"Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection — only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans" [BoingBoing]
(Photo: Kamoteus and Joe Mad)

"Amazon temporarily gags Spore critics, deletes and restores all customer reviews" [ArsTechnica] (Thanks to Nathan!)

First, here's the official revised policy that Yahoo announced today, according to the Associated Press:

The company said Wednesday it is offering coupons on request for people to buy songs again through Yahoo's new partner, RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody. Those songs will be in the MP3 format, free of copy protection. Refunds are available for users who "have serious problems with this arrangement," Yahoo said.

John Healey at the Los Angeles Times' blog Bit Player published this additional information, which sounds like a hidden perk of the Yahoo Music Store closing:

Carrie Davis at Yahoo provided these nuggets of detail: if you're looking for a coupon or a refund, contact Yahoo's Customer Care department. There's no need for proof of purchase. The offer expires at the end of the year. By the way, coupons can be redeemed for any track at Rhapsody, not just the ones the customer purchased from Yahoo.

Of course, you'll have to explicitly request the coupons, then take the time to re-download your songs—or download new ones if you didn't like the ones you originally bought (although that's pretty shady, especially if you don't delete the DRM-wrapped ones)—so it's not the smoothest transition to DRM-free music. On the other hand, we're glad to see Yahoo isn't totally abandoning its customers after all.

"Yahoo offers coupons for music that stops working" [Associated Press] (Thanks to Chris!)
"Yahoo rethinks, offers refunds for DRM-wrapped songs" [Bit Player at Los Angeles Times]
(Photo: Getty)

Earlier this month the RIAA voluntarily dismissed the case—then refiled it last week but didn't mention it was the same lawsuit, which means it was assigned to a different judge. Now the RIAA is demanding immediate discovery (which includes depositions and hard drives), which the previous judge had blocked pending a rule on the dismissal motion. We tip our hats to you, RIAA lawyers. You bring every evil-lawyer cliche from TV to life.

"These people are psychos," Beckerman said in an interview.

Also, the case was captioned under the name Does, meaning the RIAA was somehow pretending it didn't know the family's name allegedly behind the IP address in question.

"This case, it's the exact same internet access account," he said. "It’s the very same act of copyright infringement charged. It's no different."

The RIAA did not immediately respond for comment.

Beckerman has penned letters to both judges alerting them to the switcheroo.

"They're trying to force a settlement and frightening people," Beckerman said in the interview. "That's the only point of this."

"Lawyer: RIAA Gets Sleazy in Disputed Downloading Lawsuit" [Wired Threat Level] (Thanks to Chris!)
(Photo: Getty)

Although it won't affect other cases, the RIAA was handed a small smackdown this week when a U.S. district judge rejected their request for a summary judgement, and ruled that putting song files in a shared directory was not enough proof that infringement had occurred.

The judge said that the RIAA "must prove that the songs were actually downloaded," which is not a distinction past judges have made. Whether or not this ruling will cause other judges to look at the RIAA's future claims in a different light remains to be seen, however.

Wake's ruling pretty much contradicts many of the legal arguments the RIAA has presented in those peer-to-peer lawsuits the organization has brought against individual users. However, not that many cases actually make it to court, mainly because defendants often opt for settling for a few thousand dollars instead of shouldering expenses for a jaunt through the civil legal system.

Update: Missdona has provided a couple of useful links in the comments below. If you experience similar issues with select programs being incorrectly DRMed, check out these threads for advice on how to resolve the situation.

Here's what Dean experienced:

"This morning, my kids and I decided to watch a TiVo HD recording we made last night of The Making of John Adams. This is the new upcoming mini-series by Tom Hanks and others about the lives and accomplishments of John Adams. When we started watching it, I first found that the TiVo had flagged it for mandatory auto-deletion within a few hours of being deleted, due to 'copyright policies.' Hmm - never saw that one before.
 
