When ‘caught’ uploading copyright works for the first time, the owner of the Internet connection used for the alleged infringement will receive an email warning. On allegations of a second offense, a physical letter will drop through the door. On the the third, the account holder will be summoned to appear before a judge who will have the power to fine, or even disconnect them from the Internet.

French senator Michel Thiolliere has told the BBC that the so-called Hadopi legislation will have the desired effect, with nearly everyone warned a second time abandoning illegal file-sharing for good.

“What we think is that after the first message… about two-thirds of the people (will) stop their illegal usages of the internet,” he explained

“After the second message more than 95% will finish with that bad usage.”

It is, however, much more likely that after getting a first warning, or even before, French Internet users will try to find a way round this system. They will discover that it’s surprisingly easy.

6 Ways Savvy Internet Users Will Neutralize Hadopi

Free options

MP3 Search Engines

One of the simplest ways to find music online is to use an MP3 search engine. That won’t be difficult as there are dozens to choose from. Sites like Skreemr, Songza, beeMP3, MP3Realm and AirMP3 are very simple to use and since there is no uploading, they drive a cart and horses through Hadopi. For those who don’t mind getting their hands dirty, Google offers similar functionality with their filetype: search operator.

Direct Downloads

During 2008 and 2009, the continued rise of blogs and forums that link to music, movies, tv shows and games stored on so-called cyberlocker sites was difficult to ignore. Although links can get taken down very quickly by copyright holders, they are often replaced just as swiftly by the communities that frequent such sites. The international music industry is particularly worried about the phenomenon, as tracking those that download from sites such as Rapidshare and MegaUpload is completely impractical.

Of course there are also perfectly legal alternatives, such as the excellent Jamendo.

Streaming Music and Video

While there are dozens of sites to visit directly, for those who really can’t be bothered to look any further and don’t mind closing a couple of slightly annoying popups, OVGuide is a huge portal to thousands of movies, TV shows and general video. With the assistance of the DivX plug-in, most content can be streamed directly in compatible web-browsers.

Music fans who don’t mind to stream tracks in their web browser actually have a few dozen legal alternatives. Grooveshark is one of the most elaborate music services. It holds more content than the average download store, supports playlists and it will roll out an iPhone app.

Premium options

Overseas MP3 Sites

Just over the English Channel from France lies the UK. Research carried out there recently by the BPI indicated that usage of MP3 pay sites had increased by 47%. While users do have to hand over money to use these services, at a tiny fraction of prices they would pay in their homeland they prove attractive to those on a tight budget.

Newsgroups

Using Usenet, or newsgroups as they are commonly known, is one of the most secure ways of downloading movies, TV shows, music and video games.

While the learning curve on Usenet is considered by many to be quite steep, once an individual discovers .NZB files – the .torrent of the newsgroup world – everything is hugely simplified. Within seconds of starting a transfer, the user’s connection will be completely maxed-out.

On a practical basis, and certainly as far as Hadopi is concerned, paying a few euros each month for a decent newsgroup account means that French citizens need never fear being disconnected from the Internet. Indeed, not even the first warning email will arrive.

Anonymous VPN

While the above options require that Internet users modify their behaviors, by spending a few euros a month on an anonymous VPN account they won’t have to change any of their habits at all. They can continue to use BitTorrent, eD2K or any other P2P method of file-sharing.

Once subscribed to a service such as Netherlands-based ItsHidden (who also offer a free, but speed-limited service), Hadopi file-sharing investigators will believe that the user behind that IP address is from another country and simply move on.

As the failed and now largely abandoned campaign against file-sharers in the United States proved, scare tactics simply don’t work. There are millions of file-sharers in France and many will simply carry on their activities in the belief that the odds of being caught are extremely slim.

And they would be absolutely right.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Carried out in November, the study found that while P2P use remains constant, usage of other other methods and techniques for acquiring music are on the increase.

