HONG KONG: War on piracy recruits 200,000 youthful spies
State anti-Internet piracy campaign launched, 200,000 youths enlisted to report illegal file transfers
South China Morning Post
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
By Rickin Majithia
The government has recruited 200,000 members of youth groups to spy on internet activity and report illegal file transfers as part of an anti-internet piracy campaign launched yesterday.
Senior Superintendent Tam Yiu-Kueng, of Customs' Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau, said the involvement of youth groups provided his department with extra monitoring capabilities.
"Initially we used 700 cadets from the Civil Aid Service for a three-month period," he said. "In that time we received over 800 reports of people illegally uploading... We were then able to inform the copyright holder and subsequently ask the website to remove the illegal content. If only 700 youths brought us such good results in three months, I think
we will be very successful when the full 200,000 start helping us on July 19."
The campaign, jointly organised by the Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau, the Customs and Excise Department and the Intellectual Property Department, includes two television and radio ads to encourage parents to monitor their children's internet activities.
Intellectual Property Department director Stephen Selby stressed the need for parental involvement. "We can't do this by ourselves, it is important for parents to watch what their kids are doing on the Net," he said.
At the launch, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Joseph Wong Wing-Ping said the government is considering releasing a public consultation paper on internet privacy this year. The document would also
cover copyright protection in the digital world, he told the launch ceremony.
"We will study how to facilitate copyright owners to take civil action against infringing activities on the internet as well as the role of internet service providers ... Because it involves privacy we must be
very careful - but we will study the examples set by other countries first," he said.
"The important thing is that it is not just enforcement and prosecution which matter.
"The important thing is that we really need to continue to convey the message to members of the public, in particular to our younger generation, that it is wrong to commit such an act."
Customs will trial an intellectual property protection scheme, called the Fast Action Scheme, at an electronic products exhibition in October. It aims to protect companies at trade fairs by allowing them to register products and copyright in advance. If an infringement occurs, it is hoped customs officers will be able to identify the culprit by checking the product records.
Date Posted: 5/30/2006
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=46920
Full Version: War on piracy recruits 200,000 youthful spies
ThePirateBay.org Raided - Servers Seized
May 31, 2006
Thomas Mennecke
Quoted from SlyckMay 31, 2006
Thomas Mennecke
QUOTE
In their native Sweden, ThePirateBay.org enjoyed a level of immunity from copyright prosecution rarely seen in the file-sharing world. Often defiant in the face of those wishing to enforce their intellectual property rights, ThePirateBay.org would go on to become one of the premier BitTorrent indexing and tracking sites.
As one of the largest trackers, ThePirateBay.org largely replaced the search engine SuprNova.org. SuprNova.org met its demise in late 2004, when it was under pressure from the entertainment industry to shut it operation down. Conversely, such pressure has been ineffective against ThePiratebay.org.
When such political pressure fails, the use of force is typically the next course of action. In a move that many thought would never come, Slyck.com learned this morning that ThePirateBay.org was raided by Swedish police.
“…The police right now is taking all of our servers, to check if there is a crime there or not (they are actually not sure),” ThePirateBay.org spokesperson “brokep” told Slyck.com.
The seizure of ThePirateBay.org’s entire server farm will guarantee this BitTorrent tracker will remain offline until the police complete their investigation. The uncertainty on the part of the police may stem from the fact ThePirateBay.org's servers only host .torrent files, not actual copyrighted material. As a tracker, ThePirateBay.org's function is to index .torrent files and to direct BitTorrent traffic and maintain the swarm (uploads and downloads.) The downloaded .torrent file contains all the necessary information to locate and download the queried file. The legality of indirectly linking to copyrighted material has yet to be tested by Swedish courts.
Whether this will keep ThePirateBay.org offline indefinitely is another matter.
“We are not sure when it will return, but we are moving it to another country if necessary,” brokep said.
According to The Pirate Party, a Swedish copyright reform organization, the raid also seized Piratbyrån's (the Pirate Bureau) servers. Piratbyrån is a educational and quasi-political organization which performs a public servic role similar to The Pirate Party. In addition, The Pirate Party reports "...the servers where located in a protected area, to which the police had no legal right to enter..." Approximately 50 police participated in the raid, which placed into custody two PirateBay.org personnel.
The premature departure of ThePirateBay.org marks a significant turning point in the BitTorrent community. Although it's not currently known what, if any, entertainment entity is behind this raid, failure to secure ThePirateBay.org's permanent removal will only bolster this tracker’s position of defiance.
