Fox Filmed Entertainment CEO Jim Gianopulos believes the US should follow France’s lead and impose a “three-strikes” system disconnecting repeat file-sharers from the Internet.

He said that internet piracy is the single biggest threat to the worldwide film industry, and that independent films are the hardest hit.

Speaking to a news conference in Athens, Greece, the country that’s ironically the birthplace of democracy and free speech, he told the audience about the state of piracy that “the bad news is that the internet is big, and it’s anonymous.”

That’s why ISPs must be forced to track down the IP addresses of suspected file-sharers and sanction them.

“If we can do that, it would be a big victory against piracy,” he said, and would help create a “level playing field” for independent filmmakers who he claims are the hardest hit by piracy.

It’s the same argument made by Sony Pictures Pres Michael Lynton late last month when he said that P2P harms indie films’ chances of “building an international audience.” This in turn deprives them of “entire markets where stolen versions of their work have proliferated online.”

It’s an interesting strategy for movie studios trying to argue piracy is killing jobs and therefore needs increased legislation on the one hand, while on the other it praises itself for another in a series of years with record breaking ticket sales.

The only way to reconcile the two is to say that indie filmmakers are the ones really hurting and that it’s important we save them.

But, it should be noted that in some cases indie filmmakers enjoy a net positive when it comes to pirates making their films available online.

Jamin and Kiowa of Double Edge Films saw their movie Ink recently uploaded to several BitTorrent tracker sites and were subsequently amazed with the outpouring of public exposure.

P2P allows filmmakers to show their work to a global audience with no strings attached or costs to speak of. It may be more difficult to earn a profit than it was before, but its incumbent upon them to figure out how to do so rather than trying to bend the Internet for everyone else – movie fans and non-movie fans – to meet its financial needs.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

TONO, a Norwegian royalty collecting group founded back in 1928, is making it tough for member artists to reach fans in the file-sharing age.

The band Kråkesølv tried to make its debut album “Trådnøsting” available for free on BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay only to find out that TONO explicitly forbids the practice of members making their music available on their own.

“The management contract in TONO means that we can not allow the TONO-members posting things on their own at some commercial sites,” says (GOOGLE TRANSLATION) TONO rep Eidsvold Tøien.

The contract it mentions is that artists agree to transfer management of their mechanical rights to TONO, and therefore are prohibited from excercising those right without TONO permission.

This means that emerging artists seeking to use P2P as a form of “self promotion” will discover that the only thing preventing it from reaching new fans is the very group claiming to be its biggest advocate.

TONO recently lost a case involving The Pirate Bay in Norway’s Asker and Bærum District Court. It was part of a group of copyright holders demanding that the the ISP Telenor prevent customers from accessing the site. The Court ruled that Telenor is not illegally contributing to any copyright violations by The Pirate Bay and that there is subsequently no legal basis for forcing it to block the site.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA), the UK’s Trade Association for providers of Internet services that was established in 1995 to promotes competition, self-regulation and the development of the Internet industry, is once again voicing its opposition for “evolved” plans by UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and his Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to impose technical measures against accused file-sharers that includes Internet disconnection.

It’s concerned that the recently introduced Digital Economy Bill, far from strengthening the nation’s communications infrastructure, will penalize the success of the Internet industry and undermine the backbone of the digital economy.

“ISPA is extremely disappointed by aspects of the proposals to address illicit file-sharing,” said ISPA Secretary General Nicholas Lansman. “This legislation is being fast-tracked by the Government and will do little to address the underlying problem.”

It’s also worried that that the proposals give the govt far too much control in forcing ISPs to use technical sanctions on suspected file-sharers. The ISPA believes that an independent body would be a fairer way to make the determination.

The ISPA says technical measures such as filtering would be ineffective, expensive, difficult to implement, and could have unintended consequences such as restricting access to legitimate services.

It thinks the best way to solve the problem of illegal file-sharing is simple: offer consumers viable alternatives.

