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‘Piracy doesn’t rob….politicians do!’

Jared Moya — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 17:10:24 +0000

Bulgarians opposed to the recent BitTorrent crackdown have taken the time to create a pro-P2P video to spread their message of what’s happening in their country, and the words may be in Bulgarian but, the message is universal.

A Bulgarian “contact”(sounds so clandestine) who wishes to remain anonymous, has been kind enough to translate a new pro-P2P video that denounces his governments crackdown on BitTorrent sites, and which notes that the state is the real criminal and not the citizens who merely “dare” to share songs with their friends.

In case your unfamiliar with what has transpired in Bulgaria in recent weeks, the government has embarked on an oddly timed and oddly enforced crackdown on BitTorrent trackers sites across the country.

What makes it oddly timed is that as one reader using the alias “Grezko” points out, “The “persecution” to the torrent trackers strangely coinsides(sic) with the preliminary report on the so cold(sic) “list 301″(in this list the US government warns its companies in which countries in the world “violatins”(sic) to authority rights are most spread).” Now I’m not familiar with the report he’s referring to but, could it be that the Bulgarian government is preemptively cracking down on file-sharing for public relations relations purposes before the report is completed?

Another reader using the alias “5roff” speculates that endemic corruption at the highest levels of the Bulgarian government is to blame for tech crackdown, that it’s not as straight-forward as the “..US government or MPAA who enforced Bulgarian special forces to persecute trackers and uploaders.” For there seems to be no comparable crackdown on the street vendors peddling physical pirated DVDs and CDs, or upon the blatant copyright violations of TV programming on the airwaves. Is it because the government can’t get a cut of file-sharing, that there are no profits to extort revenue from, and that it in fact harms the profitability of physical pirates that serve as the motives for its crackdown on BitTorrent sites? It makes you wonder.

This notion of “pirate revenue” and its lessees due to file-sharing are further contemplated by yet another reader, “Weingro”(From the movie Heat?). He writes:

Hello from me, i’m BG too. Trouble with this law enforcement is, it’s HARDLY NOT respecting the Bulgarian laws, as well as the BG Constitution. The police officers, who carried out the “action”, show neihter knowledge of the bit-torrent system, nor of the law, that they are supposed to protect and oblidge to. Not to mention the attempt to filter the internet, an illegal measure, which is used by the contemporary communist regimes only. At the same time, the government shows few to none interest to the sellers of piracy CD’s, and numerous cases of copyright violations, such as TV shows, tv/radio commercials, etc. Some of us strongly believe, the government anti-torrent actions are mainly dedicated to the pirate CD sellers, since their bosses are the ones who would benefit in case the torrents stop. Without torrents, most of the people would prefer to buy cheap pirate discs, instead of copyrighted. Not to mention, BG government shows A GREAT deal of respect and tollerance to the criminals on all levels, where big amounts of money are involved.

I think he aptly summarizes what I think are larger forces at work than simply a concern for copyright laws and protections on the part of the Bulgarian government. Coukld it be that corruption and the concern for protecting what is certainly a lucrative business the real reason for the crackdown on BitTorrent sites? It seems to be a no-brainer that officials would want to protect a guaranteed source of money under the table to line their pockets with, and that BitTorrent, with its FREE pirated content directly clashes with their selfish interests.

So how do we know that Bulgaria is as corrupt as people are saying and that protecting physical pirates is thus their motivation? Well actually, our very own United States government. The US State Dept notes that “Despite Bulgaria’s many successes, organized crime and corruption remain problems.”

In fact, just yesterday Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry announced that it “Over the past six months, prosecution launched investigation on 599 corruption cases,” and that “Nearly 300 people have been sentenced on charges of corruption.” The announcement furthers that it “…carried out 988 corruption inspections,” and that “Among the institutions inspected are five ministries, 47 administrations and 93 municipal offices.”

