Hacktivists Deface Spanish Anti-Piracy Group Website
Written by Ernesto on December 04, 2009Earier this week the Spanish Government announced plans to reform its copyright legislation so it can shut down file-sharing sites more easily. In a response to this announcement, hackers have now defaced the website of the country’s leading anti-piracy outfit, Promusicae, replacing it with a manifesto on the rights of Internet users.
Spain has been considered to be a safe place for file-sharing enthusiasts. Downloading copyrighted music and movies for personal use is allowed, and operating a file-sharing oriented website also falls within the boundaries of the law if no profits are made directly from infringements.
This lenient stance towards casual copyright infringement is about to change. The Spanish government is currently drafting amendments to current legislation in order to “to protect intellectual property against piracy on the Internet”.
Although individual file-sharers aren’t the current focus of the amendments, it is feared that further changes could be made in future to include them. However, what is certain is that sites that offer links to copyrighted material are almost certainly set to face an aggressive crackdown.
Spain’s Minister for Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, announced that under the proposed legislation, such pirate sites could be taken offline without a judicial order.
It is no surprise that these announcements have been met with huge resistance from Internet users, who feel that once again their rights are being violated in order to meet the demands of the entertainment industry.
In a response to the Government’s proposals, hacktivists have defaced the website of Promusicae, a music industry body that has lobbied long and hard for more strict copyright laws in Spain.
The hackers have replaced the site’s content with a manifesto in which they call for a real reform of current copyright law, a limit placed on the power of the copyright cartels and the placement of Internet users’ rights above the commercial interests of copyright holders.
Below is the manifesto in full, as it appears on the defaced Promusicae website.
Manifesto on the rights of Internet users
A group of journalists, bloggers, professionals and creators want to express their firm opposition to the inclusion in a Draft Law of some changes to Spanish laws restricting the freedoms of expression, information and access to culture on the Internet. They also declare that:
1 .- Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression.
2 .- Suspension of fundamental rights is and must remain an exclusive competence of judges. This blueprint, contrary to the provisions of Article 20.5 of the Spanish Constitution, places in the hands of the executive the power to keep Spanish citizens from accessing certain websites.
3 .- The proposed laws would create legal uncertainty across Spanish IT companies, damaging one of the few areas of development and future of our economy, hindering the creation of startups, introducing barriers to competition and slowing down its international projection.
4 .- The proposed laws threaten creativity and hinder cultural development. The Internet and new technologies have democratized the creation and publication of all types of content, which no longer depends on an old small industry but on multiple and different sources.
5 .- Authors, like all workers, are entitled to live out of their creative ideas, business models and activities linked to their creations. Trying to hold an obsolete industry with legislative changes is neither fair nor realistic. If their business model was based on controlling copies of any creation and this is not possible any more on the Internet, they should look for a new business model.
6 .- We believe that cultural industries need modern, effective, credible and affordable alternatives to survive. They also need to adapt to new social practices.
7 .- The Internet should be free and not have any interference from groups that seek to perpetuate obsolete business models and stop the free flow of human knowledge.
8 .- We ask the Government to guarantee net neutrality in Spain, as it will act as a framework in which a sustainable economy may develop.
9 .- We propose a real reform of intellectual property rights in order to ensure a society of knowledge, promote the public domain and limit abuses from copyright organizations.
10 .- In a democracy, laws and their amendments should only be adopted after a timely public debate and consultation with all involved parties. Legislative changes affecting fundamental rights can only be made in a Constitutional law.
Previously: Anti-Piracy Group To DRM Breaker: OK To Break The Law
Next: Pirate Bay Founders Granted Appeal Against Operating Ban
80 Responses
Yeah, great!!
Great action!
LOL
BITCHES GOT OWNED
“hackers have now defaced the website of the country’s leading anti-piracy outfit, Promusicae, replacing it with a manifesto on the rights of Internet users.”
Way to go ! Tell these dumb arses what is really wanted, not their shtty policy.
Here is the neXt insanity.
Sprint fed customer GPS data 2 cops over 8 million times http://pie.im/4cfd Sprint downplays report it shared GPS data w/ feds http://pie.im/a925
That’s actually a great manifesto.
But I know the governments won’t listen. They are so enamored and blinded by the glitz whenever the big entertainment corporations and stars meet with them privately behind closed doors wining, dining, bribing and brainwashing them well away from the scrutiny of the public that doesn’t want their privacy and rights sold to the highest paying corporation.
