This site is "optimized" for users within the USA

That's what they call it these days...

Because clearly no European user would be interested in any American music. And obviously we wouldn't want to promote that music to fans around the world anyway. They could end up buying a CD or some merchandise, or even - God forbid - go see an artist in concert.

The entertainment mafia just never ceases to amaze me.

Hitler orders a DMCA takedown

The entertainment mafia Hitler orders a DMCA takedown.

Hitler, as "Downfall producer" orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.

Cleanternet

Offering some "support" to EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström, a firm believer in censorship and the useful idiot of the entertainment mafia:


Found on idg.se

UN abandons human rights - embraces copyrights

There's really no other way to interpret this statement. The United Nations has sold out to the entertainment mafia, abandoning ideals of human rights enforcement and instead embracing the tyrannic fight for stronger copyright enforcement. I'm using the word instead because these two rights don't go very well together. A tighter enforcement of copyright does mean sacrificing human rights.

Way to go ruining your credibility, UN.

Found the link through futuriteter.

What's worse - ignorance or incompetence?

I don't know what to say. Apparently Sweden is represented by a deaf, dumb and blind guy in the much criticized Acta talks. According to this moron, Stefan Johansson from the Department of Justice (!!!), there's nothing peculiar about the Acta agreement. They're not out to fight non-commercial file-sharing or any other small scale copyright infringements. We can all rest peacefully knowing that our personal integrity and civil liberties will be well taken care of.

– Ja, så är det, dokumentet tar sikte på mer omfattande intrång. Acta tar inte specifikt sikte på fildelning utan på fysiska produkter.

Yeah, right. Either Mr. Johansson has been spending most of his time sleeping during these talks, or he's just hopelessly incompetent. I don't know what is worse. Actabloggen has made a preliminary summary of the recently released documents, and they're not exactly painting a nice picture:

• 
  
  Customs officials will have the right to search through your luggage for any kind of pirated goods, including searching through your electronic devices looking for pirated content.
• 
  
  The "mere conduit" principle will cease to exist, and the ISP's will be held liable for what their users do on the web. In order to avoid liability they will be forced to filter web-pages pointed out by the entertainment mafia to contain infringing material, and they will be forced to terminate user accounts based on allegations from the very same mafia, effectively introducing not only a 3 strikes, but a 1 strike regime!
• 
  
  The most grotesque part is that all these measures are effectively bypassing the code of law. There's no right to have one's case tried by the court of law, there's no presumption of being innocent until proven guilty, it's basically the entertainment mafia playing judge and jury.

I'm guessing we'll see a lot more evil appearing as the Acta agreement is dissected by the community.

Links:
- ArsTechnica has a comprehensive analysis of the entire process behind Acta.
- IDG.se has a few words (in Swedish), although not very comprehensive at all.
- Europaportalen.se (also in Swedish) lets a couple of critical voices be heard.
- Christian Engström, Pirate Party politician and member of the EU parliament, gives his view on the 3 strikes threat.

Photo: chaouki

Still wonder why?

If you're still wondering why you should boycott the entertainment mafia, this is it (article in English here). Considering how this industry has influenced politicians throughout the world to adopt the most bizarre laws, and how some of this ridiculous suggestions are actually being seriously discussed in the Acta talks you can be damn sure that they will show up in one form or another pretty soon.

Every penny you spend on a CD or DVD, or going to the movies, is one penny that this destructive industry will spend on deteriorating the freedom and personal integrity of people all around the world. Stop feeding the monster.

Don't you dare play any music!

Playing music on the radio has been banned in Somalia. Yet another destructive scheme by the seemingly unstoppable entertainment mafia, Sony BMG, Warner & associates? You'd think, but this time it's actually radical islamists coming to the industry's "rescue". If it isn't one it's the other, all working together with great efforts to ruin the modern society.

Organized crime recruiting young prospects

The mafiosos over at Warner Bros have started recruiting prospects, who will do their dirty work of infiltrating file-sharing sites and hunt down unsuspecting kids who have not yet learned to deal with this relatively new kind of terror. The price for selling your soul to the devil? A pathetic £17.500 for a year's "internship".

