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| Pirate Bay Backs Pirate Party With EU Election Banners Posted: 20 May 2014 12:14 AM PDT
During the last elections five years ago the Pirate Party surprised friend and foe by gaining two seats at the European Parliament. This year it is hoped that this success will be equaled or improved upon, a realistic aim according to current polls. To increase the chance of a good result the Pirate parties have been on the campaign trail over the past few weeks. Today, these efforts are increasing thanks to a secret weapon no other party has access to: The Pirate Bay. The Pirate parties struck a deal with the notorious torrent site which is now displaying localized banners in ten countries. The banners are featured on TPB’s homepage and replace the site’s iconic logo. This is in addition to a general Pirate Party banner that had been up and running for a few days already. The prominent placement guarantees hundreds of thousands of eyeballs per day, some of which may end up in the voting booth. Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party, is delighted with the “pirate” partnership. “I’m very happy that our brothers in arms are providing this great exposure to the political arm of the movement”, Falkvinge tells TorrentFreak. “Most offline-born politicians wouldn’t realize that this exposure roughly equals buying the whole cover of every single newspaper in Europe, every day for the whole duration of the campaign.” As in previous elections, the Pirate parties are calling for more transparency, better privacy protections, and decriminalization of file-sharing for personal use. The latter is of course a good match with TPB’s core philosophy. And there’s another Pirate Bay connection in this year’s election race. In Finland, TPB co-founder and former site spokesman Peter Sunde is one of the candidates. Sunde is also calling for changes to current copyright laws. "Non-commercial file sharing should of course become legal and protected, and we must re-think copyright all together. Copyright is not the thing that makes ARTISTS money, it's only for their brokers and distributors," Sunde told us previously. While a few Pirates in Parliament might not get this done without help, the track record of the current Pirate MEPs, Christian Engström and Amelia Andersdotter, shows that a difference can be made. Below are the banners for all the Pirate parties that are currently being promoted through The Pirate Bay in their respective countries. In a few days we will know whether the Pirates can continue their presence in the European Parliament and with how many.           Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
| Zynga Opposed SOPA, Now Wants Voluntary Anti-Piracy Deals Posted: 19 May 2014 09:16 AM PDT
Hollywood and the record labels set out to achieve their aims not be force, but by cooperation. Deals, such as the six-strikes scheme and efforts at strangling the advertising finances of ‘pirate’ sites, have proven relatively easy to reach and are even gaining approval from former SOPA rivals. Online gaming giant Zynga, the outfit behind games including Farmville, ZyngaPoker and Mafia Wars, came out in 2012 as a SOPA opponent due to concerns that it could “freeze innovation” and damage the Internet. But now the company is joining its former pro-SOPA adversaries in championing voluntary anti-piracy initiatives. Working together is easier than dealing with Congress In an interview preceding his appearance at the Anti-Piracy & Content Protection Summit this June, Ted Hasse, Corporate Counsel IP at Zynga, has underlined the importance of a cooperative approach to dealing with piracy. “[Cooperation] seems to be the best avenue for the greatest results on the largest “Legislation is slow. Voluntary agreements happen much faster.” As an example of how stakeholders can work together, Hasse cites work by the Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force on how best to handle the millions of DMCA notices being issued everyday. With legislation off the table, working both cooperatively and voluntarily is the sole solution. “The only path for DMCA reform in 2014 is through a process like this since nothing could make it through Congress,” he notes. Hitting torrent and file-hosting sites, no laws required Hasse says that while torrent and file-hosting sites still represent today’s biggest anti-piracy challenge, voluntary agreements are beginning to make their mark. “Legitimate ad networks and payment processors are cutting off the money streams for pirate sites through voluntary commitment to the IAB's best practices for combating piracy and the IACC Payment Processor Initiative, and it didn't take a new laws, law enforcement or litigation,” the counsel says. However, while “legitimate” advertisers can indeed be leaned on, less scrupulous companies are willing to take up the slack. These can generate decent revenues too, as Zynga knows only too well – in 2009 the company admitted making millions from scammy advertising, something pirate sites are being accused of today. Turning a blind eye to infringement has its consequences Citing the 2013 cases against both isoHunt and Hotfile, Hasse says that while turning a blind eye to infringement might lead to sites enjoying good growth, there comes a time when they have to account for their behavior. “When a platform is willing to accommodate the infringing activity they get big and it eventually becomes too hard to avoid having to defend their practices in the “And when that happens these platforms are not coming out on top, their practices have to change or their entire services are being disrupted, and I'm not convinced it's that easy for would-be infringers to just move on to the next place to find pirated content.” Getting harder to find infringing content It’s a controversial assertion, but Hasse believes that it’s actually getting harder for people to find pirated content online. “While years ago I think many or most people could easily find pirated content on the Internet, today I suspect many users don't know where to find exactly what they want conveniently, so when a major site shutters or changes its practices to disallow infringing activity, many users are actually downloading less pirated content or stop altogether rather than finding a new channel,” he concludes. Old rivals finding common ground Two years ago rivals on both side of the SOPA debate could not have been further apart, yet now there appears to be growing consensus between stakeholders on how to achieve the same kinds of goals without causing anywhere near as much offense. As a result, also absent are many of the outrageous headlines that accompanied the often hyper-aggressive actions of Hollywood and the record labels. Doing anti-piracy work this way, quietly, means there is far less opposition and much less controversy. And by having voluntary agreements in place that don’t involve breaking the Internet, the public (and potential dissent) is effectively taken out of the equation. Photo: Flazingo Photos Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
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