Surveillance Shocker: Sprint Received 8 MILLION Law Enforcement Requests for GPS Location Data in the Past Year
heres the eff for #4, thanks for standing up people. Keep up the good work at standing up for your rights.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/surveillance-shocker-sprint-received-8-million-law
Great manifesto, someone should show that to Mandelson as it’s sadly relevant here in the UK too!
Haha, nice :p
Awesome.Let the revolution begin against all these greedbag fuckers.
stop feeding the pig and buy your music/movies used or just pirate them and do not give any money to any greedbag studios
post moderated
Abbie Hoffman would aprove
“In a response to the Government’s proposals, hacktivists have defaced the website of Promusicae,”
Hmm… why defaced? They modified and improved the website.
Editor should learn the definition of “defaced” before using it!
I wouldn’t use the word ‘Deface’ either, however kudos to the hackers.. They are quite right in their manifesto in relation to internet neutrality… I urge all governments and copyright owners to encourage a new business model for the 21st century not this antiquated abuse of the law… KEEP THE INTERNET FREE!!! Vamos
The Entertainment conglomerates are still NO DIFFERENT than the candle-makers who raised an uproar when Edison came out with the electric lightblub. Oh the poor candlemakers will no longer have jobs! Yeah, well we saw where that went, didn’t we? Oh, and let’s not forget the buggy-makers who went on a rampage when Henry Ford developed the Model-T – their protests were real effective, weren’t they? The conglomerates will fall eventually.
I like that =D I really like that. But seems we missed it for a few secs?
Well… Let’s see where it ends.
Good one shaggy……….Yeah using cyber crimes to voice your opinion is a great way to get your point across…not…All they have done here is shown why pirates are hated by these groups. This kind of thing just gives the opposition more ammo, so now instead of being a bunch of people who want the right to share files, its a bunch of hackers that will hack your website if you dont let them. Why would they want to meet people half way with those kind of tactics. The law suits the law, instead of breaking it use it for your own advantage, instead of giving the enemy more fire power
Hold your horses! We really don’t know who defaced the site. No group or individual claims to be the author, and there is an ongoing suspicion that these Promusicae guys have just staged the whole thing so they can blame it on Spanish “pirates”.
We are concerned with this attack because of the devious tactics this organisation employs. This defacement would provide them with the perfect excuse to rally the Government against the public once more, so it seems they would reap huge benefits with minimal investment.
May I also say this guys have lots of money, resources and connections and know how to play helplessness in front of the camera.
But don’t be fooled: this wouldn’t be the first time that the copyright lobbysts use dirty guerrilla tactics in our country.
Outstanding, while they were there, they should have updated the website as well, as it currently looks like crap.
I think it is an efective means of conveying a point, it would be differrent if they just. Put screw off but they put a competent piece of literature up. This will make the news and anyone who hears will want to read what was put up. This will most likely generate positive attention to the cause rather than negative. And will piss off the entertainment industry to no end that all there money was powerless to prevent getting a little egg on their face
Heh – good read, including the comments =)
You know somethings gotta be wrong when “hacktivists” are making far far more sense than the governments of the world.
Now if only we could get some “tatooivists” to tatoo the manifesto, backwards, onto all the politicians of the world’s foreheads so they can read it in the morning when they get up =)
I guess the only question is “will anyone take any notice?”
ZAPATERO is a FASCISTA
It’s costing the MAFIAA millions to temporarily knock TPB down, yet to temporarily take an anti-p2p site down – it costs us nothing.
I wonder if the MAFIAA will go bankrupt before they realise they’re wasting their time, money and energy on achieving nothing except making enemies and getting themselves boycotted.
I feel sorry for artists who work with the RIAA because I will never purchase any of their work even if it’s decent and I think more and more people are saying the same.
Indy labels on the other hand, I do financially support, they deserve it and generally they are not attacking their fans (nor the casual downloader wanting to check out their material).
depends if they was paid the right amount of money tigger.
Time and time again, pirates resort to these kind of things, simply because they realize that their ideas simply cannot withstand a debate.
If they were actually convinced that their agenda was morally sound, then they would bring their requests to the attention of the government in a more legitimate way.
Hacktivists are simply people who cannot adjust to society’s rules and hopelessly attempt to get people to believe that all the laws should be rewritten to suit their personal wishes.