After about 5 minutes watching, my oldest son came into the room, and we decided to start it over so he could enjoy it. What I found was something I've never seen before and has me pretty frosted. When I backed up to the beginning and attempted to watch it again, TiVo would not allow me to - again stating that it had violated copyright policies. After countless attempts at forward and reverse moves, we found that we could now not watch any portion of the show! I rebooted the TiVo, and found the same thing. No can do - the TiVo/HBO/Comcast programming had locked it from being viewed again! Then as promised at 11:29am EST, it deleted from my hard drive and there was nothing I could do about it.

In this Wired interview from November 2004, Tivo's general counsel assured the public that it was unlikely (ha!) that content providers would take advantage of the Macrovision technology to restrict recording of regular programming:

What if the higher-value content is just the beginning? This could be a Trojan horse.
That would be a violent blow to consumer flexibility. You could end up in a situation where different products by different manufacturers would have different rules. I don't think we would go along with it.
 
With the cable companies in bed with the studios, TiVo could be the last line of defense for the DVR as we know it.
Sometimes I feel that way. We're aware of the danger, and the slippery slope. The danger is that DRM can tilt the balance of copyright so that ultimately there's no concept of fair use, because the content owners dictate what the rules are. But I think content owners are beginning to recognize that if you make things too restrictive, then consumers will find nonlegal ways to achieve what they want.

"UPDATED: HBO's new miniseries IS locked down for TiVo recording" [The Culture of Ownership] (Thanks to Missdona!)

RELATED
"Has TiVo Forsaken Us?" [Wired]
(Photo: Culture of Ownership)

One distinctive tool in this situation is Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), who introduced an amendment that would explicitly deny funding to schools who didn't comply, but then had his staffers pull the amendment at the last minute with the excuse that he wasn't there in person to introduce it. We'll apparently have to look forward to Rep. Cohen's industry-friendly amendment at a later date.

"Controversial college funding bill passed—P2P proviso intact" [ArsTechnica]
(Photo: Getty)

Saul Hansell spoke to Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president for public affairs.

"We generally are reluctant to get into the business of examining content that flows across our networks and taking some action as a result of that content," Tauke said, then gave three reasons why Verizon isn't thrilled with the idea of becoming piracy cops:

1) The slippery slope.

Once you start going down the path of looking at the information going down the network, there are many that want you to play the role of policeman. Stop illegal gambling offshore. Stop pornography. Stop a whole array of other kinds of activities that some may think inappropriate.

2) It opens up potential liability for failing to block copyrighted work.

When you look back at the history of copyright legislation, there has been an effort by Hollywood to pin the liability for copyright violations on the network that transmits the material. It is no secret they think we have deeper pockets than others and we are easy-to-find targets.

3) Privacy.

Anything we do has to balance the need of copyright protection with the desire of customers for privacy.

Verizon Rejects Hollywood's Call to Aid Piracy Fight [New York Times]

Our favorite line is one of their warning signs that you might be buying a pirated product: "Compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan." In other words, "A product you would actually want, that is equal in value to what we're charging you for it."

"RIAA Fake News!" [LiveLeak]

The authors, Dierdre Mulligan and Aaron Perzanowski, point out that unless Sony deliberately tried to harm its customers, it neglected to properly evaluate its third-party DRM solutions before releasing them to the public—or else it would have been aware of the programs' potential for damage. From pages 1179-80:

Prior to inking the deal to provide XCP to Sony BMG, First4Internet's business focused on content filtering, particularly the automated recognition of pornographic images. Aside from an earlier revision on XCP used by a number of labels on a smattering of pre-release CDs, First4Internet had no apparent expertise or experience in content
protection software.

SunnComm, the company that delivered MediaMax, offered even more cause for concern. The company began as a provider of Elvis impersonation services. After a change in management following a false press release announcing a non-existent $25 million production deal with Warner Brothers, the company purchased a 3.5" floppy disk factory in 2001, displaying a disturbing dearth of technological savvy.

