Operation Jackal: Police Track Down Charity Song Pirates
Written by enigmax on May 27, 2009In Italy artists and musicians made a charity song to raise money for victims of the recent earthquake. Like most music these days the song found its way onto P2P networks before its official release. Italy’s answer to the RIAA reported the situation to the police, who are now reporting they have tracked down and arrested the leakers.
In April hundreds of people were killed after an earthquake hit L’Aquila in Italy, prompting several initiatives to raise funds for those affected. One project saw 56 artists and musicians come together to record a song called “Domani 21/4.09″ (Tomorrow 21/4.09).
Inevitably the song leaked onto P2P networks before its official release. Normally, the leak of any other song would be met with relative silence since it’s such a common event these days, but Italy’s answer to the RIAA, (FIMI, the Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana) decided to take advantage of the delicate nature of the leak to rally public opinion against file-sharing. They claimed that people were downloading the song instead of giving to charity, something which we seriously doubted in our earlier report.
Nevertheless, FIMI decided that the leak was so odious that it should be reported to Guardia di Finanza, an Italian police force dealing with everything from smuggling, money laundering through to copyright violations. FIMI claims that the leak has already cost the charity 1 million euros but provides no evidence of this.
So, to find the people responsible for the leak, Guardia di Finanza launched Operation Jackal and it hasn’t taken long to get some results. It’s now being reported that three individuals have been tracked down after uploading the track to various file-hosting sites and distributing it via an unnamed Direct Connect hub. The arrests were made in Rome and Milan.
At a press conference, Luca Vespignani, secretary general of the Federation Against Music Piracy said that they reported the leak to the police after they noticed “dozens of illegal download every day.”
FIMI president Enzo Mazza commented, “Whoever put this song on the file-sharing networks has done something evil and knowingly damaging the [fund-raising] initiative.”
As we noted previously, giving to charity is a voluntary act, done from the heart. Those that give to charity do so of their own free will and don’t avoid doing that, for instance, by downloading a song for free. To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand why people donate in the first place.
Donations to the fund can still be made here.
Previously: Bye Bye FeedMyTorrents, Hello ShowRSS
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59 Responses
Trust the RIAA/MAFIAA scumbags to use every opportunity to put p2p in a bad light.
Just pisses off people like me more and more, they will never get a dime of my money but I will get all their “product” whenever i want it… and give them the finger in return.
Idiots.
Regargless of how the song turns out I would not hesitate to just donate to the victims. Its just a nice bonus to hear a new song that is dedicated and intended to help the earthquake victims.
The artists of this song act like they lost alot of personal royalties. How about helping people first before money RIAA bastards. Get your heads out of your rectums.
my take is they ignored the advantage of extended “air play”. the more people that listen to the song, the more donations. is it a d’oh moment?
well, tracking the leakers doesn’t prevent anything really. Its already out there. And the best part is that the “losses” are not justified
if i had started my own successful company i would have been rich.
But i didn’t start it!
and now
I DEMAND MY MONEYS.
I WANT MY MONEYS NOW.
Anyway, charity songs usually sucks, you only buy the cd to give money to the charity, not to listen to the song…
What the f***. If they need money they put up a donation charity, not earning it by selling music.
Idiots, they brought this on themselves and they should’ve known about music spreading on the internet like wildfires.
I love the way the Italian authorities are willing to piss money away on catching the people who leaked the song. why not donate that money to the charity and release a statement saying “we would go after these people but dont intend to waste money so if you do download this song please donate to the charity anyway” that would gain them a lot of credit. But when do governments ever listen and do what’s best for people?
p2p is the answer to such an event ,, reaching hundreds of millions of folks globally ,, sure to rack up a few donations ;)
“Anyway, charity songs usually sucks, you only buy the cd to give money to the charity, not to listen to the song…”
That’s precisely why they are pissed off it leaked. “They heard our shitty music?!? now we’ll never sell any!”
Considering Italy is one of the biggest money-laundring countries in the world you’d think they have more important issues.
I’d never give money to the people who supports the Mafia and Berlusconi, i.e. Italians.
