Anti-Piracy Campaigns Fail, People Keep Downloading

For as long as Internet file-sharing has been considered a problem, copyright holders and their respective anti-piracy groups have been mobilizing with campaigns they hope can reduce the phenomenon. Despite the efforts, downloading continues unabated. Against the law? One in four in Denmark certainly don’t.

During the last decade anti-piracy campaigns have taken many forms. Warnings running on the beginning of a DVD, for example, are fairly straightforward and to the point – “don’t copy this, it’s illegal”, they said.

Other approaches, such as the super high-profile and aggressive litigation campaign pursued by the RIAA in the United States, tried to send the message that financial ruination is the inevitable result of sharing music files.

The movie industry’s MPAA tried a “we’re looking over your shoulder” angle with their Internet-only ‘You Can Click But You Can’t Hide’ campaign which was designed to reinforce the notion that file-sharers are not anonymous and can be held accountable.

Untold other campaigns from a myriad of anti-piracy groups followed, from educating kids in schools and persuading boy scouts to take a copyright awareness badges, right up to trying to convincing the public that there is a human consequence to sharing files. Creators everywhere will starve, entertainment will come to an end, and this dark future can only be avoided by buying media instead of downloading it, they cautioned.

Like their counterparts in other parts of the world, Denmark’s Antipiratgruppen have been working tirelessly with anti-piracy activities of all kinds during recent years as they desperately try to discourage people from downloading media from the Internet. In common with similar campaigns from America to Asia, the end results are largely the same – they have failed to reduce the overall numbers of people sharing files.

That’s according to a new survey conducted by YouGov Zapera on behalf of publication MetroXpress. Carried out during the first week of August 2010, the survey consisted of interviews with a representative sample of people aged between 18 and 74 years old.

When questioned, 23% of respondents said that they had the ability to find and download music and movies from the Internet. In 2009 that figure was 20%. When it came to music alone, 27% of respondents said they had downloaded from the Internet. In 2009 that figure was 24%.

Troels Møller from pro-piracy group Piratgruppen said that the lack of progress comes as no surprise.

“The advertising campaigns used to prevent illegal downloads have been a waste of money and have in general been a cop-out from the record industry,” he told MetroXpress. “They try to give people a bad conscience about something that there is nothing wrong with. Because you are not stealing from anyone. On the contrary, you are sharing with others.”

Bente Skovgaard Kristensen, who is responsible for copyright issues at the Ministry of Culture, says that the problem of illegal downloading is massive.

“The unchanged position on the course of piracy shows that there is a problem,” she admitted in a response. “Because the scope of copyright violations on the Internet is so large the Government has appointed a committee to look at how to deal with the issue. They report back with their findings later this year.”

The only area where opinion was slightly improved was in that concerning legislation. In 2009, 31% of respondents said that they felt copying of music and movies should be made legal. This year that figure dropped to 30%.

Apple Ready For Anti-Theft Patent?

There have been a bit of commotion online concerning a new Apple’s patent request. The company is reported to create a new patent intended to stop jailbreaking. Around a month ago, DMCA review put forth the option for someone to jailbreak the phone without violating anti-circumvention legislation (still can be committed only under specific circumstances). It was also ruled by the court that the act of circumvention itself is not an infringement.

The Apple was reported to patent the power to remotely disable jailbroken phones. However, the reports made online by third party services were not purely true. One of them sent readers to the patent application, mentioning a jailbroken phone only by telling whether the one was stolen or not. Apparently, this seems to do nothing about the company’s intention disabling jailbroken iPhones. However, the report discusses what Apple is planning to do with devices that have been stolen and later used by “illegal” users. Meanwhile, the second report also barely touches the topic of Apple trying to patent the option to disable jailbroken phones remotely, as the patent was filed over a year ago. Still, it doesn’t make the idea of the patent uninteresting. The statements of the claim include methods for identifying an illegal user of a device, gathering data related to their operations, and sending an alert warning to a responsible party.

As it has been said above, the patent was filed in the early 2009, so the overview of the prior documents might be interesting in terms of putting this patent into question. For example, a 5-year-old article in Forbes details similar ideas to those described in the claims, with the emphasis given to the point where it says about detecting an illegal user of an “electronic device,” which is obviously not a phone specifically, but rather any device. As for the Forbes article, it was devoted to laptop theft and included the same claims: identifying an IP address of the stolen device, if it is used in unauthorized hands, and creating notifications about it. The part of sending an alert to the responsible party was also fulfilled by informing local law enforcement of a place where the stolen device was located.

