VERY,VERY HOT READS, I Would Read The News In This Thread This Thead Is To post Any Thing Ye Want About The News,,NEWS WAS MOVED,READ MY FIRST POS...

CODEC INSTALLER..........CodecInstaller is a Windows program that detects which Audio and Video codecs are installed on your system and that suggest you to install the ones necessary to correctly view any movie. It's designed to be burned on a CD together with a compressed video, to be always able to play them. The users who receive the CD, with a single tool with a simple and intuitive interface, can check if the necessary codecs are already installed and up-to-date and with just a click can install the ones required. Who distributes videos on CDs can include this program to be sure that who have to see the video, will have all the necessary codecs installed. CodecInstaller can be also used just to have the complete list of the installed codecs on your machine and detailed information on them.....(free).....GO THERE!

DESCRIPTION:
CodecInstaller is a Windows program that detect which Audio&Video codecs are installed on your system and that suggest you to install the ones necessary to correctly view the movie it is distributed with:
in fact it's designed to be burned on a CD together with a compressed video, to be always able to play them.
The users who receive the CD, with a single tool with a simple and intuitive interface, can check if the necessary codecs are already installed and up-to-date and with just a click can install the ones required.

Who distributes videos on CDs can include this program to be sure that who have to see the video, will have all the necessary codecs installed.

CodecInstaller can be also used just to have the complete list of the installed codec and detailed informations on them.
Since version 1.3, contains a MovieLauncher that displays informations about the distributed video file (author, plot, director...)
Since version 1.4 can analyze avi files. It detects: width/height and ratio, lenght, video codec, framerate, size, bitrate, total frames, quality factor...
CodecInstaller v1.9 has a completely reorganized user interface and a few bug-fixes. Now it is easier to use and more powerful.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Operating System: Windows 98 - ME - NT 4(service pack5) - 2000 - WindowsXP
Libraries: you must have installed the Microsoft .NET FrameWork 1.1 freely downloadable from Microsoft.com site

LICENSE:
Freeware.

http://www.jockersoft.com/english/codecinstaller_index.php

 

Did the RIAA try to con a court?

p2p news / p2pnet: "Infringed copyright" isn't as sexy as "illegally downloaded music". But the first is where it's at while the second is pure Big Four record label cartel spin-speak.

Expert testimony submitted to a New York court in Atlantic Recording v John Does 1-25, involving allegations of copyright infringement, suggests the cartel's RIAA isn't above applying tactics it usually gets away with in the mainstream media to the US legal system.

The RIAA's (Recording Industry Association of America) Jonathan Whitehead was apparently trying to use a verbal version of the shell game. However, programmer Zi Mei caught him at it.

"Whitehead shot himself in the foot with his latest declaration," he told p2pnet. "He asserts that all Does are Gnutella users, directly contradicting earlier testimony, which included pages of Kazaa screenshots.

"This demonstrates that he either doesn't have a clue what he's talking about, or that he's simply inventing evidence and switching to Limewire after we totally destroyed him on the Kazaa stuff, hoping no one would notice.

"It's obvious that Mr. Whitehead doesn't know Kazaa from a kazoo either, or he's simply pretending he doesn't. The RIAA's 'investigative' techniques are sloppy and harmful, to say the least."

Below, as promised, is Mei's affidavit as handed in to the court yesterday >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

ATLANTIC RECORDING CORPORATION, et al., Plaintiffs,

-against-

DOES 1-25, Defendants.

No. 05 CV 9111 (LTS)(DFE)

REPLY AFFIDAVIT

STATE OF NEW YORK )

) ss.:

COUNTY OF NEW YORK )

ZI MEI, being duly sworn, deposes and says:

1. In the Second Declaration of Jonathan Whitehead dated January 23, 2006, Mr. Whitehead states that "all of the Doe Defendants in this case are users of the Gnutella network." 4. This is a claim of great technical significance because it directly contradicts earlier evidence that plaintiffs submitted, which show Kazaa screenshots. (See Exhibit 1 to "First" Whitehead Declaration dated October 21, 2005). Further, Mr. Whitehead makes no attempt to substantiate that any of the 25 Doe defendants actually uses a Gnutella-compatible peer-to-peer program. He provides no screenshots, usernames, software version numbers, or even the names of the different Gnutella-compatible programs. All this would have been easily obtained through basic observation and investigative techniques.

2. Kazaa and Limewire are two completely different programs. They use different technologies, have different graphical interfaces, and are not interoperable. Kazaa uses the FastTrack network and Limewire uses Gnutella. Kazaa users cannot connect to Limewire users and Limewire users cannot connect to Kazaa users. Quite simply put, it is just technically impossible for this to happen.

3. Mr. Whitehead cannot simply switch the names of software or P2P networks to suit his purposes. That he has done so in his second declaration should cast clear doubt as to his credentials and competence to testify on technical matters. If Mr. Whitehead has deliberately and knowingly switched the names of these two software applications in an attempt to mislead the Court and reconcile flaws in his earlier testimony, then it casts clear doubt as to his integrity.

4. Mr. Whitehead betrays either confusion or ignorance of how decentralized P2P networks like FastTrack (Kazaa) and Gnutella (Limewire) actually work. In such networks, there are no central servers to store user information, manage user connections, or handle searches and file transfers between users. Instead, the load of cataloging files and performing searches is distributed among its members. This is in contrast to the more well known Napster network, which
relied upon a centralized network of servers to catalog files shared by users and manage interactions between them. Napster had a single point of failure: shut down the servers and the network dies.

5. In place of centralized servers, Gnutella and FastTrack create a hierarchical structure, designating some users as "ultrapeers" (in the case of Kazaa, they are called "supernodes"). These are users with fast computers and fast internet connections (broadband). Ultrapeers act as traffic cops or group leaders. All the other users are known as "leaves". These are users with slower computers and slow internet connections like dial-up and certain kinds of DSL, or clogged broadband connections. All search queries are routed to ultrapeers, which then perform the requested search. This hierarchy greatly improves network performance and prevents bottlenecks by reducing network traffic.

6. When a leaf connects to an ultrapeer, the leaf sends to the ultrapeer a list of hashes corresponding to file names and metadata for all files in the leaf's shared folder. The ultrapeer then adds this data to the ultrapeer's master index. The transfer of the leaf's hash data to the ultrapeer does not involve the uploading of any files from the leaf's shared folder to the ultrapeer. Only the hash data is transferred to the ultrapeer, not the files themselves. Because the ultrapeer's hash data is an aggregate of all hash data collected from its leaves, the ultrapeer responding to a search request may simply be providing a list of files that actually reside on other computers, not the ultrapeer.