What kind of sick f*uck does it take to pirate a charity earth quake fund?
those people deserve to be arrested.
Charities and Donations are a farce. They never go to the victims. Instead of that they go to some lobby group for a better world of just someone pocket.
In the Netherlands we collected a half billion euro’s for the tsunami a couple of years back. It just got lost. All of it. Now where waisting money on ‘independent investigations’ to find out where the money went. It’s just ridiculous. In bangladesh (I believe it was…) the situation is still horrible, and people with the money and power to make it a better place just don’t give a fuck.
From that point I’ve decided to never donate again.
You can’t tell me they have bigger problems or at least a better way to get money? If they feel the need to get online with the matter then set up a fucking paypal account and maybe advertise it on piratebay or Italian TV. Fucking idiots, makes me ashamed to be part Italian.
People will donate anyway, with the mp3 downloaded or bought.
It’s charity.
So many times I have donated money to charity using my phone, and never received nothing back.
Idiots!
To be fair its the artists donation of their song which is bought and the profits go to charity. Not the public, The public can donate and they could download the song and still donate.
In england most charity records are hideous pop rendidtions of classics or songs that you can’t stand as soon as the radio stations get bored of them. Therefore the purchase of these records is simply to show off your charitibility rather then just donating.
Basically the charity record thing is a pointless sham. Yes it raises money but only because people are dicks
Love it,
People sadly die in an earthquake and the “entertainment” industry thinks, how can we use this horrible disaster to to change public opinion on file sharing and maybe change copy right laws to suit us aswell?
and Cant believe they arrested those people for uploading it to a dc++ hub. they ust have caused a download or two to occur. but still they are arrested and treated like a criminal organization would be.
What a Pathetic world we live in.
Please!
We need someone from Europe that comes to help us!
An italian …
That is just hipocrisy.
Just like the biased judge on thepiratebay.
Did you hear about this? The judge for the appeal has been put down because he was affiliated to the same copyright organization of the first judge. So, if the second judge was biased, wouldn’t it be so the first one as well?
http://trial.tepiratebay.com
once again the greed of the maffia and anti-piracy shows.they are hopelessly dependant on the maffia to survive and will fight to protect their pathetic existance.
What a wise way to spend taxpayers money. They should be this swift and efficient at catching pedos, stalkers, murderers and terrorists.
Good for the italian police.
It’s great that they artists dedicate time to make a song to victims of such a disaster.
However it’s sad to see that when it all comes to the bottom line, it’s about the money. MONEY MONEY MONEY.
The only safe way to help out these days is to actually buy the stuff they need yourself and bloody send it to them!
Not a word on Italian Media!
lol italian LOVE DIRECT CONNECT
i was studying there a couple years ago and I see all the kids their using Direct Connect….
I HATE THAT PROGRAM SOO STUPID
@13
I am Italiam and I don’t support Berlusconi nor the mafia. Like me, there are many people here with the same common sence. The people who voted are scum, I agree with you on that.
The song sucks bid time anyway, I can’t believe I am reading this on TF and I haven’t heard anything on the Italian news.
@22: “It’s great that they artists dedicate time to make a song to victims of such a disaster.
However it’s sad to see that when it all comes to the bottom line, it’s about the money. MONEY MONEY MONEY.”
Er…. its a charity FUND. If it didnt come down to money it’d be kinda pointless.
I do agree that FIMI are opportunistic money-grabbers for using this to their own advantage but i think quite a few people commenting are seriously failing to underastand that if a charity record doesnt earn money, it is a failure….
Quit being such raged, butthurt pirates.
Donations should skyrock now, if P2P is what we claim it to be ;)
This is wrong on every possible level.
Morally, logically, lawfully..
1. As said before, people who want to donate will donate .. and most will actually just donate money, since that’s much more effective than a cd .. since that money goes through 30 stages before it (or a bit) actually ends up with the charity.
2. It is very low to use this kind of situation for your own benefit, a charity has ZERO loss, since it is a charity. This is purely for either direct gain (fines) or indirect gain (public opinion). It is not about justice .. not even slightly.