Now certainly this crackdown on corruption is a good sign but, it makes me wonder several things: How much is left? How high did the corruption go or perhaps still go? How will further corruption be prevented? I don’t think anybody knows the answer to any of these questions but, if there’s one thing I’ve observed about corruption is that it’s always the junior guys, the foot soldiers, who are first to go. The real power brokers behind government corruption are rarely prosecuted, and without this occurring it essentially tells people that corruption is okay, that it is tolerated.

So what I guess can be concluded form all of this is that perhaps it is corruption that is the diving force of this crackdown on Bulgarian BitTorrent sites and that this is the message that needs to be heard by all.

With this in mind, I have a video for you to watch that speaks, or sings rather, about what’s going on in Bulgaria. The country may be a different one, but corruption, greed, and extortion are known to all. The internet must always remain FREE!

Like the video says, “Piracy doesn’t rob….politicians do!”

(ENGLISH TRANSCRIPT BELOW)

- Защо влизате в дома ми с оръжие и с такава показност?
– Защото можем!
– А защо ми взимате компютъра след като в него няма хард диск и видео карта?
– Защото можем!
- А защо и кабелният тунер?

“Why are you coming into my home with arms in hand and with such ostentation?”
“Because we can!”
“And why are you taking my computer since there is no hard disk and no video card in it?”
“Because we can!”
“And why the TV tuner, too?”

– А душата ми можете ли?
– Можем!
– А ние какво можем?…

“Can you take my soul, too?”
“Yes, we can!”
“And what is it that we can do?”

ДА ЗАПАЗИМ ИНТЕРНЕТ ОБЩЕСТВОТО В БЪЛГАРИЯ СВОБОДНО!

“KEEP THE INTERNET SOCIETY OF BULGARIA FREE!”

ВСЕКИ ИМА ПРАВО ДА ДАВА И ПОЛУЧАВА ИНФОРМАЦИЯ, НЕЗАВИСИМО ОТ НАЧИНА И СРЕДСТВАТА, КОИТО ИЗПОЛЗВА!

“EVERYBODY HAS THE RIGHT TO GIVE AND GET INFORMATION NO MATTER THE WAYS AND MEANS THEY USE!”

Митинг в защита на интернет потребителите!
Продължаваме,

A meeting in defence of internet users!
We go on,

Пиратството не ограбва… политиците ограбват!!!

Piracy doesn’t rob… politicians do!!!

Върнете ни ZAMUNDA.NET!

Give us back ZAMUNDA.NET!

ДЕЦАТА НА БЪЛГАРИЯ НЕ СА ПРЕСТЪПНИЦИ!
МИТИНГ В ЗАЩИТА НА ИНТЕРНЕТ ПОТРЕБИТЕЛЯ
Площад Александър Невски
22.03.2007, 17:00

THE CHILDREN OF BULGARIA ARE NO CRIMINALS!
MEETING IN DEFENCE OF INTERNET USERS
Alexander Nevski Square
22/03/2007, 5 p.m.

Ушев спря торентите, за да се напие с подкупа!
Милиционерите трябва да са в ареста, защото пак са ги подкупили наяве!

Mr. Ushev stopped the torrents so that he can get drunk with the bribe!
The militiamen should be under arrest because the have been evidently bribed!

Върнете ни торентите!
Не можете да спрете любимия ни тракер – Zamunda.net
Ние ще възвърнем торентите, помнете това!

Give us back the torrents!
You can’t stop our beloved tracker – Zamunda.net
We shall regain the torrents, remember this!

НИЕ НЕ СМЕ ПРЕСТЪПНИЦИ!!!

WE ARE NO CRIMINALS!!!

Източил 2-3 банки / Източил МР3-ки от Интернет

Having drawn out 2-3 banks. / Having drawn out MP3’s from the Internet.

