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Piracy posts

Filed under: Audio, Internet

Music pirates spend more on music than their legal, law-abiding brethren

The results of a survey, announced yesterday, show that the biggest buyers of music are in fact those that pirate the most. The conclusions come from a poll of 1,000 people between the ages of 16 and 50, with 10% of those admitting they download music illegally -- so it's not a huge slice of the population, and it's by no means conclusive, but I think it just confirms what we already know: it's the music fans that download all the music.

It's the music fans that watch live performances and go the extra mile to get the t-shirts and the posters and track down out-of-print B-sides. The survey shows that the average music downloader spends £77 ($126) a year on music -- while the non-downloader only spends £44.

This probably isn't very big news for you in America -- we all know the RIAA are draconian bitches, nothing new, move along now -- but here in the UK we're about to have a law passed that will allow people to be banned from the Internet if they continue to download music illegally after a written warning. It just stinks of poorly-informed lobbying by the BPI -- the British equivalent of the RIAA.

[via The Independent]

Filed under: Business, News

BSA loves irony, disproves link between piracy and malware

I know, sometimes it's hard to believe that the "BS" in BSA stands for business software when they publish reports like the one Wired shared with us this week. Entitled Software Piracy on the Internet: A Threat to Your Security, the BSA's latest tour de force is fine example of propaganda gone wrong.

Wired highlights this quote from the report: "Globally, there is a significant evidence to link software piracy with the frequency of malware attacks. While this correlation has not been measured with precision, the evidence from industry sources suggests that markets with high software piracy rates also have a tendency to experience high rates of malware infection...."

Not measured with precision? Adam and Jamie would call this thing busted on that point alone.

What the hell, fellas. In addition to your own admission that you weren't particularly careful in how you calculated your figures you obviously didn't look too closely at your charts.

Read more →

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Windows 7 activation crackers undeterred by Microsoft's muscle-flexing


...And so the epic struggle of Microsoft versus pirates continues.

Last week Microsoft and Lenovo went tag-team on the first activation workaround, which utilized a leaked OEM product key. "Nice try, pirates!" said Microsoft. "Your key has been blacklisted and will never see again the light of day! Ha HA!" The also touted the fact that Windows 7 has improved methods of detection of hacks like these.

If you listened very, very closely, you could hear a collective yawn from the cracking community.

A week later, and torrent trackers everywhere are awash with...er...alternative activation methods, and they're being used with varying degrees of success. The bottom line: Microsoft can try, but they're going to face an uphill battle against pirates yet again.

It might take a little longer with Windows 7 for a really solid workaround to appear, but it's bound to happen. And once Microsoft figures out how to thwart that method? There will no doubt be another one waiting in the wings.

No post like this would be complete without the usual disclaimer. As you friends in Redmond will tell you, you should never, never download anything that activates Windows by illegitimate means. Doing so puts you at serious risk - the files could be infected and terrorize your system, increase your car's carbon footprint, make your mattress lumpy and uncomfortable, and cause your all your toilet paper to turn really, really rough.

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Windows x64

Microsoft and Lenovo quickly swashbuckle Windows 7 pirates

First you got your hands on a leaked copy of the Windows 7 RTM. Bad idea, says Microsoft.

Then you tracked down 7loader, which took advantage of a leaked Lenovo product key. We know it's out there, came the nonchalant reply from Redmond.

And now, thanks to a cooperative effort, the workaround has already been defeated. The official blog post touts improvements in Windows 7, which "already includes an improved ability to detect hacks, also known as activation exploits, and alert customers who are using a pirated copy." The post continues, stating that no systems will ever be sold using the particular OEM key that was utilized by the exploit.

So what's Microsoft's real goal here? "Our objective isn't to stop every "mad scientist" that's out there from dabbling; our aim is to protect our customers from commercialized counterfeit software that impacts our customers' confidence in knowing they got what they paid for."

Sure...There's absolutely no reason it would have anything to do with crippling the biggest Windows competitor on the market - pirated copies of Windows.

