By Eric Pettifor Q: How difficult would it be for the copyright holder of a film to get the IP addresses of people sharing that film over bittorrent? A: Easy as pie. Here’s a portion of a screen capture from my bittorrent client, ktorrent, showing the ip addresses of people sharing a popular file […]
First strike
isoHunt, a Canadian bittorrent site akin to The Pirate Bay, is making a preemptive strike against the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), our own little Canadian version of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). From TorrentFreak: As an act of self-defense, isoHunt has decided to sue the CRIA instead, and today Fung will file […]
Paying the piper
I hope Jammie Thomas is made to pay the entire fine of US$222,000 for illegally file-sharing music she never purchased. Just this week an American court ordered Thomas, who lives in Minnesota, to pay $9,250 for each song she stole. You might think this particular crime is not about politics. You might think it is […]
Sweet weed of music, play on
In this part of the world, the Pacific North West of North America, there is a non-indigenous plant which many would like to get rid of, the Himalayan Blackberry. It has a delicious fruit, and is extremely difficult to exterminate, since it has an extensive root system and seems to pop up everywhere. allofmp3.com appears […]
The Fraud of “Intellectual Property”
There is no such thing as “intellectual property.” Take copyright: if we are to look at creative works as property, then it is the property of the commons (that is, public domain), and copyright is simply a limited duration monopoly on works extended to creators as an incentive and reward. Patents likewise are of limited […]
What to do when the extortionists come
A couple of weeks ago I used this soapbox to suggest that those with few resources could engage in a kind of “Robin Hoodism” in order to correct the socio-economic imbalance whereby the rich can have all the movies and music they want, whereas the less well to do are expected to do with less. […]
Be Your Own Robin Hood
Recently Slashdot posted a story about the RIAA suing a disabled man living on social security. For the most part, the Slashdot crowd is rabidly anti-RIAA, but one fellow commented that just because a person is disabled, it doesn’t mean that he can’t infringe copyright. I found this defense of the RIAA vs. a poor, […]
Avast ye, eh?
Avast ye, and listen well. Ol’ Joe Biden has turned his guns to North and is taking aim at our Great White Land o’ the Pirates, aye. Seems he and his Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus gave fair warning three years ago when they put us on a watch list, but e’en so we did not […]
Naked Geeks
Who are the 12 greatest computer geeks of all time? Can you put names to the following 12 clues? There will be an answer key at the end of this blog entry. Difference engine. AI test and work on defeating Nazi enigma encryption during WWII. In 1983, geeks 3 and 4 below received an award […]
Online music: Don’t be a sucker
A lot of people will be getting iPods again this Christmas, which means a lot of people are going to get played for suckers again this year. At least they will if they end up using Apple’s iTunes store to buy their music (which is pretty inevitable, as the iPod leaves them little choice). Paying […]
