Official Ares Free Download

p2pnet news view Advertising | P2P:- What you see on the right isn’t a typically malnourished model.

Nope.

Rather, according to Ralph Lauren’s marketing arm and its law firm, it’s an “infringing image,” says Boingboing, and “they thoughtfully took the time to send a DMCA takedown notice to our awesome ISP, Canada’s Priority Colo”.

One of the things that “makes Priority Colo so awesome,” the Post says, “is that they don’t automatically act on DMCA takedowns. Instead, they pass them on to us and we talk about whether they pass the giggle-test.”

The company is based in Hamilton, Ontario — Ontario, Canada, that is — and unless president Obushma  has been able to prevail upon Canadian prime minister George W. Harper to the extent of his predecessor, there’s absolutely no reason why it should pay attention to a piece of purely American crap. Sorry, legislation.

ANYway, the pic apparently originally appeared on Photoshop Disasters which, says BB,  seems to given in to Mr Lauren and taken the image down.

Well, No. It didn’t, actually.

“I didn’t take the post down,” says Cosmos7 on Photoshop Disasters under dumb-ass lawyers, adding:

“Blogspot automatically takes down posts in a DMCA. (In their defence, most ISPs do the same thing.)”

(Cheers, Marc)

p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Canadians, especially young Canadians, need to take control of their online personal information, says federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart (right).

As more and more people live their lives online, they need to take greater responsibility for securing their privacy — and think twice about what they post, she warns in her 2008 annual report to parliament.

Many young people have been fired, missed out on job interviews and academic opportunities, and suspended from school for instant messages, wall posts and other types of online correspondence they mistakenly thought were private conversations with friends, she says.

They’re, “choosing to open their lives in ways their parents would have thought impossible and their grandparents unthinkable,” Stoddart  states, also noting the risk of  unguarded personal information being exploited by identity thieves, continuing:

“Such openness can lead to greater creativity, literacy, networking and social engagement. But putting so much of their personal information out into the open can also … leave an enduring trail of embarrassing moments that could haunt them in future.”

Her report on the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) highlights the issue of youth privacy, but also looks at 2008 privacy complaint investigations; technology and privacy issues; and the commissioner’s efforts to encourage the development of international privacy standards.

Some 422 new PIPEDA-related complaints were received in 2008, “ending a downward trend that had lasted for several years,” it says, adding:

“In 2007, there had been 350 complaints, fewer than half the 723 received in 2004.”

p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- It’s a one-way street for the Big 4 record labels, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music.

Our way.

‘Screw You!’ – they tell their customers as they try to sue them back into being clueless consumers.

Now,  in the latest debacle Warner, promoter of  another one-way ‘licensing’ project it’s calling Choruss, and Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace, say a songwriter he can’t do what he wants with his own song.

“Mesanna alerts us to a blog post from the wife/manager of pop singer Edwyn Collins discussing the hellish experience she’s gone through trying to offer up Collins’ most famous song, A Girl Like You, on MySpace,” writes Mike Masnick on Techdirt.

On MySpace, “This is Grace here, the manager,” writes Grace, continuing:

“I apologise for hijacking Edwyn’s blog. I’ve been in a long running battle with myspace and a major label which is claiming the ownership of A Girl Like You. That’s why it has not been here in it’s entirety for ages. THEY WON”T LET US. It’s a long, boring Kafkaesque story. I’m pissed off. We want to allow people to download it for free. Edwyn owns it, he should be able to what he wants. When I read about artists supporting the majors and Murdoch cartels even further it irritates me somewhat. So I posted this reply to the statement issued by the Featured Artists Coalition following their meeting at Air Studios. Music legally and freely available on the internet now!”

So, “Here’s my post, says says (we did made the paragraphs) »»»

I am Edwyn Colllins manager. Let me tell you a story.

