Replies

Ah yes, I remember Hardware Wars very well. I haven't seen Revelations yet because I only have a dial-up at home; I'll try downloading it on Tuesday, when I have access to a T-1 line at the college where I teach.

For those who can't get enough of the work from devoted amateurs, may I recommend the Star Wars Episode III parody "A Lost Hope," on ImitationMilk.com . Those guys worked on it for three months, using only the short, disappointing trailer that George Lucas released last fall, and the finished product looked so much like the real thing that it had me fooled for a minute.

And then for the Trekkies there's StarshipExeter.com . Here we have a complete classical style Star Trek episode, "The Savage Empire." I chuckled all the way through this one; the special effects were the same, the music was the same, and the costumes were the same; only the acting left something to be desired. It was like watching an undiscovered episode from the original series, it's that good. Now they're promising to have a second episode ready for downloading in July.

For Your Information concerning using university T-1 line or other high speed downloading of fan videos containing copyright (film and music etc.) elements ---
FILE-SHARING TECH WEARS NEW LAWSUITS
BY WILLIAM TRIPLETT

WASHINGTON - With the Supreme Court case on peer-to-peer file-sharing still pending, the Motion Picture Assn. of America and the Recording Industry Assn. of America have initiated a fresh round of lawsuits against college down loaders but are holding off on filing against more P2P software companies.

In separate news conferences held Tuesday, the two Orgs announced they are pursuing illegal file-sharing on an advanced network known as Internet2, which some experts say is the next generation of the Internet. Originally developed by more than 200 universities and some research laboratories and government agencies, Internet2 is essentially a smaller, extremely high-speed version of the current Internet that is still primarily used by universities.

But neither organization will be filing against i2hub, P2P software that students are using to share files in Internet2. "I2hub" isn't the only P2P network out there being used." said RIAA president Cary Sherman, "and we will all benefit with a clarification from the Supreme Court" when it rules on the Grokster case. "That will give us a strategy for the best way to pursue network operators." MPAA director of antipiracy efforts John Malcolm said the pending Grokster case had nothing to do with the MPAA's decision not to sue i2hub at the moment, "We're weighing that option" is all he would say.

Similarly, MPAA topper Dan Glickman said only, "We have a message for the creators of i2hub: We know who you are and we strongly encourage you to stop what you're doing." While academics and researchers are the main users of Internet2, students increasingly using i2hub to exploit Internet2's superior capability for illegal file-sharing the MPAA and RIAA officials said, Internet2, Sherman said, "is the network of choice for students seeking to swap copyrighted material on a massive scale. Internet2 has been hijacked for illegal purposes." Downloading a feature-length movie from the Internet via DSL connection could take up to three hours. On Internet2, the same movie would take maybe five minutes.
Sherman added that students prefer Internet2 not just for its speed but also for its low profile, which creates the illusion that pirates are safe from detection. We want to puncture that misconception," he said.
Sherman said the RIAA would file suits today against 405 students at 18 colleges. Malcolm refused to disclose the number of suits MPAA would file, saying, "Whether it's 10 or 10,000, the number is irrelevant
to the point we've been making, that this is wrong." But according to Sherman and Malcolm, so is i2hub. It is structured much like the original P2P software of Napster, which the recording industry successfully sued for copyright infringement. Not pursuing a case against i2hub suggests that movie and recording studios are not sure they could win under current court rulings. Glickman also announced the MPAA would be naming its first round of individuals in lawsuits filed last November, when they were originally identified only as John Does. Since then, the MPAA has learned their identities, though neither Glickman nor Malcolm would say how, "Our goal is to let thieves know they are not anonymous and they will be held accountable," Glickman said. "You can click but you cannot hide."
=
PIRATES ON THE PLANK, Isps hand over illegal down loaders to MPAA by Ben Fritz
The MPAA has found its pirates. Org is expected to reveal in a call with reporters today that it has received the names from Internet service providers of a number of individuals it believes have illegally downloaded movies on the Internet. MPAA and its member studios, along with Lions Gate, have filed three rounds of lawsuits against all pirates, with the total number of suits estimated to be more than 500. Because studio lawyers only had Internet addresses for its targets, though, it filed them as "John Doe" suits, asking ISPs to turn over information on their identities. ISPs had thus far been resistant to disclosing that information, as they had been with the RIAA when it filed suits.

Beyond the John Doe suits, MPAA will also discuss new tactics in its battle against piracy on college campuses. Org will announce that it's going after illegal file swapping on universities' private networks, where many college students trade music outside of publicly accessible peer-to-peer networks. RIAA is expected to announce a similar legal initiative against college students in its own press call tomorrow.
Additional suits against college students are likely to raise the ire of "cyber-liberties" groups, as college networks are accessible by people more likely to know each other who may argue they are using technology simply to share files among friends. Studios and labels have long argued that rampant piracy on college campuses is training young people to believe they can get content for free.