January 13, 2003<br /><br /><br />News<br /><br />Hollywood loses DVD piracy case<br /><br />A teenage software programmer in Norway has beat Hollywood in an important early round of the motion picture industry’s international struggle to control the copy protection mechanisms on commercial DVD entertainment releases.<br /><br />Jon Lech Johansen, 19, was acquitted of digital piracy in Oslo after, in 1999, developing a software application called DeCSS. The computer program empowers DVD users to unlock security codes that are designed to prevent the copying of content.<br /><br />A three-member legal panel of the Oslo City Court ruled that Johansen had broken no laws by using and distributing the software. Perhaps, more important to Hollywood, the panel found that the young defendant — as the rightful owner of the DVDs in question — was free to view and copy them in any way he chose.<br /><br />The right to view and copy legally purchased software has longtime been a right enjoyed by Americans. However, due to Hollywood’s recent political lobbying, software like DeCSS is illegal in the United States. It was made so under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 federal law that outlaws the creation and distribution of technology that enables users to disable copyright protections on motion pictures, music and other forms of software.<br /><br />European laws are much less harsh and apparently so are international attitudes about copy protection. The Johansen case was considered a major setback for the American motion picture industry. “The court finds that someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access to the film. Something else would apply if the film had been an illegal, pirate copy,” the ruling said.<br /><br />The court found that the rights of consumers apply to legally obtained DVDs “even if the films are played in a different way than the makers had foreseen.”<br /><br />While Johansen said he was “very satisfied” with the verdict, the Motion Picture Association of America indicated it would support an appeal, which must be filed within two weeks.<br /><br />For more information visit www.mpaa.org.<br /><br /><br />The Supreme Court backs off Texas DVD case<br /><br />Hollywood received a second legal setback on DVD copy protection from the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has rescinded an emergency ruling that had prevented a U.S. Web site operator, Matthew Pavlovich, from posting a copy of DeCSS on the Internet.<br /><br />DeCSS is free software that allows anyone to play DVDs without technological restrictions, such as region codes and forced watching of commercials imposed by movie studios (See story above).<br /><br />The ruling means that Pavlovich, a Texas resident, is no longer barred by court order from distributing the DeCSS descrambling utility. However, Pavlovich said he no longer planned to do so since similar DVD decryption programs are already available on hundreds of other Web sites, and have been printed in magazines and newspapers.<br /><br />“The entertainment companies need to stop pretending that DeCSS is a secret,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a pro-consumer organization that is assisting Pavlovich. “Justice O'Connor correctly saw that there was no need for emergency relief to keep DeCSS a secret. It doesn’t pass the giggle test.”<br /><br />A group of motion picture studios and consumer electronics makers filed the lawsuit in 1999 against scores of people, including Pavlovich, who posted DeCSS on the Internet. The suit alleged violations of California's trade secret laws, and a state judge granted an injunction against further posts of DeCSS by the defendants. However, the California Supreme Court ruled last November that Pavlovich was a resident of Texas with no real contact to California so he could not be sued in that state.<br /><br />Justice O’Connor’s ruling removed all restrictions that had been placed against Pavolich by the earlier injunction. He was a college student in Indiana at the time he posted the software to his Web site.<br /><br />For more information visit www.supremecourtus.gov.

You wonder why there is Piracy, I went to Strathpine Shopping centre today where I visited 5 different DVD Shops to Buy "Pearl Harbour" the Price Between $37 for 2 disc set $60 for the 3 disc set I told the bloke where you can stick it, These greedy dickheads are stupid A pioneer A04 DVD burner 12 months ago was over $1000 now you can buy it for under $450. Give it 6 months and Every Computer Nerd will have a DVD Burner and they will visit their local DVD shop, hire the $5 movie and then Burn a copy of it and then return it, SHIT you can burn around 8 Movies for around $60 that includes hiring them, and dont forget the people who download via ADSL for free. These greedy movie producers wake up to yourselves "PEARL HARBOUR" should cost around $15 AUS not $37 to $60 for a 3 disc set you all encourage PIRACY ,,,,,,,,,<br /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="images/icons/default/mad.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="images/icons/default/mad.gif" /> <br />Phil

Hey, take it easy you guys..<br /><br />Take a look at it from those poor Hollywood producer type people's point of view..<br /><br />It's so expensive to make a movie these days that they have had to resort to third world countries to make motion pictures, like Queensland in Australia, (down the road from you Phil)..in order to make a reasonable profit so as to continue living in the custom that hey deserve !!<br /><br />Hey for the Titanic movie they had to move to mexico so as to afford the cost..<br /><br />Oh and the cheap non union, labour and dodgy saftey standards and the like, but anyway..come on..<br /><br />Next thing you guys will be whining about is having to pay for TV, any TV that is... including that old FTA stuff..<br /><br />Poor Kerrie.. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/default/grin.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/default/grin.gif" />