7. The "UserLog" attached to the Second Whitehead Declaration does not indicate whether the computers linked to the IP addresses allegedly associated with defendants are ultrapeers or leaves. Since the ISP from which plaintiffs seek defendants' identities is Mediacom, a high-speed cable internet provider, it would appear that if any of those computers were linked to Gnutella at all (plaintiffs' original application was based on a series of screenshots from Kazaa, a program incompatible with and incapable of getting onto the Gnutella network), it was as ultrapeers rather than as leaves. For this reason, even if plaintiffs could demonstrate that the IP addresses allegedly associated with defendants were the IP addresses through which plaintiffs obtained the information in the userlog, it is just as likely that the files were actually residing on various leaf computers of other users that were simply using defendants' computers to index those files. Plaintiffs' userlog thus does not provide any evidence of copyright infringement.

8. Moreover, Mr. Whitehead still has not even attempted to explain the process through which plaintiffs allegedly obtained the IP addresses allegedly associated with defendants. Therefore, there is no basis for even assuming that the userlog or any of plaintiffs' other submissions even relate to defendants.

9. Finally, plaintiffs argue that "[t]hough theoretically P2P users could put their own personal files into a share directory, there is simply no logical reason to do so." Plaintiffs' Opposition, p. 14. From this, plaintiffs argue that an inference can be drawn that the files in a shared folder, especially music files, must have been downloaded illegally rather than legally copied onto one's computer from compact discs or from legal downloads. (Interestingly, this argument is made by plaintiffs' attorneys in a unsworn opposition memorandum and not by Mr. Whitehead). In reality, it is completely understandable how legally copied music files would come to be inside a shared folder. It is very easy for unsophisticated users of P2P software to unwittingly include their entire hard drive and thus music files that were legally copied onto that hard drive from CDs, etc. in the shared folder. Mr. Whitehead's own organization, the RIAA, recognized this in comments it filed with the Federal Trade Commission.

As an initial matter, P2P software may, upon installation, automatically search a user's entire hard drive for content. Files that users have no intention of sharing may end up being offered to the entire P2P network. Continued sharing of personal information is hard to avoid and is facilitated by confusing and complicated instructions for designating shared items. A study by Nathaniel S. Good and Aaron Krekelberg at HP Laboratories showed that "the majority of the users were unable to tell what files they were sharing, and sometimes incorrectly assumed they were not sharing any files when in fact they were sharing all files on their hard drive."

See Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Technology: Consumer Protection and Competition Issues; P2P File-Sharing Workshop Comment, P034517; Comments of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), November 15, 2004, pp. 8-9 (footnotes omitted) (Exhibit "A" hereto). The inference suggested by plaintiffs is wholly unwarranted and cannot be drawn since it contradicts how P2P software actually works.

ZI MEI

Also See:
as promised - Sloppy RIAA 'investigation' attacked, February 7, 2006

(Wednesday 8th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7857

 

Muhammed cartoon hack attacks

p2p news / p2pnet: Quite a while back we had an email from Danish reader telling us about Christoffer Zieler's Muhammed cartoons, originally published in Jyllands-Posten last September, wondering if they might make an item in p2pnet.

One of them showed the prophet with a bomb under his turban and, Not for us, we said, thanking the reader.

The appearance of the cartoons sparked waves of religious anger as Islamic extremists use the appearance of the cartoons for their own political purposes.

Predictably, attacks against Danish web sites quickly followed and Islamic cyber-protesters, "addressed attacks toward a wide selection of Danish (nearly 600) as well as Israeli and more generally western web-servers totaling nearly reported 1,000 attacks," says Zone-H.

"Zone-H.org, the cybercrime independent observatory of Internet server side intrusions has attentively observed in the recent days the activity of the Islamic hacker communities trying to profile their involvement in online activities linked to the prophet Mohammed/Denmark issue and got directly from such community reports about their intrusions," says Roberto Preatoni.

"What came out from the survey is what Zone-H very much expected: the use of the Internet as an instrument to spread out cyber protests related to what happens in the worldwide context.

"Several hacker groups from different Muslim nations united their forces in order to produce the larger amount of damages in Danish and more generally western web-servers. During the attacks they promoted both moderate and extremists manifestos through the defacement of the homepages promoting also a boycott campaign throughout the digital Ummah against Danish products.

"In fact in one of the highlighted attacks the hacker going by the handle DarlBlood clearly incites the Ummah community to avoid Danish products by quoting the website www.no4denmark.com. But Zone-H noted many other, and more threatening examples: warning for suicide bombing attacks were posted on http://amris.dk forums by the "IIB - Internet Islamic Brigades", and threats for a coming Jihad have been used to crack many other web-servers from all over the western and non-western world."

Stay tuned.

Also See:
Zone-H - Prophet Mohammed protest spreads on the digital ground, February 7, 2006

(Wednesday 8th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7855

 

TorrentSpy: 'We can help'

p2p news / p2pnet: Yesterday, Slyck's Tom Mennecke featured a Q&A with µTorrent's Ludvig Strigeus.

Today, he gets into TorrentSpy >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

TorrentSpy's Quest for Legitimacy
By Tom Mennecke - Slyck

The transition or implementation of authorized file-sharing networks is not a new concept. Altnet was among the first, as it helped distribute authorized content along side the FastTrack network. PeerImpact followed suit as it released its fully secure P2P network to the public in 2005. iMesh transitioned from a free P2P network to a pay community last year. While authorized P2P models are fairly common, is the world quite ready for an authorized BitTorrent indexer?

That's the question TorrentSpy is ready to confront head on. Throughout TorrentSpy's history, it has frequently adhered to the many cease and desist notices provided by content owners. However in an effort to confront the constant barrage of take down notices, TorrentSpy is attempting a novel approach. Already indexing a limited number of authorized content, TorrentSpy is looking to take this perspective to the next level. Justin, the owner and administrator of TorrentSpy, discusses with Slyck.com his quest for legitimacy.

Slyck.com: What exactly and specifically is TorrentSpy trying to do?

TorrentSpy: Our primary goal is to be the most comprehensive file search website on the Internet. Torrents will remain our area of focus but we want to expand to include files such as: game patches, mods, shareware, trialware, driver updates, etc.

The secondary goal is get involved in the distribution of authorized, licensed content such as music, television, and video.

Slyck.com: What is your motivation for providing authorized content?

TorrentSpy: Our goal is help bring TV and Movie distribution into the 21st century.

Surprisingly enough, they are still running around with physical film reels! I want to allow people to download an individual TV show or movie and pay a reasonable price. It is no different than as Tivo & other DVRs, but it is done over the Internet instead. That would be very cool and I want to help make that happen.