At the beginning of this year I noticed that Edwyn’s myspace had gone bit wonky and I tried to upload the tracks back on to the music player. His most famous track, which he owns the copyright in, as he does for most of the music he’s recorded in his life (preferring to go it alone than have his music trapped “in perpetuity” to use the contract language of the major record company) is called A Girl Like You. It’s quite famous. Lo and behold, it would not upload, I was told Edwyn was attempting to breach a copyright and he was sent to the Orwellian myspace copyright re-education page.

Quite chilling, actually. I naturally blew my stack and wrote to myspace on his behalf demanding to know who the hell was claiming copyright of Edwyn’s track? Which, incidentally, he always made freely available for download on myspace, something which amazed his followers.

Eventually, after HUGE difficulty, I was told Warner Music Group were claiming it. I found a nice lawyer guy at Warners, very apologetic, promised to get it sorted, but all these months later it isn’t. That is because Myspace are not equipped to deal with the notion that anyone other than a major can claim a copyright.

Warner’s were one of the lead petitioners in the attempt to put those three stoner lads in Sweden in prison recently, remember.

A Girl Like You is available FOR SALE all over the internet. Not by Edwyn, by all sorts of respectable major labels whose licence to sell it ran out years ago and who do not account to him. Attempting to make them cease and desist would use up the rest of my life. Because this is what they do and what they’ve always done.

And it’s not just majors.

If I had a fiver for all the dodgy indie labels we’ve been involved with I’d have £35 or thereabouts. (Exceptions: Heavenly and Domino).

Andrew Loog Oldham said that getting ripped off (by the industry) was your entrance fee to the music business of the sixties, so get over it. He’s right and things have not changed. We are very over it, but nonetheless aware of who the biggest bootleggers around are.

It’s not the filesharers.

Personally, we’ve always loved bootlegs. Even when Edwyn was really skint at the fag end of the eighties, I remember being in Camden market and seeing some tapes of a couple of his shows on sale. I tried to buy them but the stallholder somehow knew who I was and said “free to the management.”

I failed to see how that guy selling tapes of Edwyn or even U2 or anybody on the list of signatories above could harm their career.

And then, “she’s got a nice little message for the Featured Artist Coalition and its silly petition to try to stop file sharing,” says Mike on Techdirt.

“But anyway, as an earlier post said, this is not really an argument worth having,” Grace says, adding:

“The gig’s up. You might as well take a position about when you want the sun to come up in the morning. It’s over. Now let’s get on with working out a wonderful new way for music lovers to enjoy music for free or for a small subscription that makes it legal and easy to hear ANYTHING and allows the artist to reap the rewards of such freedom of access.

“Viva la revolucion!”

(Thanks, RW)

Online advertising company Google has promised to “immediately safeguard” Gmail accounts targeted as part of an “industry-wide phishing scheme,” says the BBC.

Windows Live Hotmail users have already been warned to change their password and security question immediately following a “possible Windows Live Hotmail ‘hack’ or phishing scheme where password details of thousands of Hotmail accounts have been posted online,” reported Neowin.

This list contained some 10,000 names.

Now, a further 20,000 names and passwords from such as Yahoo and AOL have been posted online, says the BBC.

Google claims, “fewer than 500 of its accounts had been affected by the scam,” but has refused to say how many accounts on a third recently discovered list, it says, going on:

“The firm stressed that the scam was ‘not a breach of Gmail security’ but rather ‘a scam to get users to give away their personal information to hackers’.”

Some accounts on the 20,000 list, “appear to be old, unused or fake,” says the BBC, adding, “However, BBC News confirmed that many – including Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail addresses – were genuine.

“Other addresses on the list include Comcast and Earthlink accounts.

“It is not clear whether the new lists was part of the same phishing attack that collected the Hotmail addresses or a separate scam.”

Both lists can still be accessed online, says the story.

Walruses and sock puppets

p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- The pic on the right came in an email yesterday.

No text, but the message is clear enough.

There were also other emails waiting for me this morning, most of them saying, politely and not so polititely, I’m making a Big Mistake by talking with Billy Bragg.

But before I go on, to address points raised in one email: p2pnet isn’t entrepreneurial and it isn’t a business. Corny as it may sound, it’s a commitment.