"The Magnificence of the Disaster: Reconstructiong the Sony BMG Rootkit Incident" (PDF) [Berkely Technology Law Journal via BoingBoing]

RELATED
"Universal Music CEO: Record industry can't tell when geeks are lying to us about technology"
Consumerist posts on the Sony Rootkit debacle
(Photo: Getty)

EFF Releases Reports and Software to Spot Interference with Internet Traffic [EFF]

This also opens the possibility that movie-download services from companies like Netflix and Blockbuster may be able to offer a way to purchase and create your own DVD hard copy. However, it's likely that in order to do this, you'd need to purchase special software and/or equipment and/or supplies—and since "studios are not likely to discount DVDs," we're curious to see whether they'll come up with competitive price structures (compared to Amazon, for instance) or choke off yet another possible revenue stream.

"Walgreen sees movie-burning DVD kiosks at stores" [Reuters]
(Photo: randomthoughts)

I witnessed a distressing situation at my local Apple Store this morning: a customer who wanted to buy 2 iPhones (for her and her husband) was denied the sale, because she wanted to pay with cash. One employee claimed it was due to "the registration system", stating "it requires a credit card" which is totally bogus. Another employee said it was part of an attempt to prevent people from buying several and unlocking or exporting them. They also said that checks and gift cards are no longer accepted for iPhone purchases, and that he credit card has to have the customer's name on it.

Apple Limits Sale of iPhones: Two Per Person and No Cash [AP]
(Photo: Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten)

The Forbes journalist writes, "But more surprising is that fans chose to steal music they could legally download for any price they choose," but it's not clear whether that's the analyst's opinion or the writer's. At any rate, we think it's overstating the issue. Even the analyst admits that it's not proof that Radiohead's fans are a mutinous lot of anarchists:

Garland argues that this kind of digital theft is more a matter of habit than of economics. "People don't know Radiohead's site. They do know their favorite BitTorrent site and they use it every day," he says. "It's quite simply easier for folks to get the illegal version than the legal version."

But for Doug Lichtman, an intellectual property professor at the UCLA School of Law, the volume of piracy following In Rainbows' release erodes the success of Radiohead's innovation. "If the community rejects even forward-thinking experiments like this one, real harm is done to the next generation of experimentation and change," he says.

Lichtman speculates that users may have interpreted Radiohead's offer as a giveaway and so felt more comfortable downloading the album from other free sources. Fans may also have been turned off by the band's requirement that users register by providing their name and e-mail and postal addresses.

"Free? Steal It Anyway" [Forbes via Slashdot]
(Photo: Getty)

Reading section 605 as a whole makes clear that Congress intended to treat differently individuals who played different roles in the pirating system... In contrast to subsection (a)€ targeting of individuals who use piracy devices to intercept satellite signals, subsection (e)(4) aims at bigger fish—the assemblers, manufacturers, and distributors of piracy devices.

Ah, we yearn for the quaint days when stealing cable just meant slipping the cable guy a Jackson.

Appeals Court: Hacking your DirecTV not the same as commercial piracy [Ars Technica]

From the NYT:

At City Hall Park this morning, the association's chairman and chief executive, Dan Glickman, showed off two black Labradors, Lucky and Flo, that have been trained to sniff for DVDs.

Their trainer, Neil Powell, 61, of Newcastle, Northern Island, has been a dog trainer for 35 years, preparing dogs to detect explosives and drugs and perform search and rescue missions. In a phone interview, Mr. Powell said that DVDs were a new area for him.

"The thing that motivated me at the start was to put a stop, or try to put a stop, to pedophilia," he said, noting that the trade in DVDs are often used to produce and exchange child pornography. "That was my highest priority."

It took Mr. Powell more than six months to train Lucky and Flo to detect and act on the scent of polycarbonate, the polymer used in DVDs. Since the spring, Lucky and Flo have been on loan to the Malaysian and Philippine governments, working with law enforcement officials at border crossings, participating in several raids and sniffing out pirated DVDs in storage centers and packages bound for export.

