CyberLaw Blog

Archive for September 4th, 2008

Dailymotion Is Open, The Other Internet Sites Are Still Not: “Among the sites that were banned by the Turkish authorities, only the video sharing site dailymotion was opened. The rest are still closed, waiting for the needed court orders.”

(Via Latest Bianet/English News.)

This is an article from: TorrentFreak

ISPs Hand Over Details of ‘Several Thousand’ Pirates: “

Two major UK ISPs have been ordered by the High Court to hand over the identities of several thousand alleged file-sharers. BT has confirmed it is involved while Virgin Media was less direct in admitting that lawyers Davenport Lyons, working with Topwear Inc., are about to start threatening thousands more people.

US game developer Topware Interactive, the people behind the now infamous ‘Dream Pinball‘ affair, are about to turn up the heat. Operating through London lawyers Davenport Lyons, they have managed to convince the High Court to send out an order demanding that ISPs in the UK start to hand over the details of ‘several thousand’ alleged pirates.

According to Samknows, BT, one of the UK’s largest ISPs and like many, currently caught up in the middle of a Davenport Lyons versus P2P battle, confirmed it had been ordered to hand over details of alleged copyright infringing file-sharers. It could not confirm whether they had already handed over the details or not. However, BT was surprised at the ‘strong arm’ tactics being employed by the games industry, in contrast to the fairly civilized warnings currently touted by the BPI, which were toned-down under duress.

‘It does seem a much more strong arm approach compared to the music industry,’ said the BT spokesman. ‘However, it is only one company pursuing a limited number of miscreants at the moment. I doubt the music industry will follow suit as the potential numbers are too great, but who knows.’

Virgin Media was a little more slippery in its response but reading between the lines it seems obvious they are involved too. While noting that they take the privacy of their customers very seriously, if faced with a court order to hand over names and addresses, they simply have to comply. Virgin Media also indicated that it prefers the ‘educational’ approach, i.e the compromise reached between ISPs and the BPI recently. Virgin media spokesman told Samknows:

‘We certainly prefer the education route we pioneered with the BPI because you can’t assume people are guilty of anything, so we don’t, we let them know of what might have happened and give information on how to ensure they enjoy legal downloads. This would definitely seem to be a very different approach from a different industry.’

I’m sure it’s just a slip by the Virgin spokesman but the entire ‘games industry’ isn’t taking this aggressive approach against alleged file-sharers. It is actually just Topware Interactive, and in the other active cases, Atari, Codemasters, Techland and Reality Pump, just a handful of developers.

As a gamer of more than 25 years I agree with the boss of EA Sports, Peter Moore, that it’s not particularly clever to start taking legal action against your customers. In a superb article, Rob Fahey over at GamesIndustry.biz says that he believes the losses claimed by the industry are a ‘complete crock‘ and he’s not on his own.

In any event, if you take a look at the games being ‘protected’ in these actions, with the possible exception of Codemasters titles, they’re mostly second rate and didn’t sell many anyway. The developers would have everyone believe this is due to file-sharing but people know otherwise. The suspicion in the file-sharing community is that this isn’t about protection of copyright at all, but a way to make poor games pay. Any revenue stream in a storm, eh?

Gonzales Violated Secrecy Rules With Spy Docs, Lied to Cover It Up: “Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales repeatedly and knowingly mishandled ultra-secret documents about the government’s warrantless wiretapping program and lied to investigators about it, according to a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general. The Justice Department declined to prosecute him, however.

(Via Wired News.)

Phorm: Our business is fine, honest: “

UK.gov promises legal explanation for secret trials this month

After its share price slumped to a new low, Phorm today sought to allay investor fears about the ISP-level adware business by repeating assurances that a critical third trial with BT will go ahead.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Employee has no privacy on company computers, US court rules: “Employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy for material stored on computers owned by their employers, a US court has ruled.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Court rules Wikipedia not authoritative: “

Egan Orion the Inquirer, Wednesday 3 September 2008. 15:13:00

You don’t say

A US APPEALS COURT has ruled that Wikipedia entries, which anyone might edit, are not authoritative sources of information suitable for federal judges to base their decisions upon. In particular, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals decided last Friday that the Department of Homeland Security should not rely upon…

(Via The Inquirer.)

Consumer group asks EU for security breach law: “The National Consumer Council (NCC) has called on the European Commission to force companies who lose customer data to admit the error publicly. It believes a data breach notification law would force companies to keep data more securely.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Thailand clamps down on rude websites: “

You’d think they have bigger problems

Thai authorities have reportedly moved to shut down hundreds of websites they view as a threat to national security, amid ongoing civil unrest in Bangkok.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

File Sharing Is Hard Habit to Break: “Roughly one million people downloaded the season premiere of ‘Prison Break’ from file sharing sites when they could have watched the show legally on either Fox or Hulu sites. The problem is threefold, say analysts: Piracy is habitual, cultural and convenient.

(Via Wired News.)

Thai government censors Internet for ‘national security’: “

Sylvie Barak the Inquirer, Wednesday 3 September 2008. 23:42:00

Thai the interweb down, sport

SHOWING THE WORLD what it really thinks about all this democracy rubbish, the Thai government has decided to close down and block over 1600 websites, purportedly in the name of national security. Mun Patanotai, Thailand’s Information and Communications Technology Minister, yesterday petitioned his country’s courts to close down some 400…

(Via The Inquirer.)