess Copyright
As copyright law increasingly appears more and more in main stream media reporting, one of Canada’s leading journalists, David Akin, deals with satire and parody and links to Michael Geist and myself in a very good blog that relates to freedom of political speech.

BitTorrent Inc. Shares Internal Data About P2P Throttling NewYork Times
Stop slowing down our torrents! That`s the message BitTorrent Inc. has been sending to Canadian ISPs this week with a last-minute submission (PDF) to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Bell, Rogers and other Canadian ISPs have been throttling their subscribers` BitTorrent traffic for years, and the CRTC recently started public hearings to figure out if government intervention is necessary.

Camera-loving duck killers hunted Canoe
After posting video of themselves showing off their shooting skills on YouTube, three men with a penchant for killing ducks are being hunted by the law. “It’s just disgusting,” said Darrell Crabbe, executive director of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation.

Head of English Catholics warns about emails/texting Reuters
The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is concerned that excessive use of emails and mobile phone text messaging is creating shallow friendships and undermining community life, according to an interview published on Sunday…. Furthermore social networking sites encouraged children to place an excessive importance on the number of friends they had instead of the quality of their relationships, he said. “Among young people often a key factor in their committing suicide is the trauma of transient relationships. They throw themselves into a friendship or network of friendships, then it collapses and they’re desolate,” Nichols said.

Apple, labels stir up deluxe digital Cocktail Reuters
Downloadable music didn’t kill the album cover. The CD did. By shrinking the size and visual impact of the recording industry’s mainstay product — and then encasing it in plastic security packaging — the shiny aluminum disc marginalized the LP to a nostalgic memory. By the time the MP3 format came along, consumers shrugged off the absence of album art and liner notes…. Enter Cocktail: a new digital music format that Apple is developing with record labels. The format will go beyond a simple PDF file of liner notes, and instead bundle photos, videos, lyrics and other assets with an album’s music. Details remain slim, but label sources confirming the effort’s existence point to it as the digital version of the record sleeves of yore…. MORE REVENUE, NOT MORE SALES – Will the Cocktail format drive greater digital album sales? Probably not, but that’s not what the music industry is expecting from it. Instead, label sources position it as a way to further monetize existing digital album purchases. [Comment: Did anyone else yawn?]

Italy finds 4,500-year old skeleton of warrior Reuters
A roughly 4,500 year-old skeleton of a man, probably a warrior killed by an arrow to the chest, has been discovered on a beach south of Rome, Italian police said…. The young man probably lived just within a few hundred years of “Otzi,” the prehistoric iceman whose corpse was found frozen in the Italian Alps in 1991.

cPanel, Netgear and Linksys susceptible to nasty attack The Register
Defcon If you use cPanel to administer your website or certain Linksys or Netgear devices to route traffic over your wireless network, you’re susceptible to web-based attacks that could take complete control of your systems, two security researchers said Saturday…. What’s more, because router vendors use the same code base across their product lineups, it’s likely additional models are vulnerable, he said.

Surveillance camera hack swaps live feed with spoof video The Register
Defcon Corporate teleconferences and other sensitive video feeds traveling over internet are a lot more vulnerable to interception thanks to the release of free software tools that offer penetration testers and attackers a point-and-click interface. At the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas, the Viper Lab researchers demonstrated new additions to UCSniff, a package of tools for sniffing internet-based phone conversations. The updates offer tools that streamline the process of intercepting video feeds, even when they are embedded in voice-over-internet-protocol traffic

Apple keyboard firmware hack demonstrated Semiaccurate
Apple needs to patch it ASAP – APPLE KEYBOARDS ARE vulnerable to a hack that puts keyloggers and malware directly into the keyboard. This could be a serious problem,…. The vulnerability was discovered by K. Chen, and he gave a talk on it at Blackhat this year.

Finnish CSS case application lodged in the European Court of Human Rights European Digital Rights
Finnish Activist Mikko Rauhala has lodged an application to the European Court of Human Rights versus the Finnish state, regarding his right to freedom of expression. The appeal is a follow up to the lengthy court process against Mr. Rauhala in Finland. The process started when Mr. Rauhala started a discussion board on the Internet, on which people could talk about the DVD copy protection method Content Scrambling System (CSS). Mr. Rauhala’s motivation for this act was to criticize the implementation of the EU Copyright Directive in Finland which came into force in 2006. According to the implementation of the directive, “organized discussion” regarding circumventing technological protection measures, like the CSS, was prohibited.

Court Battle May Disconnect Internet Phone System Skype for Good Fux
Skype might have to shut down because of a dispute over the core technology used to make the Internet telephone system work. EBay, which paid $2.6 for the voice-over-the-Web system in 2005, is facing a court battle with the original founders of the company who retained the rights to the technology at the heart of the system. EBay admitted in a regulatory filing that it might have to close down the company. It said it was trying to develop alternative software but if that did not work, or if eBay lost the right to the original software: “Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible.”

Marc – p2pnet

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