Slyck.com: What is your philosophy on the proliferation of copyrighted material and how does that tie into your business model?

TorrentSpy: I believe that rights holders should be able to make money on their work. That is why we respond to DMCA takedown requests. I have a family, a car payment, etc. So if I make something I deserve the right to make money from it and TorrentSpy supports others doing the same.

Slyck.com: Let' say TorrentSpy reaches an agreement with a movie studio. What will that mean to the end user? How much will their current experience change?

TorrentSpy: The plan is for the user experience to remain the same - there will simply be authorized downloads in the search results. So far the studios have been resistant to this idea...which is unfortunate. However, they resisted the VHS tape if you remember and that has been a massive success for them. Heck, they even resisted the DVD too if I recall. Eventually they will realize the huge opportunity they are missing out on and hopefully we will be there to make great things happen.

Slyck.com: In response to legal threats, TorrentSpy has been filtering results for nearly a year now. How has this affected your daily traffic?

TorrentSpy: Actually we have always filtered by following the procedures of the DMCA. We may not have grown as fast as some of the sites that don't filter, but that is OK with me.

Slyck.com: Is it the duty of torrent search site owners to police the torrents their search engine finds?

TorrentSpy: It is not the responsibility of a search engine to monitor content indexed and I am not sure how such a thing would be possible in the first place. The system simply searches the web and lists the torrent files it finds. We make it pretty easy for rights holders to remove torrents of their content and many companies (such as Microsoft) use it all the time.

Slyck.com: Is there a danger legitimate content, such as parodies and spoofs of copyright woks, could get caught up in a filter?

TorrentSpy: No filter is perfect and most are very, very far from it. Napster was never able to develop a good filter and I don't believe anyone else has either. Here is a good example of the danger with inadequate filtering: At one time AOL tried to filter websites for parental controls or something. A girl knew someone had breast cancer so she tried to learn more about it on the web.

Unfortunately AOL said naughty, naughty, "breast" is porn so you cannot learn about this horrible disease your friend has. These examples happen all the time, and while parental controls can error on the side of being too restrictive, the Internet at large cannot subject itself to inaccuracies of this nature.

Then there are things like "Star Wars: Revelations" which is a fan film that is allowed by Lucas. What is the automated filter to keep that in but other stuff out? I have no idea and neither do my developers. It is a giant mess that nobody has figured out how to do well yet.

Slyck.com: Is the plan to filter out all unauthorized copyright material over night, or is this going to be a gradual process?

TorrentSpy: We have had a filtering policy in place since the site began and it seems to be working well for both rights holders and our users, so we have no plans to change it.

Slyck.com: Have you begun talks with content owners/providers yet? How receptive have owners/providers been? What types of media will you index, music, movies, and games?

Our goal is to index all media types, movies, music, games, and software. We have talked with a number of movie companies, music labels, and individuals to figure out something that can work for everyone. The reactions range from "get out now" to "love it! I want your baby" so there is still a lot of work to be done. We believe what we want to accomplish will benefit everyone so remain hopeful it will all come together.

Slyck.com: TorrentSpy has aggravated users by including adware in "free" screensavers. Is this any way for an internet business to behave? For example, sites like iTunes or CinemaNow would never be caught distributing ad/spyware. It is a very "warez" thing to do. Can you be taken seriously with this history?

TorrentSpy: Haha, well that is not exactly a fair comparison since iTunes and CinemaNow charge for their downloads.

Those screensavers were a giant pain since we had to license all the pics - The company wanted money, then the girls wanted money, then the photographers wanted money. So how do you pay for that? Besides, we were careful to pick a product that allowed an easy uninstall. Don't like it? Fine, uninstall it with a few clicks. I guess I don't see what everyone is so upset about when it is that easy. Of course I am sure to get flamed for that opinion :-D

Slyck.com: If you could look into the crystal ball for a moment, when do you foresee the first authorized content appearing on Torrent Spy?

TorrentSpy: There already is authorized content on TorrentSpy. Some people have uploaded torrents of their own stuff to get it distributed. We do intend to include additional material as well though. As for movie and recorded music content, I hope we'll have something up in the next 30 days.

Slyck.com: What are your thoughts on DRM and how will such technology play a role on the future Torrent Spy?

TorrentSpy: Right or wrong, people are used to the concept that buying something means they own it and can do whatever they want with it. DRM gets in the way of that perception so people don't like it very much.

The thing I hate about DRM is that if you upgrade your computer, have a hard drive crash, get your MP3 player stolen, etc. all the purchased DRM protected media you have is gone with it. I don't know about you, but that kind of stuff happens to me all the time so losing all my DRM content is not good.

So DRM has both technical and social barriers to adoption and has a long way to go before people accept it, especially with the restrictions the media companies want to implement with it.

Slyck.com: Given the low cost of bandwidth compared to the cost of downloads, how can P2P play a serious role in the distribution of video content? If people want to go through the hassle of getting to grips with P2P, would they not just pirate the content?

TorrentSpy: iTunes has shown that people are willing to pay a reasonable price for music and now TV. They have done hundreds of millions of downloads. Music has been easily obtainable on p2p networks for years and if everyone was obsessed with piracy, iTunes would not be the success it is today.

There are some compelling reasons for authorized content. The first is download speed. BT is great, but it is still slower than a direct download. Another is assurance that the media is not some sort of virus or trojan (that recent Microsoft exploit with image files was scary!) Another is to support the artist who made the work. There are a few more, but those are the big ones.

Slyck.com: Any other thoughts, comments, observations?

TorrentSpy: I believe the efforts of the MPAA and especially RIAA to date have been shortsighted and that fanatical filtering (and lawsuits) of everything in sight has not been a success for them in the 6+ years they have been doing it (and I don't see that it ever will). They are blinding themselves to the larger opportunity of providing viable alternatives to illegal downloading by end users. We can help if they will only allow us the opportunity.

-- As TorrentSpy moves forward with its plans, it will try to force the reconciliation of two ideals. One, content owners must accept that the Internet, for all its short comings, will be the distribution medium of the future. Second, those who have refused to accept the viability of paid content must now find a way to live along side it.

Also See:
Ludvig Strigeus - uTorrent: shaping the future, February 7, 2006

(Wednesday 8th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7856

 

Settec Alpha-DVD protection used on German Mr.& Mrs.Smith
Posted by Dan Bell on 08 February 2006 - 14:55 - Source: Heise

Today from Heise, we learn of a DVD movie copy protection that will be of interest to those that believe in Fair Use backups or are concerned with the possibility of computer malfunction from the effects of this protection and even those that simply have privacy concerns.