The internet is a great thing no doubt about it. But it has instilled some ridiculous ideas amongst its users. It’s like everywhere you go there are pirate who think that copyrighted works are “just information.” When will these people learn?
That manifesto sounds like it was written by an internet love-struck teenager. A real world manifesto with adult supervision will always defeat a false and childish, utopian one. At least the adults are in charge, thank goodness.
And illegally hacking websites in the NAME of internet freedom is perfect. This is going better than we ever thought possible.
They dont care about anything .All they are hooked to is cash its a pity.
post moderated
Seems the MAFIAA are finding out the hard way that there is nothing on the Internet more dangerous to them than hackers with a cause.
Of course this is nothing new. The RIAA’s site has been defaced and IIRC even DDoS’d.
And in one of the defacements, the hackers even uploaded mp3s to the site, and made it so anyone visiting could download them for free.
@25 Dec 04, 2009 at 03:54 by flaky
Must be a pretty pathetic dating site if has to be spammed at a geek web site forum. Yeah…that’ll really create business.
xD
This is it!
They should Deface them and not just their web sites.
I sleep with farm animals.
Me too.
Give me a call… <3
@VelOciTy
There was a YouTube link on that EFF page link you provided, but now when you click on it it gives this message…
Guess they don’t want the truth out there!
#15 please read #18…
There are far worse things that could have been done to the website, other than speaking out against the governments proposals…
#23, you’re an idiot, do us all a favor and STFU…
#25…Honestly???..Spamming? “Got a life?”
Applause goes to the “Hacktivists” (great terminology BTW ernesto!)
Well written piece that pretty much sums it all up, and it was posted in a proper place to get definite exposure,, all we can hope for is that one of the targeted readers has a mind thats open enough actually takes it seriously.
Never Surrender…..
To whoever hacked the site:
THANK YOU and I hope you do it over and over again!!
Awesome to read. Each day the public are angry at their rights being abused in the name of profit.
Reasoned Mind is the only copywrong person here saying otherwise. That’s fine.
1:33 ratio is good for a website’s vote.
Just can’t wait till 330,000,000+ Americans realize that 200-500 people are controlling their right to right to downloads. 30,000,000 Canadians and prob under 100 in Canada.
30,000 UK residents are being moved into the “enemy” camp of freedom and democracy online.
I agree with the fellow posters about the Model T Ford and the electric bulb blowing away the candle makers. It’s just the times, they are, a changin.
If the Industry would meet 1/2 for digital media we’d be alright. Put ads in the original digital copies online, USE p2p to distribute it, and the smarter ones will STILL download the ad free version.
I can’t wait until Google digitalizes e-books from the world over, prob translated from land to land into engrish for me.
It’s like the opposite of book burning going on! Anyone with a computer can get media on THEIR timetable, in a format that’s drm free, w/o restrictions, for the lowest price/best deal they could want.
Competing with that is real tough. “Johnson! Add in the “ability” to restrict them copying the disc, divide the world into regions so people can’t take their dvd’s into another country, charge them 50 bucks for 2 people to see a movie in theatres”
I wonder why their models fail? Information keeps getting cheaper. To criminalize a population of MILLIONS the world over b/c you want MORE money is retarded.
I pray one day Open Source Government will have daily votes so that they can’t pass sneaky legislation w/o the public’s PERMISSION first. This election every 5 years is so 1990’s. We got this interweb now. Makes it so dem der emails send to and from.
…and always looking for people who can help BUILD such a website, I SWEAR I’ll link to it soon as it’s made :D (noob web admin looking for kwalified kwality workers who don’t mind slave labour, saving the world, and being drunk while coding, apply within! :D)
Free SCV
http://www.opensourceg.com
Can’t say I support breaking into their website but it sure got the Spanish people’s attention about rights and due process trumping limit for profit from a SMALL group of media reps abusing the laws towards MILLIONS of people. I think the dvd guy last article still gets a better score tho. :P
Hackers of the world UNITE!
*transformer sound effect*
Wow, this is the FANCIEST DEFACEMENT I have ever seen in over a decade of Internet experience!