Sources being exploited by the 16 to 54 year-old respondents include blogs and forums which publish links to music stored on so-called ‘cyberlockers’, a generic term for hosting sites such as Rapidshare. These showed an 18% increase in usage by respondents during the last 6 months.

Other non-P2P sources enjoying increased usage from respondents during the same period include MP3 search engines such as SkreemR (up 28%), and newsgroups which show a big leap of 42%.

While the BPI’s Chief Executive Geoff Taylor points out that there are as many as 35 legal digital music services in the UK for Internet users to acquire music from, the biggest gaining ‘alternative’ source with respondents is not a free mechanism such as BitTorrent.

During the last 6 months, overseas MP3 pay sites (such as those listed here) enjoyed an increase in usage of 47% with the respondents who admitted to getting their music from ‘alternative’ sources. This seems to be an indication that people are willing to pay for music, just not at the levels being demanded in their home market. While these sites are labeled as ‘unlicensed’ by the BPI, they maintain they are completely legal in their own countries.

Rather than focusing on the usual P2P/BitTorrent bogeyman, this report puts emphasis on other methods of acquiring music, in the hope that the UK government will indeed grant itself the power to introduce new laws quickly to deal with these ‘new threats’, as mentioned in the Digital Economy Bill.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Soundike and GoMusicNow are very much like the AllofMP3 alternatives we wrote about a while ago. They all offer dirt cheap music for direct download with tracks as low as 9 cents each with further discounts for whole album purchases.

Adding insult to injury, many of these sites carry content which would be more at home on a torrent site, such as a full length ‘Michael Jackson Memorial Mix’ bootleg being sold by Soundike for $0.12. So-called ‘Scene’ rips can be found on these sites in abundance.

Needless to say, the music industry in most parts of the world hate these sites and isn’t averse to taking legal action against them to shut them down or in this case, get them blocked from the Internet. Hindering this process is the fact that many such sites are licensed in Russia by the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems, which they claim allows them to operate legally, at least inside Russia.

Despite the noise being made by RISA, South African ISPs aren’t about to comply with their requests. On behalf of its members the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) wrote to RISA rejecting the demands.

“It isn’t up to ISPA to decide whether or not websites should be blocked. It is up to ISPA to assist and advise its members in dealing with take-down notices made in terms of the ECT Act,” Mybroadband reports ISPA GM Ant Brooks as saying.

Brooks went on to explain that copyright law only allows for removal of content hosted on the network to which any takedown complaint is sent and cannot be used to block access to material on other networks or indeed, in other countries.

ISPA has informed its members that the music industry demands are invalid and will be rejected. However, blocking sites is possible, just not via the route RISA would like.

In common with other attempted blocks around the world on various sites (including the recent proposed block of The Pirate Bay in The Netherlands) courts in South Africa do have the power to block websites although that would require some expensive due process, something RISA would like to avoid.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

In Denmark, negotiations between copyright holders and ISPs are underway, with ITEK (the Danish information technology, telecommunications, electronics and enterprise federation) acting as intermediary in the setting up of a ‘Pirate Board’, designed to settle disputes without the need for lengthy court battles. According to Computerworld, examples of the type of extended litigation they would like to avoid in future are the domain-blocking cases against AllofMP3 and The Pirate Bay.

On the rights holders side are companies such as Sony and EMI, with ISPs TDC, Telenor and Telia on the other. ITEK spokesman John Kristensen confirmed that that talks are underway. “I can confirm that we are working on a joint industry initiatives. But I can’t be precise on the details yet,” he said.

Although negotiations are reported as “intense” there are areas where the two sides remain far apart, mirroring the situation in other countries in Europe where these type of discussions ended without agreement. At the moment the summer is being eyed for a conclusion, but that seems very optimistic since at the moment, Denmark’s ISPs seem determined not to become Internet policeman on behalf of the copyright holders.