Fresh Off Malaysian Triumph, DVD-Sniffing Dogs Tackle New York [NYT]
(Photo:Liz O. Baylen for The New York Times )

From boingboing:

The PC version of the game is packaged with SecuROM copy protection, a piece of third party anti-copying software that phones home and prevents installation on more than 2 PCs.

The PC demo of BioShock causes AVG to go nuts at it for containing trojans. It wouldn't install or load on a winXP partition until AVG antivirus was completely uninstalled. *Presumably* this is due to SecuROM, which also demands that other perfectly legit processes stopped

What a mess!

Reader Andrew writes:

I've been looking forward to this game for ages, it finally came out this week. I went to lunch and picked it up, of course. When I got back to work I just had to install it on my laptop, couldnt resist. I got home and installed it on my main PC for the second install, only to find out that you can only activate this game twice. One, two already gone. Everything seemed fine after 2K Games commented that uninstalling the game for a PC would deactivate the install, allowing it to be installed and activated again.

Apparently, this doesn't work. I payed $50 for this game, and I unknowingly reached my activation limit. There was no warning anywhere in the documentation or anything that I would be limited to two activations. Nobody knew there was an activation limit when they bought the game, if they ever knew there was forced activation needed to play the game in the first place. This is supposed to stop piracy, instead it punishes only paying customer.

Thank you,
Andrew

BioShock CP Hassles Continue [Kotaku]
BioShock game bundled with DRMalware [boingboing]
Angry Thread Of Bioshock Customers [2K]

They also report that the prosecutor in the case was pressured by the theater chain to set an example with the 19-year-old.

From Threat Level:

"What they were saying, 'Could you get her to admit that it wasn't right.' They wanted to make sure the message gets out," Trodden [prosecutor] said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "This was kind of trying to address the concerns of the theater people, and the fact that it was not an outrageous crime."
...
Jhannet Sejas, 19, pleaded guilty last week in Arlington County General District Court to one misdemeanor count of filming a motion picture in a movie house owned by Regal Cinemas. The statute, like the 37 others nationwide sponsored by the motion picture industry, deems filmgoers guilty for filming a "portion" or a "portion thereof" of a movie.

"I totally forgot that I was not allowed to do that," Sejas said Wednesday. "I did it without thinking clearly.

Sejas agreed to pay $71 in court costs and will have the conviction removed if she "keeps her nose clean," says the prosecutor.

World's Largest Theater Chain Pressured Prosecutor to Charge Teen for Filming 20 Seconds of Transformers [Threat Level] (Thanks, Jeff!)

PREVIOUSLY: Regal Cinemas Facing Boycott After Pressing Charges Again Teen "Pirate"

Teen Faces Charges For Recording 20 Seconds of "Transformers"

When he complained about it to customer service, they told him "Time Warner/Warner Bros had contracted a security company to film movie theater audiences around the country during the opening weekend of its movies in an effort to prevent piracy." Ew! We think this is scary. If we saw some potential psycho filming us during a movie we'd be weirded out and we'd leave. Especially if it was during a (sort-of) remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Do not go to sleep. Warner Bros. will film you.

We emailed Time Warner for comment, but haven't heard back. Here's Sam's letter:

Dear Consumerist,
Last night (Aug. 19) myself and a friend decided to venture to the local movie theater (AMC Lowes Georgetown 14) to catch the 7:35pm showing of The Invasion. The movie started on time with a moderately full theater and immediately I notice an older gentleman who looked to be about 60 standing in the corner of the theater. Sporting a black suit and a black briefcase, he began to film the audience during the movie. Every 5-10 minutes he would sweep the audience with his video camera, then turn it off and just watch us, then turn the camera back on and sweep again. Now being in Washington DC people are very security conscious and at first I thought he might have been Secret Service but he only stayed in the theater filming for about 45 minutes.

