Posted July 27, 200618 yr Kazaa site becomes legal service Kazaa recently modified the software in an effort to curb piracy File-sharing site Kazaa will become a legal music download service following a series of high profile legal battles. The peer-to-peer network has also agreed to pay $100m (£53m) in damages to the record industry. The announcement follows the release of a music industry report that says more than 20 billion music tracks have been downloaded illegally in the last year. File sharing and music piracy are key factors in the recent decline in record sales, according to the music business. "We have won another battle in an ongoing war," said John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI). "We move forward with a spring in our step." Kazaa follows other sites like Napster which now offers legal downloads. "Unless you are an ardent downloader it is becoming harder to know where to go" says Mark Mulligan, of Jupiter Research. Mark Mulligan, an analyst with Jupiter Research said the amount of damages that Kazaa are willing to pay demonstrates how big the service had become. "$100m is half of the legitimate music downloads market in Europe," he said. At its peak the site had more than four million simultaneous users. The Kazaa software has been downloaded 239 million times. Legal fight The decision by Kazaa follows a series of legal wrangles around the world. Last year an Australian court ruled that the file-swapping program encouraged users to breach copyright. The Federal Court ordered Kazaa's owners, Sharman Networks, to modify the software to prevent further piracy. In November it introduced a filtering system on 3,000 keywords to prevent users finding copyrighted material. China is the largest market for pirate CDs It was unclear whether the move prevented music piracy as many file-swappers stopped using Kazaa in favour of other networks. The illegal music market is huge. A report by the IFPI provides a snapshot of music piracy. It focuses on pirated CDs and illegal music downloads which are either swapped through peer-to-peer networks or downloaded from sites the IFPI says are illegal. The report estimates that 20 billion music tracks have been downloaded. It highlights 10 countries that need to step up their fight in tackling music piracy. Some of the worst offenders, says the IFPI, include Brazil and Canada. The two countries downloaded more than two billion tracks. Other offenders, according to the report, include Italy which the IFPI estimates has 2.7 million illegal file sharers. Counterfeit goods The annual study also estimates that 1.2 billion fake CDs were sold in 2005, the same number as were sold in 2004. "We're not sure whether we should be pleased that it has not increased or displeased that it has not gone down," said Mr Kennedy. "We're not proud or disappointed" PRIORITY COUNTRIES Brazil Canada China Greece Indonesia Italy Mexico Russia South Korea Spain Source: IFPI The IFPI calculates that the global traffic in illegal CDs is worth $4.5 billion (£2.4 billion), down $100m from 2004. The IFPI points the finger at China as the largest producer of pirate discs. It says that 85% of discs produced in the country are illegal. The IFPI also highlights Mexico as a hub of pirate material. The South American country did not feature in last year's report of worst offenders. But in 2005 the IFPI report that "110 million physical pirate products" were sold in the country. As a result, Mexico has become a focus for the IFPI. Last year the body launched a new initiative called Mexico Plus that saw the IFPI working with the authorities in Guadalajara to close pirate market stalls. The initiative saw the number of pirate CD stands fall by 80% in the city and the number of legitimate music sales rise by more than a quarter. The IFPI has also been fighting music piracy on the web, taking a number of individuals and high profile sites like Kazaa to court. According to Mr Mulligan, some of their efforts are now having an effect. "The market is now fragmenting. Unless you are an ardent downloader it is becoming harder to know where to go," he said. Services like iTunes, Yahoo Music and Wippit offer an alternative. The IFPI say the legitimate download market now consists of over 360 million sites offering three million tracks for download. The legal download market last year was worth $1.1 billion globally, they say.
July 27, 200618 yr Limewire was supposed to be filtering out copyrighted content that wasn't authorised to be shared, but instead the developers decided on introducing a copyright opt-out option for users. The problem for the music industry is that some file sharing networks are open source ie the code is freely available and can be used to develop alternative p2p applications, such as FrostWire which is basically the same as LimeWire. The death of Kazaa last year was meant to signify the end of filesharing networks, but they are still there. Though one file sharing network has been successfully infiltrated by the RIAA, to such an extent that they are able to track thousands of users simultaneously. That is how the RIAA were able to successfully sue so many filesharers, they were able to not only view shared folders but actually track the downloads certain individuals were making.