This sickens me.
@5 “well, tracking the leakers doesn’t prevent anything really. Its already out there. And the best part is that the “losses” are not justified”
I disagree. RIAA/MAFIAA fully acknowledges that the song is leaked and that be undone. Yet, I think they still pursue the ‘criminals’ because they can make examples out of them. What does this do? One word: fear. I think they try to scare the public and the sharing community into a state where we can never feel fully safe.
Just an opinion, no sources.
The money spent on tracking these guys down could have been spent much better I think. They seem to be forgetting what a charity is all about.
the song sucks anyway..
its like a guy taping a good song from the radio, then blaring it driving in his car.
what i mean is, there is no loss per se
roflcakes its like they have brain damage or something..
how is it that we are physically smarter then them.. yet they are the ones in power? how did this happen..
DiahRIAA just doesn’t get it.
Prior to prove that a person that downloads didn’t buy the product (or didn’t donate), they have to prove that a person that downloads would have bought (or donated) if downloading was impossible.
@1: they will never get a dime of my money but I will get all their “product” whenever i want it… and give them the finger in return.
—————–
spoken like a true parasite.
“Donations should skyrock now, if P2P is what we claim it to be ;)”
—————–
lol, don’t hold your breath…
There is something not mentioned in this article that was made plain when this first hit the media about the charity song being on P2P.
Spanish General Society of Authors and Editors are the idiots behind this pushing for criminal charges. Those idiots first get attention not to long ago in Spain with an illegal wedding crashing to attempt to discover if they were owed royalties for public performance during the event. SGAE was fined $82,000 dollars as a result.
This latest is a new low, just when you thing they can’t get any lower. You see, even though it is a charity song, they want their pound of flesh. Just because the artists are doing it for charity, doesn’t mean SGAE will go along…they won’t. They want their money, plain an simple, all 10% of it.
So yes it is about the money and not the money for charity! Read here for the source of the previous statements…
http://torrentfreak.com/music-piracy-controversy-surrounds-charity-fund-raising-090610/
I agree those people should be arrested, along with the music labels ofcourse who are taking 90% of the charity money they are making.
It is one thing to take a song where the money will go to artists and music labels making millions but taking a song that goes to charity, thats to low for my standard. However i do agree i would rather download the song and then give to charity directly.
The Media dont report on it because they only like to report in a negative light. The Pirate Bay Trial.. We only heard in the media (UK) when the Pirate Bay lost the trial. Nothing before?…Nothing since?..Nothing about the appeal?. Very biased…From the BBC, which is supposed to be impartial..?Nah…It Aint..!
lets waste money chasing down pirates, who cares if people are hurt… +1 for stupidity (total score is too big to measure accurately)
Seriously though… even if the song had never been leaked, I am sure that it was played on the radio, which would have also allowed many people to listen to it without contributing anything to the charity if they had no wish to.
What I want to know is… how many people who might not have purchased the cd did so after downloading and listening to the song (and enjoying it)?
Going by UK MP’S and Big Music Cartel Bosses…Who all seem to be on the make and have their noses in the trough. I say DOWN with this Capitalist SCUM….And all that Sail in Her…..
Don’t know what to say…
Anyone anti-piracy is just as greedy as hell, retarded, or so ignorant they don’t see things for how they are.
I need an eye patch, (as well as a new prosthetic leg)…Do you think i can get them on the NHS?.. Nope…I Have to pay. I have payed taxes for the last 24 years. Why do i have to pay again? Great Britain is a GREAT PILE OF SHIT.
Vote Pirate Party…Justice for Pirates.
Also my Parrot needs treatment for beak rot, also his bowls are a bit loose..Do I have to pay?…Why?…I have payed my taxes all these years. Bastards…Give me my Money…
@ Jesus
I too only heard the UK news mention TPB when they handed out the final sentence.
Why didn’t they cover the story before and after the trail?
I would say BBC new appears impartial but when you focus on the stories they cover. They miss out important facts, use video in deceiving ways, select quotes, favor some stories over others and the thing that i really hate, they patronise the viewer.