After the movie I went to the Customer Service desk to inquire if they knew about this incident. The manager behind the desk informed me that Time Warner/Warner Bros had contracted a security company to film movie theater audiences around the country during the opening weekend of its movies in an effort to prevent piracy. While I believe steps should be taken to curb piracy, this was one of the most unnerving experiences of my life, and I was not only person that felt this way. I overheard at least 4 other people complain to customer service about this incident, with 2 of them stating that if this ever happened again they would stop using this particular chain of theaters. I was quite surprised at the reaction of the customer service employee, he did not seem to to care one bit that people were opening telling him they would stop using this theater and he brushed off the criticism by shrugging his shoulders and just stared blankly back at those of us who were complaining and passed the blame to Time Warner/Warner Bros.

The question is, what does Time Warner/Warner Bros do with these video tapes? How long are they stored? Is there a massive database of these tapes somewhere? While I do know that laws allow for photography of people without their permission in public places but does this apply to a a movie theater since it is a private business? And if it is not allowed, I was not informed by AMC Lowes that I would be filmed during the movie so what are the legal ramifications of that action?

This email is also being sent to Craig Ramsey who is the Chief Financial Officer for AMC Entertainment and is listed as their Media Contact on their SEC filings and Craig Hoffman of Warner Bros who is listed as their Anti-Piracy press contact.

-Sam

UPDATE: Sam writes to tell us that the CSR he spoke to originally was mistaken and the scary Warner Bros. thug wasn't filming, but was, in fact, using night vision goggles. Sam writes:

This afternoon I received an email from the Director of Guest Services for AMC Theaters, I spoke with her on the phone and she was extremely apologetic about the incident. She also wanted to clear up some misinformation provided by the AMC Customer Service Representative. The man in the suit was not in fact filming the audience, he was using a night vision scope. She assured me that AMC would never allow filming of the audience. Apparently the Georgetown 14 theater has been recently hit by pirates and this was part of the effort put on by the studio to combat such piracy. I explained to her that if this type of audience surveillance was going to happen theater goers need to be notified and she wholeheartedly agreed.

She said that she would be discussing the incident further with the manager of the theater and the CSR that I spoke with after the movie and then speak with the studio about the incident to see what can be done in the future. I was also provided with free movie passes and was told that I would be receiving an official letter of apology from AMC.

• Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll
• Harry Potter and the Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon
• Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Here's a sample excerpt, which is short but so perfect that it's almost a koan:

Harry doesn't know how long it will take to wash the sticky cake off his face.

No word on when these will be made into movies, but maybe if Hollywood will step forward and do its part, then Turkish knock-offs can start appearing in market stalls everywhere.

Memo to the Dept. of Magical Copyright Enforcement [New York Times]

(Photo: lime*monkey)

Blockbuster buys download service [Mercury News]
(Photo: Magic Lantern Shows)

Although the media frenzy over the last Harry Potter book has died down in the states, the French translation won't be released until the end of October, because the official French translator wasn't allowed to see the manuscript until the July 21st release date. Not content to wait that long, the unnamed teen and friends took care of the task themselves and posted it online.

In the Washington Post, a lawyer speaking on behalf of Rowling's agents said that they were "heartened" that French officials were taking steps to "avoid innocent fans being duped" (registration required). Aww, lawyer, why'd you have to go and say a jackassy thing like that? We were sort of on your side for once.

French Schoolboy held over Harry Potter translation [Telegraph]

(Photo: Getty)

Violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is against the law. If you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will lose your ResNet privileges forever. No second notices, no excuses, no refunds. One violation and your ResNet internet access is gone for as long as you reside on campus.

University of Kansas adopts one-strike policy for copyright infringement [Ars Technica]
ReNet [University of Kansas]
(Photo: AP)

Each time, it's been marked in the queue as the wrong disc and sent back. The second time, I sent an email and received a generic response. Today, the third time we've received the same wrong disc, I placed notes on the disc's sleeve and the disc itself, hoping that will get someone's attention [not likely!].

My family have been using Blockbuster's online service for almost a year, and until recently, have had absolutely no problems with it. Normally we receive DVDs within a day of them being sent out, and the selection of films we like is amazing. They even carry a great selection of anime. This is, coincidently, where the trouble lies.