The Kinowelt title "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" is the first German Video-DVD to contain the Alpha-DVD protection from the Korean company Settec . This protection installs on PCs before playback of the DVD and like some other protections, Alpha-DVD accomplishes it's anti-copying effect by using corrupted sectors. In addition to this, upon inserting the DVD, the user is presented with a dialog box that is a request to accept an End User License Agreement (EULA) that begins with the following text:

"In order to activate this technology, a software adaption has to be made on your computer [...]. This includes a modification of the operating system, that has been evaluated by the manufacturers of these systems (1) and found to be harmless."

Upon denying the EULA, Windows ejects the DVD again - this is the same behaviour was already shown by the Media Player that was used on Sony BMG's XCP protected Audio-CDs. Upon accepting the EULA, the installation programs adds three files (cmtl.dat, dmdmgr.exe and hadl.dll) to the system32 folder and configures dmdmgr.exe as "SystemManager", followed by dmdmgr.exe searching for ASPI and ASAPI drivers.

Settec's copy protection appears to be very radical during system surveillance. According to user reports in several online forums, DVD burners and virtual drives have been inaccessible. Heise online could not confirm these reports, but several other irregularities appeared in our editorial office: One PC crashed even before accepting the EULA, a second one consequently burned coasters after installation of this copy blocker - writing data NOT video DVD - even permanently ruining an RW disc. On a third PC burning a data DVD with installed Alpha-DVD was possible, but with a much lower speed. The drive noticeably stopped during the burning process.

Although Settec offers a deinstallation routine, they try to make accessing it as difficult as possible. First of all you have to enter your email address on Settec's website. Several requests with the same address were denied with a message that "Alpha DISC protection can only be removed once". Soon after this the user receives a direct link to the uninstaller together with a 32 characters alphanumeric key code. This one has to be entered in the uninstaller.

The deinstallation tool also requests confirmation of an EULA. Afterward the program connects to Settec's server via Internet for verifying the serial. On PCs without Internet access, deinstallation fails with a not very helpful "Please check if the key code you received via email was entered correctly" message. The same message is shown if Internet connections have to be made with a proxy server. On the other hand the deinstallation routine reports a successful run on clean systems, although Alpha-DVD has never been installed on them.

The Alpha-DVD EULA claims "The movie contained on this DVD usually cannot be played back on PC" but this is not true. If users deactivate the Auto run functionality or keep the shift key pressed while inserting the DVD, the DRM software does not start and the DVD can be played back without problems. Another possibility is to ignore the EULA and at the same time start a DVD player software. Users of a Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) also don't see the protection if they configured their system in a way that it starts with the media center interface. MCE blocks auto run of DVD-ROM contents similar to the software DVD player TheaterTekDVD.

In Germany "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" from Kinowelt is the only title to contain Settec's DVD copy protection using revision 1.0.3.5. Rumours say that Alpha-DVD will soon also be used on different Video-DVDs. Previous Alpha-DVD versions were used on the Korean movie "Old Boy" and the swiss "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" disc.

With all the affords, Alpha-DVD does not reach their primary aim: well established tool for copying Video-DVDs transfer that disc's data to the hard disc - disregarding the copy protection.

Through this translation from the German magazine Heise, we can see that this type of copy protection may be of concern to those that use a PC to playback DVD movies. At least through articles like this, we can thankfully stay informed and possibly avoid the purchase of such titles that contain these intrusive and annoying behaviors. The insult to injury in the whole ordeal is that the only one that is harmed is the end user as we can read from the translation above, the copy protection is ineffective against common backup tools! Therefore, the movie will wind up on the Internet in short order, thus defeating the purpose of the Settec protection. Interestingly, on the Settec website, they show a press release here, indicating that Sony/BMG has adopted their Alpha-Audio "superior technology".
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13038

 

BMG, a Major Music Label, Adopted Alpha-Audio Technology

BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group), a major music label and pioneer adopting CCCD (Copy Control CD) technology for CD-Audio, decided to choose Settec’s Alpha-Audio technology to protect its music labels from illegal piracy. As for protecting method, BMG has been applying CDS200 technology, which is copy protection technology provided by Macrovision, one of leaders in the copy protection technology market. BMG’s adoption of Settec’s technology can be interpreted as BMG’s high interest in Settec’s superior technology.

Besides its robust primary copy resistance technology, Alpha-Audio M3 type technology, which is applied to BMG’s music albums, offers the best playability/compatibility. Such high playability and compatibility is expected to resolve consumer’s claims caused from inplayability to a greater extent. Moreover, protection for additionally supplemented multimedia contents is another merit only available by employing Settec’s technology. Basically, Alpha-Audio technology prevents one-to-one copying and ripping, an activity converting audio tracks into computer files. Moreover, copying of additional multimedia contents such as music video and bonus track played by Alpha-Audio player is copy controlled as well. Lyrics and photo albums are also supported through proprietary player and built-in banner allows an easy and direct access to the designated website.

“This is a wonderful result of our incessant effort for international marketing activities. With this major deal (with BMG) accomplished, I believe that Settec would continuously develop further relation with other major labels such as EMI, Warner and Universal. Please keep an eye for our newly launching “Alpha-Audio X-Type,” a revolutionary version of audio protection technology, coming out in year 2004. And we promise that we would continuously strive to work on better and stronger copy protection technology boosting overall sales of music labels. Above all, it is my pleasure that, finally, they came to realize the technical superiority of Alpha-Audio Technology. About this time in the upcoming year, you can expect that Settec would have all four major music labels as our clients” said Dong-Kyu Kim, vice president of Settec. Currently, all four major music labels (BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner) are applying Macrovision’s copy protection technology to their products, while SONY is using its own.

BMG’s adoption of Settec’s technology is notable in the sense that domestic IT firm earned a respect from multi-national conglomerate with its robust technology.
More information about BMG and BMG products can be found on the web at www.bmg.com
http://www.settec.co.kr/bbs/view.ph...on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=1

 

ALPHA-AUDIO | ALPHA-DVD

info per arniebear





VD piracy has been growing threat to home video industry in last few years. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its international counterpart, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), estimate that the U.S. motion picture industry loses in excess of $3 billion annually in potential worldwide revenue due to piracy. Decreasing price of DVD-R media and DVD writing disc drives has fanned piracy activities and damaged fast-growing DVD home video market.

From the introduction of DVD media in the market, copy protection has been a necessity to DVD as industry standard. Collaborating companies of the DVD media development created protection system called CSS (Contents Scrambling System) which scrambles video contents on the DVD media according to the predefined set of keys. These keys are stored on the DVD in encrypted form, thus preventing people from making digital copies of the original DVD contents into DVD-R or computer files. Unfortunately, the decryption and de-scramble logic have been figured out and known to public as DeCSS technology.

