Vittorio Pasteris

Via Corriere.it

Pirata musicale avvisato, mezzo salvato: basta cause di massa contro la pirateria, parola della potente industria musicale americana, la RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), che ha deciso di abbandonare le (costose) cause legali contro gli utenti del web che hanno scaricato brani musicali. La nuova strategia sarà basata soprattutto sulla collaborazione con i provider Internet per scoraggiare il download illegale.

Agli utenti, che condividono in rete musica protetta da copyright per essere scaricata illegalmente, cioè senza pagare il diritto d’autore, verranno «inviate lettere di avvertimento» (ovvero e-mail), ha comunicato l’associazione che rappresenta le più importanti case discografiche statunitensi. Se beccati una seconda e una terza volta a scaricare o condividere file senza pagare, ai recidivi verrà tagliata la linea Web da parte dello stesso provider che la fornisce, sul modello «Three Strikes Out» (fuori dopo la terza infrazione). In sostanza, le società che forniscono le connessioni alla Rete, gli Internet Service Provider (ISP), si trasformeranno in una sorta di cyberpoliziotti.

Via blog.Wired

The popular mix sharing site Muxtape has been taken offline so that administrators can “sort out a problem with the RIAA,” according to a note that appears on the site.

“For the past several months, we have communicated concerns to Muxtape on behalf of our members,” said an RIAA spokesman via email (6:28pm EST update). “Muxtape has not yet obtained authorization from our member companies to host or stream copies of their sound recordings.”

One of our top ten favorite music websites, Muxtape’s service keeps the mixtape concept alive by allowing anyone to post a mix of up to 12 songs that can be easily shared with a simple URL. Its interface (screenshot below) consists of artist and song titles presented in large fonts, with “buy” links under each song.

Via NYT

A new study from the University of Washington suggests that media industry trade groups are using flawed tactics in their investigations of users who violate copyrights on peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

Those trade groups, including the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.) Entertainment Software Association (E.S.A.) and Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.), send universities and other network operators an increasing number of takedown notices each year, alleging that their intellectual property rights have been violated under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Many universities pass those letters directly on to students without questioning the veracity of the allegations. The R.I.A.A. in particular follows up some of those notices by threatening legal action and forcing alleged file-sharers into a financial settlement.

But the study, released Thursday by Tadayoshi Kohno, an assistant professor, Michael Piatek a graduate student, and Arvind Krishnamurthy, a research assistant professor, all at the University of Washington, argues that perhaps those takedown notices should be viewed more skeptically.

The paper finds that there is a serious flaw in how these trade groups finger alleged file-sharers. It also suggests that some people might be getting improperly accused of sharing copyrighted content, and could even be purposely framed by other users.