My roommates have been wanting to see the series Fushigi Yuugi for some time. Last month we got the idea to check Blockbuster and, lo and behold, they had the entire series, OVAs and all. We placed the TV series in the queue first, and bumped it to the top. Of course, they were sent out of order, but that's not the complaint. We have so far been sent volume 2 three times, and each time encountered the exact same problem. Instead of the proper disc, we've opened the sleeve and found a Chinese bootleg copy of Tenchi in Tokyo! Each time, it's been marked in the queue as the wrong disc and sent back. The second time, I sent an email and received a generic response. Today, the third time we've received the same wrong disc, I placed notes on the disc's sleeve and the disc itself, hoping that will get someone's attention [not likely!].

I have a sinking feeling that next week we'll have the same problem we've been having. Normally this sort of thing doesn't bother me, and truth be told, I've seen most of the series already. For my roommates, they'll be hopelessly lost if they miss out on seven episodes. I'd like to escalate this issue, but I have no idea where to start. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

The university has estimated that each complaint - basically a warning that a computer on the UNL campus is being used to pirate music - costs about $11 to process, Weir said. So the university wants to be paid for its trouble. Wiltse's letter to the Denver firm representing the RIAA asked the recording industry to reimburse NU for the cost of finding the offending students.

"We're spending taxpayer dollars tracking down RIAA problems," Weir said. "Are we an agent of the RIAA? Why aren't they paying us for this?"

In response to NU's request, the RIAA's Engebretsen said, "It is neither practical nor appropriate for us to entertain a reimbursement request."

On the one hand, boo-hiss UNL for dancing with the devil. But good on 'em for sending the RIAA a bill! — MARK ASHLEY

UNL proves safe haven for music pirates [Omaha World-Herald]

Well, no, it doesn't. But then again, neither do Creative MP3 players more. Creative has just released a firmware update for it's Zen MicroPhoto and Zen Visin:M players, which disables the box-advertised feature of recording FM radio to your hard drive.

Isn't it nice now that EULAs allow companies to revoke your rights for their own convenience at any time?

Creative Strips FM from Zen Vision [Gizmodo]

When you buy something, the base assumption is that while you might not be getting a product of sublime excellence, good-value and efficiency, you're at least buying a non-simulacrum. But Gamestop would just love to change all that.

If you're not a gamer, here's the deal: there are entire Chinese cottage industries that specialize in pirating video games, manufacturing them and then selling them on eBay. It can be hard to spot a forgery — a lot of times, the quality of production is actually indistinguishable from retail. The only way you can tell is by closely examining the cartridge itself, looking for a gold-printed "Nintendo" above the pins.

Needless to say, these games then get sold second hand to stores like Gamestop. Of course, Gamestop's supposed to be savvy enough to recognize a forgery... and definitely not supposed to sell them on.

Of course, get a gangly, pimply gamer willing to work for discount behind the counter, and excellence in both training and moral business practices get thrown out the window. So when Curmudgeon Gamer pointed out that Gamestop had just tried to sell him a forged game, Gamestop's response? "Wow! Cool! Learn something new everyday! This is between you and me, right?" And then the counterfeit game was again silently slid into the display case, waiting for a less observant sucker to come along.

Just between you and me... [Curmudgeon Gamer]

It's pretty much a mystery. It certainly doesn't seem to have anything to do with actually selling pirated merchandise. And eBay just won't come clean on what their arbitrary policy on identifying sellers as pirates actually is, as reader Aaron D. recently discovered.

Aaron D. isn't a pirate, but he does sell CDs and DVDs on eBay. He assures us that these are all completely legal and authorized. But eBay arched an eyebrow at him over a live Sandra Bernhard CD that he was selling, printed on a CD-R.

Counterintuitively, that CD-R is actually legit: Sandra Bernhard sold it to Aaron herself. But when Aaron explained that to eBay, they responded by yanking all of his other auctions, then canceling his account when he tried to set it right.

Argh, mateys, after the jump!