Other proposals involving the ‘Pirate Board’ surround the hot issue of a 3 Strikes-style regime for file-sharers, but with a twist. Rather than rights holders sending warnings to alleged file-sharers via ISPs, instead these would be issued by the Pirate Board. If the recipients of these warnings then fail to respond, they wouldn’t be disconnected from the Internet but instead find themselves in a traditional court case.

Which is the exact place this Pirate Board aims to prevent everyone ending up. Stay tuned….

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

So Tuesday last week, May 26th, the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Investigation Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted a raid against the founders the Interfilm BitTorrent tracker.

During the raid on the site’s Moscow headquarters, the police arrested the founders of Interfilm, a married couple known online as ‘Ripper’ and ‘Nadezhda’ and several site staff. The authorities claim that the Interfilm tracker is a major source of cammed movies and also has an arrangement with piracy groups outside the country to exchange the latest releases.

Russian anti-piracy group RAPO (a founder member of the MPA) claims that the site carried advertising and although users had free access to the site, higher download speeds could be achieved by making a payment to the site’s owners.

Although Interfilm reportedly went down after the raid, it is now apparently fully operational, hosted by LeaseWeb in The Netherlands.

Russian media is speculating that the owners of Interfilm are facing up to six years in jail and a fine of 500,000 rubles (approx $16,200) if convicted under Part 3 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code.

According to lawyer Victor Naumov, a legal loophole which saved the owners of AllofMP3 is unlikely to help the operators of Interfilm. “In the past there were different interpretations of legislation in the field of copyright, but now if a distributor of films or music is not in a licensing agreement with the rights holders, the violation is right there,” he said.

Following the arrests, the Producers Guild of Russia says it intends to push for changes in the law which would force ISPs to prevent illegal file-sharing.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

At the time, The Pirate Bay co-founder Brokep told TorrentFreak: “I hope the torrent community understands what this will do to Danish people. It will also act as a very bad precedent for the European Union, and I hope everybody will fight this.”

In February, a Danish court sided with IFPI and ruled that Tele2 had assisted in copyright infringement because they give their customers access to The Pirate Bay, thereby copying copyrighted material in their routers.

The decision heated the debate on ISPs filtering the Internet, not least because it goes against European law, which states that ISPs are not responsible for the traffic their users generate. Nonetheless, IFPI booked an initial success in forcing Tele2 to block the site on a DNS level.

However, at this stage, all was not lost. Traffic to the site only increased as a result of the publicity generated by the block, and the decision was subject to a Tele2 appeal. The Pirate Bay also promised that if Tele2 subsequently won, they would claim compensation and use the money to fund aspiring Danish artists who make music and release it for free.

The result of the appeal was announced just a short time ago, and it is not good news for the Swedish tracker, Tele2, and potentially other ISPs who desperately do not want to become unpaid ‘Internet policemen’. The High Court upheld the decision to force Tele2 to continue the DNS level block on The Pirate Bay, so that its customers cannot access the site.

This isn’t the first time a Danish ISP has been ordered to censor the Internet. In December 2006 a court ruled against Tele2 in a similar case, ordering the ISP to block access to Allofmp3.com. According to the ruling, Tele2 was willingly infringing copyright if their customers use AllofMP3 to download music.

At the time of the initial decision in February, the IFPI threatened that if it was successful and Tele2 lost its appeal, it would take further steps to force other ISPs to start blocking The Pirate Bay too. Jesper Bay, the head of the Danish IFPI told Computer World today that he expects other ISPs to follow suit, and block access to The Pirate Bay as well.

Whether or not Tele2 will appeal the decision at the Supreme Court is not known yet. More on this pivotal breaking news as we get it.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Before the shutdown, AllOfMP3 had around 6 million users who were able to download songs and albums for a tiny fraction of the price of authorized alternatives such as iTunes. The RIAA said it could not live with this situation.

In December 2006, the RIAA filed a complaint against the site, stating that AllofMP3 sold millions of tracks to the public yet gave no money back to their artists.

According to a report, on May 20th 2008 the RIAA filed papers in federal court, Manhattan, dropping its copyright infringement lawsuit against AllofMP3.