What all this leading to is the fact that the prior art to a patent has already been filed previously, which can put the validity of the Apple’s patent in jeopardy.

U2 Band Manager Accused ISPs Of Profiting From Piracy

Paul McGuiness, U2 band manager, believes that illegal file-sharing constitutes a part of a commercial agenda of large telecoms and technology industries, earning high money at the expense of right owners.

Paul McGuiness, a longtime band manager for U2, argues that Internet service providers are to be blamed for the damage unauthorized file-sharing has done to the record industry. In addition he claims that ISPs have been profiting over the years at the record industry’s expense.

McGuiness says that despite the fact that service providers introduce themselves as neutral bystanders, they have contributed much to the depreciation of music and all the consequences it caused to the music industry. What ISPs did wrong is that they failed to aggressively sanction unauthorized file-sharing users.

U2 band manager highlights that faster connection speeds, for which service providers normally increase subscription fees, are actually only developed for illegally downloading customers. He refuses to believe that users may want more bandwidth to speed up their e-mails, but increasing the speed of downloading illegal content sounds as a good reason.

He also says that free material is a part of commercial agenda of large technology firms and broadband providers that need more content to create demand for services they provide. To prove this Paul McGuiness points at the figures of the past decade. Profits derived from the Internet access (both fixed line and mobile) quadruplicated within the last 5 years, while record industry revenues fell twice.

His argument sound reasonable for a number of reasons. First of all, considering that the memory storage capacity of portable players like iPod is huge, expecting people to fill it with legally acquired music isn’t reasonable at all, as it may cost up to $16,000. Is McGuiness ready to spend that much money for filling the music player? Guess not. So that’s why people download the content illegally or share music with family and friends. Although the manufacturers, for example Apple, are aware of the situation, they keep increasing the memory storage capacity to charge users more.

Also the ISPs advertise faster connection speeds to charge users more as well, though most people need only surf the Internet and check email.

So he’s probably right when considering that companies won’t stop using illegal file-sharing to profit. Still, they only have to do that because of inability of rights owners to adapt to a new business model.

The Alice Doll Quest In Dark RO

http://dark-ro.net
Alice Doll
NPC Name: Alice
Location: glast_01 (201, 349)
You need to equip this before talking to Alice:

* Cute Small Ribbons //Alice// [kh_dun01]
* Crystal Pumps //Marionet// [gef_dun02]

She will ask you for these items:

* 200 Alice's Apron //Alice, Aliza// [kh_dun01]
* 150 Reins //Abysmal Knight// [gefenia01, gefenia02, gefenia03, gefenia04]

10 Urban Legends That Drove Pinoys Crazy

1. Robinson—half-man, half-snake—terrorizes pretty mallrats.

Story time: The Gokongwei family allegedly built Robinsons Galleria to serve as the romping ground of their mutant offspring Robinson, who was supposedly the twin brother of Robina Gokongwei-Pe. Robinson’s popularity peaked in the 1990s, when everyone believed that he indeed existed and frequented the ladies’ fitting rooms of the department store. Others claimed he also liked to munch on little children, whom he would somehow grab while they were in the comfort room.

WTF details: People justified Robinson’s existence by pointing out that the “R” in the mall’s logo looked like a snake. Then, it was rumored that actress Alice Dixson was violated by Robinson. In other accounts, he was said to have fallen in love with her and decided not to harm her. He was also alleged to have abducted a saleslady—only to set her free when he realized that she was not really pretty enough for him.

Fact check: Chalk it up to mall wars and the hysteria of overwrought urbanites. The crazy thing about the whole Robinson debacle is that even so-called educated people believed it was true. In any case, when SPOT.ph asked the alleged snake twin in question, Robina Gokongwei-Pe, about her so-called reptile sibling she laughed it off and said, “Ahas? Naging handbag at sapatos na sa Robinsons!” It’s worth noting that Cagayan de Oro’s Gaisano Superstore was also subject to a similar snake rumor back in the 1980s.

2. Bongbong Marcos isn’t himself.

Story time: There’s a story going around that the Bongbong we see now isn’t genuine. The real Bongbong was said to have died in an accident in Manila or after being abducted by armed men somewhere in Mindanao. Another account says he died in London when he was a teenager. Anyway, after his supposed death, the family was said to have tapped a Marcos cousin who closely resembled him to undergo plastic surgery and take his place.