The approach is similar to the criminal MC gangs like Hell's Angels and Bandidos, where young, easily impressionable kids, often from dysfunctional families and without a social network, are recruited to do the dirty work for a few lousy bucks, with hopes of one day making it big in the criminal underworld.

Go work at MacDonald's instead, the pay is the same and at least you'll have a clean conscience.

The Swedish police: A complete embarassment

Well, it's official, not only are single policemen bought by the entertainment mafia, the entire Swedish police system seems to become a division of EMI/Universal/Sony/Warner, doing their dirty work extorting and bullying simple file-sharers in an organized way instead of prioritizing crimes that actually involve victims. Crimes that actually matter.

As a first step, nine police officers will be taken out of meaningful duty (and by meaningful I certainly don't mean the kind of appalling abuse of power displayed by these two pitiful clowns) and enrolled in the entertainment mafia division of the police, where they will knock down doors, seize computer equipment and threaten youngsters who are simply sharing their music or movies with friends or others.

In other words, it's some sort of reverse Ipred. In addition to outsourcing police work to private companies with financial interest in the work, the private companies are now also getting police staff working for them. And the police's excuse for this is probably the most pathetic thing I've heard:

Brott mot immaterialrätten är enligt Polismyndigheten ofta gränsöverskridande och beräknas omsätta stora belopp. Det nationella samarbetet är ett sätt att komma åt problemet.

Right. Non-commercial file-sharing generates a lot of profit.

This is a complete and utter disgrace for the Swedish police.

Original photo: Kike@

Guilty until proven innocent

The mafiosos over at the record companies (yes, the usual "axis of evil", Universal Music, EMI Music, Sony Music and Warner Music) continue their crusade to make the world an insecure place to live. According to Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Industri and Svenska Dagbladet they insist that two of the Pirate Bay founders are still involved in the management of the site, and should be fined accordingly. Not only that, but they seriously expect that mere allegations should be enough, and that the accusers should have to prove their innocence! The witchburners of the 18th century would be proud.

Enligt skivbolagen har de två har brutit mot vitesförbudet "genom att delta i driften av fildelningstjänsten", och skivbolagen anser att bara det faktum att Pirate Bay fortfarande fungerar är tillräckligt för att de två ska anses ha överträtt förbudet - såvida de inte kan visa att de inte längre är delaktiga.

"So, you're not a witch, huh? Prove it, or you're obviously guilty and will be burned at the stake."

I actually had to read that last sentence a couple of times before I realized it was serious. The good old "guilty until proven innocent" tactics that most developed countries abandoned decades ago. You're kidding me. However I'm quite sure the court will continue to obey the entertainment industry no matter how seriously it violates basic human rights.

Plotting new evil

The "axis of evil" are gathered in the White House and plotting new evil in collaboration with the US government. What kind of insanity can we expect as an outcome of this meeting? More censorship? More oppressive legislation? More "guilty until proven innocent"?

Among those expected are Sony's Michael Lynton, Warner Bros.' Barry Meyer, Viacom's Philippe Dauman, NBC Universal's Jeffrey Zucker, Warner Music Group's Edgar Bronfman, Harper Collins CEO Brian Murray, Universal Music Group's Zachary Horowitz, the MPAA's Dan Glickman, the RIAA's Mitch Bainwol, IATSE's international president Matthew Leob, AFTRA'S Kim Roberts Hedgepeth, DGA president Taylor Hackford, DGA exec director Jay Roth and SAG's David White.

Yup, the whole "family" is here, ready to take on new acts of extortion, threats, bullying and corruption. In more civilized countries these bullies are actually convicted for their crime instead of given a carte blanche by the government to do whatever they want. Well, I guess if they refuse to give the "family" this carte blanche at this point they'll each receive a friendly reminder in the middle of the night, consisting of a severed horse head or something.

And why does it come as no surprise that there's no-one from the consumer and human rights side present at this meeting? Goddamn criminals the lot of them.