“The site is now defunct and out of business, the result of a successful anti-piracy initiative,” Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman told Bloomberg.

Notably, Lamy did not mention a fully operational site set up by the same people as AllofMP3, called Mp3Sparks. Different name, same tunes, no lawsuit.

AllofMP3 was blocked by a Swedish ISP back in 2006 when it got caught up in the anti-AllofMP3 hysteria but later retracted its stance.

In August 2007, AllofMP3 was acquitted in Russia of all charges that had been put forward by IFPI and on October 24th 2007, a district court in Moscow confirmed the innocent verdict.

“They [RIAA] never correctly commenced the proceeding in the first place,” said John Crossman, who represented the site’s owner, MediaServices LLC.

“Maybe it was a rare triumph of good sense.”

In the meantime, dozens of similar sites operate in Russia, delivering super-cheap music to the masses in much the same way as AllofMP3 did.

Victory for the RIAA? Not quite.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Nevertheless, two of the largest opposition parties in Danish parliament think it is a good idea , despite the ineffectiveness of the block , to streamline the process, making it quicker and easier to do. A proposal (Danish) before the government seems to create a tribunal to handle these cases.

Whereas in the past cases have involved a rights holder suing an ISP and forcing a block through the courts, this proposal creates a tribunal to do it instead. This tribunal will apparently consist of members appointed by government ministers, who will then rule on blocks with no judicial oversight. Any sites blocked would have to go through the courts to appeal and the site would remain blocked unless and until successful.

If that was not bad enough, there is also talk of a secretariat that would handle ’simple’ cases, so the appointed tribunal would not even have to hear the majority of cases. Cases would be put to the tribunal by copyright holders that feel they have had their rights infringed by the target site. As with the court cases, though, it’s extremely unlikely that the accused site will be invited or even made aware of any such proceedings, and allowed to state their case.

“This is a wet dream for organizations like IFPI,” is the view of Ole Husgaard, chairman of the Danish Pirate Party. “This isn’t even a law proposal, so there is not all the work usually done in our parliament when passing laws; this can be passed in a month or two. If it is, I would guess that we will have at least 2000 sites on the blocking list within 12 months – without a single court case having been decided, if any get started at all.”

He’s not alone in his pessimism. “It’s blatant censorship of course.” is the opinion of The Pirate Bay’s brokep. “It’s not in the interest of the citizens, so I hope the government understands that if they go against the people like that, they should be replaced. It is also not a huge step before they start censoring other stuff – let’s say political parties that have thoughts about changing the current government.”

As analysis of the Pirate Bay block has found it contrary to EU laws, it’s curious as to the motivation behind this proposal. The only rational one would be bribery , either legal or not , and so the question we are forced to ask is, are Danish politicians cheaper to buy than those in New York?

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The Pirate Bay team is also asking fellow BitTorrent admins to help out, by redirecting all customers from Tele2, to The Jesper Bay. They have written a piece of code that will redirect all the users from Tele2 to The Jesper Bay, so they can change their DNS.

The ruling of IFPI vs. Tele2 was officially released a few hours ago (translation included at the end of this post). It concludes that the ISP -Tele2- assist in copyright infringement because they give their customers access to The Pirate Bay, therefore they have to prevent access to the site.

A dangerous ruling, which is expected to result in Pirate Bay being blocked by other Danish ISPs, similar to what happened in the AllofMP3 case last year. However, it does not end there, other divisions of the IFPI throughout Europe have already announced that they will start similar cases.

Today, the IFPI in Norway and Finland announced that they too are considering taking action against Internet providers.

The executive director of IFPI Finland, Arto Alaspää, announced that they are considering taking action against ISPs in Finland: “Similar block petitions are likely to be used in Finland,” he said.

Alaspää was soon followed by his Norwegian colleague, Marte Thorsby, who told Dagbladet.no: “The verdict is very positive for us. We have to see if we can get this to Norway as well.”