WTF details: Sometime after the story broke out between the late 1970s to the early 1980s, people pointed out that Bongbong’s mom, Imelda, was not so affectionate with him anymore. Others marveled at the fact that Bongbong got “cuter.”

Fact check: The family’s political rivals and legion of haters probably cooked up the story. But if it’s true—then that’s one lucky cousin.

3. Cortal + Coke = Abortion.

Story time: Some people think that taking Cortal (a local brand of aspirin) and washing it down with Coke would induce abortions. More often than not, people will retell a story that they had heard from a friend of a friend’s other friend about a young woman who could not face the fact that she had gotten knocked up. The said young woman allegedly used the Cortal-Coke combo to solve her problem.

WTF details: Information about the young girl would vary. The name of her school or dormitory would change. In some stories, she got away with her so-called “self-medication.” In others, she was rushed to an emergency room of some hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. Of course, the young woman in question never had a name and it was never revealed who the father of her unborn child was.

Fact check: This is either a twisted cautionary tale that’s told to young girls who are out on their own or a campaign against Cortal and Coke. Nevertheless, somebody posed a question related to the combo online.


4. The San Juanico Bridge has a bloody foundation.

Story time: The San Juanico Bridge’s foundation had allegedly been made stronger by the blood of numerous street children. The kids were the “offerings” for a pagan or demonic ritual to guarantee the strength of the structure. This is why, people say, the bridge is haunted by many lost spirits. Others say that the success of the bloody rituals done for San Juanico Bridge encouraged others to do the same for their bridges and buildings. Only one detail was constant: the use of street kids as sacrifice.

WTF details: A post in a PinoyExchange thread states: “Imelda Marcos was in charge of building the bridge. She consulted a manghuhula who said that the bridge would never be finished unless the blood of children [would be spilled on the foundation]. So Imelda ordered [street children to be kidnapped] and [their throats were] slit on the bridge’s location. Their bodies were thrown into the river. A mermaid or diwata who resided in the river saw the plight of the children and was saddened by it. She cursed Imelda. So the First Lady grew scales on her legs and she smelled fishy. That was why she wore long skirts and bathed as often as possible.”

Fact check: Whoever concocted this tale probably wanted to scare off street kids. Or maybe he or she had some serious issues with the San Juanico Bridge or Imelda Marcos. The latter may be more likely as the story is believed to have originated in the Marcos era.

5. Jose Rizal is Adolf Hitler’s father.

Story time: Since Rizal traveled to Europe and made a stopover in Germany, it was convenient for many conspiracy theorists to suggest that he had a dalliance with a young German lass. She allegedly got pregnant with the baby who would be Hitler.

WTF details: For some strange reason, people actually pointed out physical resemblances between Rizal and Hitler. If Rizal were alive, he’d be angrily saying, “Noli me tangere!”

Fact check: Blogger and urban legends junkie Paulo Ordoveza cites Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) History teacher Glenn Garfield Ang’s detailed chronology of Rizal’s stint in Europe from Jose Rizal, the Renaissance Man, a reference CD-ROM available at the AdMU History Department. “Rizal was in London from June 1888 to September 1888, after which he went to France and spent some time there,” Ang writes. “Hitler’s birthday is April 20, 1889. Giving an allowance of nine months from conception to birth, Rizal should have been in Austria in July 1888, if he were indeed Hitler’s natural father. But this is contradicted by the fact that Rizal was in London in July 1888 and remained there until September 1888. Therefore, it is completely impossible for Rizal to have been the natural father of Hitler.”

6. A jellyfish attack causes a Luzon-wide blackout.

Story time: On December 10, 1999, most of Luzon’s lights went out. A BBC News article reveals: “Authorities said that in fact, large numbers of jellyfish had been sucked into the seawater intake of a major power plant near Manila, clogging up the mechanism.” Of course, nobody bought the story.

WTF details: There were people who said the jellyfish were giant mutant ones. Reports indicated that “50 truckloads” of jellyfish had to be removed from the site. It was the height of President Joseph “Erap” Estrada’s notoriety so a lot of people thought that another coup d’ etat was brewing. Some also thought it was the early manifestation of the Y2K Bug.

Fact check: It’s no wonder that people smelled something fishy. Today, you can’t find a video footage or photos of the jellyfish that caused so many Filipinos to panic. Pranksters, of course, had a field day. One of them even wrote a bogus report about the incident. The truth is still out there.

