From SANS,

"--Cyber Extortionists Attacks Turn to BitTorrent Users
(April 12, 2010)
Internet scam artists have identified a new vector of attack. Instead
of bullying users into purchasing ineffective anti-virus software,
attackers are scaring BitTorrent users into paying to avoid fines or
even imprisonment for using the filesharing application. Malware
installed on BitTorrent users' computers pops up messages while users
are running BitTorrent; the messages claim that a scanner has detected
pirated content in the computer and offers them the chance to pay US
$400 as a pre-trial settlement. The messages claim to originate from
the ICCP Foundation and threaten the users with fines of US $250,000 and
five years in prison.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/04/ransomware/
http://www.scmagazineus.com/bittorrent- ... le/167808/

That's too batshit crazy for the government to go along with.

Yet another reason to not mess with BitTorrents. I know a lot of people swear by them but I just can't see opening my computer to that many strangers.

I hope you're right, Jeff. Suggestions like this are genuinely insane.

Illegal Downloads Run Rampant In Spain

The U.S. has the lowest piracy rate in the world, but globally nearly $50.1 billion dollars has been lost to piracy. As illegal downloads become a growing problem worldwide, individual countries may determine that they do not share the same issues and concerns.

In the U.S. producers of the movie, "The Hurt Locker” are tackling the issue of piracy by suing filesharers who downloaded torrent versions of the movie. India is taking steps to fight the U.S. ACTA Piracy pact on what they believe to be stringent restrictions, while Spain is finding that it has to get tougher in its efforts to combat piracy.

A new report published June 1 from IDC Research Iberia claims that over 95 percent of music in Spain is pirated. The report indicates that the country lost $6.3 billion in the second half of 2009. It is estimated that the country lost about $12 billion dollars for the entire year.

The study was commissioned by the Coalition of Creators and Content Industries and targeted music, film, video game, and book distribution. The final results indicated that 95.6 percent of music obtained online in the country was pirated. Pirated films were estimated at 83.7 percent while video games came in at 52.3 percent.

Nearly 6,000 internet users in Spain were surveyed for the study.

"The real figures are even worse," says Coalition president Aldo Olcese, who believes that internet users under the age of 16, presumed to be the most frequent illegal downloaders, were not included in the study.

Anti-piracy legislation, called the Sustainable Economy Law, is expected to be rolled out after the summer in Spain.

Speechcrime: Netherlands Rules Talking or Writing About Piracy is Illegal

The IFPI, RIAA, MPAA, and their international allies have led a crusade against copyright infringement over the last decade, which has seen record million dollar verdicts handed down against citizens for essentially petty theft. Now, even as they continue their lawsuits, they eagerly await gaining new sets of legislated tools thanks to the lobbyist money they've been pouring into governments worldwide.

We previously detailed how the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, set to be debated by the U.S. Congress later this year, currently contains a new crime called "imminent infringement", which is essentially copyright thoughtcrime.

Now courts in the Netherlands have added speechcrime to that list, essentially ruling that is illegal to even talk or write about piracy. The case began last year when Dutch movie studio Eyeworks sued a Usenet community FTD for "making public" their film Komt een vrouw bij de dokter (A Woman At The Doctor).

Typically "making public" means you uploaded a file and shared it. In some cases, the definition has been extended to posting links to infringed material. However, in this case FTD's users neither posted copyrighted material nor links to it, they merely would "spot" locations of various films on Usenet and post them to the group (sans-links).

In May, in Dutch Federal court in the Hague FTD was handed a defeat. The court issued an "ex parte injunction" banning the site's users from "spotting" under threat of punishment.

The FTD's lawyer Arnoud Engelfriet filed an objection (appeal) to the court order. That objection was heard last week and FTD lost yet again when Dutch court essentially ruled a second time that free speech did not cover talking about or writing about piracy.

Speaking with TorrentFreak Engelfriet voiced his frustration, stating, "I am flabbergasted by the court’s reasoning. It is established case law that publishing hyperlinks or torrents (Mininova, Pirate Bay) is *not* the same as a publication. FTD does less than what Mininova or Pirate Bay does, but according to the court we are more liable than they are?"

The Judge supported his decision citing a case in England involving a Usenet service called Newzbin. Engelfriet describes, "They say that FTD is doing the same thing, and since the English courts held Newzbin liable for infringement, FTD must be liable too. This completely ignores the technical differences between Newzbin and FTD. Newzbin is an NZB search engine through which you find codes to directly download from Usenet. FTD is a forum where people ’spot’ movies using messages in ordinary Dutch."

The FTD's unsuccessful defense was that it did not control the servers the material was hosted on and hand no control over potential downloaders and thus was not "making available". The court said this was inconsequential and that guilt would be determined by establishing "whether the behavior of FTD allows users to download copyrighted files (in an easier manner) and thus makes such files available to the public." And the court found they did.

Tim Kuik, director of Dutch copyright protection group BREIN cheered the decision, stating, "This is a collaboration between FTD and its users where they knowingly provide access to unauthorized files. It’s clear that this is more than just talking about files like FTD wants people to believe."

Brein is suing the FTD in a second court case. That case will go to court in October. Kuik wants to see FTD shut down entirely and taken off the internet.

FTD may soon have a bit of vengeance, though. Dutch elections are this week, and due to decisions like this one and the Sweden's multi-million dollar verdict against the owners of The Pirate Bay, the Pirate Party is picking up steam. Writes a party spokesperson, "When reaching landmark decisions that overturn years of jurisprudence, neither the judge nor the issue is served when it turns out that the judge in question is in business with the copyright-lawyer from the party benefiting from this shocking verdict. The fact that this joint enterprise mainly offers courses on 'counter-piracy' at €900 per day, makes the situation appear even muddier still. If the Netherlands wants to avoid looking like a banana-republic where the law is for sale to the highest bidder, it is urgent that parliament takes control of the debate on copyright-reform, and brings it back into the public arena where this discussion belongs."

It has been established that the judge serving on The Pirate Bay case was a member of copyright organizations and may have financially benefited from the decision. The Pirate Bay admins are currently appealing the case, hoping for a more unbiased day in court. Despite the seemingly liberal nature of the Netherlands it has been leading the way in copyright enforcement, banningThe Pirate Bay and other sites entirely.

Sigh. They won't pass appropriate tax legislation, but this CRAP is on "fast track"??! I HATE both parties.

Equally important, Geff... the Senate is also working on a law to limit the volume of TV commercials (so they will no longer be louder than the TV shows they interrupt.) Seriously! They have nothing more important to focus on!

If they ban Kid Rock and Poof Diddley, they will be doing the world a great public service.

MPAA threatens to cut off Google HQ

For years, the MPAA has been sending notifications to users who illegally download their movies via the Internet. The general course of action is to hire a company to track down users who infringe on the MPAA’s copyrights, send a letter to the offenders ISP, and request that the message be sent to the actual offending user. The letter contains the title of the alleged infringement, the day and time that the company detected the activity, as well as the users IP address, port, and protocol information.

According to TorrentFreak, the MPAA has sent multiple letters to Google headquarters with information on employees who have allegedly downloaded movies via BitTorrent. These users are accused of downloading copyrighted material from within the company and according to the letters that the MPAA sends out, they are within their rights to have the users ISP shutdown Internet access for the offenders – thus taking Google offline.

“Copyright infringement also violates your ISP’s terms of service and could lead to limitation or suspension of your Internet service. You should take immediate action to prevent your Internet account from being used for illegal activities.”