“Rather than focusing blindly on enforcement, the Government should be asking rightsholders to reform the licensing framework so that legal content can be distributed online to consumers in a way that they are clearly demanding,” added Lansman. “ISPA continues to believe strongly that a reduction in unlawful file sharing can only be achieved if the focus turns to the education of consumers and the reform of content licensing to enable legal alternatives at a fair price.”

If South Korea, the first country in the world to implement a “three-strikes” approach to illegal file-sharing, is any indication of what could happen then there is rightly cause for concern.

After becoming the first country to threaten accused file-sharers with Internet disconnection this past July, copyright holders are finding that rampant piracy still exists. They’ve now decided to ratchet up the battle even further by warning all P2P sites to install filters preventing users from uploading copyrighted material by the end of the year or face “stern legal measures.”

Is that what we want? Commercial interests forcing others to implement content filters without public input?

Even filters will be an effort in futility and file-sharers will simply turn to alternatives as they always have and always will.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Lily Allen just doesn’t seem to understand music fans at all. Gifted as she may be as a recording artist she thinks that commercial pirates, those that offer copyrighted material for financial gain, are better than noncommercial pirates (i.e. file-sharers), those that offer copyrighted material simply so that others can enjoy it as well.

“If someone comes up with a burnt copy of my CD and offers it to you for £4, I haven’t a problem with that as long as the person buying it places some kind do of value on my music,” she recently told UK radio station Key 103.

Allen, if you recall, was the one who blasted file-sharing on her blog this past September as a “disaster” that’s making it harder for new acts to emerge.

She apparently failed to read the Harvard study that found the number of albums released annually since 2000 has in fact doubled.

What’s also interesting to note is that she seems to be taking advantage of P2P herself, using BitTorrent to distribute free copies of her Lily Allen: Remixed album. It lends further credence to what the Featured Artists Coalition, the target of Allen’s ire for for criticizing efforts by the UK govt for a “three-strikes” crackdown on illegal file-sharing, argument that P2P is an important form of “promotion.”

Allen may have labeled the FAC as being out of touch, but it now seems she’s the one who’s disconnected from reality.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Canadian Indie folk-rock singer Daniel Mangan is one of the growing number of music artists who’ve embraced file-sharing as an opportunity to reach new fans rather than as an enemy who needs to be defeated at all costs.

Unlike UK pop singer Lily Allen, who blasted P2P as a “disaster” for emerging artists and therefore a principal reason why the UK govt needs to institute a “three-strikes” crackdown on illegal file-sharing, Mangan sees it as a means to reach out to people and convince them to attend one of his concerts or buy some of his band merchandise.

“I don’t mind people sharing my music, if downloading or pirating a digital format of a song brings someone to a gig and then they have a real face to face, human interaction, maybe they bring a friend, maybe they buy a t-shirt, that’s great for me,” he told the Telegraph on the verge of his European tour. “Even though the music industry has changed so much and people are buying less CD’s, I refuse to believe that people don’t want to support art that they believe in.”

He notes that despite what the record labels say artists are still able to make a living playing music, and that the number of “mid level bands” is burgeoning.

“It used to be that you were hugely famous or you were nobody and now there is a middle class of musicians who are able to make a career and pay a mortgage, maybe raise a few kids, without ever being hugely famous,” he adds.

Isn’t that what’s most important? An artist is able to share his work with the world and yet still make enough to live comfortably.

P2P has democratized content distribution, allowing artists like Mangan to gain fans and stimulate precisely the sort of direct revenue stream needed for them to make a living. Instead of a 9:1 split with record labels seeing the bulk of physical album sales, artists earn the reverse when it comes to live performances.

In fact, the UK has seen a rise in artists’ earnings for live performances that mirrors the decline in record label revenue for the sales of recorded music.

Talk about being ahead of the curve.

