“The Federation” Targets BitTorrent Pirates at the Workplace
Written by enigmax on February 03, 2008The UK’s Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) has launched the third phase of ‘Operation Tracker’, an initiative to monitor people using BitTorrent to share computer software from their homes and also from their workplaces.
FAST - The Federation Against Software Theft is a UK organization setup in 1984 with the stated aim of ‘promoting the legal use of software by enforcement, lobbying and education’
‘The Federation’, as they like to be called, are currently entering Phase 3 of ‘Operation Tracker’ which aims to trace a “large number of computer users who are breaking copyright law by sharing software on the internet.” They do this using what they call ‘undercover investigators’ - people monitoring P2P networks and gathering data. FAST targets residential addresses but much prefers to catch business connections engaged in file-sharing activities as these are easiest to get a big settlement from. Very often, FAST tries to shift the blame for the file-sharing directly to the company directors, an effective way of increasing the pressure.
Now, FAST says it is monitoring certain sites for the purposes of tracking ‘illegal software downloads’, particularly those that employ ’swarming technology’ (BitTorrent) in the 3rd phase of Operation Tracker. FAST is using a tracking tool it calls ‘The CCTV of the Internet’ but which is likely just an open source BitTorrent client, with some more advanced logging features tagged on.
Chief Executive of The Federation John Lovelock, said of the system: “The march of technology assists both the law breaker and the investigator.” Indicating a longer-term initiative rather than a blitz he continued: “Operation Tracker Three is not designed to achieve overnight results. Rather it is a long-term surveillance operation aimed at successfully tracing and bringing to book anyone found to be blatantly flouting the law.”
According to FAST, it recently carried out some research with YouGov and was very disappointed to learn that just 2% of the workforce in the UK thought that they could get caught ’stealing software’. With that in mind, this ‘new phase’ is probably more of a publicity drive for instilling fear into UK businesses who allow their staff to share files than anything else.
As mentioned before, FAST likes to concentrate its efforts on targeting businesses, and those directors that run them, very often claiming that management allow their employees to break the law and therefore must be held ultimately responsible.
“Corporate liability is something that management cannot afford to gloss over - misuse of software is something Directors cannot plead ignorance to” said Lovelock. “If employees are using the corporate network for illegal activity those in charge may be liable. Theft is theft and will be treated accordingly.”
As is customary, Lovelock goes on to confuse physical theft, with copyright infringement: “Our message hasn’t changed,” he said. “Installing software unlawfully is wrong. After all you would not let your employees steal a company car so why are corporates allowing this to continue?”
‘The Federation’ is interesting in that it has mixed non-profit and for-profit operations under the same banner, leaving some people wondering about the direction of the organization. The Federation was a share holder in the for-profit business ‘FAST Limited’ with both sharing offices, staff and a common logo, creating a huge amount of confusion, as indicated by this post, and others like them:
“We had a visit from an officer of Fast who, in a 10-minute Q&A, identified ‘16 areas of concern’ with our IT practices. Nearly all were bullshit, with some very minor exceptions. She then suggested that we should join FAST as a corporate member to complete the training, just in case (hint, hint) Trading Standards ever came around to do an audit. What this tells me is that she is obviously a salesperson, working on commission, signing up as many members as possible. This strikes me as a highly unethical way of doing business for what is essentially a regulatory body.”
Unethical? Surely not…..
Previously: Sweden Warns Kids Against The Pirate Bay
Next: IFPI Forces Danish ISP to Block The Pirate Bay
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[quote comment="280299"]lol that is retarded. Fuck the UK.[/quote]
wtf? it’s not the uk’s fault they have a stupid copyright protection federation. it’s the the us and the riaa. they’re worse.
It’s not the company’s fault it’s employee’s are using the company internet connection to download/upload stuff off bittorrent. It’s the employee’s fault. I’m all for keeping the internet unblocked at work as much as the next guy but really targeting the company just because they know they can get some quick money out of them is a crock of shit! IT’s just like the RIAA who think that a song is worth 1.5m in a lawsuit. Fuck the Federation, Fuck the RIAA, and Fuck anyone who thinks they can try to take the internet away from the people who created it, us! It’s my damn internet, if you don’t like stay the hell of the (internet) highway!!
[quote comment="280339"]@ andyness
Fuck you and whatever shithole you come from[/quote]
They aren’t cops - did you read the article?
does this place ever see any proactive comments? why not instead of saying “Fuck the cops, dude” don’t you get off your arses and do something, i.e. Torrent Freak, at least they are spreading the message that these people are greedy and don’t give a fuck about you or me they just want the money.
Why not go out their and create a company that allows people to distribute it’s software through BT and come up with a new model of making money?
Btw, sorry to those people in the minority who are proactive and are doing something, good luck to you.
Let’s sue these bastards in American state and federal court for violating our First Amendment rights!
Fuck these bastards. It’s time for us to rise and take back our government.
read this SUPERB article by a recording industry insider:
http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html
I’m pretty certain these sneaky ******’s don’t have any legal standing, therefore if they demand money they are guilty of extortion.
Trading Standards should investigate them!!!!
Anyhow all they can do is harvest IP address’s which is a long way from identifying anyone, bit of bluff going on there possibly?
“After all you would not let your employees steal a company car so why are corporates allowing this to continue?”
They allow it because its not the same thing. This is a straw man, they should be asking:
If you had a machine that could make an exact copy of a company car would you allow employees to make a copy and take it home?
Its a totally different question.
Can’t they just use peerguardian to block them all out and continue downloading whatever they want????
lol @ England. We get everything for free here. Mugs in England, pays the most, gets the least! hahahahaha
@scotsrule
lol @ scotland, youve been ruled by us (after having your arse kicked) for 300 glorious years.
we give you lot everything free cos you aint got any jobs roflmao!
@41 Buck Fush
Good words. I have never understood, why a sentence like
“Oh, eh, oh!”
Copyright (c) miniGandalf, 2008
can bring money for 70 years after my death to my relatives (oh, nice!), but a technical invention like 3D screen can me bring money (and will be protected) only for 20 years.
Copyright law is intended to protect a special art of mental work, and not with the interest of the man kind. Is is simple not appropriate for the new technologies.
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