MPAA: Piracy is NOT Theft After All

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21 May 2012
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For decades the entertainment industry used the word theft to refer to piracy.

Most famous is probably the You Wouldn’t Steal a Car ad. But virtually all press releases of outfits such as the MPAA refer to stealing or theft.

All of a sudden, however, MPAA boss Chris Dodd is whistling a different tune.

After the SOPA revolt earlier this year the movie industry group realised they have to position themselves better.

We’re going to have to be more subtle and consumer-oriented, Dodd says.

We’re on the wrong track if we describe this as thievery — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Swedish Telcom Giant Teliasonera Caught Helping Authoritarian Regimes Spy on Their Citizens

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20 May 2012
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According to a recent investigation by the Swedish news show Uppdrag Granskning, Sweden’s telecommunications giant Teliasonera is the latest Western company revealed to be colluding with authoritarian regimes by selling them high-tech surveillance gear to spy on its citizens. Teliasonera has allegedly enabled the governments of Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Kazakhstan to spy on journalists, union leaders, and members of the political opposition. One Teliasonera whistle-blower told the reporters, The Arab Spring prompted the regimes to tighten their surveillance. … There’s no limit to how much wiretapping is done, none at all.

The investigative report, titled Black Boxes, in reference to the black boxes Teliasonera allowed police and security services to install in their operation centres — which granted them the unrestricted capability to monitor all communications—including Internet traffic, phone calls, location data from cell phones, and text messages—in real-time. This has caused concern among Swedish citizens and Teliasonera shareholders, who had previously been assuaged by assurances from the telecommunications company that they follow the law in the countries in which they are operating. After a meeting with Peter Norman, Sweden’s Minister of Financial Markets, the chairman of Teliasonera’s board of directors issued a statement, announcing that they had launched an action programme for handling issues related to protection of privacy and freedom of expression in non-democratic countries, in a better and more transparent way — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Probe into retailing on the net

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18 May 2012
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The competition watchdog will launch an investigation into clothing importers who are reaching agreements with overseas suppliers to stop selling their products to Australians on websites or instructing them to lift their web prices.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims has acknowledged that anti-competitive practices revealed by The Age last week could breach competition legislation.

He said an investigation would be launched, and companies found breaking the law would be prosecuted. We are extremely committed to having a close look at this, he said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak weighs in against tech giant on price discrimination

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11 May 2012
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Apple co-founder Steve Woz Wozniak has sided with Australian consumers on the contentious topic of price discrimination, saying we shouldn’t have to pay more for technology goods that cost much less in the United States.

His comments, made on ABC radio this morning ahead of a sponsored speaking tour of Australia, come as the federal government readies for an inquiry that will ask tech giants like Apple to explain why Australians pay more for goods such as music, TV and game downloads from iTunes than overseas customers.

Other companies like Microsoft and Adobe will also be asked to explain — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Rolex USA awarded damages against counterfeiter

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11 May 2012
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Rolex USA is starting to crackdown on counterfeiters blatantly imitating and selling its products for huge profits on the internet. It has won nearly $160,000 in court after taking the owner of two websites selling fake Rolex watches to court in New York.

Gabriel Alvarez had been running deviousdesires.net and deviousdesires.com that sold fake Rolex watches for about $100 as well as other counterfeit goods masquerading as products from brands including Breitling, Armani, Bulgari and Chanel. The site openly advertised that the goods it sold were fakes — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The frequent fliers who flew too much

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7 May 2012
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There are frequent fliers, and then there are people like Steven Rothstein and Jacques Vroom.

Both men bought tickets that gave them unlimited first-class travel for life on American Airlines. It was almost like owning a fleet of private jets.

Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees. Flight crews memorized their names and favorite meals.

Each had paid American more than $350,000 for an unlimited AAirpass and a companion ticket that allowed them to take someone along on their adventures. Both agree it was the best purchase they ever made, one that completely redefined their lives.

But all the miles they and 64 other unlimited AAirpass holders racked up went far beyond what American had expected. As its finances began deteriorating a few years ago, the carrier took a hard look at the AAirpass program.

Heavy users, including Vroom and Rothstein, were costing it millions of dollars in revenue, the airline concluded.

The AAirpass system had rules. A special “revenue integrity unit” was assigned to find out whether any of these rules had been broken, and whether the passes that were now such a drag on profits could be revoked.