Record labels have long been a necessary evil for artists to reach music fans, but all that has changed with the advent of P2P. Now they have become obstacles between the two in order to try and maintain the sort of decades-old monopoly on content distribution that ensured maximum profits.

Change is long overdue.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

I first discussed some of the emerging details of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) currently being negotiated in secret earlier this month.

Instead of focusing on customs procedures and enforcement to fight large scale commercial piracy it has delved into the area of noncommercial illegal file-sharing at the behest of international entertainment corporations as many have feared.

The MPAA, in an effort to codify its interest, sent a letter to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with several other powerful members of the Senator, urging him to support the goals of the ACTA.

It says that the ACTA is important to secure “both the legal and practical tools necessary to protect intellectual property rights online” which, in other words, certainly means agreement of the four big tools already being considered.

To reiterate:

1. ISPs would have to proactively filter copyrighted material from their networks and hand over the names of those accused of illegal file-sharing
2. ISPs, in order to benefit from safe harbor provisions, would have to disconnect the Internet connections of illegal file-sharers for up to a year. Copyright holders would be able to sue those ISPS that fail to stop customers from illegal file-sharing.
3. Will force countries to prohibit circumventing DRM or the manufacture of traffic of devices that allow people to do so.
4. Would create a “broad” global notice-and-takedown regime where ISPs will be forced to remove copyrighted material without first weighing evidence to the contrary.

Being that each of these things have such dramatic repercussions for Internet users the public has been demanding transparency during the negotiations. The need for public input is great, especially since the MPAA and other entertainment organizations have been privy to the discussions every step of the way.

In the letter the MPAA dismisses these calls for transparency as a “distraction” from the “substance and ambition of the ACTA.”

Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest group working to defend citizens’ rights in the emerging digital culture, blasts the “non-sequitor” comment, asking “what, pray tell, is so important in the substance of ACTA that it trumps the fundamentals of open government?”

It adds: “Let me see: an international agreement, which could have binding or massively influential effects on how everyone transmits culture and knowledge, deserves to be hidden from the public because…why? Because its intentions are so good that it cannot even be seen?”

The MPAA goes on to mention how Internet piracy is so rampant that it affects its very survival, but again conveniently leaves out the fact that it’s enjoying another in a series of years with record breaking profits.

If Internet piracy was such a threat then why did the recently released vampire flic The Twilight Saga: New Moon shatter the single-day box office ticket sales record held by The Dark Knight since last July ($72.7 million vs $67.2 million)?

It’s not and the MPAA knows it. It just wants to create a lockdown system for content distribution like the DVD for example, which it still insists making even one backup copy of for personal use is illegal.

At least countries like Brazil and Pakistan are questioning the ACTA.

Aside from both wondering why it’s being conducted outside the UN’s WIPO, Pakistan is skeptical of most of the existing piracy and counterfeiting statistics and criticizes copyright holders for charging so much for a product that it creates a huge profit margin for would be pirates.

Brazil has taken to task the “one size fits all” approach to piracy, noting that copyright violations do not take place in a vacuum, they are not “disconnected from concrete political and social variables.”

“But more importantly, the MPAA hasn’t shown how its proposed solutions would improve its industry, much less create jobs and help the economy,” adds Public Knowledge. “After all, how could it, when the solutions themselves, contained within ACTA, have to remain a secret?”

Exactly.

If South Korea, where ironically the recent ACTA discussions were held, it seems “three-strikes” legislation passed there this past July was not enough. The Korean Film Producers Association and the Digital Content Network Association are now demanding that all P2P sites install a digital content filtering system to prevent users from uploading copyrighted material to the Internet by the end of the year or face “severe measures.”

So what kind of slippery slope can we expect here in the US and other countries who sign on to the ACTA?

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

I recently stumbled across a BitTorrent tracker site that adds a bit of flair to the staid old system used by most others.

Files24 lists the IMBD rating alongside each movie available for download along with genre, cast, movie poster, etc..

The site also has music, games, TV shows, software, and XXX content, but none of those are as different as is the movie section.