Filed under: Internet, P2P

Did OpenBitTorrent just become The Pirate Bay 2.0?


When the news came down a few days ago about The Pirate Bay being sold, the community reacted strongly. Despite pleas on the official blog for users to not abandon the site, it was inevitable that the 'betrayal' many users felt would lead to a flood of account deletions.

To a number of P2P users, TPB is dead. After all, once GGF goes to work the site will likely be a hollow shell of its former self. So what will become of the massive number of torrents in their tracker?

TorrentFreak
has discovered and interesting development with OpenBitTorrent, a clever open tracker project. Haven't heard of it? Here's how the site summarizes itself:
OpenBitTorrent is a bittorrent tracker free for anyone to use. You don't need to register, upload or index a torrent anywhere, all you have to do is to include the OpenBitTorrent tracker URL in your torrent.

Read more →

Filed under: Blogging, Microsoft, Commercial

Download from Technet yesterday? You're a dirty pirate, says MS

Remember how I drew the similarity between Jack Napier dumping cash on the unsuspecting rubes of Gotham and Microsoft opening Technet to anyone who filled out a form?

Well, the poisonous gas has been released.

According to a lengthy phone call between blogger Kristan Kenney and a Technet support rep, you weren't supposed to have access to that offer. If you downloaded keys or software and weren't one of the select few actually invited in my Microsoft, you're a dirty pirate.

Don't use those product keys - they've been blacklisted, and WGA will eat you alive and burn down your house if you try to use them. They can see which keys were provided to which subscriber, and they'll track you down.

I understand that the link was leaked by someone outside Microsoft and they can't be blamed for the mayhem that ensued, but come on. Is this the best solution they could come up with? What's next? Waterboarding to find the original source of the leak?

Oh well. At least we still have our Windows 7 RC to use for free until next year.

Filed under: News

Study: 41% of all PC software installed is pirated

PiratesIf you live in the US, you live in a country where about 20% of all software installed on PCs is pirated. Globally that number jumps to 41%. At least, that's the finding of a study from IDC and the Business Software Alliance.

The study claims that the piracy rate actually fell in most of the 110 countries studied, but because PC shipments grew the most in countries like China and India with high piracy rates, the number jumped from 38% in 2007 to 41% in 2008.

The biggest problem with studies like these is that they try to put a dollar amount on the "losses" from piracy. In this case, the report suggests that software companies lost out on $53 billion due to piracy. But that's only true if every single individual that installed a bootlegged copy of your software would have purchased it otherwise. I'm pretty sure that's not true.

While part of the reason piracy is rampant in countries like China is because of lax enforcement of copyright laws, the average household income certainly plays a role as well. People in developing nations generally can't afford to purchase licenses for expensive software like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop. Of course, the solution to piracy might not be to convince everyone to pay up, but to convince people that open source and free alternatives such as GIMP and OpenOffice.org can meet their needs. Then problem solved. Microsoft and Adobe might not make as much money, but they can't claim they lost that money to piracy.

Yes, yes, I know. There are some things that Office and Photoshop and other commercial applications can do that GIMP, OpenOffice.org and other open source alternatives don't do as well. But I'm tired of seeing these reports which assume that the only alternative to piracy is to purchase the software, music, or movies.

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Beta, Windows x64

Microsoft to pirates: you're bad, but you'll still get Windows 7 updates

If someone were to ask you what Microsoft's biggest competition is on the operating system front is, what would your guess be?

OSX? No. Linux? Sorry, but no. Truth is, it's unlicensed Windows.

So when you're developing a new operating system with a wide array of modern features, it's probably best to take a hard line against piracy, right? Maybe not.

Paul Cooke, Microsoft's director of Windows Client Enterprise Security, has told Maximum PC that all Windows 7 users - even those running pirate copies - will receive security updates. Why would Microsoft want to do that?