I recently opened up my very first ebay seller's account. I also opened up a paypal account. I have heard all of the bad things about ebay and paypal, but I figured the bulk of what I was selling was going to be sold for minor duckets, so if it all blew up in my face I wouldn't lose out too badly.

I listed approximately 40 different CDs and DVDs on ebay. A day into my listings, I recieved an email from ebay. They had taken down a Sandra Bernhard CD I had listed, claiming that it was an "unauthorized copy". (See below copy of their final email for explanation as to what that means.) I understood how they could experience confusion about the item: Bernhard produces most of her live concert CDs herself and sells them at her shows and on her website. They are basically CD-R's with silkscreened fronts and home-printed inserts.

I emailed the "Trust & Safety" department back explaining this, and stating that I would relist the item, but that in the item's description I would make it unflinchingly clear that the item was NOT a bootleg or unauthorized copy, but was an original CD as made and sold by Bernhard herself.

Three days later I recieved two emails from ebay. One was a list of 11 CD's up for auction which had been cancelled, again for violating the "unauthorized copy" rules. THIS TIME every single one of the CDs was a store-sold, factory-manufactured compact disc. The second email, which you can read below, informed my that my account had been cancelled because of my repeated violation of this policy.

As I'm sure you know, ebay provides no resource to try and work out issues of this nature aside from emailing them. If you try to call via telephone you are taken to a recording that tells you to keep emailing.

So what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to PROVE to ebay that the 11 CDs they alledge were bootleg or pirated copies are NOT?! I emailed ebay and told them point blank that the items in question were NOT bootlegs, and asked them what it was in my listings that made them think otherwise? They told me that they couldn't tell me what it was about my listing that made them suspect they were bootlgs, because doing so would allow me to re-list the items and circumvent putting in phrasing that would "tip them off."

So basically I'm screwed. I didn't do what I'm accused of doing, ebay insists I did, and they have NO RESOURCES to allow you to prove that you're in the right. I emailed "Trust & Safety" and said I would be glad to make an MPEG video of myself holding up all of the CDs, front and back inserts and front and back of the discs, to show they were store-sold silver discs, and they never wrote back.

Ultimately the last laugh is on ebay, because I took my business to amazon.com and over the last two weeks I ended up selling about 120 CDs for $1000+! So screw you, Ebay.

And the email they sent Aaron:

Unfortunately, your eBay account has been suspended for a minimum of seven days due to a violation of the eBay Unauthorized Copies (Copyright) policy.

eBay prohibits unauthorized copies of media (such as software, video games, music, television programs, and photographs). Unauthorized copies include (but are not limited to) backup, pirated, duplicated, or bootlegged copies. It is both illegal and against eBay policy to sell unauthorized copies of copyrighted media.

We suspended your account after carefully considering each violation and verifying that the correct action was taken.

As a result of your suspension, all of your current listings have been removed from eBay.

You are not permitted to use eBay in any way during your suspension. You're also not allowed to register a new account or use another existing account. Doing so may result in your permanent suspension.

During your suspension, you also won't be able to do any of the following:

- Bid on items
- Sell items
- Leave or receive Feedback
- File for an Unpaid Item credit

***Note***
Any remaining fees that are on your account are due immediately. These fees will be charged using the billing method that you currently have on file.

To have your account considered for reinstatement, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/reinstfaq.html

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

eBay Trust & Safety

You'd think an OS that had actually been created with pirated software would be a little more understanding of our own moral failings. But apparently not.

Nevertheless, five or six years ago, nine defaults WAV files in Windows XP were created using a cracked version of Sony's Sound Forge. Doubtlessly, it was not Bill Gates doing the cracking, but probably some freelancer who didn't pay for his tools.
Still, if one of the most profitable and just-stinking-loaded companies in the world can't bother to pay an extra $450 to establish its hegemony over the home computing market with a further iteration, it probably makes you feel less bad about borrowing your buddy's Windows XP cd and saving your own impoverished ass a couple hundred bucks.