Some Interesting Articles...<br /><br />Congress to turn hacks into hackers<br />By Thomas C Greene in Washington<br />Posted: 24/07/2002 at 18:17 GMT<br /><br />If House Hollywood sock puppet Howard Berman (Democrat, California) gets his way, it will become legal to hack a network in efforts to impede the on-line illicit trade in copyrighted works.<br /><br />He's preparing legislation, apparently forced on him by the Hollywood fat cats he represents and who have lavishly bribed him into docile, purring submission.<br /><br />The bill will create a legal safe harbor for what Berman euphemistically calls "technological self-help measures." He really means 'technological vigilantism', but whatever you call it, I like it.<br /><br />In Berman's own words, this lunatic bill will establish "a safe harbor from liability for copyright owners that use technological means to prevent the unauthorized distribution of their copyrighted works."<br /><br />How cool is that? When Berman's bill is passed I'll be allowed to break in to the pass-protected members' sections of Web sites and root people's corporate networks and home boxes whenever I have a 'reasonable suspicion' that The Register's copyrighted works might be getting passed around without permission.<br /><br />As readers know, I've been covering hacking and security for quite some time. What may not be known, though, is that as a result of my work in this area and consequent exposure to the 'scene' (infused, as it is, with such selfless generosity and mutual goodwill), I've long nurtured the secret fantasy-desire of becoming a hacker myself. Only the criminal-penalties aspect of it has kept me from indulging myself.<br /><br />But now, thanks to the Honourable Berman, I can soon hang out my script-kiddie shingle and start teaching myself the ropes. Of course I'll have to be careful not to do any accidental damage. "A copyright owner shouldn't be allowed to introduce a virus that disables the computer from which infringing works are being made available to a decentralized, P2P network," Berman says.<br /><br />But I'll gladly stay away from dangerous things like viruses and worms. This is going to be such fun. And it's not just me. Anyone who publishes original content will be able to fend off the FBI with a simple, "d00d, I thought they were archiving my blogs, honest."<br /><br />And when it comes to filling up that precious pr0n collection on a budget -- well, just think of the possibilities. You can become a 'publisher' just by posting a Polaroid of your topless girlfriend on your personal Web site. Now it's time to root all the pay sites for illicit copies of it. You can't do any damage, remember; you can't delete any files or deface any Web pages, but Berman hasn't said anything about downloading files to your local machine. So long as you don't publish the files or share them you can probably keep them, and the poor porno Webmaster can't hit back (unless he, too, has a "reasonable suspicion"). How cool is that?<br /><br />Oh, this is going to be one fabulous piece of legislation, all right. Personally, I can hardly wait for it to be passed into law. I'll be sure to thank Hillary Rosen when I'm legally breaking in to the RIAA network, searching for illicit copies of my articles. ®

Some more...<br /><br />Valenti backs away from P2P hack bill<br />By Thomas C Greene in Washington<br />Posted: 26/07/2002 at 16:14 GMT<br /><br />House Hollywood sock puppet Howard Berman (Democrat, California) may have gone too far in licking the boots of his benevolent patrons. Indeed, he's gone and licked the shine clear off Motion Picture Ass. of America President Jack Valenti's boots, as this article from Reuters indicates.<br /><br />"We're pleased that a bipartisan group of lawmakers ... want to curb the explosion of Internet piracy," the wire service quotes the previously-supportive Valenti as saying. "However, there are aspects of the bill we believe need changing as it moves through the legislative process. We look forward to working with Congress in this regard."<br /><br />The bee in Valenti's bonnet is most likely the loose language in Berman's bill.<br /><br />"A copyright owner shall not be liable in any criminal or civil action for disabling, interfering with, blocking, diverting, or otherwise impairing the unauthorized distribution, display, performance, or reproduction of his or her copyrighted work on a publicly accessible peer-to-peer file trading network, if such impairment does not, without authorization, alter, delete, or otherwise impair the integrity of any computer file or data residing on the computer of a file trader."<br /><br />That can't be good. It means that anyone with a copyright will be allowed to hack the daylights out of anyone, including MPAA Headquarters, so long as they have a 'reasonable suspicion' of infringement and notify the DoJ of their intent at least seven days before commencing the attack.<br /><br />Somehow, Valenti failed to impress on the over-eager Berman's mind that this legislation is for media giants only.<br /><br />The second part of the problem is in Berman's extending protections to the victims of such attacks for damages exceeding $50. Again, he's gone over the top in his eagerness to delight his masters. Or, said another way, if anyone attacked can claim $50 or more in harm, the attacker loses his legal protection. Good grief; has Berman gone mad? Everyone and his brother will be able to claim that.<br /><br />So, while Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) President Hillary Rosen still welcomes the Berman Gift; Hollywood Honcho Valenti is stepping back until his team of Ass. lawyers and lobbyists can draft a proper bill for Berman, and send him to the House floor armed with the right stuff. ®

