Is MediaSentry still at it in Oz?
p2pnet view P2P | Freedom:- Australian ISP TPG “has been forwarding complaints from broadcast companies on to its offending customers to alert customers to their wrongdoings and ask that they cease illegal activity”, says the Queensland Courier Mail.
“The warnings, similar to those deployed by music companies in their ongoing battle with piracy, are part of a more concerted effort by the film and television industry to get on top of the problem”, says the story.
What else is new?
As p2pnet has been alone in reporting, disgraced MediaSentry, kicked off the RIAA payroll, has been operating without proper authorisation in Australia.
In April last year, “Hey… I received [a] letter from TPG for Dexter”, Sara commented in a p2pnet Reader’s Write.
Sara went on >>>
but this is the super weird thing… it was not for my account but for an account that i pay for, for my 60-year-old-parents who 1. absolutely hate Dexter and 2. wouldn’t even know what downloading is!
On top of that they live in the bloody country with their nearest neighbours (a couple of 70+year-olds) living over 500m away(hence no one is tapping into their wireless network unless the beef cattle that roam on next paddock have suddenly found themselves a computer).
I don’t understand how these buggers got my parents IP address and then why they would be accused of something that i know has definitely not taken place. Any comments would be appreciated!
The letter Sara cited was from MediaSentry, repeatedly proven around the world to be worthless.
Divorced even by the RIAA and sold for almost nothing by its ex-owners, it’s still scamming people in Australia.
Is Andy Kempe (right) erstwhile, or still active as the man behind it in Oz? – we wondered.
Either way, we said, the former Big Music ‘corporate investigation agency’ still hasn’t been shut down by the Australian authorities, despite the fact it’s apparently operating illegally.
In February this year, “got this one today also from TPG”, says Age in a p2pnet Reader’s Write, going on, “trouble is…I already own the DVD … I’m just too damn lazy to find a way to get it into a format that i can store on my external HD. I thought that was legal? or am I being Naive?”
It came in a story which led off “p2pnet can confirm MediaSentry is now definitely operating in Australia”.
Another p2pnet story stated >>>
A student in Chicago told me she was going to kill herself because she’d heard from someone from the RIAA promising her she’d be taken to court unless she came up with almost $10,000 to ’settle’ an alleged copyright file sharing case.
She told me she was already up to her neck in debt because of school loans and had absolutely no way of finding that kind of money, or anything like it, “that she couldn’t sleep, couldn’t study, couldn’t live a normal life because of the worry”.
Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA claim the girl was guilty of illegally distributing digital music files online.
Their ‘evidence’ came from a company called MediaSentry, itself accused of operating illegally in states across the US.
Now, “Yep got one from MediaSentry… also with TPG”, said a Reader’s Write, going on, “Use usenet. tpg or anyone wont sniff what u doing. Probably TPG will dobbed us in. FUNK TPG. Going to reconsider changing isp.”
A month before, “i got the same mail”, said ally.81. “should i be worried? i mean can they do anything else other than canceling my subscription? i got really scared and deleted everything from my computer. but the thing is , the movie i downloaded was so bad, i dont even know whether it was all worth it or not.”
But “I can categorically state that Media Sentry are NOT authorised to operate within Australia nor to Intercept communications within Australia no matter what they state in the email,” said G.Thompson, a digital forensics consultant, programmer, lecturer, researcher in a Reader’s Write last year, continuing >>>
In fact stating they can and making published allegations against a specific user with identifiers attached so that the user is made known to other organisations ie: an Australian ISP, Educational Institution, and Rental Accommodation Manager(s) could result in action on defamatory grounds being taken against them if the publication of the information causes damage (which in this case seems likely that it has).
And thinking they are immune since they are outside Australian jurisdiction would be a folly on their behalf and I kindly draw their attention to Dow Jones and Company Inc v Gutnick [2002] HCA 56 – (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2002/56.html).
How long will Australia allow this victimisation of innocent Australians to continue?
Meanwhile, says the Courier Mail, “the the warnings have done little to dissuade some users.
“Carolyn and Nick, both 26, who asked for their surnames to be withheld, said they had been warned three times to stop illegally downloading but were unfazed by the requests.
” ‘We downloaded an episode of South Park and within 24-48 hours we got the email,’ Nick said, while Carolyn added: ‘We read the email and then, because nothing happened, we kept doing our thing. Then we got the two other emails and still nothing happened’.”
Stay tuned.
(Cheers, Filip)
Courier Mail – Warning (but no action) for film pirates, January 9, 2011
alone in reporting – MediaSentry: still operating illegally in Oz, December 10, 2010
Andy Kempe – MediaSentry: still at it in Oz, April 12, 2010
p2pnet can confirm – MediaSentry operates in Australia: confirmed, May 23, 2009
p2pnet – MediaSentry and RIAA: government probe?, April 5, 2009
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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January 10th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
“We read the email and then, because nothing happened, we kept doing our thing. Then we got the two other emails and still nothing happened”
I wouldn’t reply to spam either.
January 10th, 2011 at 11:45 pm
Back here in the states, now that President Obama is pushing for Internet ID registration which will destroy the truly open and free market that now exists on the internet, he will need a proven contractor to once again police the internet… enter MS…
January 11th, 2011 at 12:43 am
@ RK: Nah. They’d need a company with no morals, able to cook results, good with fudging testimony …
Hey! Hang on a sec … !
Cheers!