Hey! Wait a minute! The defacing –whoever did it– is just the tip of the iceberg: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/12/02/spanish-activists-is.html
When the Spanish public learned about this shady shut-down scheme they rushed to create the manifesto and publish it on thousands of websites, forums and blogs. (i.e. the legitimate owners and users of these sites published the manifesto)
This unprecedented and rapid response from the intertubes prompted the Spanish government to call prominent internet gurus to an emergency meeting with the Minister of Culture. No agreement was reached.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091203/entertainment/eu_spain_internet_piracy
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jADmhIAtOfbCuPoO3A3ZnTFFtgWw
Now, we have this defacement. Who did it? Anonymous angry intertubers? Was it a coordinated attack ordered by the cyber-gurus? Was it a dirty trick by Promusicae?
tl;dr: The manifesto was issued first; the government got scared; the government called internet gurus to talks; no agreement reached; now we have this defacement; the plot thickens…
If anything this might anger the government and show them file sharers are dangerous and prompt them to move on with the new legislation. I think its best to make a pirate party in Span and manifest in the streets.
@15 get stuffed you turkey look at the responses and its about time ….someone did a PROPER defacement rather then a kiddy mouth off event
I SAY if were all gonna end up criminals at least tell em what you stand for as they drag you off to prison ….if they do.
I will also say have you mouth piece shill mapp types nto noticed how the TONE is changing , its a sign of whats to come if you keep it up.
-and when the revolution came the lawyers were the 1st to go-
hitchhikers guide ot the galaxy
p.s. cult of the dead cow defaced the imge of the space shuttle to read HAGS
hackers agaisnt geeks in snomobile suits
far fancier and tougher place to hack
LOL, nice.
It’s already fixed. Doubtless, these few internet heros have already attracted the (impending) attention of law enforcement.
wow do you think this will stop them or just piss them off hmmm hacker tards
Would go down a treat in Australia.
From wiki…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_disobedience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
—Mahatma Gandhi
Quoted from Canadian press…
Its time we start protesting in the streets against what the cartel is trying to do the whole world, in the name of profit/greed!
@24
… r u an IDIOT..?
when was the last time the government has ever responded to anyone (except the music/film industrys)? u name a case! then maybe people will follow the band wagon and do the same. We have a legitimate cause, these laws are no longer suitable, they were put in place so the movie/music industry can have an easy time/life so when they cant create anything worth paying for, they can make profits by suing ppl. Filthy pigs, well as you know well fatten them up for now, so they can make a nice meal later, The bigger they are the harder theyl fall, looking forward to the moment the people sue them for harrassment and scams. PS extorting people with no evidence, or worse.. extorting innocent people, will cause those bastards to dig their own graves. =D looking forward to the funeral
For neo-drone, etc.
Just in case you missed the point, as you and all your other swine friends do!
Can’t wait to have me some pork chops!
Hahahaha thats amazing, My hats off to them! Good job!
RT
http://www.be-invisible.ua.tc
“Defacing a site” is nothing. It’s here for a few hours, maybe a few days, and its gone. NO effect on anything.
Pillaging the organization’s databases though…
@50 FreedomFighter.
You don’t appear a forward thinker. By your reasoning, any law or right that compels disagreement from a specific group of individuals is fair game for ignoring and breaking.
I’m quite certain the digital media industry would be proud and happy to meet you head on based upon those absurd rules. How many government officials do YOU contribute to? How many take YOUR calls?
Some people don’t think. Other people apparently can’t.
LoL…Guess my “auto mod” post is out of touch now that the spam has been removed… I really need to start adding the niks instead of the post order#… Sighs…
#16 by LoL, read #19 by Aerilus
#23,(now #25 by Reasoned queer) you’re an idiot, do us all a favor and STFU…
Spammer has been dealt with (good!)
Reasoned Mind, the ‘disagreements’ here far outnumber the ‘agreements’. Furthermore, it’s not the ‘disagreements’ who want to ENFORCE anything on the OTHERS, so the others have no right to complain. I think you deliberately left that out because you have no case, objectively speaking.
@ 50 a Freedom Fighter
“…you and all your other swine friends do!
Can’t wait to have me some pork chops!”
Is that just some mad anti jew shit you just made up?
wow gee a manifesto!!! ooooh please dont do your worst!
LMAO what a bunch of retards!
A Very Special THANKS to the hackers and the posting of their manifesto!
Kudos! Bravo! Well Done!
:D
Seems a certain brother in arms HAS taken ‘the digital media industry’ head on and they failed. Why? Because to fight against Henrik would shine the light of justice on their greedy and contradictory ways!
