Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:17 am Post subject:
Anonymous Just Deleted CBS.com and Took Down Universal
Taking a shorter break than their last vacation, Anonymous is back at it already. Reports are coming in that they had completely knocked out CBS.com and are continuing their revenge spree. The CBS takedown wasn't your regular DDoS attack because if you went to CBS.com at the time Anon attacked it, there was nothing except an index page with a single file. That's it. Basically, Anonymous gained access to CBS.com and deleted EVERYTHING.
CBS.com has managed to put itself back up but we'll be on the lookout of Anonymous' next move. This is going to be interesting. Last time Anon went on a revenge spree, well, the DOJ, RIAA, MPAA, Universal, EMI, FBI and others all got a piece of the takedown fun.
Update: Looks like they just took down UniversalMusic.com again too!
Update 2: Anon is now going after websites in Brazil. The Hacker News reports that websites of Brazil's federal district, the city of Tangara da Serra and popular Brazilian singer Paula Fernandes have been brought offline in a DDoS attack. Anonymous' message on the affected websites? "If Megaupload is down, you are down too."
Anonymous Just Deleted CBS.com and Took Down Universal
Update 3: Vivendi, a French media company involved in music, film, TV, video games, etc., has been brought down too. Vivendi used to own Universal
Was Megaupload Targeted Because Of Its Upcoming Megabox Digital Jukebox Service?
Last Thursday the US Justice Department came down hard on Megaupload and its mega founder, Kim Dotcom. In the days since, there has been a shake-up of sorts in the digital storage realm. Several smaller sites have drastically changed their business models. Others, like MediaFire, reached out to me after I published this post attempting to distance themselves from Megaupload.
However, yesterday, a new theory surfaced that indicates Megaupload�fs demise had less to do with piracy than previously thought. This theory stems from a 2011 article detailing Megaupload�fs upcoming Megabox music store and DIY artist distribution service that would have completely disrupted the music industry.
TorrentFreak first reported about the service in early December 2011. Megabox was just in beta at that time with listed partners of 7digital, Gracenote, Rovi, and Amazon. Megaupload was in a heated marketing battle with the RIAA and MPAA who featured Kim Dotcom in an anti-piracy movie (5:10 mark). The site had just sued Universal Music Group for wrongly blocking Megaupload�fs recent star-studded YouTube campaign. Things were getting vicious in December but the quiet launch of Megabox might have been the straw that broke the millionaire�fs back.
Dotcom described Megabox as Megaupload�fs iTunes competitor, which would even eventually offer free premium movies via Megamovie, a site set to launch in 2012. This service would take Megaupload from being just a digital locker site to a full-fledged player in the digital content game.
The kicker was Megabox would cater to unsigned artists and allow anyone to sell their creations while allowing the artist to retain 90% of the earnings. Or, artists could even giveaway their songs and would be paid through a service called Megakey. �gYes that�fs right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works,�h Kim Dotcom told TorrentFreak in December. Megabox was planning on bypassing the labels, RIAA, and the entire music establishment.
Megaupload was likely large enough to actually find success. Other services have tried what Megabox was set to do, but Megaupload was massive. Prior to its closure last week, the site was estimated to be the 13th most visited site on the Internet, accounting for 4% of all worldwide Internet traffic. It boasted 180 million registered users with over 50 million visiting the site daily. Megaupload was already a seemingly trusted service for artists to distribute their work. Megabox would have a monetized that popularity by passing on the bulk of the earnings back to the artists.
�gYou can expect several Megabox announcements next year including exclusive deals with artists who are eager to depart from outdated business models,�h said Dotcom late last year. But that�fs probably not going to happen. Kim Dotcom and several other Megaupload executives are now awaiting trial on various charges including racketeering, money laundering, and various counts of piracy. It seems they flew too close to the sun. High on success and a half a world away in New Zealand and Hong Kong, they attempted to take on the music industry head-on. Now they�fre in jail.
ACTA Copyright Treaty Sparks Protests In Latest Anti-Piracy Battle
In the United States, a massive Internet protest last week led by Wikipedia and Google drove congressional leaders to place controversial anti-piracy legislation on hold.
But in other parts of the world, another proposal to increase copyright enforcement is gaining momentum, despite protests from opponents concerned about Internet censorship.
On Thursday, the European Union and 22 of its member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA -- a major step toward enforcement of the copyright treaty. Eight countries, including the United States, had signed the agreement this past fall.
ACTA has always been controversial because the international negotiations that began in 2007 took place in secret. But now, opponents of the treaty have developed new muscle after witnessing the success of the Internet outcry against the two U.S. bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
In Poland, hundreds took to the streets this week to protest the government's intention to sign ACTA. Several popular Polish websites replaced their regular content with statements expressing concerns about ACTA, and government websites were taken offline in an apparent denial-of-service attack coordinated by the hacker group Anonymous.
For copyright holders, an international treaty may offer fewer roadblocks to combating digital piracy, critics say. While SOPA and PIPA sought to change U.S. law by forcing American Internet service providers to block domain names of websites believed to be engaging in online piracy, ACTA seeks to implement existing U.S. copyright law in countries where copyright enforcement is less stringent. The Obama administration has argued that ACTA does not require Senate authorization because it's technically an "executive agreement."