Not only digital copy protection, but also analog copy protection has been used in the market. A U.S. technology driven firm in 1980's introduced an analog DVD protection system called APS (Analog video Protection System). APS is used to distort the composite video output to prevent recording and playback on VHS. However, this protection system does not protect copying activities via RGB or YUV outputs. Analog copy protection for these types of copying is currently being investigated.

With the existing analog copy protection system failing, and ways of digital copying and distributing becoming handier, moving pictures industries face greater threats of revenue decrease due to everyday piracy activities. Digital ripping of movies has been inflicting remarkable growing damage to the movie industry. Not many people tries analog copying these days, digital copying gives better quality in easier storage media. Naturally, DVD contents providers have been openly demanding dedicated digital copy protection system; hence comes Alpha-DVD.






Settec's Alpha-DVD technology is committed to discourage illegal copying activities. Alpha-DVD protects the DVD contents by using multi-layered encryption technology. A number of available DVD copying software has failed to copy the DVDs with Settec' copy protection. The result is: copying process stops or copied content is not viewable.

Alpha-DVD technology reallocates and inserts Alpha-DVD blocks into original movie contents. Such Alpha-DVD blocks provide multi-level protection against ripping activities by commonly used ripping software. Alpha-DVD technology is applied to DVD so that it is completely transparent to legal users while allowing them full compatibility as normal unprotected DVDs. However, when ripping is attempted, errors will occur notifying either ripping is not possible or the ripping tools recognize no disc.



Alpha-DVD provides easy and quick implementation. Unlike previously available DVD copy protection system, no additional process is required for Alpha-DVD during authoring stages. Alpha-DVD application takes place immediately after DVD authoring process. Alpha-DISC Authorized Mastering & Replication companies or Alpha-DISC Resellers in your area applies Alpha-DVD technology to make a protected DVD master. This protected DVD master is delivered for mass replication. For customer preference, Alpha-DVD application to DLT master is also supported.

Alpha-DVD applied DVD can be manufactured in Alpha-DISC Authorized Mastering & Replication facilities. For production support at other facilities, please contact Alpha-DISC Resellers in your area.

go here for the pictures
http://www.settec.co.kr/eng/pro_alphadvd.htm


Post by James at Slysoft from December

Quote:History of DVD copy protections (not CSS):
The first AnyDVD version supporting Sony Arccos was version 4.0.4.1 from September 2004. If I remember correctly, the first Sony Arccos titles were released in Summer 2004. About the same time some titles with the "Puppetlock" protection were first released.
Sony's marketing blurb: http://www.sonydadc.com/products.copy.arccos.go
Most newer titles from Sony Pictures (and the companies they own, like Columbia TriStar, MGM) are Sony Arccos protected, but Arccos has recently been seen on non-Sony Pictures DVDs as well.
Support for "Settec Alpha DVD" (a protection created by a LG spinoff in Korea) was added to AnyDVD in January 2005. Settec Alpha DVD marketing blurb: http://www.settec.co.kr/eng/pro_alphadvd.htm
Madagascar (US) is not Sony Arccos protected. It is protected by Macrovision RipGuard. The first RipGuad protected title was discoverd around November 2005 ("Vet Hard", R2, Netherlands). As Universal and Macrovision work closely together (see press release: http://www.macrovision.com/company/...18 PST 2005 ), most new Universal US DVDs are now RipGuard protected. Macrovision marketing blurb: http://www.macrovision.com/products...ard/index.shtml
A new copy protection "ProtectDVD" is announced here:
http://www.protectdisc.com/With_FL/html/products.html
AnyDVD does not support this protection yet, as we were not able to purchase a disc with this protection. Some people believe, that the rental version of "The Keeper" R2 (Italian) has this protection. We don't know if this rumour is true or false. We were not able to purchase this disc, so we cannot verify it.
__________________
James

SlySoft products

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=162270

 

French p2p file sharer freed

p2p news / p2pnet: France is fast becoming a bastion for p2p freedom.

The country was the first to propose legalizing p2p downloading and now a French court has thrown out a case against a p2p file sharer for both downloading and uploading music and movies.

The file sharer was defended by the Association of Audionautes (ADA) in a suit brought by sued by the Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques.

"On September 21, 2004, the prosecutor's office found 1875 MP3 and DIVX files on the defendant's hard drive," says the ADA.

The man was later sued for allegedly downloading and uploading 1,212 music tracks.

However, "the Judges decided that these acts of downloading and uploading qualified as 'private copying'," says the post.

Also See:
legalizing p2p - French 'legal p2p downloads' plan, February 3, 2006
Association of Audionautes - French judge authorizes downloading and uploading of copyrighted content on the Internet, February 7, 2006

(Wednesday 8th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7859

 

New DRM file scare apps

p2p news / p2pnet: Two more DRM applications that'll supposedly prevent 'illegal' file sharing have appeared on the non-event horizon.

The first can detect, "illegally exchanged files in file-sharing networks using the watermark technology combined with a P2P network client," promises the Fraunhofer Integrated Publication and Information Systems Institute (IPSI), quoted in CDRInfo.

"A software program enters a file-sharing network as a user, downloads potentially illegal copies and scans the P2P network for watermarks," it says, going on:

The second, "automatically responds to search queries in file-sharing networks," says the story.

"The system would, for instance, display a warning to a participant, if the file requested happened to be an illegal copy. With the help of search queries addressed within the network the system would be able to compile a list of keywords to detect the requested files and would also prevent multiple downloads of the same file.

"This would allow the files exchanged on the Internet to be correlated with a list of current music charts. The tool is designed as a means of discouragement to scare users who believe they are not observed when trading files on a file-sharing network."

The two Digital Rights Restriction apps will probably be introduced to potential marks at Cebit 2006 in March, says CDRInfo.

Also See:
CDRInfo - New Technology to Detect Illegal File-Sharing , February 7, 2006

(Wednesday 8th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7860

 

Asian pirates ring the changes

p2p news / p2pnet: "Anti-piracy operations conducted throughout the Asia-Pacific region by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in 2005 confirmed that movie pirates are significantly changing their tactics in an attempt to evade an increased focus on intellectual property crime by Asian law enforcement agencies and courts," says Hollywood through its MPAA clone, the MPA.

MPAA is short for Motion Picture Association of America, and MPA is even shorter for Motion Picture Association.

"MPA operational results made clear that a shift is underway in many countries from large-scale production in optical disc factories using machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, to burner labs that can contain dozens of low-cost burners and are often located in apartments and small retail premises," it says.