@The Bats
No doofus, they are swine, aka pigs, aka pork chops when they go down. Ease up on your racial confusion and learn sarcasm!
awesome work!
How about this RM, forward enough for you?
@ 60 Freedom Fighter.
Thanks for clearing that up.
You clearly don’t understand what sarcasm means.
@ The Bats
Are you a troll?
Great work! Respect to hacktivists! This is great victory on invisiblble front of war for freedom in Internet! )
The site looks normal to me, did they already fix it? :C
“Some people don’t think. Other people apparently can’t.”
Fine words coming from a paid whore like you noreason mind! Or should I call you Jane?
I don’t quite agree with the site hacking since it brings trouble and further expenses to the owners, however the manifesto should be read and taken into account by the media industry.
Not that I believe they will listen to anything that’s different from their own ideas…
Funny Funny! They have a propaganda video on their site that keep using the word “parasite business” to describe the pirate bay.
The problem with this is:
(1)The Pirate Bay is not a business and never made any money.
(2)We claim the copyright on the word parasites as well as Tap-worm, malaria, Cholera, syphilis, AID and gonorrhea to describe the 7 major entertainment corporations of terrorists who are the real pathological and psychopathic parasites.
But not to worry fellow citizen of the world they are the one who are going to die after we are done with the pest killer, like the dinosaurs before them.
So bye bye Vivendi, Rupert Murder, Sony, EMI, Time warner colombia, bollywood. . . this is the process of evolution I suppose and some are naturally deselected.
SORRY! and good riddance!
I love the graph where they show the crap that they call culture( themselves!) going down the drain by the way!
@53 Reasoned Mind
You don’t appear a thinker at all nor forward, backward, sideward, upward or downward.
By your unreasoning, any unconstitutional law or right passed or granted using corruption, without consensus established with a vast majority of citizen opposing a specific small group of corporate criminals and parasites, shall not be fair game shall not be ignored and broken as authorized by the supreme law of the land, as being imposed rules repugnant to the constitution and the interest of the people.
I am very sure that we the people, minute-mans, popular militia members and patriots would be very proud and enlighten to meet you and your bosses head on with pics, forks and guns, in order to water the tree of liberty once again, based upon this absurd and antiquated reasoning.
How many government officials have accepted money from your boss? How many have taken your bribes?
Some people do not think. Other can not think.
Other people can think but don’t want to.
Yet other people want to think like you but can not.
Yet again other people don’t want to think and this is good because they can’t.(like the executives at vivendique univers-sale who would not wash themselves either by the way, afraid that piece of their brains might flush into the shower drain.)
Some people however want to think, can think but don’t since they are paid for not thinking.
Then there is the asteroid that some old people were trying to think about suing but couldn’t and could not deflect either because instead of studying mathematics and music when they were young, they decided to become parasites, lazy and greedy.
Digital industry wants government surveillance on the network. We, the people, do not. Hacking gives government the justifications they need to advance that loss of freedoms.
You are cheering the hackers. And accusing me of not thinking clearly. Right.
You really ARE all a bunch of rocket scientists.
Thank you.
Well Reasoned Mind you forget about the tactics that your industry uses…
Revision3 Sends FBI after MediaDefender
Its a story about how MediaDefender used a DDOS attack against a completely legal internet television torrent site, since you probably won’t bother to check the links!
From Revision3 blog…
Inside the Attack that Crippled Revision3
So don’t puke any more of your worthless rhetoric!
We have a lot of nice boots on our website: http://www.uggnetshop.com
@spammer 1234566
How about I put one of your boots up your a$$!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.
O AND….HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH.
The war is on…
Those who file-share would do well to get, or keep, organized, perhaps via Pirate parties or online organizations.
You can lose wars when you’re disorganized or divided.
File-sharing is bigger than industry.
(flexes poodle muscles)
Have you been working out Poodle? You look buff! ;D
(poodle lets out a little high-pitched bark in Bulldog’s direction… then makes a shivery dash to the vanity mirror, gets up on toilet seat and on spindly hind legs and barks and growls again like a mad chihuahua while flexing poodle muscles in admiration)
@Reasoned Mind:
http://www.moviewavs.com/0085412111/MP3S/TV_Shows/South_Park/Episode_311_Starvin_Marvin_In_Space/311_thankyou.mp3
HELLO SPAIN! WE SUPPORT AND SALUTE YOU!!!
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