July 27, 200618 yr Downloaders should be left alone instead of all this victimisation and harrassment of downloaders The record industry is licenced racketeering anyways with their prices for what essentially costs about £1.50 to make, thats about 1000% mark up for a typical CD Downloading is no different to borrowing a cd off a mate or relative or taping something off the radio but the way these cocaine snorting inbreds who manage record labels act you would think we were the spawn of satan Downloaders should be left alone
July 27, 200618 yr well, it IS illegal! And the BPI / RIAA do exist to protect the interests of their members. The BPI have come up with a novel way of going after illegal filesharers. They have contacted some ISPs demanding they terminate the accounts of habitual filesharers. see http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1242 http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=news/l...file_1011.shtml and Tiscali's response to the BPI http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1243 Edited July 27, 200618 yr by Robbie
July 27, 200618 yr well, it IS illegal! And the BPI / RIAA do exist to protect the interests of their members. The BPI have come up with a novel way of going after illegal filesharers. They have contacted some ISPs demanding they terminate the accounts of habitual filesharers. see http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1242 http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=news/l...file_1011.shtml and Tiscali's response to the BPI http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1243 Speeding is illegal too but everyone does it Good on Tiscali for sticking 2 fingers up to RIAA/BPI mafia how dare they try and violate people's privacy like that I do buy quite a few albums but this sort of $h!t makes me want to download even more
July 27, 200618 yr I DO like the response from Tiscali to the BPI! I'm not sure if this part is in any of those links or in another I read, but when BT launched its On Demand service (with Dotmusic) in 2002, the BPI tried to pull the same trick with them. This despite the fact that BT had suggested the On Demand service as a way of cutting down on illegal downloading on its network. And the BPI was in the process of working WITH BT while at the same time as trying to serve legal notices on them! If anyone has a chance to read either of the slyck.com links, read some of the comments posted - they are great! Edited July 27, 200618 yr by Robbie
July 27, 200618 yr by the way, this was Tiscali's response in full to the BPI, also taken from the slyck website (it's in the comments page at the second slyck link). Alleged Copyright Infringement Suspension and Disclosure of Customer Information Thank you for your letter dated 10 July 2006, notifying us of your allegations that certain customers of Tiscali UK Limited ("Tiscali") have and continue to infringe the copyright in various sounds recordings owned or controlled by certain members of The British Phonographic Industry Limited ("BPI"). In your letter, you request that Tiscali: 1. suspends the relevant customers until such time as they enter into an undertaking with the BPI in the form required by you; 2. discloses the personal details of the relevant customers to the BPI; and 3. itself enters into a legal agreement with the BPI obliging it to do the above. I will deal with each of these issues in turn below. Firstly, however, I would like to be clear that Tiscali does not support or condone use of its network for abuse or infringement of copyright. Tiscali has a history of co-operating with those investigating any such matters, within the limits of its own legal obligations and whilst respecting the legal rights of our customers. Moreover, Tiscali has done a great deal of work to further the development of the legitimate online music community and has developed and enjoys an excellent working relationship with most of the major record labels in the UK and many independent labels, the majority of which are your members. Suspension You have sent us a spreadsheet setting out a list of 17 IP addresses you allege belong to Tiscali customers, whom you allege have infringed the copyright of your members, together with the dates and times and with which sound recording you allege that they have done so. You have also sent us extracts of screenshots of the shared drive of one of those customers. You state that such evidence is "overwhelming". However, you have provided no actual evidence in respect of 16 of the accounts. Further, you have provided no evidence of downloading taking place nor have you provided evidence that the shared drive was connected by the relevant IP address at the relevant time. Similar requests we have dealt with in the past, have included such information and, indeed, the bodies conducting those investigations have felt that a court would consider it necessary to see such evidence, supported by sworn statements, before being able to grant any order. Therefore, in order to assist you, we will require the following information from you: 1. in respect of the remaining 16 IP addresses, please provide screenshots of each user's shared drive so that you can prima facie establish communication to the public; 2. in respect of all 17 IP addresses, please provide evidence that shows that the user id is connected via the IP address concerned at the relevant date and time; 3. if you wish to establish that downloading is taking place, please also provide evidence of this; and 3. as these IP address are dynamic and are allocated to a user upon connection for the duration of the connection only, please confirm that the timings provided are all BST, so that we may accurately identify the customer details. In the meantime, we have contacted the customer, in respect of whom you have provided partial evidence of communication to the public of copyrighted sound recordings and have given such customer seven days from the date of receipt of our letter to provide an explanation. Should we not receive an adequate explanation during such period, we shall suspend the user's account pending resolution of your investigation, assuming by that time we have received evidence from you of a link between the user account and the IP address at the relevant time. At this point, I would like to make it clear that a similar procedure will be followed in respect of the remaining 16 customers, once you have provided proper evidence. Tiscali does not intend to require its customers to enter into the undertakings proposed by you and, in any event, our initial view is that they are more restrictive than is reasonable or necessary. However, should you wish our customers to enter into your undertakings, you will need to approach them directly. It is a matter for them to decide whether they wish to enter into such undertakings or defend proceedings against them in the courts. It is not for Tiscali, as an ISP, nor the BPI, as a trade association, to effectively act as a regulator or law enforcement agency and deny individuals the right to defend themselves against the allegations made against them. Disclosure of Customer Details As you will already be fully aware, Tiscali will not be able to disclose customer details to you unless you obtain a court order requiring us to do so. To disclose without a court order would put Tiscali at risk of breaching the terms and conditions of its customer agreements, and the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. Tiscali Undertakings As we have mentioned above, Tiscali has always co-operated with investigations into alleged infringement conducted by copyright owners, whilst observing its own legal obligations and respecting the legal rights of its customers. In the circumstances, we do not consider it necessary nor desirable to enter into such undertakings nor do we believe that, in circumstances where we are co-operating with your investigation in the manner we have outlined in this letter, that a court would require us to do so. Furthermore, we do not believe that you have at present satisfied the requirements of section 97A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 with the information you have provided. We look forward to receiving the information requested above. Yours sincerely Tiscali UK Limited Edited July 27, 200618 yr by Robbie
July 27, 200618 yr tbh if music was cheaper some people wouldnt mind spending insteading of illegally downloading. I think dvds are the worst crime 15 pound per dvd. its sad EBAY i recommended albums much cheaper on there :dance:
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