One of the MPAA/MPA's owners is Sony, a volume make and seller of low-cost burners often found in apartments and small retail premises.

Meanwhile, "burner labs are inexpensive and easy to set up, and if raided, easily and quickly replaceable," says a statement.

(Wednesday 8th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7862

 

Sony sets price for Blu-ray movie discs-two tier system
Posted by Dan Bell on 08 February 2006 - 19:10 - Source: Yahoo!

Hypnosis4U2NV used our news submit to tell us "They set the price for the discs, but what about the players?"

Good question! Also, will the new fangled discs even be able to display their high definition splendor on our present devices? We just read in this interesting article posted by Seán Byrne: "As the launch of HD DVD and Blu-ray products draws near, a lot consumers are going to be disappointed to find that their TV, PC monitor or graphics card will not be compatible with the equipment if it does not fully support HDCP." Ouch!

Better find out before you shell out the cash for these new high definition discs. Or worse yet, purchase an expensive Blu-ray player only to discover you cannot play them in full resolution on your "antiquated" equipment. You might just discover that you will be better off sticking with DVD's until you can justify the investment in the new blue laser format.

Sony Pictures on Tuesday became the first major studio to put a price tag on Blu-ray discs when they become available in U.S. stores this year. At the same time, the studio unveiled what many observers believe will be a key component of the next-generation, high-definition optical disc"s marketing strategy: bundling various formats together to give consumers more flexibility and mobility. Catalog Blu-ray disc titles will wholesale for $17.95, about the same as DVDs when that format hit the market in 1997.

New-release Blu-ray discs will wholesale for $23.45, a premium of 15%-20% over what suppliers were charging for new theatrical DVDs. The higher pricing structure for new releases is meant to accommodate the sell-through and rental markets, said Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Of course at DigiTimes we already read in January that Blu-ray players are expected to run about $1,000-1800 dollars US. Also, Samsung is touting a Blu-ray player coming for us in April that is around $1000 bucks. However, this puppy can't cut the 1080p mustard and will just output in 1080i! At any rate, here is the link to todays article source if you would like to read a bit more about the movie discs.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13039

 

FROM THE ANYDVD TEAM..

I am glad to tell you, that I found a solution for the "Out of memory" problem when copying RipGuard protected discs (full backup) with DVDShrink and Nero Recode today.
This means, that the next AnyDVD version will have the fix you have been waiting for. And it will have another nice surprise as well: A "copy to harddisk" button, which will not only copy the files from the DVD to your harddisk, but also reconstruct broken .ifo files by scanning-while-copying the .VOB files. This option can be used as an emergency for discs which cannot be copied otherwise.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=165742&page=3

 

VSO changes name of DivXToDVD to ConvertXtoDvd
Posted by Quakester2000 on 08 February 2006 - 21:29 - Source: VSO

omen71 used our news submit to tell us that VSO software has changed the name of its popular DivxToDVD to ConvertXtoDVD. A new version of the software has been released bringing the version number to 2.0.1.101.

VSO have taken feedback from users on how to improve the software and new features such as being able to create DVD menus have been integrated. Other features allow you to set how you want the created DVD to be played on your media systems for example video looping or auto starting the DVD disc.

For more information check out VSO's website.

VSOVSO Software announces a new product ConvertXtoDVD. This product is actually a new version of the well known DivXtoDVD. This version has integrated the requests through VSO surveys and introduces many new major features.

One of the most exciting features introduced is the option to create DVD Menu automatically from the conversion file list. You can make a personalized menu as well as define how you would like your DVD to be read (AutoStart the movie, loop the videos ).
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13040

 

Keep the work up dude

 

US plans massive data sweep

Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far?

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.
The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.

"We don't realize that, as we live our lives and make little choices, like buying groceries, buying on Amazon, Googling, we're leaving traces everywhere," says Lee Tien, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We have an attitude that no one will connect all those dots. But these programs are about connecting those dots - analyzing and aggregating them - in a way that we haven't thought about. It's one of the underlying fundamental issues we have yet to come to grips with."

The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Only a few public documents mention it. ADVISE is a research and development program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), part of its three-year-old "Threat and Vulnerability, Testing and Assessment" portfolio. The TVTA received nearly $50 million in federal funding this year.

DHS officials are circumspect when talking about ADVISE. "I've heard of it," says Peter Sand, director of privacy technology. "I don't know the actual status right now. But if it's a system that's been discussed, then it's something we're involved in at some level."

Data-mining is a key technology

A major part of ADVISE involves data-mining - or "dataveillance," as some call it. It means sifting through data to look for patterns. If a supermarket finds that customers who buy cider also tend to buy fresh-baked bread, it might group the two together. To prevent fraud, credit-card issuers use data-mining to look for patterns of suspicious activity.

What sets ADVISE apart is its scope. It would collect a vast array of corporate and public online information - from financial records to CNN news stories - and cross-reference it against US intelligence and law-enforcement records. The system would then store it as "entities" - linked data about people, places, things, organizations, and events, according to a report summarizing a 2004 DHS conference in Alexandria, Va. The storage requirements alone are huge - enough to retain information about 1 quadrillion entities, the report estimated. If each entity were a penny, they would collectively form a cube a half-mile high - roughly double the height of the Empire State Building.

But ADVISE and related DHS technologies aim to do much more, according to Joseph Kielman, manager of the TVTA portfolio. The key is not merely to identify terrorists, or sift for key words, but to identify critical patterns in data that illumine their motives and intentions, he wrote in a presentation at a November conference in Richland, Wash.

For example: Is a burst of Internet traffic between a few people the plotting of terrorists, or just bloggers arguing? ADVISE algorithms would try to determine that before flagging the data pattern for a human analyst's review.

At least a few pieces of ADVISE are already operational. Consider Starlight, which along with other "visualization" software tools can give human analysts a graphical view of data. Viewing data in this way could reveal patterns not obvious in text or number form. Understanding the relationships among people, organizations, places, and things - using social-behavior analysis and other techniques - is essential to going beyond mere data-mining to comprehensive "knowledge discovery in databases," Dr. Kielman wrote in his November report. He declined to be interviewed for this article.

One data program has foiled terrorists

Starlight has already helped foil some terror plots, says Jim Thomas, one of its developers and director of the government's new National Visualization Analytics Center in Richland, Wash. He can't elaborate because the cases are classified, he adds. But "there's no question that the technology we've invented here at the lab has been used to protect our freedoms - and that's pretty cool."

