Never heard of SOCA but I hope they have good firewalls, because I sense a new target for Anon to fire them Cannons at.

RnB Xclusive?

I would have shut that down, illicit activities or not :P

IronWarrior
Never heard of SOCA but I hope they have good firewalls, because I sense a new target for Anon to fire them Cannons at.

Never heard of SOCA?

Serious and Organised Crime Office?

http://www.soca.gov.uk/

shaithis
RnB Xclusive?

I would have shut that down, illicit activities or not :P

On the grounds it's a terrible use of English? I agree. :)

“As a result of illegal downloads young, emerging artists may have had their careers damaged. If you have illegally downloaded music you will have damaged the future of the music industry,” reads part of the SOCA message.

Could SOCA not at least pretend to be an impartial enforcement agency not in the pocket of private industry cronies?

A ridiculous fine/sentence for downloading materials if applicable. People get less than that for rape/armed robbery etc.

While I could agree that someone distributing illegally obtained material could be commiting a serious crime (in terms of the financial harm done etc.) - surely someone downloading music BUT NOT UPLOADING is committing a crime equivalent to shoplifting a couple (-to a trolley full, depending on the number of tracks etc.) of CDs. As such, shouldn't sentencing be in line with that level of crime?

i do find it quite funny people have been posting ‘ooooh im soo scared’ on twitter… you know that completely public social media system that could easily give them another bit of evidence that you were using the illegal system.

Threatening users with jail time is just stupid though, there isnt enough space in UK jails for the people that are in them let alone a couple of hundred thousand more :/

The connection between the private media industry and the legal enforcement agencies is becoming increasingly worrying though.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120215/12143617772/more-details-emerge-questionable-uk-seizure-music-blog.shtml for more info on this ridiculous move

aidanjt
Could SOCA not at least pretend to be an impartial enforcement agency not in the pocket of private industry cronies?

Hmm, how about all those serial corporate tax avoiders - since HMRC aren't interested.

One question though - granted “ignorance of the law is no defence” - but unless there was something on the site to indicate that the tracks were “stolen”, surely the users of the site are in the clear because they didn't knowingly receive stolen material. So what SOCA had on the site originally was rubbish.

Or is it the case that the current govt has changed the law so in crimes against “corporates” you're automatically guilty until proved innocent?

Is copywrite infringement a serious crime now?

format
Is copywrite infringement a serious crime now?

Seriously organised, I suppose. It's likely they had more resources available to collect evidence than any other agency/police force.

I would hope that the SOCA had better things to do then be the private army of the music industry.

When one mentions serious crime, teenagers downloading albums doesn't exactly strike me as top of the tax payers interests….

Andehh
I would hope that the SOCA had better things to do then be the private army of the music industry. When one mentions serious crime, teenagers downloading albums doesn't exactly strike me as top of the tax payers interests….

Ah, but if you cast your mind back to those adverts that BPI used to run (and those modern day equivalents in the cinema) it's a mere pigeon-step from downloading the latest toonz from NDubz to dealing coke and AK47s on street corners, while trying to keep your ho's turning tricks.

I like this “sarcasm” thing… ;)

This is ridiculous.

The message posted by SOCA on RnBXclusive's site said that “as a result of illegal downloads young, emerging artists may have had their careers damaged”, and that “if you have illegally downloaded music you will have damaged the future of the music industry”. The content of this warning was influenced by representatives of rights holders, according to the police agency's spokesman.

“It was written by SOCA, but we did have input from industry,” he said.

This just diminishes SOCA. They're chasing what is effectively a civil offences (copyright infringement), even if they are trying to represent it as fraud. Haven't they got more important things to be doing with my taxpayer money? SOCA implied serious crime to me - things like terrorism and weapon trafficking. Not any more.

If I direct enough sponsership money to the right people will SOCA go after the cab drivers who keep parking in front of my drive.

Call it people trafficking?

