IPretorian Blog, Internet Privacy Protector

BSA new study is once again proves how greatly economy is suffering from piracy. What it actually proves is something else: how BSA manipulate numbers to mislead report readers. The BSA admits its estimate is based on the presumption that every dollar “saved” by using unlicensed software would now be spent on proprietary software. Apart from this presumption being worthless in real life, BSA is considering Open Source software (~12% marketshare) as.. stolen.

Six months after harsh HADOPI law – adoption of the three-strikes anti-piracy legislation was introduced in France, online piracy has increased significantly. A new study published by the University of Rennes shows that the critics are indeed right. The researchers looked into the habits of downloaders before and after the law was implemented. They found that instead of reducing piracy levels, the piracy rate actually went up by 3%. People just switched to other file-sharing services, not covered by Hadopi. Another blunder  of politicians making law about thing they lack basic understanding. We can only concur with TorrentFreak: “The answer to the increasing piracy rates worldwide is not legislation. Instead, the entertainment industry may accomplish much more by innovating and expanding their online business so that it meets the demands of today’s digital consumers.”

In Spain music group SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) lost in court of law case against Donkey link site elrincondejesus.com: judge Raul N. García Orejudo declared that both non-commercial file-sharing link sites and non-profit use of P2P networks are legal in Spain. “P2P networks are mere conduits for the transmission of data between Internet users, and on this basis they do not infringe rights protected by Intellectual Property laws,” he declared. Therefore, if an individual uses P2P networks like eDonkey or BitTorrent to obtain copyright material for non-profit reasons, the act is completely legal. Outcome of taking this case to cours is nothing short of a disaster for SGAE.

In Lithuania anti-piracy outfit LANVA has lost its case against a user of the prominent BitTorrent tracker LinkoManija.net. Self-proclaimed investigators evidence consisted of a screenshot of peers as listed by uTorrent. The evidence was gathered in conjunction with a local police officer, but none of the parties involved was authorized to conduct an investigation of this kind. Citing faulty evidence judge closed the case and stated that LANVA had no right to collect and use the information they gathered. In addition, the judge ruled that such evidence gathering techniques have to be approved before they can be used.

Bottom line, a question to ‘copyright defenders’: end justifies the means?

France has cearly ambition to have most tightly montitored and “depolluted” Internet: The French lower house, the National Assembly, has just passed a security bill known as LOPPSI2, which is “grab bag of security items that includes state-sanctioned computer Trojans, a massive new database of citizen data (dubbed “Pericles”), and a requirement that ISPs start censoring sites on a government blacklist” – quoting ArsTechnica.

Infamous HADOPI was passed into French law last year, yet France president Nicolas Sarkozy is still not satisfied; in January speech[French PDF] said: “The more we automatically ‘depollute’ networks and servers from all sources of piracy, the less it will be necessary to resort to measures imposed on the ‘Internautes’ [French Internet users]. We must therefore try, without delay, filtering devices.”

In normal words: We will install Trojan virus on Your computer and record everything You do in Internet – but  it’s for Your own good, and tighter we will control You, less that control will be needed.

Mr. Sarko, do You hear yourself?

We are truly feeling for French Internauts, doing anything online will be real minefield. We can help, stay tuned.

Record labels keep complain how piracy is killig film business: once move end up on BitTorrent, it’s doomed. Well, here is example to contrary: “Ink“. Created by Jamin and Kiowa Winans with small budget, yet great ideas – story about a mercenary who appears in the dreams of a comatose 8 year old girl. None of Hollywood studios was interested, so they decided to self distribute it to independent cinemas through own firm Double Edge Films. Despite Denver film festival “Best International Feature” award and few others DVD and Blu-ray sales where low.

Until November 2009 when “Ink” got ripped and shared on few torrent sites: within about a week film was pushed by incredible 400 000 downloads to TOP10 popular movies by TorrentFreak – success impossible to achieve in traditional model, happened online. If we believe MPAA, that should finish off Jamina and Kiowa Winans – they should be broke by now. But something very different has happened: sky-high downloads and enthusiastic reviews pushed the movie to 16th place on IMDb’s movie meter – resulting big increase on DVD and Blu-ray sales. Unlike majority of Hollywood studio’s bossess creators of “Ink” decided to embrace new found pirate fans: Kiowa wrote to TorrentFreak, saying: “We made this film in Denver, CO on a budget of $250,000 and have fought to bring it to 15 cities ourselves over the past ten months. Hollywood has claimed that they don’t know how to market the film or that it doesn’t have an audience, and what BitTorrent has done in the last four days is prove, unequivocally, that Hollywood is wrong.”

German magazine Gulli.com intervieved “Ink” creators “shocked by all this news” and happy with new found way to reach viewers. Koiwa explained, that they gained revenue not only from DVD and Blu-ray sales, but generous donations from all over the world – since they added paypal support link “If You have watched Ink for free online and would like to contribute what You can click here“. ”Ink” is available on Netflix, Blockbuster, iTunes – and BitTorrent off course. If You have watched it for free, we encourage You to support Ink creators.

Message from this case is clear: movie makers, don’t be hostages to big distribution industry! Publish film online, see what happens..

IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), representing the recording industry worldwide with some 1400 members in 72 countries, announced 2009 Digital Music report again putting the blame for decreased physical sales on file-sharers. In their annual Digital Music Report, IFPI states that file-sharers (pirates) are half as likely to buy physical music than the average music buyer. Although the report is about digital music, they carefully avoid saying anything about file-sharers and digital sales. TorrentFreak concluded very different picture from barely 2 pages of report published online:

Compared to music buyers, music sharers (pirates) are:

• 31% more likely to buy single tracks online.
• 33% more likely to buy music albums online.
• 100% more likely to pay for music subscription services.
• 60% more likely to pay for music on mobile phone.

The music industry own figures show pirates are paying more for music in digtal form, than average phisical music buyer; not forgeting fact, that digital music is cheaper that same one on phisical media, like CD. It’s very clear that music industry should get more respect for Customers actually growing their business: blame file-sharers for not buying CD’s, yet gladly taking their money for digital music.