Rothstein, Vroom and other AAirpass holders had long been treated like royalty. Now they were targets of an investigation — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Australian watchmakers protest over Swiss watch parts

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1 May 2012
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Australian watchmakers have initiated a movement to maintain their access to Swiss-made watch parts, following the growing restriction and distribution of certain Swiss-made components to watchmakers and brands.

A report from Australian jewellery trade site Jeweller Magazine said that more than 1,000 people have signed up to the Save-The-Time initiative, which is a response to the growing restriction of distribution of watch parts from major Swiss watch companies — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Government sets up IT price hike inquiry

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30 April 2012
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Price-hiking technology vendors are set to be hauled before Australia’s Parliament to justify their local markups, with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy confirming the Government will hold an official parliamentary inquiry into the issue, following a long-running campaign by Federal Labor MP Ed Husic.

Husic has been raising the issue in Parliament and publicly since the beginning of 2011 (he was elected in the 2010 Federal Election), in an attempt to get answers from technology giants such as Adobe, Microsoft, Apple and others as to why they felt it was appropriate to price products significantly higher in Australia (even after taking into consideration factors such as exchange rates and shipping) than the United States.

Just last week, for example, global software giant Adobe continued a long-running tradition of extensively marking up its prices for the Australian market, revealing that locals would pay up to $1,400 more for the exact same software when they buy the new version 6 of its Creative Suite platform compared to residents of the United States — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Tor Books to drop DRM on entire catalog of e-books

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25 April 2012
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Science-fiction/fantasy publishing company Tor Books dropped a big bomb on the e-book world today by announcing plans to abolish DRM on its entire collection of e-books in early July.

The shift will most likely appear seamless to consumers, as an official blog post on the Tor Web site mentions that DRM-free titles will sell at the same retailers that currently sell Tor’s books, and will additionally appear on DRM-free-only e-book stores. The Macmillan-owned company also publishes titles under Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Australian Police Accused of Mass Software Piracy

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25 April 2012
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The Aussie police are clearly not setting the right example when it comes to copyright infringement. In 2008 computers of the South Australian police force’s IT branch were found to contain hundreds of pirated movies.

There is, however, an even ongoing bigger case in which the New South Wales police are accused of massive software piracy involving its criminal intelligence database.

The software in question, ViewNow, is developed by the UK company Micro Focus. While the company licensed its software to the police in the past, it discovered nearly two years ago the police were using thousands of unauthorised copies.

Even worse, the police also shared the software with third parties such as the Ombudsman’s Office, the Department of Correctives Services and the Police Integrity Commission. All without permission from the software company — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Microsoft Sells Facebook Its AOL Patents for $500 Million

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24 April 2012
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So much for the speculation over what Microsoft would do with the 925 patents it just bought from AOL earlier this month. At least part of the mystery is solved. Redmond is reselling most of them to its ally Facebook.

Microsoft and Facebook on Monday announced a deal for the social networking giant to purchase some of Redmond’s recently acquired AOL patent portfolio for $550 million in cash. That leaves Microsoft with 275 of the patents — via redwolf.newsvine.com

iiNet wins High Court Internet piracy trial

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20 April 2012
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iiNet today emerged victorious in a landmark High Court victory against a coalition of film and TV studios on the issue of Internet piracy through peer to peer platforms like BitTorrent, in the conclusion of a long-running case which is viewed as the a test for how Australia’s telecommunications industry will deal with the issue in future.

#iitrial appeal dismissed! wrote iiNet chief executive Michael Malone on Twitter this morning. A statement by the court, available online in PDF format, states:

“Today the High Court dismissed an appeal by a number of film and television companies from a decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. The High Court held that the respondent, an internet service provider, had not authorised the infringement by its customers of the appellants’ copyright in commercially released films and television programs.

It appears that the full judgement is available online here — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Google boss: let Internet flourish to boost productivity

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18 April 2012
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The annual $27-billion boost to Australia’s productivity from internet innovation is at threat from policymakers who would rather restrict online access than embrace it, Google’s Australia boss has warned.

The head of Google Australia and New Zealand, Nick Leeder, said he was particularly troubled by restrictive policies from governments in China and Iran, but also by previous efforts from Australia’s Labor government to introduce internet filtering legislation.