Really SOCA this time?

Music companies sure are working hard, not long until paying for music is as morally questionable as downloading it.

Civil matter, yet AGAIN Cops being used.

Nice having police on your side and bribing them eh?

Keep saying thou. One its a civil matter and using police resources in this way is a joke, as is treating your customers like theives. And when they keep their “content” locked on to their own networks (HBO i'm looking at you) is it any wonder ppl pirate.

Its a digital age folks. Provide a worldwide easy access network or die like the old moneygrabbing bastards you are.

I vote for the 2nd and a new age of artists/media that want to share/give ppl access. Rather than the old guard of extort you for cash at every turn.

Excellent work from soca here imo, targeting the right people/websites for a change! On to the next http warez site now i hope - There are still thousands out there and they must have the powers to shut down at least some of them.

Whatever you think of the way anti-piracy is handled, this approach is much much better than the RIAA sending angry letters to individuals trying to scare them into paying ludicrous fines.

It's exactly like drug dealing - pointless going after the users, they just need educating as to the error of their ways. Much better to go after the dealers who are causing the problem in the first place!

Funny enough, now that you mention it, the best way to eliminate drug crime is to legalise drugs. The black market would die almost immediately.

aidanjt
Funny enough, now that you mention it, the best way to eliminate drug crime is to legalise drugs. The black market would die almost immediately.

Almost true - but that's what they have done. If they legalised drugs they would be sold and taxed (and end up expensive) - look at california or amsterdam. They don't give them away free. The black market would always exist due to the taxes and charges levied on the legal alternative. People don't like to pay for things!

There are now legal digital download services for all kinds of previously pirated material, be it music, tv, movies, games, applications..directly equivalent to a dutch coffee shop or californian dispensary in this analogy.

Spud1
Excellent work from soca here imo, targeting the right people/websites for a change! On to the next http warez site now i hope - There are still thousands out there and they must have the powers to shut down at least some of them.Whatever you think of the way anti-piracy is handled, this approach is much much better than the RIAA sending angry letters to individuals trying to scare them into paying ludicrous fines.

I agree that going after the “distributors” rather than the customers is a better idea. What I don't agree with is that SOCA is the right group to be doing this. And what really sits ill with me is the size 9 approach to the “customers”. As I said before, unless SOCA can prove that John/Jane Doe knowingly received this “stolen” material then all this "you're facing a 10 year jail term and we know where you live" is straight out of 1984. What's to say that these weren't demo tracks or the “free samples” that the music folks themselves sometimes give out?

Interesting that no-one's picked up on the hypocrisy in the “this was damaging young artists” claim - when it's common knowledge that those young artists don't do that well financially, with the record label picking up the vast majority of the revenue. Otherwise why would so many be looking at taking control of their own distribution.

Stealing is wrong, copyright theft is wrong, but setting up SOCA as “bag men”* is also wrong.

(* a la “V for Vendetta”)

PS I didn't use this site, nor even know of it's existence before reading the article.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/f7vgxPgA3vM/are-uk-police-hacking-file-sharers-computers

More info, SOCA even admitting that the media industries told them what to put on that notice. Le sigh

crossy
As I said before, unless SOCA can prove that John/Jane Doe knowingly received this “stolen” material then all this "you're facing a 10 year jail term and we know where you live" is straight out of 1984.

Fair point - “Bag Men” as you say are definitely the wrong way to go. I don't think that's what's happening here though…the message left on the takedown page is factually correct and not overly threatening, and tbh it would be very very easy to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the MP3s were illegalyl aquired, if a search of that PC was conducted. Even more so if the ID3 tags have been populated as so many of these http download sites tend to do.

Spud1
Almost true - but that's what they have done. If they legalised drugs they would be sold and taxed (and end up expensive) - look at california or amsterdam. They don't give them away free. The black market would always exist due to the taxes and charges levied on the legal alternative. People don't like to pay for things!