As regular contributor catflap has just said in an email, “You own and run p2pnet, but p2pnet has become more than you — commenters and readers and writers alike. Don’t you think so?”

I do indeed.

There’s no paid staff. In fact, there’s no staff at all. Just me. Everyone who contributes –  including people who post Reader’s Writes — does so because s/he wants to, or because I’ve asked if I can reproduce their work here. But no one receives a dime —- not that I wouldn’t love to be able to commission works and pay for articles.

p2pnet is a personal page which went online in August, 2002. As I say in About »»»

It was the first Internet web page to carry daily, frequently updated news, stories, features and commentaries on digital media, distributed computing and associated technologies and events which haven’t been spun, filtered and pre-digested by vested corporate interests.

It places special emphasis on freedom of speech, P2P and sharing.

It’s my sole source of income and believe me, it’s often a struggle, and always a worry. No fat cigars, even if I did smoke.

p2pnet survives, quite literally, month-to-month thanks to a supporter who wants to remain anonymous, but who’s been meeting the lion’s share of my expenses for approaching two years, and to flat rate payments from advertisers, all of whom I regard as friends.

Those @#$%^&* pirates!

In We are the walrus. Or, thank you Lily Allen, “I ran a post slugged Billy Bragg solves the file sharing problem,” I said, going on »»»

It was based on his September 30 editorial in The Guardian called A better way to sink internet pirates.

I followed it up yesterday with Billy Bragg to p2pnet and over the course of the two posts, something happened I don’t believe has happened before since the file sharing controversy was launched by the labels in 2003.

Then, working for Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music, Sony Music, their RIAA started the bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign under which the people who kept the labels in business are called criminals and thieves and are ‘persuaded’ to continue consuming ‘product’ under constant threat of being financially ruined in the law courts if they don’t.

My original post was less than complimentary to Billy Bragg. But  he responded in a series of  comments addressing individual points raised by p2pnet readers.

I added, “And I believe his explanations and observations not only clarified what’s going on in the minds of  some, at least, independent and contracted artists in a way never seen before,  but by virtue of the fact he bothered to post at all, he also gave us access to musicians who until this point have been locked off.”

I still see it that way.

The Big4 love fragmentation

For close to eight years there’s been a vicious fight started by the major corporate music labels, who want to control everything at any price. And that includes everyone who likes music. But to the best of my knowledge, there’s never, ever, been a way for fans to talk directly with musicians, and vice versa.

Which suits music industry just fine. They love fragmentation. They adore it. It suits them right down to the ground to see us constantly at odds with each other.

Because divided, we’re just a bunch of powerless fools running around like headless chickens. And that’s precisely the way Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian) who are, to all intents and purposes, the corporate music industry, want things to stay.

The absolute last thing they want is to see us talking together without corporate interference.

There are lots of differences. And there are just as many misperceptions. On both sides. But the only way they’ll get sorted is if we talk to each other. And that means taking risks and being open to being wrong.

So fuck ‘em. It doesn’t matter a damn if we’re disagreeing. As long as we’re talking, sooner or later, we’ll reach common ground. Guaranteed.

As I said to someone in an email this morning, “On Billy Bragg, for me, it’s simple. This is a fairly well-known UK performer who’s plugged into the music industry. I can talk with him without agreeing with everything he says.  The way things are, everything is so polarised that intelligent, two-way communication is practically impossible.

“I’ve spoken with Bragg on the phone and he strikes me as someone who’s genuinely willing to talk and listen and who might be able to help.

“If I’m wrong, we’ll soon know and I’ll freely and plainly admit it in big black letters.”

Keep on talking …

A little while back I was attacked by a Big Music executive for standing up for two people chosen as Big Music poster victims.

Now, somewhat ironically,  I’m being attacked for wanting to see conversations start between fans and music-makers.

However, the only way any of us can move forward and, not at all incidentally, confound Big Music, is to start talking to each other and keep talking.

So if you have any ideas, share them.