Windows uses pirated software? [Tech Republic]

Business Week has posted an interesting article on how pornographers are working to evolve their business model to deal with piracy. Unlike Hollywood, the porn industry isn't trying to petition politicians to enact laws that will protect their obsolete business strategies.

Instead, pornography is pioneering many of the same techniques that will eventually be stolen wholesale by Hollywood to save their industry. They are stressing content that can be modified by the user: DVDs with adjustable content and the like. Similarly, they have been making very successful forays into downloadable content, sharing revenues from online sales with DVD distributors in order to smooth ruffled feathers.

It's an interesting read, primarily because it stresses the unlikely strength of the porn industry: because they are outcasts from mainstream media, entertainment and politics, they are forced to come up with even more innovative means to protect (and therefore evolve) their business.

The Pornographers vs. The Pirates [Business Week]

After a recent Windows update, every time you log-on to XP, the OS frankly tells you that you are a no good, dirty thief. Additionally, an annoying warning balloon perpetually inflates in your system tray, telling you what a scummy jerk you are.

Luckily, it's just an annoyance. Microsoft's wording on the messages threatens to turn off security updates, but Microsoft can't actually do that: any insecure Windows XP box is a threat to every other.

Still, if (like me) you ever lost your key and reinstalled with one of more dubious quality to avoid paying a redundant couple hundred of bucks, this is going to make you start stripping flesh from your face within microseconds.

You may be the victim of software counterfeiting [Coding Horror]

You might remember Starforce as the company that openly calls its critics liars and members of the Russian mafia. It also responded to Stardock's decision to release their game, Galactic Civilization II, without DRM of any type by posting links to warezed copies of the game on the company website.

It's gratifying to see a major game publisher drop Starforce on its head like an ugly baby, even if it only came about due to a lawsuit. On the other hand, it's good to see that vocal complaining and boycott movements actually can work and seriously impact shady businesses which treat their customers like criminals.

Ubisoft officially dumps Starforce [Gamespot]
Related: Previous Consumerist Stories on Starforce

In relation to our Starforce Accuses Critics Of Being Russian Mob post yesterday, reader SamC asks: "BTW, any links to starforce removal tools? (My computer is clean, but I clean up other computers for a fee. This would be pretty useful.)"

We're glad you asked, Sam! As it happens, there is one: the Starforce Drivers Removal tool. It has some obvious drawbacks, though: it doesn't always work and it's released (extremely reluctantly and while simultaneously claiming that criticism stems from international piracy groups) by Starforce themselves. Before you go whole hog trying to pluck Starforce out of the bowels of your system, you might give it a shot.

But if you don't trust the same assholes who infected your system to clean it up while calling you a member of the mafia and a pirate, you might have better luck just going deep into your system and deleting Starforce registry keys. Luckily, the Boycott Starforce site has a load of instructions up on how to do just that.

We're sure this public service announcement for the benefit of our fellow mafia pirates will be helpful. Yarrr, Guido! Yarrr!

Related: Starforce Accuses Critics Of Being Russian Mob
Related: Starforce Is Sorry For Warezing Critic's Game
Related: Why Starforce Sucks: DRM CSR Idiot Pirates

Guess Jobs forgot to tip the waiters on his last tango in Paris.

BBC:

"On Tuesday French lawmakers voted 296 to 193 in support of a law that would stop Apple, plus any other firm selling music downloads, using proprietary software to limit what people can do with tracks they have bought.

The draft law now goes to the Senate - the upper house of the French parliament - for final approval before it gets on to the statute books.

Said Apple: "...Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy."

Good thing that, in the face of immigrant uprising, anti-Semitic homicides, neo-nationalist fervor, and student demonstrations, the French legislature takes time to answer the most pressing questions: can we share pirated Serge Gainsbourg with our mistresses?

Vid of a guy, Mr. Clarke, bitch slapping the "copyright is theft" argument. Favorite quote is the MPAA gal saying, "Intellectual property and physical property are no different."

Here's a podcast of the entire discussion.

[via Powazek]