The term, "paragraph 29" might not mean much for a number of bloggers unless you are an Italian blogger. In that case, the term "paragraph 29" is a part of a highly controversial law that, according to critics, could put Italian blogging in jeopardy.

The present appeal refers to Article 1, paragraph 29 of the bill which extends the rectification obligation of the written press to all online publishers, including bloggers. According to the respective paragraph, "those responsible for information websites" will be obliged to post corrections within 48 hours from any complaint regarding website content (whether blog, opinion, comment or simple information), in the same form in which the contested content was originally put online. In case of non-compliance, the authors face fines of up to 25 000 euro.

"The Bill cannot be allowed to pass as it currently stands. We demand full and open Parliamentary debate on Article 1, paragraph 29 of the Bill, including consideration of the above amendments. Access to the Internet is set to become a fundamental human right in hundreds of countries around the world. We cannot force citizens to renounce that right here in our country," says the appeal "No Legge Bavaglio alla Rete".

Earlier today, we debunked rumors that Blogetery.com was shut down due to an anti-piracy effort headed by ICE and reported that it was an FBI investigation probing terrorist related activities. This evening, Blogetery.com web host Burst.net confirmed these reports.

There was plenty of confusion surrounding the shut down of 73,000 blogs at Blogetery.com. The little bits of information that were available said it was law enforcement related, but little else was available at the time. While one blog said it was an anti-piracy crackdown with ICE involved, it turns out, that report was inaccurate.

Though BurstNet never indicated Blogetery's problems were caused by copyright violations, TorrentFreak, a blog that covers Web file-sharing issues and broke the story, wrote that the U.S. government may be involved as part of stepped-up antipiracy operations. Nearly three weeks ago, a group of federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a unit of the Department of Homeland Security--seized assets and Web sites belonging to people authorities say operated illegal file-sharing sites. President Obama has said his administration is going to get tough on piracy and counterfeiting. But on Sunday, a spokeswoman for ICE said "while ICE's Internet piracy enforcement efforts are still very much ongoing, we were not involved with the action." A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America said Sunday that the trade group for the four top record labels had nothing to do with Blogetery's shut down. A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America said he had never heard of Blogetery.

The site was shut down after FBI agents informed executives of Burst.net, Blogetery's Web host, late on July 9 that links to al-Qaeda materials were found on Blogetery's servers, Joe Marr, chief technology officer for Burst.net, told CNET. Sources close to the investigation say that included in those materials were the names of American citizens targeted for assassination by al-Qaeda. Messages from Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the terrorist organization, as well as bomb-making tips, were also allegedly found on the server. But Marr said a Burst.net employee erred in telling Blogetery's operator and members of the media that the FBI had ordered it to terminate Blogetery's service. He said Burst.net did that on its own.

After over a year of the Guns N Roses leak of several tracks from the then forthcoming album Chinese Democracy, the story of the person that leaked the tracks might finally come to a close. He has reportedly fulfilled is punishment for getting caught leaking pre-released material.

When it comes to the copyright debate in Canada, it seemed to go something like this. Many Canadians from different sides get together, discuss the issues at hand, come to a consensus, then copyright lobbyists conduct secret meetings with politicians to overrule everyone elses opinions to satisfy a few foreign companies. This was true with the Liberal governments Bill C-60, the Conservatives Bill C-61 and, so far, it seems to ring true with ACTA and CETA. Whenever the entertainment industry goes on public record, they tend to be dismissive of any dissenting opinion and practically say that they are always right and leave it at that no matter how debunked the argument is. Some of that might be changing now.

A Rocky Past

When it comes to the copyright industry convincing Canadian citizens that cracking down on alleged file-sharers was the way of the future, the industry simply saw its PR diminish from failure to disastrous to fatally catastrophic.

Michael Geist started a copyright pledge where a minister wouldn’t take lobbying money by the big foreign entertainment lobby as it might constitute a conflict of interest. This pledge was asked back when the Liberal party was seeking re-election. Sam Bulte, the minister of Canadian heritage seeking re-election shot back when asked to take the pledge by calling consumer rights supporters “pro-user zealots” and defending her record by taking big donations from Hollywood and tabling Bill C-60. That remark sparked outrage and turned potential voters into sworn enemies – many argue its that comment that sealed her fate for losing her bid for re-election. It wasn’t good news for copyright lobbyists who were hoping to win over support for their cause.

CRIA, meanwhile, were heavily lobbying candidates through secret meetings, something that didn’t please Canadians. This was problematic since the major Canadian labels left CRIA. Ever since the Canadian labels left CRIA, CRIA was then known as an entity that was hardly even Canadian at all. It seems that the Canadian cultural scene rejected CRIAs stance on copyright and went on their own ways, leaving CRIA to simply be representing the big four foreign record labels. It was a PR disaster for the entity that was one of the most vocal entities of tightening copyright laws which would crack down on alleged file-sharers – and in turn, crack down on innovation in the process.