Днес 15.03.2007, инициативен комитет депозира в Столична община молба за провеждане на митинг, с който желаем да изразим своя протест срещу нарушаването на правата на интернет потребителите…

Today, 15/03/2007, at the Metropolitan municipality, a committee of initiators handed in an application for holding a meeting with which we wish to express our protest against the offence of the internet users’ rights,…

…интернет обществото като цяло, собствениците на сайтове в България и неправомерния натиск от страна на държавните органи върху тях.

…the internet society as the whole, the owners of sites in Bulgaria and the illegal pressure on behalf of the state agencies on them.

Митингът е насрочен за 22.03.2007, на площад “Александър Невски” от 17:00 часа.

The meeting has been timed for 22/03/2007 in Alexander Nevski Square from 5 p.m.

Призоваваме всички, на които не им е безразлично ставащото в България, да организират подобни мероприятия в собствените си градове и населени места на същата дата или възможно най-близка.

We call upon everybody who’s not indifferent to what’s going on in Bulgaria to organize similar activities in their home towns and villages on the same date or as nearest as possible.

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Piracy_doesn_t_rob_politicians_do’;

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

Bulgarian ISP speaks out on BitTorrent crackdown

Jared Moya — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:25:26 +0000

The Bulgarian government has been cracking down on BitTorrent tracker sites as of late, and the people of that country are none to happy.

Just this last Sunday, as a matter of fact, Hundreds of people filled the streets of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, to protest against the closure of the country’s BitTorrent tracker sites

I had a chance to talk with a guy over at the Bulgarian ISP Linkos Ltd who was able to shed some light on the situation and how he his company has been affected by the crackdown.

He writes:

We are a Bulgarian internet provider – Linkos Ltd. and used to support the p2p torrent site Zamunda.net.
On March 12th, 2007 GDBOP (General Office for Fighting Organized Crime) and the Metropolitan Investigation Office held an action in our offices. It was directed against the Zamunda.net site which we had already sold to a Syrian citizen a week earlier.
When the state bodies raided in our offices, we were announced that if the above mentioned site wasn’t closed down, all our company’s machinery and equipment would be seized, including the communication one (the document they presented allowed that).
After seeing that the site wouldn’t stop its activity and they convinced themselves it wasn’t on Bulgarian territory the same officials embarked on confiscating the equipment. It meant the immediate discontinuance of the whole business of Linkos Ltd. and its bankruptcy. In order to prevent our company from being affected, the new owner of the site agreed on suspending the access to main sections indefinitely.
After the suspension of the site one of our administrators was arrested with the explanation he had been administrating and supporting the servers on witch Zamunda.net was presently hosted. An accusation has been brought against him.
The above mentioned government officials indulged into sending a police order to the internet providers in the country obliging them to filter the access of Bulgarian internet users to torrent sites including arenabg.com. With this action of theirs the officials from GDBOP and the Metropolitan Investigation Office prohibited users the free access to information which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and violated the European regulations. A few days later the order was cancelled and some obscure and indistinct reasons for that were pointed out.
The action against the torrent sites in Bulgaria has been ordered by an offshore company registered on the Islands of Virginia named Amotera Ltd. which states presenting the rights of the big major companies for Bulgaria.

Now he meant to say “The Virgin Islands” I’m sure but, it does bring up an interesting question of how exactly copyright holders, presumably originating from interests in the United States, are able to bring about a crackdown in countries beyond their shores.

We have seen it happen again and again in countries like Singapore, Russia, Malaysia, and just about every other country in between. There never seems to be any discussion between the country and its people, and rather simply the country and a group represnting copyright holders like the MPAA and RIAA.

It’s more than just a little disturbing to see that companies can bypass all the natural orders of a country’s popular will FROM FOREIGN SHORES and see their interests carried out in a decisive and expedited manner.

It also shows that the will of coporate interests has no bounds, and is not limited by georgraphical or popular interests. The will of the people be dammed, its profits first and foremost, and it’s sad to see another governemnt surrender its sovereignty to a foreign corporation.

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Bulgarian_ISP_speaks_out_on_BitTorrent_crackdown’;

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”