As one of the largest trackers, ThePirateBay.org largely replaced the search engine SuprNova.org. SuprNova.org met its demise in late 2004, when it was under pressure from the entertainment industry to shut it operation down. Conversely, such pressure has been ineffective against ThePiratebay.org.
When such political pressure fails, the use of force is typically the next course of action. In a move that many thought would never come, Slyck.com learned this morning that ThePirateBay.org was raided by Swedish police.
“…The police right now is taking all of our servers, to check if there is a crime there or not (they are actually not sure),” ThePirateBay.org spokesperson “brokep” told Slyck.com.
The seizure of ThePirateBay.org’s entire server farm will guarantee this BitTorrent tracker will remain offline until the police complete their investigation. The uncertainty on the part of the police may stem from the fact ThePirateBay.org's servers only host .torrent files, not actual copyrighted material. As a tracker, ThePirateBay.org's function is to index .torrent files and to direct BitTorrent traffic and maintain the swarm (uploads and downloads.) The downloaded .torrent file contains all the necessary information to locate and download the queried file. The legality of indirectly linking to copyrighted material has yet to be tested by Swedish courts.
Whether this will keep ThePirateBay.org offline indefinitely is another matter.
“We are not sure when it will return, but we are moving it to another country if necessary,” brokep said.
According to The Pirate Party, a Swedish copyright reform organization, the raid also seized Piratbyrån's (the Pirate Bureau) servers. Piratbyrån is a educational and quasi-political organization which performs a public servic role similar to The Pirate Party. In addition, The Pirate Party reports "...the servers where located in a protected area, to which the police had no legal right to enter..." Approximately 50 police participated in the raid, which placed into custody two PirateBay.org personnel.
The premature departure of ThePirateBay.org marks a significant turning point in the BitTorrent community. Although it's not currently known what, if any, entertainment entity is behind this raid, failure to secure ThePirateBay.org's permanent removal will only bolster this tracker’s position of defiance.
Looks like they're getting pretty serious about this
Source: TPB
So far, this doesn't seem to be another hoax, like last year's...
QUOTE
UPDATE: SITE DOWN - WILL BE UP AND FULLY FUNCTIONAL WITHIN A DAY OR TWO
In the morning of 2006-05-31 the Swedish National Criminal Police showed a search warrant to Rix|Port80 personnell. The warrant was valid for all datacentres of Rix|Port80 and was directed at The Pirate Bay. The allegation was breach of copy-right law, alternatively assisting breach of copy-right law.
The police officers were allowed access to the racks where the TPB servers and other servers are hosted. All servers in the racks were clearly marked as to which sites run on each. The police took down all servers in the racks, including the non-commercial site Piratbyrån, the mission of which is to defend the rights of TPB via public debate.
According to police officers simultaneously questioning the president of Rix|Port80, the purpose of the search warrant is to take down TPB in order to secure evidence of the allegations mentioned above.
The necessity for securing technical evidence for the existance of a web-service which is fully official, the legality of which has been under public debate for years and whose principals are public persons giving regular press interviews, could not be explained. Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing wether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal.
The TPB can receive compensation from the Swedish state in case that the upcoming legal processes show that TPB is indeed legal.
CLICK HERE OR HERE FOR LATEST NEWS
In the morning of 2006-05-31 the Swedish National Criminal Police showed a search warrant to Rix|Port80 personnell. The warrant was valid for all datacentres of Rix|Port80 and was directed at The Pirate Bay. The allegation was breach of copy-right law, alternatively assisting breach of copy-right law.
The police officers were allowed access to the racks where the TPB servers and other servers are hosted. All servers in the racks were clearly marked as to which sites run on each. The police took down all servers in the racks, including the non-commercial site Piratbyrån, the mission of which is to defend the rights of TPB via public debate.
According to police officers simultaneously questioning the president of Rix|Port80, the purpose of the search warrant is to take down TPB in order to secure evidence of the allegations mentioned above.
The necessity for securing technical evidence for the existance of a web-service which is fully official, the legality of which has been under public debate for years and whose principals are public persons giving regular press interviews, could not be explained. Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing wether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal.
The TPB can receive compensation from the Swedish state in case that the upcoming legal processes show that TPB is indeed legal.
CLICK HERE OR HERE FOR LATEST NEWS
So far, this doesn't seem to be another hoax, like last year's...
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