As envisioned, ADVISE and its analytical tools would be used by other agencies to look for terrorists. "All federal, state, local and private-sector security entities will be able to share and collaborate in real time with distributed data warehouses that will provide full support for analysis and action" for the ADVISE system, says the 2004 workshop report.

Some antiterror efforts die - others just change names
Defense Department

November 2002 - The New York Times identifies a counterterrorism program called Total Information Awareness.

September 2003 - After terminating TIA on privacy grounds, Congress shuts down its successor, Terrorism Information Awareness, for the same reasons.

Department of Homeland Security

February 2003 - The department's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announces it's replacing its 1990s-era Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS I).

July 2004 - TSA cancels CAPPS II because of privacy concerns.

August 2004 - TSA says it will begin testing a similar system - Secure Flight - with built-in privacy features.

July 2005 - Government auditors charge that Secure Flight is violating privacy laws by holding information on 43,000 people not suspected of terrorism.

A program in the shadows

Yet the scope of ADVISE - its stage of development, cost, and most other details - is so obscure that critics say it poses a major privacy challenge.

"We just don't know enough about this technology, how it works, or what it is used for," says Marcia Hofmann of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "It matters to a lot of people that these programs and software exist. We don't really know to what extent the government is mining personal data."

Even congressmen with direct oversight of DHS, who favor data mining, say they don't know enough about the program.

"I am not fully briefed on ADVISE," wrote Rep. Curt Weldon (R) of Pennsylvania, vice chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in an e-mail. "I'll get briefed this week."

Privacy concerns have torpedoed federal data-mining efforts in the past. In 2002, news reports revealed that the Defense Department was working on Total Information Awareness, a project aimed at collecting and sifting vast amounts of personal and government data for clues to terrorism. An uproar caused Congress to cancel the TIA program a year later.

Echoes of a past controversial plan

ADVISE "looks very much like TIA," Mr. Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes in an e-mail. "There's the same emphasis on broad collection and pattern analysis."

But Mr. Sand, the DHS official, emphasizes that privacy protection would be built-in. "Before a system leaves the department there's been a privacy review.... That's our focus."

Some computer scientists support the concepts behind ADVISE.

"This sort of technology does protect against a real threat," says Jeffrey Ullman, professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University. "If a computer suspects me of being a terrorist, but just says maybe an analyst should look at it ... well, that's no big deal. This is the type of thing we need to be willing to do, to give up a certain amount of privacy."

Others are less sure.

"It isn't a bad idea, but you have to do it in a way that demonstrates its utility - and with provable privacy protection," says Latanya Sweeney, founder of the Data Privacy Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. But since speaking on privacy at the 2004 DHS workshop, she now doubts the department is building privacy into ADVISE. "At this point, ADVISE has no funding for privacy technology."

She cites a recent request for proposal by the Office of Naval Research on behalf of DHS. Although it doesn't mention ADVISE by name, the proposal outlines data-technology research that meshes closely with technology cited in ADVISE documents.

Neither the proposal - nor any other she has seen - provides any funding for provable privacy technology, she adds.

Some in Congress push for more oversight of federal data-mining
Amid the furor over electronic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency, Congress may be poised to expand its scrutiny of government efforts to "mine" public data for hints of terrorist activity.

"One element of the NSA's domestic spying program that has gotten too little attention is the government's reportedly widespread use of data-mining technology to analyze the communications of ordinary Americans," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D) of Wisconsin in a Jan. 23 statement.

Senator Feingold is among a handful of congressmen who have in the past sponsored legislation - unsuccessfully - to require federal agencies to report on data-mining programs and how they maintain privacy.

Without oversight and accountability, critics say, even well-intentioned counterterrorism programs could experience mission creep, having their purview expanded to include non- terrorists - or even political opponents or groups. "The development of this type of data-mining technology has serious implications for the future of personal privacy," says Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists.

Even congressional supporters of the effort want more information about data-mining efforts.

"There has to be more and better congressional oversight," says Rep. Curt Weldon (R) of Pennsylvania and vice chairman of the House committee overseeing the Department of Homeland Security. "But there can't be oversight till Congress understands what data-mining is. There needs to be a broad look at this because they [intelligence agencies] are obviously seeing the value of this."

Data-mining - the systematic, often automated gleaning of insights from databases - is seen "increasingly as a useful tool" to help detect terrorist threats, the General Accountability Office reported in 2004. Of the nearly 200 federal data-mining efforts the GAO counted, at least 14 were acknowledged to focus on counterterrorism.

While privacy laws do place some restriction on government use of private data - such as medical records - they don't prevent intelligence agencies from buying information from commercial data collectors. Congress has done little so far to regulate the practice or even require basic notification from agencies, privacy experts say.

Indeed, even data that look anonymous aren't necessarily so. For example: With name and Social Security number stripped from their files, 87 percent of Americans can be identified simply by knowing their date of birth, gender, and five-digit Zip code, according to research by Latanya Sweeney, a data-privacy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.

In a separate 2004 report to Congress, the GAO cited eight issues that need to be addressed to provide adequate privacy barriers amid federal data-mining. Top among them was establishing oversight boards for such programs.

 

Movies File Share Top Ten



p2pnet.net Feature:- p2pnet's Movies File Share Top Ten is compiled from statistics supplied by p2p research company Big Champagne.

Only on p2pnet.

If you want to see how BC develops them, head over to the music FSTT, or go to our Q&A with ceo Eric Garland here.

(Note: If a movie returns after being out of the charts for two weeks or longer, it's designated 'new'.) 'Return' means back after a week's absence.

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, Global
Week ending February 9, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> The Wedding Crashers (unchanged) 1,079,393
02 >>> Redeye + #4 1,059,985
03 >>> Underworld: Evolution + #7 1,047,694
04 >>> The Chronicles of Narnia: LWW (return) 1,015,082
05 >>> King Kong (return) 996,775
06 >>> Hostel (new) 993,170
07 >>> Flight Plan + #10 991,320
08 >>> The Exorcism of Emily Rose (unchanged) 950,304
09 >>> Big Momma's House 2 (new) 948,829
10 >>> Mr. & Mrs. Smith - #5 936,725

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, USA
Week ending February 9, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> The Wedding Crashers (unchanged) 586,703
02 >>> Underworld: Evolution + #5 581,263
03 >>> Redeye (unchanged) 566,408
04 >>> The Chronicles of Narnia: LWW - #2 563,697
05 >>> Hostel + #6 547,259
06 >>> King Kong - #4 545,995
07 >>> Flight Plan (new) 540,151
08 >>> Big Momma's House 2 + #10 534,172
09 >>> The Fog (new) 518,627
10 >>> Mr. & Mrs. Smith - #7 494,660




(Thursday 9th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7878

 

Hollywood's Golden Goose

p2p news / p2pnet: Who would have guessed the taxpayers of Germany are actually among the biggest contributors to Hollywood's bottom line?

Investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein recently exposed the enormous tax shelter that allows Hollywood studios (or any other movie maker, for that matter) to reap multi-million dollar tax windfalls through a series of clever on-paper transactions.

This is how it's done:

A section in the German tax law allows German corporations to get an immediate tax deduction on any cash they invest in films, including borrowed money. It doesn't have to be a German film either - no filming in Germany, no German actors or crew - just a film that's produced by a German company. The film doesn't even have to be in production, so long as the German company owns the copyright and is included as a recipient of the film's earnings (when it's actually released) it counts as "produced in Germany" for tax purposes.

Along comes a Hollywood studio which sells the copyright and production rights to the German company. The German company then leases those rights straight back to the Hollywood studio ('cause that stuff is "property" and if you can own it, you can lease it out). The German company also gives out a Production Service Agreement and a Distribution Service Agreement that allows the Hollywood studio to produce and distribute the film.

Now the tricky part: the Hollywood studio give the German corporation an "advance" on the film's earnings instead of any kind of percentage. As far as the German taxman is concerned, this meets the requirement of the German company to get some of the "profit" from the film. The Hollywood studio then buys back the rights to the film for less than what it sold them to the German corporation for, meaning the German corporation makes a tax deductible loss on the deal which can be defered to whenever it wants to claim it.

In selling the rights back to the Hollywood studio the German connection is severed, leaving the German taxpayer to make up for the German company's "loss".

Epstein gives a great example of this little scheme in action:

Consider the case of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

A Munich-based tax-shelter fund, Hannover Leasing, had a corporate shell pay $150 million to New Line Cinemas for the movie's copyright, which it simultaneously leased back to a New Line affiliate. It also entered into agreements for New Line to produce and distribute the movie.

At the end of filming, New Line Cinemas paid the German company the agreed-upon minimum advance (which approximately equaled the interest on the initial investment) to honour the pretence that the Germans had participated in the profits. For engaging in these strictly paper transactions, New Line "earned" $16 million, a tidy "money-for-nothing" sum.

One Paramount executive admitted to Epstein that his studio made between $70 and $90 million from these tax shelters in 2003 - more than it actually made from the movies themselves!

Fortunately for the good people of Germany, their government is in the process of shutting down the huge hole that's allowed the American studios to get away with this, but only after years of hundreds of millions of dollars being pulled out of the German economy.

In some ways, it's comforting to know the film industry can screw an entire country as easily as it screws individuals. It's simply another demonstration of how a corporation is designed to care about one thing and one thing only - money. As far as the studios are concerned, it's just business.

So if you've ever wondered why there are so many crap movies out there (like anything that Uwe Boll has ever made), just remember the German government was paying people to make those movies suck.

Further reading on Uwe Boll's exploitation of the loophole can be found here.

Alex H, p2pnet - Sydney, Australia
[Alex is an operations manager for an ATM (automatic teller machine) supplier and he specialises in infrastructure development and maintenance, and logistics. He’s also an[other] active member of the Shareaza community who's just started his own blog called Tech Loves Art where you'll find past p2pnet posts, together with other goodies to come ; ]

(Thursday 9th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7879

 

Google Desktop 3 danger alert!

p2p news / p2pnet: Don't use the Search Across Computers feature in Google's Desktop 3, out today, warns the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) emphatically.

It snags copies of users' Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google servers, in the process making personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, "while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who've obtained a user's Google password," says the foundation.

"Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index," says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston.

"The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn't even be notified in time to challenge it.

"Other litigants - your spouse, your business partners or rivals, whomever - could also try to cut out the middleman (you) and subpoena Google for your files."

The privacy problems arise from the fact the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) gives only limited protection to emails and other files stored with online service providers - much less privacy than the legal protections for the same information when it's on your computer at home, says the EFF, adding:

"And even that lower level of legal protection could disappear if Google uses your data for marketing purposes. Google says it is not yet scanning the files it copies from your hard drive in order to serve targeted advertising, but it hasn't ruled out the possibility, and Google's current privacy policy appears to allow it."

Also See:
out today - Google Copies Your Hard Drive - Government Smiles in Anticipation, February 9, 2006
last time around - Google releases Desktop 3, February 9, 2006

(Thursday 9th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7880

 

READ THE ABOVE POST VERY CAREFULL SO YE UNDERSTAND IT!!!!!!!

Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index," says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston.

 

Google releases Desktop 3

p2p news / p2pnet: Remember when Google first launched its desktop search application?

"Users of the Google Desktop Search software beware - it indexes your files across all users on your PC, bypassing user protections," said Dioscaido on slashdot. "The Google cache feature allows all users to browse the contents of messages and files it has indexed, irrespective of who is logged in. 'This is not a bug, rather a feature,' says Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products. 'Google Desktop Search is not intended to be used on computers that are shared with more than one person'.

"Reminds me of a Neal Stephenson essay: 'The Hole Hawg is dangerous because it does exactly what you tell it to. It is not bound by the physical limitations that are inherent in a cheap drill, and neither is it limited by safety interlocks that might be built into a homeowner's product by a liability-conscious manufacturer. The danger lies not in the machine itself but in the user's failure to envision the full consequences of the instructions he gives to it'."

Meet Google Desktop 3, released today.

"The new version comes loaded with features that make finding and sharing information even easier and more fun than before," Google promises on its blog.

And among the new features is Search Across Computers which, "makes it seamless to search the content of your documents and web history from any of your computers".

To make it thus, users need to store their hard drive indexes on Google servers instead of their own systems and, "This applies to your Web history (from Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, and Mozilla); Microsoft Word documents; Microsoft Excel spreadsheets," Jack Schofield points out in a Guardian Unlimited story.

"Even if Google isn't evil (or more evil than is commercially necessary), this idea also relies on Google being invulnerable to hackers (including the ones that work for the CIA), and also able to fend off government agencies with subpoenas trawling for information," he says, adding:

"Of course, you also have to be able to protect and defend your own computers, even when you are out of the house/office. Otherwise the person who nicks your notebook PC may also get access to critical files on your desktops.... including that little Notepad file where you keep all your pins and passwords."

Also See:
first launched - Google Desktop Search: Spyware?, October 15, 2004
Guardian Unlimited - Google's new Desktop 3 will let Google store files from your hard disk, February 9, 2006

(Thursday 9th February 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/7872

READ THE ABOVE POST 2-POSTS VERY CAREFULL SO YE UNDERSTAND IT!!!!!!!

Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index," says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston.