thewayne | Entries tagged with piracy

This is laughable insanity.

Nvidia is defending itself in a lawsuit from a bunch of authors that their works were used - without license or any form of authorization - to train up Nvidia's LLM platform. Apparently Nvidia got the data from scraping pirate ebook web sites....

Quoth the article: "Nvidia seemed to defend the shadow libraries as a valid source of information online when responding to a lawsuit from book authors over the list of data repositories that were scraped to create the Books3 dataset used to train Nvidia's AI platform NeMo.

That list includes some of the most "notorious" shadow libraries—Bibliotik, Z-Library (Z-Lib), Libgen, Sci-Hub, and Anna's Archive, authors argued. However, Nvidia hopes to invalidate authors' copyright claims partly by denying that any of these controversial websites should even be considered shadow libraries."

Copyright infringement is a pretty simple standard, which these sites clearly violate. Now, some may contain books that are out of copyright, or completely unavailable, but a bulk of their content is illegal under U.S. law. That is pretty clear. Quibbling over the definition of the term 'shadow library' is a complete waste of the court's time and isn't going to win them any points with the judge.

This is not going to work.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/nvidia-denies-pirate-e-book-sites-are-shadow-libraries-to-shut-down-lawsuit/

Gotta love it. They used the Louis Vuitton trademark, a bag, in a movie without permission.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/12/26/1829238/warner-bros-sued-for-pirating-louis-vuitton-trademark

He left a wireless router open and apparently someone downloaded a movie that's being tracked. It was linked to his IP address, and it was cheaper for him to settle than fly cross-country to DC where the suit was filed.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/content/printVersion/1395372/

And it was commissioned by the ??AA and for some reason was never published. Hummm. Makes one wonder.

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/movie-industry-bins-report-proving-pirates-are-great-consumers-20110720/

They break down how a band can sell 1 million albums and still owe the record company $500,000. I've read some stuff like this before, it's unbelievable.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110707/03264014993/riaa-accounting-how-to-sell-1-million-albums-still-owe-500000.shtml

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/11/07/08/1216206/RIAA-Math-Sell-1-Million-Albums-Still-Owe-500k

This article is almost 3 years old, but it has an excellent description from the inside showing how screwed up the music industry is.

http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html

Basically, they've bought extreme access to some lawmakers to get a bill introduced saying that there are illegal disc pressing plants (where music CD's and movie DVD's are made) that are churning out a Sagan or two of illegal pirated material and costing Hollywood a Sagan or three, and this law will allow law enforcement to raid pressing plants without a warrant and they can seize equipment.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/riaa-warrantless-seizures/

I freely admit that piracy is a problem. But I think the ??AA are blowing their problems with piracy totally out of the water. How can Hollywood consistently post record movie box office receipts if they're losing a brazillian dollars to pirates? It don't compute. But this is entirely overboard: if they suspect a plant is illegally pressing discs, then they should report it to law enforcement who can perform surveillance to establish the facts, they can then get a search warrant and raid the place if the evidence merits it. Conducting a raid without a warrant is beyond the pale and I doubt there's any way that such a law would survive challenge.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court rules 8-1 that in a case where police kicked in a door, without a warrant, and caught the people in the apartment with drugs, that it was not an illegal search.

WHEEEE!

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/warrantless-house-search/

They have a much more clever plan than simply seizing the domain name, which only works for .com and a couple others. Those crafty pirates simply registered a non-US domain and they were back in business!

No, this time they're going to pass a law with which they can order ISP's to remove DNS resolution for said sites!

W00t! Total win!

I guess the morons have never heard that DNS resolves a name to a number, and that web sites can be accessed by directly entering the IP address. Of course, that becomes somewhat more complicated under IPv6.

And if they try to block the IP address, you can use a foreign proxy service to get at the site.

So how long before a Firefox add-on buffers the IP address?

Morons.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/05/protect-act/

They found that YouTube viewings after a series had stopped airing boosted sales but hurt rentals. Kind of odd. Sadly, the original report is only in Japanese, so kinda difficult to study. Fortunately the article is in English.

Now, anime is a specific entertainment slice, so it may not be applicable to all media categories.

http://torrentfreak.com/internet-piracy-boosts-anime-sales-study-concludes-110203/

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/04/2240221/Piracy-Boosts-Anime-Sales-Says-Japanese-Government-Study

"The New York Times reports that Russia selectively pursues software piracy complaints from Microsoft in order to suppress the opposition — confiscating computers for evidence, searching offices, and the like. Microsoft lawyers usually back the authorities in such cases, even when cases such as that of the environmentalist group Baikal Waves, which went out of its way to buy licenses to prevent police harassment and nevertheless had its offices raided, and its computers confiscated. Microsoft participated in this legal process. Published alongside this story, under the same byline, is a related piece on the collusion of Microsoft lawyers with corrupt Russian police in extorting money from the targets of software piracy investigations. In a responding press release, the company states, 'Microsoft antipiracy efforts are designed to honor both [antipiracy concerns and human rights], but we are open to feedback on what we can do to improve in that regard.'"