Sebastian Gjerding, spokesperson for the Danish pro-piracy lobby Piratgruppen, told TorrentFreak yesterday: “It’s very frightening that the IFPI can get through the courts with something like this. In Turkey and China its the state that decides what information the people can access and what should be censored. In Denmark its apparently the record industry.”

For now, Jesperbay makes it pretty easy to lift the block. Let’s hope Tele2 will appeal against the IFPI, so it only has to be a temporary solution.

Translation of the court ruling, by Piratgruppen

It is found undisputed, that the website www.thepiratebay.org functions as an index and search engine which allow the users of the website to download files from each other.

Following the presentation of evidence it has been substantiated, that the major part of the material being exchanged between the users, is protected by the copyrights administered by the claimants, and that the claimants have not given their consent to such publication. Furthermore, it has been substantiated that the use of the website, which according to the information site www.alexa.com holds a 23. place among the most popular sites in Denmark, is somewhat diffused in Denmark.

The exchange of copyrighted material taking place among the users of the site , without the claimants consent , thus constitutes a violation of the copyrights for the audio and motion picture recordings and literary works administered by the claimants, to which the claimants hold the exclusive rights, cf. the Danish Copyright Act § 2, subsection 1.

The court finds the website www.thepiratebay.org to be functioning as a necessary and specifically created search engine for the unauthorised distribution of copyright protected works. Furthermore, the court finds the website’s function to be considered that of making copyright protected works available to the public in a manner to be compared with that of public performance, cf. the Danish Copyright Act §2, even if the www.thepiratebay.org is not itself responsible for the publication of copyrighted works online. The court in this connection emphasises the fact that the website, by means of its search function, is programmed with directs links to copyrighted materials hosted by its users, cf. UfR 2001.1572 V.

It is undisputed that costumers of the DMT2 Ltd. Telephone company have access to the website of www.thepiratebay.org and related sub pages and sub domains.

According to §2, subsection 2 of the Danish Copyright Act, any direct or indirect, temporary or permanent and full or partial reproduction is to be considered a reproduction, in any given way and in any given form. Any kind of copying is hereafter covered by §2.

The telephone company’s dissemination of access to the www.thepiratebay.org entails the transmission of copyright protected material through the company’s web. Hereafter, the court takes the view that the transmission of the works by DMT2 Ltd. entails temporary reproduction of the nature treated in §11 of the Danish Copyright Act. The fact that it is a temporary reproduction is to be given no significance, as the reproduction does not take place on a legal basis, cf. UfR 2006.1474 H, Københavns Fogedrets kendelse af 25. Oktober 2006 i sag FS 15124/2006 og Frederiksberg Fogedrets kendelse af 15. August 2007 i sag FS 7509/2007.

On this basis, the court finds that DMT2 Ltd., by giving its customers access to the www.thepiratebay.org, assists in the violation of the copyrights administered by the claimants, cf. the Danish Copyright Act §2, subsection 2, cf. subsection 1. The circumstance that the www.thepiratebay.org in a certain , even though limited , extend gives access to legal filesharing among the users of the website, is not found to legitimate the wrongful violations.

The County Court hereafter takes the view, that DMT2 Ltd. engages in actions that conflict with the rights of the claimants, cf. the Danish Administration of justice Act §642, subsection 1, nr. 1. The remaining grounds for injunction in accordance with the Danish Administration of justice Act §642 are found to be fulfilled as well, an the material presented to the County Court does not give any grounds for stating that an injunction against DMT2 Ltd. will cause damage or inconvenience in any evident disproportion with the claimants interest in such injunction, cf. the Danish Administration of justice Act §643, subsection 2.

It is ordered that:

It is prohibited to the DMT2 Ltd. to assist in the publication and reproduction of audio and motion picture recordings and literary works to which the claimants hold the exclusive copyrights, via the www.thepiratebay.org.

