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.

Extorsion is the new business model

A german parasite company called Digirights Solutions are specializing in hunting down and threatening alleged pirates on behalf of the entertainment mafia, demanding 450 euro for the victim to avoid a lawsuit. Whether or not this person is actually guilty is irrelevant. Approximately 25% of the victims pay up to avoid the devastating costs of a lawsuit. Much like most people would give up their wallet and watch to a crook on the street to avoid a beating or a bullet in the head.

The loot is split 80-20 between Digirights Solutions and the entertainment mafia, making it a very profitable "business" for both. In fact, Digirights Solutions claim it's 150 times more profitable than actually selling content online.

In other words, as far as this mafia business is endorsed and encouraged by corrupted governments in Europe and the US, there's really no reason for the entertainment industry to come up with new business models. The threats and bullying business model is by far the most profitable. And we all know ethics is not part of the equation.

Who knew Warner Brothers owned Casablanca...

Threats and lawsuits are in no way a new invention in the entertainment industry, and Warner Brothers have a long and proud tradition of harassing their customers, peers and actors:

Dear Warner Brothers,
Apparently there is more than one way of conquering a city and holding it as your own. For example, up to the time that we contemplated making this picture, I had no idea that the city of Casablanca belonged exclusively to Warner Brothers. However, it was only a few days after our announcement appeared that we received your long, ominous legal document warning us not to use the name Casablanca.
It seems that in 1471, Ferdinand Balboa Warner, your great-great-grandfather, while looking for a shortcut to the city of Burbank, had stumbled on the shores of Africa and, raising his alpenstock (which he later turned in for a hundred shares of common), named it Casablanca.
I just don’t understand your attitude. Even if you plan on releasing your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don’t know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.
You claim that you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without permission. What about “Warner Brothers”? Do you own that too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about the name Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. We were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers when Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventor’s eye, and even before there had been other brothers—the Smith Brothers; the Brothers Karamazov; Dan Brothers, an outfielder with Detroit; and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (This was originally “Brothers, Can You Spare a Dime?” but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, so they threw out one brother, gave all the money to the other one, and whittled it down to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”)
Now Jack, how about you? Do you maintain that yours is an original name? Well it’s not. It was used long before you were born. Offhand, I can think of two Jacks—Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” and Jack the Ripper, who cut quite a figure in his day.
As for you, Harry, you probably sign your checks sure in the belief that you are the first Harry of all time and that all other Harrys are impostors. I can think of two Harrys that preceded you. There was Lighthouse Harry of Revolutionary fame and a Harry Appelbaum who lived on the corner of 93rd Street and Lexington Avenue. Unfortunately, Appelbaum wasn’t too well-known. The last I heard of him, he was selling neckties at Weber and Heilbroner.
Now about the Burbank studio. I believe this is what you brothers call your place. Old man Burbank is gone. Perhaps you remember him. He was a great man in a garden. His wife often said Luther had ten green thumbs. What a witty woman she must have been! Burbank was the wizard who crossed all those fruits and vegetables until he had the poor plants in such confused and jittery condition that they could never decide whether to enter the dining room on the meat platter or the dessert dish.
This is pure conjecture, of course, but who knows—perhaps Burbank’s survivors aren’t too happy with the fact that a plant that grinds out pictures on a quota settled in their town, appropriated Burbank’s name and uses it as a front for their films. It is even possible that the Burbank family is prouder of the potato produced by the old man than they are of the fact that your studio emerged “Casablanca” or even “Gold Diggers of 1931.”
This all seems to add up to a pretty bitter tirade, but I assure you it’s not meant to. I love Warners. Some of my best friends are Warner Brothers. It is even possible that I am doing you an injustice and that you, yourselves, know nothing about this dog-in-the-Wanger attitude. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to discover that the heads of your legal department are unaware of this absurd dispute, for I am acquainted with many of them and they are fine fellows with curly black hair, double-breasted suits and a love of their fellow man that out-Saroyans Saroyan.
I have a hunch that his attempt to prevent us from using the title is the brainchild of some ferret-faced shyster, serving a brief apprenticeship in your legal department. I know the type well—hot out of law school, hungry for success, and too ambitious to follow the natural laws of promotion. This bar sinister probably needled your attorneys, most of whom are fine fellows with curly black hair, double-breasted suits, etc., into attempting to enjoin us. Well, he won’t get away with it! We’ll fight him to the highest court! No pasty-faced legal adventurer is going to cause bad blood between the Warners and the Marxes. We are all brothers under the skin, and we’ll remain friends till the last reel of “A Night in Casablanca” goes tumbling over the spool.


Sincerely,
Groucho Marx

Source.