For example, here’s what Henry Emrich suggests Bill should do »»»

1. Retract your ‘overwhelming’ support for Liy Allen and her corporate paymasters.  Do NOT support throttling (even for ‘incorrigible’ file-sharers) because doing so inevitably demonizes the entire p2p community, and in so doing, concedes the corporate labels’ entire argument.

2. Issue a statement advocating that copyright terms be reduced to something more reasonable/less overtly pernicious.  (Remember, Billy: for all your bravado about how p2pers are ’stealing your apples’, the fact is, those ‘apples’ were — and are — indended to eventually enter the Public Domain.  Monopoly privileges like copyright are just that — PRIVILEGES, and, as the p2p thing illustrates, you/your corporate handers ignore that at your peril.

3. Read Lawrence Lessig’s book “Free Culture”.  It’s available on the Net for free, and it’s not that long.  Hell, there’s even an “audiobook” version for free download, so you don’t even have THAT excuse. If you’re going to run an ‘advocacy’ lobby, it only makes sense that you understand at least something about the issues you’re lobbying about.

4. Please stop recycling corporate boilerplate about the ‘threat’ posed by p2p.  Despite their whimpering, the corporate entertainment industry is doing just fine.  P2p represents a potential threat  to them, alright: the threat that folks might be able to get noticed WITHOUT having a multi-billion dollar corporate propaganda machine behind them. (You, of ALL people, should understand the inherent appeal of DIY, REAL grassroots, etc.  After all, you did come out of the Punk scene, which was pretty much built on fanzines and GENUINELY independent labels, some of which were thrown together very literally on a shoestring budget.)

5. Please follow this link: http://questioncopyright.org/compensation

Meanwhile, one of the emails I saw this morning suggested I’m being paid for “ratting out to the labels”.

A long time ago a significant music industry figure suggested I might find it “interesting” to see the corporate music industry in a more “balanced” way.

But this, not that, is what’s interesting.

Stay tuned.

AND KEEP TALKING !!!!!

Cheers!

Jon Newton – p2pnet

Pirate Bay on the run as hosts jump ship The Local
File sharing site The Pirate Bay was out of commission on Tuesday as it struggled to find hosting providers willing to serve the site. Last Wednesday, Swedish bandwidth supplier PatrikWeb quit servicing The Pirate Bay, and since then the site has been forced to use different providers throughout Europe, the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper reports. At first a supplier in the Ukraine ensured that the site could continue functioning late last week. But the solution was short lived after BREIN, a Dutch anti-piracy organization, discovered Pirate Bay’s traffic was being routed through the Netherlands and pressured a Dutch supplier to cut off service, according to the tech news website Torrentfreak.com. Since then, The Pirate Bay has bounced around to several providers, most recently landing with CB3Rob.net, a German host with ties to the country’s own chapter of the Pirate Party.

Revealed: iiNet’s film copyright defence IT News
Next Tuesday, Perth ISP iiNet will throw the spotlight on the film industry, accusing it of being the primary copyright infringer in a Federal Court case to be heard in Sydney. iiNet provided iTnews fresh details of its defence against Roadshow Films and the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft today. It came less than a week after the Federal Court declined to release the federation’s responses to iiNet’s defence prior to the case being heard. “The alleged authorisation infringement is, on the applicant’s own case, actually brought about by actions of the applicants,” iiNet told iTnews it will argue next week, pointing to how the federation gathered evidence against the ISP. The ISP said it will also argue that wading through every infringement allegation against customers who use peer-to-peer software would put it at commercial disadvantage. iiNet will further argue that it encouraged only legal downloads over its network by offering a “freezone” of unmetered, legal content.