Pretty much every corporation has evil bits. Apple does, Google does. I'd like to think that Ben & Jerry's, under the original ownership, didn't. But this really takes the cake, right up there with revealing political dissident blogger identities.

I wonder how long before we see such political/corporate/legal activity over here?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/09/12/131247/Microsoft-Complaints-Help-Russian-Govt-Pursue-Political-Opposition-Groups

German firm Medien Patent Verwaltung claims that in 2003, it revealed a new kind of anti-piracy technology to Warner Bros. that marks films with specific codes so pirated copies can be traced back to their theaters of origin. But like a great, hilariously-ironic DRM Ouroborus, the company claims that Warner began using the system throughout Europe in 2004 but hasn't actually paid a dime for it.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100937-Warner-Bros-Sued-for-Pirating-Anti-Piracy-Technology

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/05/27/0352241/Warner-Bros-Accused-of-Pirating-Anti-Pirating-Tech?art_pos=4

It reminds me, and I think it might have been a Warner exec, that a music industry exec's children were pirating music on iPods. Of course there was no lawsuit filed against them.

"Do as I say, not as I do!"

Gee, sounds like a good place for a BSA audit. (Business Software Alliance, computer anti-piracy org)

"'After spending a year studying how piracy and illegal counterfeiting affects the United States, the Government Accountability Office says it still doesn't know for sure.... The GAO said that most of the published information, anecdotal evidence, and records show that piracy is a drag on the US economy, tax revenue, and in some cases potentially threatens national security and public health. But the problem is, according to the GAO, the data used to quantify piracy isn't reliable.'"

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20002304-261.html

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/13/1655230/Feds-Question-Big-Medias-Piracy-Claims?art_pos=24

Wait, so Hollywood IS LYING TO US? NOOOOOOOO! [/sarcasm]

I'm quite curious how they would get this money back in to the hands of artists and creators of pirated goods. There is no way on Khod's green li'l earth that they could equitably determine how much anyone could get.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/01/08/0247248/France-Considers-Pirate-Tax-For-Online-Ads?art_pos=32

"Daily Tech brings us a story about Sony's run-in with the Mexican police. (Billboard picked up the story as well.) It seems that they raided Sony's offices and seized 6,397 music CDs after a protest from the artist, Alejandro Fernandez. Fernandez had signed a seven-album deal with Sony Music; he completed that commitment and then left for Universal. During the time with Sony, he recorded other songs that did not make it into the agreed-upon seven albums. Sony Music took it upon themselves to collect that material and release it as an eighth album. Fernandez claims that he fulfilled his contract with Sony, and residual material belongs to him. Hmm. Precedent from the Jammie Thomas infringement and distribution case gives us $80K per song. Sony vs. Joel Tenenbaum gives $22.5K per song. So 6,397 CDs at an average of 8 songs/CD is 51,176 infringing songs, with (IMHO) intent to distribute. The damages to Fernandez should be $1,151,460,000 using the Tenenbaum precedent or $4,094,080,000 using the Thomas precedent. Seems very straightforward to me."

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/09/07/2148227/Copyright-Troubles-For-Sony?art_pos=3

It would be so massively awesome for Sony to be found liable for a billion dollars!

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Page Summary

Nvidia defends ebook pirate web sites!
Warner Brothers sued for pirating a trademark!
Blind man sued for downloading a porn movie
Yet another report showing pirates are heavy buyers of music and movies
RIAA Accounting!
The ??AA tries to get no warrant raids legalized in California
A bill is introduced to totally and absolutely shut down pirate sites. No, I mean it!
Japanese trade group finds that internet piracy BOOSTS sales of anime!
Software piracy complains from Microsoft help Russia quash political opposition
Warner Brothers is being sued for pirating anti-pirating technology
The government can't find a basis supporting RIAA/MPAA piracy claims
The French want to tax online ads because of piracy
Sony in a little bit of music copyright trouble!

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Entries tagged with piracy

Nvidia defends ebook pirate web sites!

Warner Brothers sued for pirating a trademark!

Blind man sued for downloading a porn movie

Yet another report showing pirates are heavy buyers of music and movies

RIAA Accounting!

The ??AA tries to get no warrant raids legalized in California

A bill is introduced to totally and absolutely shut down pirate sites. No, I mean it!

Japanese trade group finds that internet piracy BOOSTS sales of anime!

Software piracy complains from Microsoft help Russia quash political opposition

Warner Brothers is being sued for pirating anti-pirating technology

The government can't find a basis supporting RIAA/MPAA piracy claims

The French want to tax online ads because of piracy

Sony in a little bit of music copyright trouble!