Archive for the ‘p2p’ Category
Darko on June 22nd, 2008
The RIAA has filed a motion to dismiss what may be the most contentious file sharing case to date. In a letter to the judge the RIAA’s lawyers admitted they don’t believe there is any chance they will be able to positively identify the computer used to share the files in question. They’re now confident it was the same PC owned by the plaintiff’s daughter, which she has since gotten rid of. The letter also mentioned that they’ll be filing for court sanctions against the defense for impeding discovery of this evidence earlier.
To say the case of UMG v. Lindor has been hotly contested would be an understatement at best. The defendant, Marie Lindor, owns a computer but has reportedly doesn’t know enough about it to share a file. In fact the plaintiffs’ investigators have officially stated that her computer wasn’t the one involved in the file sharing they reported to the RIAA.
While RIAA lawyers have focused on who else may have had a computer connected to the internet through Lindor’s account her lawyer, Ray Beckerman, has repeatedly attacked both the legality of the damages claimed, the lack of transparency in the investigation, and even the competence of the investigators themselves.
During one exchange, documented in court records Beckerman said “everybody I speak to tells me that MediaSentry doesn’t know what they’re doing.” He also implied that the RIAA’s campaign of lawsuits was intended to “target disabled people, home health care aides, people who don’t even know how to use a computer”
Throughout the suit, which began more than three years ago, he has consistently taken the RIAA to task for their calculation of damages, which he sees as not just excessive but also beyond the scope of the law. Rather than $750 per song for a total of nearly $7000 he argues that the maximum allowed by law would be the actual cost of the same tracks if purchased ($8.91 for 9 songs) multiplied by a statutory maximum of 9 for a total of $56.70.
Ironically that’s the same argument that Universal Music Group, the plaintiffs in this case, used to get damages reduced after losing a copyright infringement case related to sampling where they were the among the defendants.
Darko on May 6th, 2008
Former RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen has filed an amended complaint in her malicious protection lawsuit against the record labels and RIAA themselves. This marks the fourth complaint submitted by Andersen’s lawyer, Lory Lybeck. All prior submissions have been rejected by the judge. If Lybeck can get the judge to accept this one, it will begin what Andersen hopes to be a long-range investigation into the tactics the RIAA uses to thwart their P2P nemesis.
The first of three dismissed complaints accused the RIAA of racketeering, fraud, invasion of privacy, deceptive business practices, and a number of other wrong doings. The judge presiding over the case, Judge Anna J. Brown, dismissed it sighting they had not properly stated claims for relief, but allowed for the complaint to be resubmitted.
The second of the three dismissed complaints weighed in at 108 pages and outlined scandalous practices and criminal enterprise practices, but the judge threw it out because both the court and the RIAA believed they ignored the judge’s instructions to submit a short and concise complaint.
The third dismissed complaint was intended to be a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of other who have been mistakenly identified by the RIAA as criminals. The RIAA stands accused of conspiracy and abuse of the legal process, negligence, acting criminally in investigating and pursuing claims against class members, wire fraud, mail fraud, and wrongfully filing lawsuits.
The latest complaint is a paltry 39 pages and is believed to be Lybeck’s final attempt at a complaint with this judge. Lybeck has accused the RIAA of “operating a zone of secrecy” throughout its legal campaign, and hopes that last week’s filing will mark the beginning of the end for the labels and their legal campaign.
Darko on April 14th, 2008
YouTorrent only launched in early January, but it has quickly become one of the Web’s most visited BitTorrent sites. According to the company, the site now averages about 10 million unique visitors a month.
YouTorrent has been well received in the file sharing community for its differences from other BitTorrent sites. It does not include advertising, and features the ability to search the larger sites and an easy to use interface.
An official for the site told TorrentFreak that the “uncertainty and accuracy” of some search sites influenced their decision.
In addition, the site had grown bigger than the original owners could handle, so they were looking to sell it. With the switch to a “legal” format, YouTorrent may be palatable to some traditional media companies.
It was not known who may be on the site’s short list of buyers. However, with the site not generating revenue due to its lack of ads, this may be the only way to go for its owners.
Darko on April 13th, 2008
After being shut down by the CRIA last November, the popular public torrent Tracker site Demonoid has seemingly made its long anticipated return.
The greeting message at the site reads as follow: “Welcome back!
Since a few months ago, Deimos, the site administrator, lacks the necessary time to take care of the website, because of personal matters he’s been needing to attend to. For this reason, he has decided to leave the site staff.
Before leaving, he assigned a new site administrator from among his friends to take care of the site. The old moderator team will continue helping with the site, unchanged. We will try to keep running everything just as it always has been.
The trackers and website seem to be working properly, and should any issues arise, they will be taken care of as soon as possible. The site might be going on and offline over the next days as we work out any problems.
Welcome back, and enjoy your stay!
The new reopening is also coming with conspiracy theorists however. Many point out the example of ShareReactor, the large eDonkey site which was closed down by raids in 2004 but made a return in 2006. It was revealed that the site was under ?new management? and traffic declined so low that the site was taken down again.
Time will tell whether Demonoid can make a true comeback