On a campaign of change, the Conservative party won the following election. Many had hoped that the Conservative party would actually listen to voters and not sell Canadians out like the Liberal party had. The copyright profile was passed around from Minister Bev Oda to Maxime Bernier and then to Jim Prentice. On word that he was planning on selling out Canadians to foreign interests, protesters swarmed him and demanded answers. Prentice simply brushed off criticism saying that critics hadn’t read the bill that wasn’t even tabled. Turns out, the protesters were not only right, but more correct then they had ever imagined after Prentice tabled Bill C-61 that not only sold Canadians out, but it sold Canadians out more than the Liberal bill. The outrage intensified and the only ones that were happy were entities like CRIA and the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (CMPDA) – little doubt who unfairly won the debate.

Graham Henderson and CRIA were always combative rather than convincing. They took flawed studies as fact and let fact gatherers like Pollara and the Conference Board of Canada take the heat for being either impartial or outright plagiarizing inaccurate information. It may have been apparent to some by then that anyone CRIA touches, their credibility takes huge blows – be it Pollara, the Conservative Party of Canada or the Liberal Party, the effect is always the same. Perhaps the only thing CRIA did correctly was distribute the PR radiation evenly over several entities.

Of course, lets not forget the infamous stacking of the deck in a town hall meeting during the copyright consultation [authors note: for those who are unaware, the video of the meeting has been fixed and is fully functional at this point.]

Then, in an unexpected and seemingly more fatal PR blow more recently, CRIA was hit with a $6 Billion lawsuit over bootlegging artists works without proper payment. It became apparent that whatever PR CRIA had left had all but vanished. It seems that the biggest enemy to Graham Henderson’s campaign were his own people working the chequebooks much more than any criticism launched by sceptics of his message.

A New Front

The major foreign entities have had a major problem in recent months – who could even remotely take the stage to even pressure anyone into believing copyright restriction was the answer for copyright reform? Graham Henderson is now out of the question given CRIAs reputation lay in shambles after the most recent self inflicted hit. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association is barely known and have admitted in the past that they merely represent foreign movie companies. Finding the one of only a small handful of artists that share the viewpoint is not going to work since for every one artist the copyright lobby can find to carry the message, hundreds of artists would disagree.

Now, it seems a lobbyist, Barry Sookman, is gradually filling in the roll of spokesperson for the small minority who want tighter copyright control. He hasn’t exactly been user friendly given the allegations of censorship among other things, but one should at least acknowledge a few things no other poster child of rich companies trying to put the squeeze on consumer rights has done. He did start a blog and has the audacity to respond to some of the criticisms being made against the copyright lobby. It’s an extremely brave thing to do in an environment where 90% of everyone in the debate would rather egg you for having such an opinion.

Sookman actually responds to criticism whereas before, the policy was to bat of criticism like an annoying mosquito which does represent a shift in attitude toward even debating copyright in the first place.

The War of Words

Unfortunately for Sookman, pretty much everything is working against him. Being a registered lobbyist for CRIA does not help things from the beginning. Having rumours about censoring debate on his blog isn’t winning him friends. Then there’s the toughest part of all about a lack of credible Canadian allies left in the debate who are of the opinion that copyright laws should be further restricted.

Sookman’s blog so far can be summed up in this observation – “It’s one thing to have a blog and enter a debate, but it’s quite another to be considered acceptable” and the most recent fiasco shows it.

It all started with a posting on Michael Geists site where he noted the European Union ratifying WIPO. Dr. Ficsor of WIPO posted a guest post in Sookmans blog attacking Geist saying that anyone who is sceptical about implementing WIPO are little more than “free-access” “revolutionaries” and likens them to those who follow the style of “hatred-driven style of Maoist Guards” at the end of a long and drawn out post.

Unsurprisingly, Geist wasn’t exactly impressed with the name calling and said that “no amount of name calling or bullying will alter the fact that Canada can be compliant with the WIPO Internet treaties without implementing the version of the treaty that Ficsor wanted but failed to get.”

Barry Sookman in the mean time went in to overdrive saying that opponents to ACTA were led by Michael Geist and that they were leading a fear mongering propaganda campaign – as if irony couldn’t be any thicker. As an author who posted about the ACTA leaks at roughly the same time Geist’s post went up, I can safely say that I read through the documents myself and drew my own conclusions. If Sookman thinks that anyone who criticizes ACTA are just blindly and mindlessly following what Michael Geist is saying, he has another thing coming. Trust me when I say I’m quite independent minded.

Then in response to Michael Geist about Ficsor, Sookman wrote a piece in his blog entitled, “Dr. Ficsor is right; Prof. Geist is wrong about the WIPO Internet Treaties” which may as well have read, “I’m right, you’re wrong, so nya!”