PhotoSketch: better than sliced bread, Photoshop ZDNet
This is quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen a computer do. What if you could draw some stick figures on a screen and somehow magically create a beautiful image montage? Well, it’s possible. A group of students in China have created PhotoSketch, a project that does exactly what I just described: it takes a rough, hand-drawn sketch, scours the web for photos that match, and runs them through an algorithm, stitching it all together

Media giant to seek bankruptcy protection Canadian Press
The company that owns Global Television and the National Post newspaper is filing for creditor protection in a deal with a key group of lenders, as it seeks court approval to restructure a mountain of debt. Canwest Global Communications Corp. has been struggling for months to deal with the debt load, which the Winnipeg-based broadcaster took on when it bought the former Southam newspapers and the National Post earlier this decade. Business units of the media company that will be filing for creditor protection include the Canwest Television Limited Partnership, which holds Global Television, MovieTime, DejaView and Fox Sports World, and The National Post Company. After the restructuring, Canwest creditors would receive shares of the restructured media company. Canwest’s current shareholders would own just 2.3 per cent of the shares of the new Canwest.

Trial set for movie-mimicking murder Canadian Press
An Edmonton man charged with murder in a case police say mimicked a movie script is to be back in court Oct. 16. That’s when a judge is expected to set Mark Twitchell’s trial date. The fringe filmmaker is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Johnny Altinger. [ Snuff-film maker charged with murder ]

Sex workers to challenge Canada’s prostitution laws CTV
The laws that control prostitution in Canada will go on trial today in a Toronto courtroom. Two prostitutes and a dominatrix are challenging the laws, saying they make no sense. Alan Young, the Osgoode Hall law professor representing the women, says his clients can’t understand why prostitution itself is not directly prohibited, and yet all incidental transactions involved in prostitution are. Young plans to argue in Ontario Superior Court that the Criminal Code sections that prohibit “communication for the purpose of prostitution” means that prostitutes can’t properly screen potential clients. And he’ll argue that the sections barring “living on the avails of prostitution” or “running or occupying a bawdy house” mean that sex workers can’t work indoors or in brothels, or hire security staff to protect themselves. Young will argue that leaves prostitutes vulnerable and forced to work on the streets. The Crown is expected to argue that decriminalizing prostitution could cause women to view it as “a career choice,” make Canada a haven for sex tourism, and perhaps lead to the “red-light districts” across the country. They also plan to argue that prostitution is inherently degrading, dangerous and unhealthy, and should not be encouraged by lax laws.

MGM Catches A Break From Lenders IMDb
Burdened by a heavy debt load that has barely allowed it to remain a functioning studio, MGM on Thursday said that its lenders had agreed to allow it to defer interest payments for the next three months so that it could continue its participation in the development of The Hobbit. MGM currently has a deal with New Line to co-produce the prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

Groundbreaking Agreement Between Verizon Wireless and Google to Leverage High-Speed Network and Open Android Platform for Wireless Innovation Press release
Verizon Wireless and Google(TM) today announced a strategic partnership that will leverage the Verizon Wireless network and the best of the Android(TM) open platform to deliver leading-edge mobile applications, services and devices. Both companies view this agreement as an opportunity to offer consumers an array of products that combine the speed of the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network with the flexibility of the Android mobile platform. Integral to this agreement is a commitment by the companies to devote substantial resources to accelerate delivery of leading-edge innovation that will put unique applications in the hands of consumers quickly. The two industry leaders will create, market and distribute products and services, with Verizon Wireless also contributing the breadth of its nationwide distribution channels. Consumers will be able to purchase products resulting from the collaboration in Verizon Wireless retail and online stores. Verizon Wireless and Google plan to co-develop several Android-based devices that will be pre-loaded with innovative applications from both parties as well as third-party developers. The family of Android phones on the Verizon Wireless network will come from leading handset manufacturers.

Stallman vs the CodePlex Foundation and Miguel de Icaza H-online
In a posting on his FSF blog, Richard Stallman has attacked Microsoft’s creation of the CodePlex Foundation and dubbed Miguel de Icaza an “apologist” for Microsoft. De Icaza has responded in his own blog comparing Stallman’s language to that of George W Bush, and defending the foundation as “great way of helping steer Microsoft in the right direction”.

Google retreats on Pirate Bay DMCA take down

Tue,06 Oct 2009 07:22 GMT -4:00 http://www.p2pnet.net/story/29440

news view Advertising | P2P:- Giant online advertising company (and Number One indexing site) Google last week dropped The Pirate Bay home page.

The action was attributed to a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint.