DMT2 Ltd. is ordered to undertake the adequate measures, suitable in the prevention of access for DMT2 Ltd. customers to the website of www.thepiratebay.org and related sub pages and sub domanis.

Case Closed

Court adjourned

Frederiksberg Fogedret d. 29/1 2008

Oversættelse: Nikolaj Heltoft

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The Pirate Bay team has already asked other BitTorrent admins to stand up against the IFPI lobby, and arranged a meeting with Tele2 to discuss the current events. Pirate Bay co-founder Brokep told TorrentFreak in a response: “I hope the torrent community understands what this will do to Danish people. It will also act as a very bad precedent for the European Union, and I hope everybody will fight this.”

At the moment, The Pirate Bay team is registering new (Danish) domains, to make sure people can still download .torrent files from the Bay when the ban is activated later today tomorrow. In addition the Pirate Bay will launch a campaign website, together with the Danish pro-piracy lobby “Piratgruppen”.

Sebastian Gjerding, spokesperson for Piratgruppen, a pro-piracy lobby whose goals are to reform current copyright law and protect consumers’ rights, is not pleased with the news. He told TorrentFreak: “The verdict is absurd. It will block access for danish users to the worlds largest distributor of culture and knowledge – copyrighted or not. It’s true that you can access copyrighted material through The Pirate Bay, as you can with Google or Rapidshare. Should they be blocked as well?”

“It’s very frightening that IFPI can get through the courts with something like this. In Turkey and China its the state that decides what information the people can access and what should be censored. In Denmark its apparently the record industry,” Sebastian adds.

This is not the first time a Danish ISP has been ordered to censor the Internet. In December 2006 A Danish court ruled against Tele2 in a similar case, and ordered the ISP to block all access to Allofmp3.com. According to the ruling, the ISP was willingly infringing copyright if their customers use AllofMP3 to download music.

IFPI has announced it will continue it’s battle against BitTorrent sites in Europe. Last month they tried to convince European lawmakers that ISPs should block access to websites such as The Pirate Bay, and block filesharing protocols, no matter what they’re being used for. Luckily, these proposals were rejected.

We will follow this campaign, and the response from Denmark closely.

Stay tuned for updates!

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Earlier this year the IFPI won a case against the Belgian ISP Scarlet. In this case the judge ruled that ISPs can be forced to either block or filter copyright infringing content on P2P networks. At the time, IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said: “This is a decision that we hope will set the mould for government policy and for courts in other countries in Europe and around the world.” That’s exactly what they are trying to do now.

None of the measures below are overly burdensome or expensive, or cause problems for regular services to customers, says the IFPI. Here’s what they recommend:

Content filtering

The IFPI suggests that ISPs should identify music files on their network and check them against a reference database of “audio fingerprints” to check whether the files are infringing copyright. This might work on Kazaa, but it is not clear what methods the ISP will have to implement to distinguish between copyright infringing and legal content on P2P networks, such as BitTorrent. That will be a tough job, if not, impossible.

Protocol Blocking

According to the IFPI, an easy but effective solution is to simply block all P2P protocols and forget about all the indie publishers that use it to share legal content, for free. If customers can’t use BitTorrent or any other filesharing protocol piracy will decline, and that’s basically all they care about.

Blocking access to infringing websites

What better way to censor the Internet than to block entire websites, especially The Pirate Bay. The IFPI tried to block websites before – last year they convinced a Swedish ISP (Perspectiv) that it was a good idea to block allofmp3. However, after The Pirate Bay decided to block all Perspectiv’s customers from its site, they backed down, re-enabled access to allofmp3 – and apologized.

These recommendations might seem absurd, but Heise.de reports that the IFPI has already convinced several European politicians to support these measures. Next month, The Committee on Culture and Education from the European parliament will discuss if these recommendations should be turned into European policy.

There is little doubt that it will cause quite a stir if they are.

(via P2P Blog)

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

In the meantime, we thought we could take a look at some other Russian music sites, offering cheap music to the masses.