Regardless of the financial losses associated with Windows piracy, Microsoft wants to protect their reputation. That can be tough, especially when things like the Conficker outbreak get blamed on them. Don't forget, there was a Windows Update patch for that as far back as October 2008 - but millions of pirate XP installs may not have had the patch installed.

And even though it may be the end user's fault for not keeping their OS up to date, running quality antivirus software, or just paying attention to what's going on, the blame often winds up being shipped directly to Redmond. A more secure global Windows install base would also be good news for the computing world as a whole, and maybe Microsoft will get a little credit (and publicity) for that.

Of course, this doesn't mean Microsoft is going to ignore rogue Windows 7 installs.

Just because they want your system fully patched doesn't mean they won't flip the Starter switch and limit your unlicensed system to three programs at once...

[ via Maximum PC]

Filed under: Internet, P2P

Pirates abandon ship as IPRED law kicks in

It's no secret that P2P traffic makes up a huge percentage of the total traffic on the Internet. Also no secret is that fact that some portion of that traffic is used for nefarious purposes like downloading movies that haven't been released or software that Microsoft doesn't want you to have yet.

Yesterday, the IPRED era was ushered in for Swedes, and an incredible 33% drop in Internet traffic followed. The vice-chair of Sweden's Pirate Party, Chrisitian Engstrom, said the decrease was a direct result of the new law.

Under IPRED's provisions, service providers can now be ordered by the court to turn over detailed information about traffic to a user's IP address. It remains to be seen whether or not the logs will be enough to be constitute sufficient proof for charges laid against file sharers.

It's an obvious scare tactic, but one that has proved effective for now. Even if only 1,000 of Sweden's 2 million-plus file sharers are prosecuted (as Engstrom proposes), that may not be a gamble the average downloader wants to take.

The P2P community has historically come up with ways around this kind of "annoyance." PirateBay's Ipredator service is coming, and may provide users with a simple and inexpensive way to avoid logging.

Do laws like IPRED keep you from downloading via P2P?

Filed under: News, iPhone

iPhone app pirates now stealing from one another

Developers who work on rival iPhone App Store pirating apps -- Installous and Mega -- got into a dispute that resulted in Mega's app pirating system itself being pirated. It's not that Installous minded a little competition in the iPhone app piracy game, it's that Mega had the audacity to charge monthly subscription fees to access its library of unlocked app store software. Apparently, even pirates have their limits.

The Installous developers attacked Mega by releasing Grabulous, an app that let users plunder Mega's servers and download apps without paying the subscriptions fees. After some back-and-forth with Mega blocking Grabulous and Installous releasing a new version, it appears that Mega is switching from the subscription model to an ad-and-donation supported system. Sounds smart to me. The attraction of pirating apps is that they're free. If you're going to charge, then even people who are ok with piracy are better off giving their money to the official app store, where some of it will reach the pockets of developers.

[via Daring Fireball]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Web

Mygazines online magazine pirating site closes

Mygazines
Mygazines made a splash a few months ago by launching a service that lets you read your favorite magazines online - without paying. The plan might have worked if the company had, I don't know, partnered with magazine publishers to make free ad-supported versions of the magazine available. But that's not what happened. Instead, Mygazines encouraged users to scan their own magazines and upload them to share with others.

Flash forward a few months and Mygazines is no more. A visit to the company's homepage shows a message saying that the service has gone under due to "monetary reasons and the state of the global economy." Because that's what did it in. The global economy. Not a flawed business model that was incurring the wrath of publishers.

[via Wired]

Filed under: P2P

Download Like a Pirate Day

Watch carefully.. I'm about to talk like a pirate.

Arrh. Avast. Shiver me.. oh forget it.

It's officially "Talk Like a Pirate Day" the world over. Talking like a pirate is kinda lame. It's been done. It's so 2004. Since we've had it up to here with co-workers and their clever attempts to recreate a pirate past that never was a cute or cuddly as the fantasy pirates of today, we decided to go a different direction.