It also has genre category tabs to make title browsing that much easier.

Visit > http://www.files24.com/movies/

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

It will likely be a few months before Adobe rolls out 10.1 to everyone, but the impact of this move will likely be felt both in the short and long terms.  Short term, hardware decoded Flash video could be a real boost tonettop PC’s and netbooks, allowing them to really become cheap and easy media playback devices.  In the longer view, however, Flash’s innovation here could really cement its central role as they delivery avenue for video of all kinds over the Internet, dealing serious blows to both Microsoft’s Quicksilver, but also any other competitors still out there.  Unknown is what Flash video’s dominance will mean for the file-sharing and downloading communities.  Will video pirates move away from downloading entire shows via Bittorrent to instead watch free streaming episodes on Hulu -like services if quality differences disappear?  Will more cable customers ditch their TV services in favor of going completely for over-the-top video?  Such suppositions may be quite speculative at this point, but with the changes to Flash on the horizon, they are becoming more plausible every day.

UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and his Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has apparently been quite successful in lobbying for legislation to implement its “evolved” measures for tackling illegal file-sharing.

So successful in fact, that a “three-strikes,” i.e. two warning letters followed by Internet disconnection, graduated response system has been dropped to a mere two. That means accused illegal file-sharers will get a single warning before being locked out of the so-called information superhighway.

The govt says it will warn people at first, but if it proves insufficient it will begin disconnecting people beginning in the spring of 2011.

“It is good news for fans of British music that government is now introducing legislation to tackle illegal downloading,” said Geoff Taylor, chief executive the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). “The creative sector in the UK needs new measures implemented urgently that address this problem for now and the future if the UK is to lead Europe in giving consumers innovative and high quality digital entertainment.”

Mandelson feels that the current timetable, which stands at 2-3 yrs for a 70% reduction using a combination of notifications and technical measures, would take an “unacceptable amount of time to complete in a situation that calls for urgent action.”

The Open Rights Group, a UK-based group of people who aims to preserve digital rights and freedoms, has roundly criticized the proposal, and notes that copyright infringement accusations can only be made against a connection and not an individual.

“Appeals mechanisms may be appropriate when it is clear that evidence is robust, and the punishment is clear: but with this proposal neither is true,” it says. “Evidence cannot show who may have infringed copyright, only what connection was used. And the punishment could have an enormous range of effects, from being disruptive to removing someone’s ability to earn a living.”

It adds that “three-strikes” is not a silver bullet to end piracy, and that a better plan is to encourage copyright holders to meet consumer demands. It cites South Korea as an example of what “three-strikes” really means.

After becoming the first country to threaten accused file-sharers with Internet disconnection this past July, copyright holders are still finding that rampant piracy exists. They’ve now decided to ratchet up the battle even further by warning all P2P sites to install filters preventing users from uploading copyrighted material by the end of the year or face “stern legal measures.”

Even that will be an effort in futility and file-sharers will simply turn to alternatives as they always have and always will.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Hulu, the ubiquitous free streaming video on demand site, has announced that it’s teamed up with Big 4 music label EMI to begin offering free streaming of music videos and concert footage with select artists.

“We think Hulu is an excellent, high-quality environment and a great place to connect with fans. We look forward to making more content available from other artists as well,” said Ronn Werre, President, EMI Music Services and COO, EMI Music North America. “We’re delighted to add Hulu to the growing number of platforms EMI is working with to give fans more of what they’re looking for.”

So far the new EMI section of the site only contains Norah Jones, but it promises to add more artists as time goes on.

It decided to add her first in order to celebrate the release of her latest album The Fall.

It’s an interesting move for EMI considering it has so many other outlets to deliver content to music fans. Some have suggested that EMI is doing all it can to stay afloat and spur interest in its more popular artists as its debt reportedly grows unwieldy. Terra Firma, the UK-based private equity firm which owns the record label, has been unable to restructure EMI’s debt.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com