In all honesty, it’s sometimes shocking that people with such large resumes would be so childish. It’s one thing to criticize established experts on a subject, but it’s quite another to use personal insults to try and prove a point. In some respects, it’s understandable given that having experience outside of closed door meetings might be scarce when in a locked door meeting with executives who just agree with you day in and day out. It’s not every day that a copyright lobbyist registers a blog and actually responds to the criticism – at least in Canada. It’s different talking to a bunch of executive friends and talking to a population as diverse as the internet. Critics of tightening copyright laws have a lot of online experience – experience that is unlikely to be possessed by very many copyright lobbyists.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Some may disagree with his opinions, but very few dispute the fact that Ray Beckerman has maintained the biggest and most valuable resource regarding litigation brought on by the copyright industry. According to fresh reports released this evening, the Recording Industry Association of America took issue with his stance on the copyright debates and decided that litigation was warranted.

From the report:

The Recording Industry Association of America is declaring attorney-blogger Ray Beckerman a “vexatious” litigator and is seeking unspecified monetary sanctions to punish him in his defense of a New York woman accused of making copyrighted music available on the Kazaa file sharing system.

The RIAA said Beckerman, one of the nation’s few attorneys who defends accused file sharers, “has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs,” the RIAA wrote (.pdf) in court briefs. “Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions.”

Beckerman, whose blog is Recording Industry vs The People, said in an interview the allegations were “frivolous and irresponsible.”

There’s two issues being raised here. Is he being sued for defending p2p defendants or is he being sued for compiling information and offering opinions on his blog. From the looks of things, it’s more likely the latter as there is a direct quote from the RIAA saying this.

For the more likely reason, this case raises serious concerns with free speech online. Such debates have been mainly restricted to things like racism for the most part, but for the first time in the United States, it appears to be for opposing the stance of the copyright industry.

The case may not be heard for a while since the papers were only recently filed, but one possible result in all of this is the appearance of intimidation for anyone who opposes the copyright industry’s view on the copyright debates. It might never be known how many, if any, would voluntarily give up blogging about the copyright debates – or reporting for that matter – would back away from the subject as a result of this litigation.

Observers would very likely note that this is pretty much an open and shut case for free speech since most, if not, all of Beckermans information comes from public sources to begin with. Either way, it’s going to land the lawyer in a large spot-light where even more people will be watching than before.

[hat tip: BoingBoing]

Robert Scoble writes the Scobleizer web log, one of the most-read sources of technology commentary on the internet.

He owes his status to the three years he spent at Microsoft, where he was given free rein to comment on the company’s affairs from the inside. The Economist magazine has credited Scoble with playing a significant role in softening the software giant’s former reputation for monopolistic bullying.

In the past, Scoble has tended to be sympathetic about Microsoft’s failings. However, he was provoked into stinging criticism last week after a series of triumphalist remarks, including some disparaging comments about Google made by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive.

At a “global summit” of its most-valued software developers, Microsoft repeatedly declared that it would “win” in search and other parts of its Windows Live internet strategy.

READ REST OF ARTICLE….

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SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

The site is called “radio.blog.club,” and is much easier and more convenient to use.

You simply type in a desired artist’s name and let the search engine do all the work.

In addition to the standard streaming feature, you can also embed the songs on your blog, MySpace page, or whatever other site you have access to.

It also has a “Hot Picks” feature that periodically compiles a “day” and “night” mix for you to listen to and hear artists you may otherwise never hear of.

Here’s what it looks like.

To show an example of the selection of music it offers I did a search query for the artist “Beck,” which I’m sure you all have heard of.

If you take a look at the results, the available tracks are pretty extensive, as it even has the rare track “Debra,” which I recommend for all those that have never heard it before.

The search returned well over 8 pages of tracks in fact, making for a diverse and fairly complete listing.

To add tracks to a playlist, you must first register of course. After registering simply select the “heart” icon of the track you wish to add and click “My Playlist.”

Returning to the main page and clicking on the “Jukebox” tab, you can see and play the playlist you created.

Yet, the site gets even better.

For those of you with blogs, or MySpace accounts, you can even embed each of the tracks into your site pages. It also allows you to customize the colors of the embedded music player.

If you take a look below I’ve customized the player’s colors and also highlighted the embedding code for you.

All in all it’s a pretty cool music streaming site and a little less cumbersome than FineTune.

The ability to embed the tracks on private sites and pages makes it all the much nicer.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT RADIO BLOG

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SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

According to the Department of Telecommunications, blogs which were blacked out three days after the Mumbai blasts will soon be restored.

Post 7/11, the Government decided to block sites without saying why and the ISPs decided to go ahead, do one better and block all blogs.

The Centre issued an order to block 22 websites after a two-page write up containing derogatory references to Islam appeared in a blog.

Despite the increased prevalence of advanced spam-fighting tools, spam is once again on the rise, and spammers are abandoning more traditional methods of electronic communication in favor of those that permit more targeted spam blasts, according to new research by MessageLabs.

The research also indicated that spammers have begun to develop more sophisticated and malicious software to harvest e-mail addresses and even steal the identity of unsuspecting netizens.

“The increased convergence of threats across e-mail, Web, and instant messaging — combined with the increased sophistication of techniques — is an interesting new development,” said Mark Sunner, chief technology officer at MessageLabs. “A harmless looking e-mail can quickly become a Web threat.”