Anti-Piracy Warnings Have No Effect on iTunes Sales

Mailbag: Piracy issues - UFC It's a sad fact of life on the Internet: People are thieves. A lot of people steal a lot on the Internet. The overwhelming majority of people would never walk into a department store and swipe a Polo shirt because they like it but believe it costs too much. Far too many, though, see nothing wrong with watching a pay-per-view sporting event on an illegal live stream because they think it costs too much despite the fact that it, too, is theft. Stealing a pay-per-view is, in fact, worse than swiping something tangible. The UFC's support of the onerous legislation in the Senate, PIPA, though, is not the way to combat what is a very real and exceptionally significant problem, however. PIPA, or the Protect IP Act, would threaten the existence of the Internet as it operates today. Lawrence Epstein, the UFC's executive vice president and general counsel, wrote an op-ed column in his hometown Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday in which he espoused the company's support for PIPA. Joe Massachusetts

MegaUpload: What Made It a Rogue Site Worthy of Destruction? Yesterday a massive operation took down MegaUpload, one of the world’s leading file-storage services and one of the world’s biggest sites, period. While the timing came as a huge post-SOPA protest surprise, the fact the site was targeted was not – for many months there have been rumblings behind the scenes that something might be “done” about MegaUpload. Nevertheless, the manner in which the action was taken and the language used by the authorities in doing so was utterly unprecedented. So the key question this morning is this – What made MegaUpload a rogue site which deserved to be completely dismantled and its key staff arrested? The answers lie in the 72-page indictment and show just how the authorities (with the massive assistance of the MPAA, no doubt) framed Mega’s activities in such a way as to strip it of any protection under the DMCA. In the U.S., online service providers are eligible for safe harbor under the DMCA from copyright infringement suits by meeting certain criteria.

MegaUpload Takedown Proves SOPA and PIPA Are Unnecessary It has been a huge week when it comes to protecting intellectual property and defending the freedom of the Internet. Following a massive blackout on Wednesday to oppose pending SOPA legislation, the United States government took down MegaUpload.com--demonstrating why we don’t need SOPA in the first place. Debate has been raging on Capitol Hill over two pending bills--SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House, and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) in the Senate. Supporters insist that copyright violations and intellectual property theft are a rampant online epidemic, and that sweeping, draconian legislation is the only viable solution. The Internet disagrees. The question remains, though, why do we need any new legislation at all? The core premise of the argument for SOPA and PIPA is that supporters claim the legislation is necessary to enable them to take action to fight online content piracy from rogue foreign sites that operate outside of U.S. laws.

Victory! Video Game Industry Drops Support for SOPA While the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) were both put on hold on Friday, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) became the first major industry association to drop its support for SOPA. The ESA is the main trade association for video game companies and was one of the main business associations pushing for the bills that critics say would result in internet censorship. The ESA spent $190,000 lobbying the Senate to pass PIPA in just six months in 2011. The victory comes after over 136,000 people joined Shashank Katsurirangan's Change.org campaign calling on Electronic Arts, one of the most prominent ESA members to oppose SOPA as a way to push the video game industry to end its support for the legislation. Additionally, Mark Kern, CEO of Red 5 Studios, created a Change.org campaign calling on the ESA to drop support for SOPA that was signed by over 32,000 people.

Dutch ISPs Refuse To Block The Pirate Bay Two large ISPs in the Netherlands have said they will not be blocking subscriber access to The Pirate Bay, as demanded by the Hollywood supported anti-piracy outfit BREIN. T-Mobile and KPN argue that blocking websites is a threat to the open Internet, and suggest that the entertainment industry focuses on new business models instead. BREIN is now expected to take the ISPs to court. Two weeks ago, the Court of The Hague ruled that Ziggo, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, and competitor XS4ALL have to block access to The Pirate Bay. The ruling was the first to bring broad censorship to the Netherlands and in a response XS4ALL said they were “bitterly disappointed”, noting that fundamental rights had been traded for “commercial interests.” For BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group that started the court case, the verdict wasn’t quite enough. After internal discussions two large ISPs – KPN and T-Mobile – are now on record stating they will not honor BREIN’s request.

Seven Ways to Stop Piracy Without DRM MegaUpload Users Plan to Sue the FBI over Lost Files In most reports following the MegaUpload shutdown, the site is exclusively portrayed as a piracy haven. However, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people used the site to share research data, work documents, personal video collections. As of today, these people are still unsure whether they will ever get their personal belongings back. In a response, Pirate Parties worldwide have started to make a list of all the people affected by the raids, and they are planning to file an official complaint against the US authorities. “The widespread damage caused by the sudden closure of Megaupload is unjustified and completely disproportionate to the aim intended,” they announce. “For this reason Pirates of Catalonia, in collaboration with Pirate Parties International and other Pirate Parties, have begun investigating these potential breaches of law and will facilitate submission of complaints against the US authorities in as many countries as possible, to ensure a positive and just result.”

EMI VP Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA; Says The Answer To Piracy Is Providing A Better Service Over the years, I've definitely found that there are plenty of folks working inside the major record labels (and big studios) who really do get what's going on. The problem is often that their voices are drowned out by others (usually the older guard) who are pretty stubborn in their anti-innovation, anti-consumer ways. It's always nice, however, when someone from the inside pops up and says something sensible in public, and those folks deserve kudos. The latest is Craig Davis, EMI's VP of Urban Promotions. Personally, I feel that the method they're using is incorrect. The reference to Gabe Newell, of course, concerns Newell's regular speeches about how you compete with piracy by providing a better service -- something Newell's Valve has done quite well over the years. Davis has it exactly right here.