7. AIDS patient injects moviegoers with his blood.

Story time: The story about a guy carrying a syringe full of HIV positive blood going around injecting moviegoers at Megamall broke out sometime in the 1990s. There were those who claimed to have heard stories from people who knew one of the guy’s victims.

WTF details: In some stories, the guy was said to be wearing a baseball cap or a hooded jacket. Some people also said that the guy would let out a maniacal laugh each time he injected a victim. The guy seemed to “melt into the shadows” since nobody reported seeing him running or headed anywhere.

Fact check: Anti-Megamall groups probably got together and decided to infect it with this story, which, by the way, isn’t original. It turns out that this story has an international scope.

8. Tide is the devil’s detergent.

Story time: Stories about Procter and Gamble (P&G)—the multinational company that manufactures Tide, Safeguard, Pantene, and many others—being the profit-generating arm of Satanists spread like soapsuds in the 1980s. People were told that the moon-and-stars logo found on the boxes of P&G products was the symbol of the Anti-Christ. The number of the Beast, “666,” was supposed to be hidden in the logo.

WTF details: Procter and Gamble’s earnings were supposed to be used for the world domination of demon worshippers. There were also emails asserting that the so-called “owner” of P&G had appeared in a US talk show (Oprah Winfrey’s, Sally Jesse Raphael, Phil Donahue, or Merv Griffin’s) and admitted that “a large portion of his profits from Procter & Gamble Products goes to support [the] Satanic Church.” The email even gives details on how one could obtain a transcript of the said show. The catch? There was no such episode in any of the shows mentioned. Moreover, P&G is a publicly help entity. Thus, it’s not owned by a single person.

Fact check: P&G has a lot of competitors—and the fight for market share could get ugly. Perhaps, it was one of them who concocted this hellish story. P&G tried to shake off this rumor by suing those who spread it. In an August 1, 1990 Chicago Sun Times article, it was revealed that P&G sued a Kansas-based couple, James and Linda Newton of Parsons, “for allegedly making statements and distributing literature stating that P&G supported the Church of Satan.” Then, in 2007, P&G was awarded $19 million in its lawsuit against Amway (a company that manufactures consumer products) distributors who allegedly spread the story.

9. Manananggal causes panic in Tondo.

Story time: In 1992, people reported seeing a manananggal in Tondo. Some said that the manananggal had been on board a ship en route to Siquijor. But, for some reason, she got stranded in Manila. In some accounts, the ship that she was on got wrecked.

WTF details: People began to claim that they knew somebody who had actually seen the manananggal or that they knew someone whose child was either stalked or taken by the manananggal.

Fact check: People panicked over the thought of a manananggal in the city. Sociologists pointed out that the manananggal story is often used to keep people in line. In the Spanish era, it was used to persuade people to be more pious. In the 1950s, according to an essay by Jessica Zafra, some sources pointed out that Americans encouraged the spread of the manananggal story in the countryside by telling people that strangers wandering into their barrios could very well be manananggals. Thus, they had to report the presence of these strangers. In reality, it was said to be a strategy to identify rebels. Thus, the “presence” of a manananggal in Tondo actually made sense, as fear of her would help curb the nightly brawls that were rampant in the neighborhood. Even tough guys prefer staying home than encountering a creature that wants to have them as midnight snack.

10. Sigbins are the cure for AIDS.

Story time: The sigbin is a mythical creature that’s more popular in Visayas and Mindanao. It is said to walk backwards. Old folks say that the sigbin walks backwards with its head tucked between its hind legs and that it “resembles a hornless goat, emits a very nauseating smell and possess a pair of very large ears which are capable of clapping like a pair of hands.” They also say that it ventures out of its lair during Holy Week in order to “look for children that it will kill for the heart, which is made into an amulet.” For some reason, the story about it being the cure for AIDS spread like wildfire in the late 1990s even if nobody really knew what a sigbin looked like. Some drawings actually make it look like a kangaroo.

WTF details: Rich government officials in Mindanao who lived in mansions or large estates were believed to be raising sigbins. They were accused of being too greedy to share the wealth with the people. The blood of the sigbin, its meat, or its oil was supposed to cure AIDS within seconds.