Oh! The Horror!

But it was all a big mistake, says Gargle.

“The removal appears to be an internal error and not part of a DMCA request,” it says in a statement quoted by CNet News.

Ex-TPB spokesman Peter Sunde-Kolmisoppi, “told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagblated that The Pirate Bay’s attorney sent a letter to both Google and the companies that are suspected of being behind the allegations and demanded that the Pirate Bay be returned to Google’s index,” says the story, adding:

“The Pirate Bay accused Google of censoring a competitor and of stifling free expression, the paper reported.”

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More

dropped – Google dumps The Pirate Bay home page, October 2, 2009

CNet News – Google: Pirate Bay booted off search by mistake, October 2, 2009

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WiFi imaging sees through walls …

Tue,06 Oct 2009 07:22 GMT -4:00 http://www.p2pnet.net/story/29439

- How about this for Über Cool?

Wi-Fi X-Ray!

Researchers at the University of Utah says they’ve found  a way to image, localize, and track motion behind walls in real-time.

In other words, they say they can see through solid matter.

And they’re using WiFi to do it.

Say Joey Wilson and Neal Patwari in their abstract »»»

The method takes advantage of the motion-induced variance of received signal strength measurements made in a wireless peer-to-peer network.

Using a multipath channel model, we show that the signal strength on a wireless link is largely dependent on the power contained in multipath components that travel through space containing moving objects.

A statistical model relating variance to spatial locations of movement is presented and used as a framework for the estimation of a motion image.

From the motion image, the Kalman filter is applied to recursively track the coordinates of a moving target. Experimental results for a 34-node through-wall imaging and tracking system over a 780 square foot area are presented.

“In a mission-critical application, we envision a building imaging scenario similar to the following,” they say in Through-Wall Motion Tracking Using Variance-Based Radio Tomography Networks, going on »»»

Emergency responders, miltary forces, or police arrive at a scene where entry into a building is potentially dangerous. They deploy radio sensors around (and potentially on top of) the building area, either by throwing or launching them, or dropping them while moving around the building. The nodes immediately form a network and self-localize, perhaps using information about the size and shape of the building from a database (e.g., Google maps) and some known-location coordinates (e.g., using GPS).

Then, nodes begin to transmit, making signal strength measurements on links which cross the building or area of interest. The RSS measurements of each link are transmitted back to a base station and used to estimate the positions of moving people and objects within the building.

Now you know.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

October, 2009

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Microsoft health hazard?

Tue,06 Oct 2009 07:22 GMT -4:00 http://www.p2pnet.net/story/29438

news viewAdvertising | Freedom:- Seriously, would you want Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer (right) to be in charge of your health records?

That’s what it already amounts to for some people.

Shudder.

And not only Microsoft.

Google, the net’s most pernicious online advertising company, and other US conglomerates are now routinely accepted as major controllers of  health care records.

“The electronic medical record field remains in its infancy,” said the Washington Post last year.

But, “While U.S. privacy laws govern actions by medical providers such as doctors, there is little in the way of other established privacy, security and data usage standards despite decades of industry efforts.”

And this July, “Terrific news for Britons!” said . “If the Conservatives oust the current UK Labour government, Microsot or Gargle may soon be looking after your health records!

“Just like they do in America.

“Conservative leader David Cameron, ‘wants people to use services like Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault as an alternative to the, “£12bn national patient record database ordered by the government’, said The Guardian.

Back to Ballmer, “MSN this week released its beta version of a new online health information management service, including widgets to upload and organize data stored in HealthVault accounts,”says CNet News.

“MSN describes My Health Info (requires Silverlight — but of course) as a feature designed for busy parents, adults managing aging parents, and anyone managing chronic conditions and multiple medications.”

Riiiight.

Scary. Very scary.

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More

Washington Post – Electronic health-record standards agreed, June 25, 2008

– UK National Google Health Service,  July 6, 2009

The Guardian – Cameron: Patients should store health records with Google or Microsoft, July 6, 2009

CNet News – MSN launches personal health management service, October 2, 2009

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