There are now legal digital download services for all kinds of previously pirated material, be it music, tv, movies, games, applications..directly equivalent to a dutch coffee shop or californian dispensary in this analogy.

Except the black market only sprouts up again when government taxation and industry profiteering becomes unreasonable. Do you think anyone would seriously bother buying knockoff cigarettes if over the counter cigarettes were more reasonably priced?

The exact same economic forces are at play here. If you have a product and you overcharge for it, others will crop up and undercut you. Only when the government interferes with this, do you get dangerous black markets.

i think the methods may be off but its the right step too many people pirate stuff and feel its acceptable to do so. shut down the distributors and the problem will get better.

Spud1
There are now legal digital download services for all kinds of previously pirated material, be it music, tv, movies, games, applications..directly equivalent to a dutch coffee shop or californian dispensary in this analogy.

Spotify is amazing, there is no need for anyone to download music when you have the likes of Spotify (£10 a month then unlimited tracks within it) but what is there for films?

Netflix has bugger all selection, and lovefilm is still a 3-4 day wait for films to arrive at least. I am yet to find a decent streaming service (a la spotify) that would make me sit there a turn against those downloading films. Even with Lovefilm you are still forced to sit there and watch 10-15mins of crap (trailers, anti-piracy etc) before each and every film.

For now i put up with lovefilm, but I can fully understand why people still download films. Its the only way to get them on your terms… if I pay for something I want it my way (within reason, obviously).

Andehh
but what is there for films?

Sky/box office/virgin equivalent, iTunes, Amazon, LoveFilm, Netfix, Film4OD, iPlayer, youtube, blinkbox…quite a few imo.

I understand that most of those services are awful though - I personally will never go near Love Film again after the way they treated me and my information, and most of the others don't have the latest releases.

I actually still use my local Blockbuster store, as they usually have good deals on blu-ray rentals. Clearly isn't the same as a fully digitial “instant” service though.

Do Blockbuster have a streaming service?

Andehh
Spotify is amazing, there is no need for anyone to download music when you have the likes of Spotify (£10 a month then unlimited tracks within it) but what is there for films?

Netflix has bugger all selection, and lovefilm is still a 3-4 day wait for films to arrive at least. I am yet to find a decent streaming service (a la spotify) that would make me sit there a turn against those downloading films. Even with Lovefilm you are still forced to sit there and watch 10-15mins of crap (trailers, anti-piracy etc) before each and every film.

LoveFilm has a streaming service (it's available to me via XBox and my Sony tv), so you shouldn't have to wait for the post. That said, since I've never used LF I don't know whether the streaming service also makes you sit through the “mandatory” trailers (aaaarrrrggghhhh!) and the pointless “don't steal films” message*. I've always avoided LF because first of they seem to try and use high pressure selling tactics (which gets my back up at the best of times) and - more importantly - I'm quite content with the FilmFlex service I get via Virgin.

There's also a Sony service (used to be called Qriocity) and Zune Marketplace if you've got an XBox. Netflix - so I've heard - has little content at the moment, but the UK bosses have pointed out that this is because it's really still in the process of finding it's feet.

(*always struck me as a little redundant to make legitmate viewers sit through that crap - if you can see the message then you bought the media, in which case you're not likely - surely - to then want to go back and steal another copy? From what I heard from a pirate DVD user a long time ago, the first thing that goes from a pirate DVD is the stupid don't-steal-me message).

Philosphy question: if you steal a DVD from someone selling pirate DVD's, who's the real victim - is the pirate or the movie company that they “stole” the content from?

danroyle
i think the methods may be off but its the right step too many people pirate stuff and feel its acceptable to do so. shut down the distributors and the problem will get better.

Nonsense. New underground distributors will simply sprout up in their place because the root problem hasn't been resolved, economic demand for reasonably priced, downloadable, no DRM, no ads, no being called a thief even though you paid for it entertainment which the market wants.