A conviction at any cost

Have a look at Peter Sunde's blogpost on how the dutch branch of the entertainment mafia, Brein, are committing a serious crime fabricating evidence in a desperate attempt to convict some people of something that shouldn't even be considered a crime, in a country these people have no connection to whatsoever.

So, what's worst? Fabricating evidence to get people wrongfully convicted, or possibly aiding in copyright infringement by providing an infrastructure that lets people communicate and share files with each other? Who should really be on trial here?

Of course the outcome of this ridiculous case is already given. Brein's fabricated evidence will be accepted without and questions by a court consisting of people with close affiliation to copyright lobbying organizations, and another miscarriage of justice will be committed.

If anyone's interested the documents are available at wikileaks.

Surveillance, inc.

Opassande.se has published a brilliant, and chilling, list of all the new and oppressive surveillance laws passed, implemented and being discussed in Sweden and the EU, many of them bizarrely enough written and directed by the entertainment mafia themselves, giving them a carte blanche to continue their extortion business at the sacrifice of ordinary people's integrity and legal protection.

It's an utterly revolting list, and it certainly makes you question what kind of society you live in.

Google censorship "a mistake"

Apparently last week's decision to exclude thepiratebay.org from Google search results was a "mistake". Riiiight.

In the meantime the entertainment industry mafia is doing what it does best: Bullying and threatening perfectly legitimate businesses.

It's David fighting against Goliath again. Good versus evil. Small entrepreneurs versus a global mafia(a).

The mafiaa wants you!

Wanna join the axis of evil and become the mafiaa's unscrupulous hired hand? Do you get turned on by the power of ruining ordinary people's lives? Would you sell your grandmother if paid enough? Are you a sworn enemy of the Internet, free speech, civil liberties and the constitution?

Then boy have I got the job for you. The weasels at Danowsky & Partners are looking for a legal practitioner, so here's your chance to sell your soul for what I can only assume has to be a shitload of money:

Danowsky & Partners är en advokatbyrå med inriktning på affärsjuridik och processer. Vi strävar efter att lämna en rak, enkel och resultatorienterad rådgivning i komplicerade affärsjuridiska frågor och processer. Det sker genom personlig omsorg, lyhördhet för klienternas intressen och ett starkt engagemang i varje ärende.

För tillträde under hösten söker vi nu ytterligare biträdande jurister med tingsmeritering eller motsvarande erfarenhet. Även du som har några års ytterligare erfarenhet från annan advokatbyrå är givetvis välkommen att söka. Vi ställer höga krav men erbjuder samtidigt varierande och utmanande arbetsuppgifter, bra utvecklingsmöjligheter och attraktiva villkor.

Ring gärna advokat Ann Nilsson på tel 08-614 64 00 eller gå in på vår hemsida, www.danowsky.se om du vill veta mer. Ansökan med kopior på sedvanliga betyg och intyg skickas så snart som möjligt och senast den 18 september till emma.hjartberg@danowsky.se. Det går också bra att skicka ansökan per post till Danowsky & Partners, Box 16097, 103 22 Stockholm.

And for those of you who are not familiar with the Swedish language, let me give you a quick translation:

Danowsky & Partners is a law firm specializing in blackmailing, harassment and threats. We strive to squeeze the most money out of our opponents in any way possible, with no regard to ethics or moral. We are proud of our excellent connections within the Government, the police and the courts of law that make it possible for us to tailor new laws to suit us and our clients, and also lets us adapt or ignore the existing laws, all to our advantage, when needed. This way we can guarantee you that we never lose a case. Ever.

We are looking for a legal practitioner to join our firm this fall. Our expectations of you are high, but at the same time we can offer you a high salary and a wide range of challenging tasks, including extortion, badgering, gagging the freedom of speech and dismantling the Internet at any cost.

Disclaimer: This translation may not be correct to the letter, but I think it captures the essence of the ad pretty well. So, what are you waiting for? Send them your resume today and embark on a long and successful career of tyranny and terror.

Shooting a duck with heavy artillery

So, the entertainment mafiaa and Stockholm tingsrätt have taken a major step in killing the free Internet in Sweden and turning it into a one-way pay-per-view channel, all in the name of stopping a few copyright infringements. More or less like using heavy artillery to kill a duck.

How well have they succeeded? Pretty well when it comes to contradicting existing laws and setting a new and bizarre precedent.

Not so well when it comes to actually stopping The Pirate Bay:


Much like the use of heavy artillery would cause a lot of damage without necessarily hitting the duck, it took The Pirate Bay only a few hours to get online again, and yet a few hours for DNS-servers around the world to get up to date with their new IP-addresses. A minor inconvenience. However, the damage inflicted on the free Internet in Sweden by Stockholm tingsrätt and that damn mafiaa may very well be irreparable. Good job, you absolute morons.