Winner: MP3Fiesta

MP3 Fiesta hold nearly 67,000 albums from nearly 17,000 artists. Prices are around the $0.10 mark for single tracks with full albums coming in at roughly $1.00. Tracks are available from 192kbps and they take major credit cards and PayPal.

LegalSounds

Another allofmp3 replacement, LegalSounds.com prices are $0.09 per song, full album downloads average $1 each. Music carried includes the US Top 100 Albums/Singles, European Top 100 Albums and UK Top 50. Tracks are available between 192kbps and 320kbps and they take major credit cards.

JustMusic

Just Music carry around 160,000 albums from 44,000 different artists. Prices vary according to the amount of credit you apply to your account and range between $0.11 and $0.15 per track. Tracks are available at 192kbps and they take major credit cards and PayPal.

GoMusic

GoMusic claim to carry over 35,000 tracks. Prices are $0.19 per track and around $2 per full album. Tracks are available in various bitrates and they take major credit cards.

MP3 Skyline

MP3 Skyline appears to be offering a huge amount of music. The site claims a staggering 2.2 million tracks available from over 128,000 artists. Prices are around the $0.35 mark for single tracks and encoded at 192kbps. Major credit cards and PayPal are accepted, along with other payment options. They also have a free download of the day, currently ‘Seeing Red’ by Killing Joke.

MP3Sale

MP3 Sale boasts a cataolgue of over 90,000 albums from 23,556 artists. Prices are $0.15 for a single track with full albums around the $1.50 mark. Tracks are encoded at 192kbps and the site takes all major credit cards, PayPal and a wide range of other payment options.

iSound

iSound currently offer nearly 60,000 albums from 14,000 artists. Prices start at $0.11 per track up to a maximum of $0.15, depending on the amount fo credit deposited in your account. Tracks are encoded at a minimum of 192kbps. Major credit cards and PayPal are accepted.

Enjoy the music!

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

AllOfMP3 has been a thorn in the side of the RIAA and the US government for years. Last year, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that if Russia wants to join the WTO, they should shut down the pirate music website [AllOfMP3] that is robbing U.S. recording companies of sales.

In an interview with P2Pnet, the owners of AllOffMP3 later said that Schwab completely and deliberately mischaracterized AllofMP3, “it is irresponsible to use AllofMP3.com as a negotiating instrument in an attempt to extract concessions from Russia”, thay added. But now it seems like president Putin has some good news to tell Bush today, a mere coincidence of course.

It is not clear how effective the shutdown of AllOfMP3 will be. Most users will probably move to MP3sparks, a similar service with a similar setup, launched by the same company. This site is not illegal under Russian law because they use a different licensing model.

Last December the Danish ISP “Perspectiv” decided to block access to AllOfMP3 for all their users. In a response, The Pirate Bay, working together with the pro-piracy lobby PiratbyrÃ¥n, decided to block all Perspektiv’s customers from accessing its site. Not long after that “Perspectiv” reconsidered their position, and their customers were allowed to access the online music store again.

My gut feeling says that these “grey market” MP3 sites are just another Hydra.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

“We made a premature decision and deviated from our mission. I regret this. The management agree with our new chairman of the board that limiting access to content on the Internet is not within the scope of our business”, says Fredrik Winbladh, CEO of Perspektiv Bredband, in a press release.

“It is of great importance that we, as a telecom and Internet provider, focus on transmitting information. Our standpoint could be questioned if one looks at the position we took, something we cannot risk. The company and its management has learned a lot from the debate that has taken place”, says new chairman of the board, Mikael Paulsson.

It is a Christmas present in advance, one might say, that proves that Internet activism can pay off. Even though I believe that Perspektiv might have made an honest mistake and reconsidered it, they say openly that it is the debate surrounding this affair (i.e. the attention it has gotten from those that have highlighted it in various ways), and thus the actions of The Pirate Bay and Piratbyrån that they have learned their lesson from.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The Pirate Bay admins, working closely with Sweden’s pro-piracy organisation, PiratbyrÃ¥n are also encouraging other torrent sites to block the ISP. They have created a campaign page and published some PHP code that site admins can use to cut off Perspektiv customers. A message on the campaign page requests that all sites that decide to block Perspektiv let PiratbyrÃ¥n know by e-mailing them.