Welcome to Download Squad's "Download Like a Pirate Day". It's just like that other day except, well, lot's and lots better. We'll keep you fat and happy throughout the day with ways to download your fill, even ways to feel like a pirate without breaking any copyrights.

Check out some of our recent posts on burning up your bandwidth and watch throughout the day for more great ideas to keep you downloading like a pirate.

Filed under: Internet, P2P

Taxpayers to Foot The Bill for MPAA Lawsuits?

As DownloadSquad gears up for "Download Like a Pirate Day" this Friday, it appears as though our friends from the MPAA and the boys on Capitol Hill are also hard at work. The U.S. Senate appears ready to give Bill S. 3325 - the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Act of 2008 - the green light as early as today.

A quick look at this article by Alex Curtis and this open letter from twelve different advocacy groups will provide some insight into the proposed bill.

Why should you care? Well, for starters, S. 3325 would allow the Department of Justice to sue offenders in civil court. That's a bad thing. A really bad thing.

First, it means taxpayers are footing the bill while the DOJ does MPAA dirty work. Not good. Second, defendants are guaranteed free legal representation. Third, there only has to be a "preponderance of evidence," which is not nearly the same as "beyond a reasonable doubt." As a kicker, it looks as though fines for violation would be doubled.

Over at OpenCongress there appears to be a lot of buzz about this one (64 blog posts and growing), and rightfully so.

Holy crap. The MPAA has filed 30,000 suits over the past five years. Do you really want to pick up the tab?

For the truly interested, you can view the bill's text here. Read up, and then call your Senator. You can use Cause Caller to contact members of the Senate Judiciary, find and call your own senator, or send a fax.

[via BoingBoing]

Filed under: Internet, Analysis

Piracy or the Next Big Thing?

fighting piracyThe age-old battle of copyright and artist freedom keeps clanging away in the distance, and are we any better off than we were when DAT machines were castrated in the 80's? I read a report this morning about a UK band called "Show of Hands" who claims they are dependent upon so-called pirates who download their music and share it with friends. This isn't much different than Trent Reznor making his music freely available online (and my wife reports the show here in town didn't look any smaller than the ones in the 90's -- possibly even bigger since Reznor has a new legion of fans younger than us). But the music industry sticks by the mantra "a download is a lost sale, and that is theft." Or, as TorrentFreak puts it, "there is no such animal as 'piracy as promotion.'"

Oh really? This sad, antiquated logic continues to do one thing and one thing only: bolster sales of the top-paid performers while creating a chilling effect on artists who would love innovative promotion but fear free samples will incur the wrath of the mighty RIAA, or worse. It's one thing to send the FBI after some poor schlub who leaks some Guns N' Roses tracks, or sue the bejeebes out of hundreds of college kids, but it's quite another to threaten fair trade when artists (who own their own content, thank you) decide to market in ways they see fit.

The only ray of sunshine could be recent rulings regarding Creative Commons which might allow savvy artists to provide music in the manner they see fit, without the RIAA calling fans of the artists a bunch of pirates. Arrr, matey. At the end of the day there has to be some middle ground, but it's a pity the RIAA and other enforcement agencies see the world in black and white and tend to pull their concepts of ownership from the days when TV's were also monochromatic.

Filed under: Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft updates Windows XP Pro anti-piracy tool

Windows XP Pro WGA
Microsoft is starting to roll out a new version of its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) software for Windows XP Pro, which the company describes as the "most pirated edition of Windows XP." WGA is the software Microsoft uses to detect versions of Windows using fake or stolen license keys.

If you're running Windows XP Pro, you'll probably receive the new version through Windows Update soon. If you just can't wait to find out if your operating system passes the test, you can also visit the direct download page.

The new version of WGA will work much like the anti-piracy software implemented in Windows Vista. Your PC will not be immediately disabled if it fails the WGA check. Rather when you login you'll see a black desktop background instead of your background of choice. You can change the background, but every 60 minutes it will reset itself to black.

There will also be a warning notice that you cannot make go away unless you enter a valid Windows license key.

[via ZDNet]

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