Fact check: There are no words to explain just how ridiculous this story sounds and the fact that many people actually went sigbin hunting. Many hapless people who wanted to make a fortune by catching the animal that would cure AIDS were said to have been shown pictures of albino animals that the con men passed off as genuine sigbins. Many of those who wanted to try their luck at sigbin hunting were asked to pay a fee for the privilege of being part of the sigbin hunting group. 

Closure Of 73,000 Blogs Discussed On Aussie Radio Show

Of course, it couldn’t remain unnoticed that 73,000 blogs got shut down. The news were everywhere, making international headlines, and recently Australia’s radio show “The Fourth Estate” introduced an interview with Drew Wilson on this issue.

The host of the show approached Wilson to discuss the situation after the reason of closing blogs was confirmed by Burst.net, which said it was terrorist related activity. During 17 minutes appearance he expressed his opinion on the question why the closure of 73,000 individual blogs had such a significant impact all over the globe.

The main issue he highlighted was that because it had happened in the US, there were already some implications when it came to hampering free speech, as it’s a highly valued freedom in the country. In addition, when combined with censorship online, it made a storm of controversy, as free speech is the very core basic freedom making the Internet tick.

Drew Wilson was also asked if this story could set a kind of precedent for the future of the digital world and he argued that it really hadn’t been given that Burst.net was the one pulling the plug on the operations of Blogetery. If it was the FBI that ordered the closure of the website in the first place, it could set a precedent, but it was more an administrative thing than anything else.

It doesn’t mean that Burst.net had been incompetent in any way. Imagine yourself a website admin or a host in the United States, facing the FBI saying that somebody or something under your watch seems to be fueling terrorist activities. What would you do in such stressful situation hearing your government knocking on the door?

On the other hand, it doesn’t justify the threat of censorship online, if you recall the recent news from Italy there the local government is clamping down on bloggers and journalists. And that one does have a chance to set a very bad precedent.

However, the rest of the hosting services and other discussion forums in the country should think over this case and decide what they would do if this happens to them. The incident should be edificatory in some way, and the companies are recommended to take the decisions in its light. Of course, it’s great to consider yourself an advocate of free speech, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the US entities have to operate within the frames of US laws.

Hackers Pick Up Where Facebook Privacy Leaves Off

LAS VEGAS--Hackers are weighing in on the Facebook privacy controversy with creations that help people strengthen privacy or empty profile pages at the world's leading social networking service.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) technology fellow Chris Conley showed off an arsenal of such applications at the infamous DefCon gathering, which kicked off Friday in Las Vegas.

"They are needed because people don't have control of their privacy and don't really understand," Conley said after the presentation.

"They give people options."

A program written by Conley displays pictures, posts, or other profile data being accessed by applications at Facebook accounts. People can then see what personal information programs are gleaning from their pages.

News stories about privacy control issues at Facebook may slip people's minds by the time they sit down at their computers, but Conley's application grabs their attention with a winning subject -- themselves.

"People love to hear about themselves, that is the thing that Facebook is great at," said Ceren Ercen, who worked briefly for the California company and wore a T-shirt bearing the words "Disgruntled Facebook ex-employee."

"People don't have the attention spans to carry over concerns they have to actual Facebook usage." Ercen added that during her brief stint at Facebook she had "serious problems" regarding the privacy of users and that she wasn't alone.

Applications shared by Conley included a software tool that helps people change Facebook privacy settings using simple color coding to demystify the process.

Other programs let people pack-up Facebook profile data in order to take it elsewhere or stop the social-networking service getting automated feedback about where members go elsewhere on the Internet.

"The long-term goal is they should become obsolete because Facebook has addressed this in some way," Conley said. "We would like Facebook to be doing this."

Conley's application, available online, at dotrights.org has been used by 150,000 people.

"I think people don't see the real potential damage of their information going out the door," a DefCon veteran who asked not to be named said after attending Conley's presentation.

Facebook this week launched a Web page devoted to staying safe on the Internet.

The "Safety Page" highlights news and initiatives focused on ways people can keep data secure at the social-networking community.

The new page augments a virtual Safety Center that Facebook introduced in April and was based on a "security page" that boasted more than 2.2 million "fans."

The number of people using Facebook recently topped the 500 million mark, meaning one in every 14 people on the planet has now signed up to the social network.

The launch of the Safety Page came in the wake of demands by the ACLU and other privacy activists and governments that Facebook give users more control over the use of their personal data.

A coalition of privacy groups, in an open letter to Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg last month, welcomed the social network's recent overhaul of its privacy controls but said additional steps were needed.