Last one...<br /><br />Is the RIAA "hacking you back"?<br />By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco<br />Posted: 14/01/2003 at 00:29 GMT<br /><br />The RIAA is preparing to infect MP3 files in order to audit and eventually disable file swapping, according to a startling claim by hacker group Gobbles. In a posting to the Bugtraq mailing list, Gobbles himself claims to have offered his code to the RIAA, creating a monitoring "hydra".<br /><br />"Several months ago, GOBBLES Security was recruited by the RIAA (riaa.org) to invent, create, and finally deploy the future of antipiracy tools. We focused on creating virii/worm hybrids to infect and spread over p2p nets," writes Gobbles.<br /><br />"Until we became RIAA contracters [sic], the best they could do was to passively monitor traffic. Our contributions to the RIAA have given them the power to actively control the majority of hosts using these networks."<br /><br />Gobbles claims that when a peer to peer host is infected, it catalogs media and sends the information "back to the RIAA headquarters (through specifically crafter requests over the p2p networks) where it is added to their records", and also propagates the exploit to other nodes.<br /><br />"Our software worked better than even we hoped, and current reports indicate that nearly 95% of all p2p-participating hosts are now infected with the<br />software that we developed for the RIAA."<br /><br />The "hydra" is uncorroborated.<br /><br />Gobbles attached two pieces of code, one of which jinglebellz.c details a frame header exploit for the Linux player mpg123. The code chastises OpenBSD lead Theo de Raadt for failing to checksum the public MP3s (written to celebrate each OpenBSD release). The group has singled out OpenBSD in its previous exploits<br /><br />In their presentation to last year's DefCon, the group described itself as "the largest active nonprofit security group in existence (that favors full disclosure)," consisting of 17+ members.<br /><br />"They're real, and they're damn good. They have made what appeared to be extremely exaggerated claims in the past, and when mocked, they have demonstrated that they are serious," one security expert familiar with their work, who declined to be named, told The Register.<br /><br />"He's a funny guy," De Raadt told us. "This is a buffer overflow exploit," he confirmed. De Raadt said he was more concerned by social engineering than by external exploits. "We had Fluffy Bunny, now we have Gobbles. They come in waves. "<br /><br />An exploit of this nature is of dubious legality, right now, but language in Howard Berman's "P2P Piracy Prevention" bill last year legitimizing such exploits was backed by RIAA chief Hilary Rosen:<br /><br />The Berman bill, ensured a copyright owner would not be liable for "disabling, interfering with, blocking, diverting, or otherwise impairing the unauthorized distribution, display, performance, or reproduction of his or her copyrighted work on a publicly accessible peer-to-peer file trading network, if such impairment does not, without authorization, alter, delete, or otherwise impair the integrity of any computer file or data residing on the computer of a file trader." Berman is expected to re-introduce the bill in this Congressional session. ®

But people will fight back <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" /> <br /><br />Read this...<br /><br />RIAA defaced -again!<br />By Drew Cullen<br />Posted: 11/01/2003 at 22:06 GMT<br /><br />Reader reports are flooding in that the RIAA.org has been defaced - again. At time of writing, the site appears to be down, And several readers have been kind enough to include screen grabs, showing that the front page today carried the following message.<br /><br />RIAA - 0wn3d by.... ;p<br />oooh riaa want's to hack Filesharing Users / Servers ? - better lern to secure your own server...<br />Sorry Admin - had to deactivate ur accounts - they'll be reactivated after 2 hours<br /><br />greetz : Rage_X, BRAiNBUG, SyzL0rd, BSJ, PsychoD + all the others who want to stay anonymous :]<br />wanna contact ? mailto:h4x0r0815@mail.ru<br /><br />Underneath the greets, there is a list of RIAA 'recommended' file-sharing tools, such as KaZaA and eDonkey. Downloads from these sites are 'sponsored by www.riaa.org'.<br /><br />The RIAA site has been hacked four times in recent months. Surely, they should have figured out how to put a stop to this by now? ®

ZIG HAIL !!!! They tell me Adolf Hitler has re-incarnated and living happily in Hollywood,And they tell me The US is a Free country??????<br />BLACKMAN ! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="images/icons/default/mad.gif" />

Phil,<br /><br />The hollywood studios now have your IP and are watching <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/default/smile.gif" /> <br /><br />Hmmm good luck finding you anyway and me as well!!