“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
66 Responses
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lol that is retarded. Fuck the UK.
“Never get involved with the Federation. It cost me an arm and a leg.”
Bunch of muppets!
Faggots… get a life, cranky old bastards!
Ditto 3 + 4
Ditto 5
“After all you would not let your employees steal a company car so why are corporates allowing this to continue?”
Stealing a company car costs the company money. Allowing employees to use p2p protocols like BT doesn’t cost a company money (unless faggots like fast demand it), so it’s fundamentally different.
However, fast (and other organisations like it) seem to be fundamentally incapable of identifying the REAL problem. Instead they just want as much money as they can get, and they don’t care who to ruin for it.
Hmm, interesting parallel between copyright-lobbyists and mafia (did anyone say MAFIAA?)
Yea right! Become our customer or you might be sued by FAST!
Good Try!
But you failed parasites!
I will not let employees stil a company car but if they still a FAST car I don’t give a crap!
They can even still their headquarter and empty their Bank acpte too if they like!
This is not my business!
Go and fetch employees!
Look if MD operated in sweden they would be in jail, seriously they would!
Personal/private information is very protected these days, especially against information gatherers like this who will sell the information (record labels/lobbyists/hackers/bot net owners/adware makers etc).
Maybe its about time it got brought to court in UK to be tested? ;)
Jesus why are UK cops so lame with their naming of stuff. FAST federation, gimme a break!!! Its like they they think they are in a movie or something!
@ andyness
Fuck you and whatever shithole you come from
[quote comment="280339"]@ andyness
Fuck you and whatever shithole you come from[/quote]
QFT
+3
This will never fly for very long.
I can not believe that they have considered this as an option to stopping torrent traffic at the workplace.
Any real source of information they collect will most likely be revealed to be as illegal as the “theft” they are trying to stop.
“The Federation” sounds like something from Star Trek to me. They’re only after organisations here, but even so… they can suck my fat, hairy balls.
“I would not steal a car, but i will download a movie!”
i agree FUCK andyness
and 13 stfu cops can name themselves w/e the fuck they like, its not based on regions
A “federation” here in the UK is no more than a trade association, for example: The Federation of Master Builders.
It’s used more as an indication that the member companies are reputable.
Ironically, not in this case…
[quote comment="280402"]A “federation” here in the UK is no more than a trade association, for example: The Federation of Master Builders.
It’s used more as an indication that the member companies are reputable.
Ironically, not in this case…[/quote]
I think the point is they like to refer to themselves as THE Federation a little too much. Like thier “Join Us” page (read: “come to the dark side”?)
http://www.fast.org.uk/joinus.asp
“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 … She then suggested that we should join FAST as a corporate member to complete the training”
Sounds like the same tactics as Scientology!
Thats it, I am going to write a book with illistrations of I would do, I am going, I have , I had, and allsorts of dumbass phrases. So when anyone uses any of my Copywritten phrases I will sue them.
This will also include, A e i o u , along with numbers. Ichi , Ni, xson, shi, go roku. and if any company trust entity monopoly dares use then I will sue on the grounds of intelectual property claiming I loose money each time they use the above mentioned phrases since they are from my book.
Fuck the federation.
I only take my orders from ” THE SHOP “
Yeah fuck them
Bunch of chipmunks LoL
There are two kinds of people that are tied up in the current piracy community.
1) Those who earn a wage and are willing to pay a FAIR price for material that is of a high quality. The recent distribution method used for the Radiohead album show’s that there is a huge market that are willing to pay for material they believe is quality.
The problem these people currently have is there are limited legal ways in which they can gain access to the media they require, due to region issues, distribution issues, etc. ITunes showed the world that if you create a legal model which is fairly priced then you can create a legal model out of media distribution.
Releasing tv shows or movies at different times in different regions is one of the reasons people download, along with the ease of access and speed of delivery/availability.
2) Children and idiots that believe that everything that is created should be FREE, no matter the quality of the finished product. People who, even if given the option to purchase a legal license at a severely discounted rate and in the format they require, would much prefer to steal.
The Piracy standpoint has highlighted a number of issues with the media industry, mainly that of the continueing degradation of material that is continouslly being thrust down consumers throats at ridiculous prices. However, pirates or not, civilised people cannot go around shouting obscenities at people due to a difference in beliefs or understandings…. that’s something that has caused a lot of problems in the past, be it religious, political, sexual, etc. The job of the filesharing community is to educate the media industry and point them in the direction of a model which is fair for all parties, a job which has been virtually accomplished with the music industry.
If there were no copyrights, people would not be able to make a living from creating the media that individuals rely on to entertain there lives.
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