His comments echo remarks by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who told the Guardian at the weekend that freedom of the internet was under attack from governments that tried to control access and communication by their citizens, attempts by the entertainment industry to thwart piracy, and the rise of walled gardens such as Facebook and Apple, which tightly control what software can be released on their platforms — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Amazon eyeing off local warehouse in Australia

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18 April 2012
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It’s a move that will make Australia’s bricks and mortar retailers shudder.

Amazon — the world’s largest online retailer — is in the market for a local warehouse in Australia as part of its massive global distribution network.

The global giant, which made its name as an online book seller, is now said to be turning its eyes to the Asia-Pacific region.

Agents say the group has been making it known in real estate circles that its expansion plans will include Australia, due to the supply of good-quality warehouses at attractive rentals — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Laurie Penny on Journalism

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17 April 2012
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I thought I got into journalism to tell truths and right wrongs and occasionally get into parties I wouldn’t normally be cool enough to go to. Right now though, with a few exceptions, professional journalism is rarely seen as an exercise in holding power to account. Justly or unjustly, the media, especially but not exclusively the mainstream, corporate-controlled press, has come to be seen as the enemy of the voiceless rather than their champion. Justly or unjustly, few people believe what they read in the papers or watch on the news any more, because belief has long ceased to be quite as important as complicity when it comes to the Daily Mail, the Daily Post or News International. On the streets of Athens and Madrid as well as during the London riots of August 2011, journalists have been threatened and attacked by desperate young people making havoc in the streets. Why? Not because these young people don’t want to be seen, but because they don’t want to be seen through the half-closed eyes of privilege.

Journalists are losing any case we ever had for special pleading. For the younger generation of digital natives, there is no particular reason to be deferential towards anyone who happens to be at a protest with a phone that can get the internet and an audience of thousands: it’ll be you and a hundred others, and unless the police have given you special privileges to write precisely what they want and nothing else, your press pass is less and less likely to keep you safe from arrest. As more and more ordinary men, women and children without degrees in journalism acquire the skills and technology to broadcast text and video, the media has become another cultural territory which is gradually being re-occupied. Those on the ground do not have to wait for the BBC and MSNBC to turn up with cameras: they make the news and the reporters follow. They have grown up in a world of branding and they know how to create a craze and set the agenda. They occupy the media. And the media is starting to worry — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Toyota sacks hundreds in Altona clean-out

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16 April 2012
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Extra security was called to Toyota’s plant at Altona west of Melbourne today as the company began sacking 350 of what it says are its worst-performing workers.

The carmaker foreshadowed the cuts in January, blaming the high Australian dollar for falling export sales.

Over the past three months it has assessed more than 3,000 workers at the plant, testing them on workplace behaviour and skills.

The 350 people with the lowest ratings are being forced to leave either today or tomorrow — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Microsoft buys and licenses AOL patents in $1bn deal

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10 April 2012
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Microsoft is buying the majority of AOL’s patents in a deal worth $1.06bn (£668m) statement said the agreement covers the intellectual property rights to more than 800 innovations.

Microsoft will also be granted licensing rights to about 300 patents that AOL is keeping.

It is the latest in a series of such deals as technology firms act to bolster their chances in related lawsuits — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Facebook ‘likes’ Instagram with $1B price tag

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10 April 2012
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Facebook, just weeks away from what’s expected to be the biggest Internet IPO in history, today signed a deal to acquire the hugely popular photo-sharing smartphone app Instagram in a cash and stock deal valued at about $1 billion.

Facebook has made a slew of acquisitions to date, but nothing of this scale. But Instagram is a 2-year-old startup that comes with some 33 million users and a growth rate that’s the envy of Silicon Valley.

Photo-sharing has been a big part of Facebook’s success, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is now making a big bet that it will be a critical part of its future — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Amazon: £7bn sales, no UK corporation tax

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5 April 2012
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Amazon.co.uk, Britain’s biggest online retailer, generated sales of more than £3.3bn in the country last year but paid no corporation tax on any of the profits from that income — and is under investigation by the UK tax authorities.

Regulatory filings by parent company Amazon.com with the US securities and exchange commission (SEC) show the tax inquiry into the UK operation, which sells nearly one in four books sold in Britain, focuses on a period when ownership of the British business was transferred to a Luxembourg company.

The SEC filings, highlighted by Bookseller magazine, show that in the past three years, Amazon has generated sales of more than £7.6bn in the UK without attracting any corporation tax on the profits from those sales — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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