But U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden wrote a letter to President Barack Obama last fall raising questions about whether it was constitutional for the U.S. trade representative to sign on to the treaty without Senate approval.
Sean Flynn, a professor of intellectual property law at American University, said ACTA is not as "draconian" as the pending U.S. legislation, calling the treaty "SOPA light." Some of its most troubling measures -- such as a requirement that Internet service providers suspend service to customers caught downloading copyrighted works, known as the "three strikes" rule -- have been stripped from the agreement, he said.
But other experts argue that ACTA is still problematic.
"ACTA contains new potential obligations for Internet intermediaries, requiring them to police the Internet and their users, which in turn pose significant concerns for citizens' privacy, freedom of expression, and fair use rights," Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a blog post last fall.
Many of those who support the U.S. legislation are also backing ACTA, including the Motion Picture Association of America. ACTA is "an important step forward in strengthening international cooperation and enforcement for intellectual property rights," said former U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the MPAA, in a statement last fall.
ACTA is not the only anti-piracy treaty raising concerns. Some experts fear the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) may include intellectual property measures more restrictive than those in ACTA. But public information about the latter treaty is vague because it is also being negotiated in secret, experts say.
"We don't know what's in the TPP IP chapter, and that's what worries us," the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote on its website.
Flynn said the impact of last week's protests against SOPA and PIPA has forced the world to pay more attention to these copyright treaties.
"There have been protests with ACTA, but they've never reached this scale," said Flynn. "The politics seem to be changing on this issue internationally."
Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:32 am Post subject:
Bram Cohen: My goal is to kill off television
By Janko Roettgers
Feb. 13, 2012
BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen demoed his P2P live streaming protocol at the San Francisco MusicTech Summit on Monday, which he said could potentially stream live video to millions of computers with no central infrastructure. Cohen said that the protocol could potentially be used for video conferencing, live streams of video game tournaments or even live sports events. �gMy goal here is to kill off television,�h he joked.
Cohen has worked on P2P live streaming for a number of years, and told us a while back that he completely had to start from scratch because traditional P2P algorithms introduce too much latency for live applications. BitTorrent Inc. hasn�ft said how exactly it intends to productize the protocol, but Cohen said on Monday that he is talking to a number of potential partners. BitTorrent has also started to run a number of field tests on its website in recent months, streaming weekly live music events with the P2P protocol.
The ultimate winners of a P2P-based solution could be consumers, he argued, because it would enable publishers to put much more content online at a fraction of the cost of traditional CDNs. �gMost of the video that people consume today is still not on the Internet,�h said Cohen, adding that existing protocols aren�ft set up to support big live events.
Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 8:57 am Post subject:
Skype co-founder wants to give you free mobile broadband
by Blake Robinson February 15, 2012
Backed by Niklas Zennstrom, the industry disruptor behind Skype, FreedomPop selects Clearwire for its new free mobile broadband service.
Niklas Zennstrom changed the telephone industry when he co-founded VoIP juggernaut, Skype. Now he's preparing to attack the industry again with the introduction of free mobile broadband from FreedomPop.
FreedomPop today announced that it would partner with Clearwire for its upcoming mobile broadband service. Backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, FreedomPop aims to disrupt the mobile broadband industry by providing mobile Internet to consumers free of charge.
FreedomPop had previously named LightSquared as its launch partner, but it appears that relationship has stalled due to mounting complications in the LightSquared camp. The FCC yesterday suspended LightSquared's waiver to build a national wireless broadband network using satellite spectrum. Tests have indicated that the beleaguered company's technologies interfered with GPS and other devices.
Clearwire isn't without its own problems. The company is currently scrambling to build out an LTE network to supplement its WiMax offerings in an effort to improve its coverage in high profile areas like the Bay Area, Chicago, and Manhattan. The transition is doubly logical as wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T are betting heavily on LTE and LTE threatens to become a global standard. WiMax, for its part, has few substantive presences outside of the U.S.
Zennstrom has a reputation for disrupting industries: Kazaa was among the most prominent peer-to-peer media sharing services when it was shredded by lawsuits. It now exists as a wholly unremarkable subscription music service.
Similarly, Joost launched big in 2007 to revolutionize online video and then proceeded to fall. By 2009, it had failed at every pivot and landed in Internet purgatory. It's now only mentioned in pieces like this.
Nevertheless, Rdio, Zennstrom's other subscription music service, has been compelling and competitive in a scene that includes players like Spotify and MOG. And, with 65 million daily users, there's no arguing Zennstrom has had spectacular success with Skype.
Beyond Zennstrom's affiliation, few details, such as how it intends to monetize itself, are known about FreedomPop. Conventional wisdom (and speculation) indicates that the service will be ad-supported, but it could adopt a freemium model, allowing subscribers to avoid ads for a fee.
What we do know is that FreedomPop intends to launch at some point in 2012. Here's hoping it's more Skype than Joost.
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