This is why i like sites the the pirate bay. They stand for progress.
I would still like to see P2P evolve past bittorent sharing sites but this what people want to use ATM.
Anyay at least though file sharing we have the internet we have today. Because would our internet really be so good right now if p2p didn’t exist? Would millions of people have bought those expensive connections for browsing the web?
All people want is to get their media quickly and easily for a reasonable amount of money.
I don’t think that will be possible for another 5 years or so though and if file sharing was stunted or stopped … i don’t hat that will ever happen.
“Anyone anti-piracy is just as greedy as hell, retarded, or so ignorant they don’t see things for how they are.”
I AGREE WITH YOU COMPLETELY!
OMGosh dude give them a break!
Jiss
Yes, give them(the people) a break(tax) for God’s sake :)
FIMI put the song up on bittorrent and then pirated it themselves to make P2P look bad. Apparently Italy is taking a page from the U.S. playbook and doing away with innocent until proven guilty. Now police are arresting those that reuploaded the torrent. Why else would there be 3 to arrest?
@48 — and anyone else who doesn’t read the news.
Guys, just cause you don’t bother to READ the news, doesn’t mean it wasn’t covered. TPB trial didnt make the tv news much because they only have like 30mins and, hey, they have to prioritise.
It was covered pretty extensively on the bbc website (tho obv. not as extensively as here!)
Look:
http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?go=toolbar&uri=%2F&q=pirate%20bay&tab=ns&scope=all
The Guardian too ran big coverage on its Technology section, with specific articles on several days of the trial.
Charities = Scams.
Don’t trust them.
Commonly in London I get these charity types coming up to me trying to get my details on their nice PDA strapped to their neck, they’re wearing nice “company” t-shirts.
My solution is to tell them that they and their COMPANY disgusts me.
If you donate to charities you’re a twat.
It is a charity song so it is about raising money but TBH people who download it are probably wouldn’t buy it.
Somthing odd about this story. Sounds like this was just to get plps attention to be aware of this song and donate to the victims.
Dr. Dre did the same thing by saying how mad he was that an imcoplete music track from his forthcoming album was accidently leaked by one of his homies. Sounds a bit fishy.
Just thinking out loud though I like to hear both sides of the story.
Time to donate.
God its sad reading these posts. I’m amazed that only two feel that leaking something done for charity is immoral and low. I wonder just how many of those that have said they’d donate anyway have actually done so. Have you really? I’ve no idea of the intricacies of this case but making charity records etc can sometimes donate more than simply asking for donations alone. People have little time, and they get music and feel good about buying it at the same time as donating. They’re often people who might not have got round to specifically donating. That’s Point 1. Point 2 – addressing loads of the cynical remarks about money not actually going to charity. Why tarnish everyone with this brush. Perhaps there are dodgy charities – in which case do your due diligence before donating but there are plenty of utterly genuine cases. I know, I’m one. I’ve just made a show which as a result of viewers was able to donate a huge amount of much needed books to kids in care. The series is only able to be financed by pre doing deals with DVD, VOD etc. Without these, there is no series and no donations. Its a sensitive and precarious balance to get right and takes years. Neither am I a huge corporation making millions. Just someone passionate about what they do, who’s slogged it for 3 years doing crap jobs and remortgaging in order to get the show on screen. Piracy utterly threatens my show’s existence and therefore all of the fantastic impact it is currently having both educationally and charity wise. Reading these posts made me feel sick at the sheer ignorance and selfishness that it seemed to expose in so many. Please think about the consequences before so brashly branding copyright owners in the way that you do and bigging up piracy. You kill off more of us ’smallies’ than you do the big corporates. :-(
I’m actually kind of glad the song was leaked, it brings up the questing of does the charity money actually go to charity anymore? or just to some higher company playing the con artist now instead?
FIMI put the song up on bittorrent and then pirated it themselves to make P2P look bad. Apparently Italy is taking a page from the U.S. playbook and doing away with innocent until proven guilty.
http://pdfstack.com/
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