Here is a loose translation of The Pirate Bay’s Swedish press release:

As one of the largest websites in Sweden we will not sit silently and watch some of our basic rights be restricted. If we want a working and good society even on the Internet we must stand up for one another and show courage when it is needed.

After careful consideration, we have for the first time ever, decided to block an ISP because of their management. The ISP *Perspektiv Bredband* is a very controversial enterprise – in the way that they have shown to put the unrealistic ideas of some powerful media-companies over their own customers freedom of information – something which in our eyes is comparable with dictatorialness and censorship.

*Perspektiv Bredband* has every right in the world to block whichever site they want on their own net. And their customers have every right in the world to change to a new ISP which does not take upon itself the task of ensuring collective conscience.

Do you have any opinions on this? Call Perspektiv Bredband’s support line on 075-555-0030!”

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The verdict hasn’t been taken well by ISPs the world over. It is a milestone in the IFPI’s efforts. According to the IFPI it will be referenced in future cases, not only against Danish ISPs, but ones in other EU countries too.

The verdict could have very strong implications for the future. It clearly states that an ISP can be held liable for temporarily (milliseconds) storing infringing data on their routers. This means that ISPs can be forced to block websites, if the court decides (read: assumes) that these sites are mainly used to spread “illegal” content.

These are the most critical passages in the IFPI vs. Tele2 ruling :

The head of a Danish telecommunications industry group told Computerworld Denmark that they “are horrified over this judgment, to say the least. It means that we must now keep an eye on what our users are doing online. And blocking user access to certain websites will never be a perfect solution.”

We had the chance to talk to Sebastian, spokesperson for Piratgruppen. Piratgruppen is the sister organization of the famous Swedish PiratbyrÃ¥n, an organization whose goals are reforming current copyright law and protecting consumers’ rights. He said: “This case shows that it has never been the question if Allofmp3 were legal or not. Its part of IFPI’s more general attack on the freedom of the Internet. They have lost control over their customers, and they want it back at any price.”

“The verdict is highly controversial as it brings internet censorship to Europe. It states that ISPs are responsible for the traffic they route. In this way introducing a new paradigm, where Internet service providers are obliged to block sites that the authorities dislike. The verdict is at the same time so unclear that accusations of copyright infringement can be used to censor a long list of sites. The result is the destruction of the Internet as a free space of communication, and the realization of national borders in cyberspace.”

It’s strange how people are making such a Herculean effort to block a Russian music site when millions of scam and phishing sites remain at large. The U.S. is even going so far as to put pressure on the World Trade Organisation to deny Russia a seat on the council. All for an mp3 music site! Shouldn’t we be concentrating our efforts on more important things? Sites that actually cause financial harm to individuals? Oh wait, AllofMP3 does cause financial harm to musicians. How will (insert name here) afford her next Ferrari? Just kidding. Or am I?

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

The leaders of Britain, Canada, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the United States agreed to combat piracy. Among other points they state:

Combating trade in pirated and counterfeit products is a complex problem which assumes, in the context of globalization, a transborder character, and can only be solved through individual and joint efforts by all nations and relevant international organizations. In that regard, we note the usefulness of international congresses and workshops devoted to effective protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

In the meanwhile the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) asked Margaret Beckett, Britain’s Foreign Secretary to urge Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, to do something about the music download website AllofMP3“>allofmp3.com.

However, the problem is that allofmp3.com is handling in accordance with Russia’s laws.

It is unclear if Putin considers taking down allofmp3.com, but he did make a public statement about Iran’s nuclear program, the situation in the Middle East, and on the Korean Peninsula.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.