Battle brewing between Pirate Bay, recording industry over IFPI domain coup

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I previously wrote about this story from last week and it seems that the IFPI wants their domain back. Ars Technica has word on what has happened since the initial domain conquest (arrrr). Some excerpts below:

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has taken up a new battle against pirates, but this one is different than previous legal pursuits. The UK-based organization acts as the worldwide arm for the music recording industry, but as widely reported, it apparently forgot to renew its .com top-level domain in time before it got snatched up by one of its top targets, The Pirate Bay. While the IFPI still retains control of ifpi.org, ifpi.com now points to a Pirate Bay page that reads: "International Federation of Pirates Interests." The two sides are now preparing for a fight over the domain, and we talked to the parties involved.


The switch came about sometime last week, when Pirate Bay was given the domain by someone who had bought it after it expired some time ago, The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde told Ars. A quick look through Archive.org shows that the "real" IFPI has not been using the domain for some time—in March of this year, the domain was a parked page with a Google search box, and as recently as April, it was being used as a blog for the "free music community."

An account of the events from IFPI spokesperson Laura Childs appears to confirm this. "IFPI's website www.ifpi.org continues to operate as normal. The web site www.ifpi.com was acquired by a cyber-squatter who appears to have passed it on to an associate of The Pirate Bay," she told Ars. "IFPI has already taken legal action to get the domain returned. We have filed a complaint at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) under the dispute resolution procedure. This procedure is designed for classic cyber-squatting cases such as this which involve the use of a URL in bad faith."

Indeed, the WIPO introduced new dispute resolution procedures in 2002 to account for cybersquatting. The procedure involves a review by WIPO-appointed, independent panelists in order to enforce ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. If the panel decides that the domain was acquired or used in bad faith, then it can order the domain to be transferred to the party that registered the complaint. (For curious readers, a number of past cases and related decisions can be found on WIPO's website.)

Given WIPO and ICANN's definition of "bad faith"—which says that the domain cannot be used to cause confusion with the "Complainant's mark"—there's a decent chance of The Pirate Bay eventually losing control of the domain. But if Pirate Bay can fight back and prove somehow that it has no commercial interests or intent to confuse visitors with the "real" IFPI site, it might have a chance at succeeding.

"We have not done anything illegal or even immoral," Sunde told Ars. "I can't see why we shouldn't be able to keep the domain name. We're not going to bash IFPI on it, we're going to host our own IFPI on it," he said.

They Might Be Giants - The Mesopotamians

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So h has agreed to go to see They Might Be Giants with me at the 9:30 club in here in Washington D.C. on Nov. 23rd. This will make the 2nd time this year that I've seen TMBG, the first being at Starr Hill Music Hall in Charlottesville VA. I saw them last year with Ryan, Ken, & Neil at the Orange Peel in Asheville N.C.

Needless to say, I'm a huge fan. Ryan got me hooked on them some years ago and over time my appreciation for their music has grown and grown. I am in love with their new album, "The Else"which has so many good songs on it that I can't emphasize enough that you should go and buy it. What prompted me to blog about this was the fact that I bought those tickets yesterday & saw the following post over on Laughing Squid today:

“The Mesopotamians” is the latest animated music video by They Might Be Giants, from their album “The Else”. The video was directed by David Cowles and animated by Chris Timmons. Another great musical history lesson from TMBG.The MesopotamiansDavid Cowles has also designed a cool new t-shirt for “The Mesopotamians” to go along with the video.Here’s TMBG performing “The Mesopotamians” on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on October 13th.
(Via Laughing Squid.)

iPhone SDK due to be released in February 2008 - Steve Jobs

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Hot off the digital presses straight from http://www.apple.com/hotnews/:


Third Party Applications on the iPhone


Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch. [Oct 17, 2007]

Never trust a man who doesn't shine his own shoes...

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I just finished talking with dear h & was preparing to go to sleep. Having remembered that I was wearing khaki's to work tomorrow I glanced at my brown dress shoes & realized they needed to be shined. I walked over to my closet & retrieved my old dirty sock(shoe polish on it), the old dirty t-shirt(ditto), the long brush & the short brush as well as the brown polish.

Now I was never taught by anyone what the proper way to shine a shoe, but having watched my father do it many times over on a Sunday morning when I was a small child, I had gleaned enough information off of the experience to get the gist of it. I also, through life experiences, have seen many other instances where people have shined shoes. I am, by no means an expert, but do think I do a reasonably good job.

Somehow shining one's shoes is an immensely satisfying experience. Out of all of the chores in life, including laundry, dishes, &c &c, I find this chore to be one that I do not mind doing. It doesn't take long and its actually a bit of fun for me. Being a tech geek my entire life, I've only recently (in the past 6 or 7 years) come to appreciate the creative side of myself. Whether its Photoshopping a picture, designing a web page layout, or putting a good polish on my shoes - I like being creative/productive. Furthermore, shining one's own shoes says something, I think, about the person. I think it shows that no small menial task is beneath themselves - no matter what their station in life. It just seems honest, if you can understand that.

Never trust a man who doesn't shine his own shoes.

Pirates take over anti-piracy website

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The Pirate Bay scores another victory over the music biz


Rob Mead

15 Oct 2007 07:30 GMT
Software pirates have launched an astonishing smash 'n' grab raid on the music biz, stealing the domain name of one of its foremost anti-piracy bodies.

The Pirate Bay has now taken up residence at IFPI.com, a domain once owned by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The Pirate Bay now says the site will promote the International Federation of Pirates Interests.

The Pirate Bay is, of course, infamous for being the world's largest BitTorrent tracker with over 630,000 torrents that comprise illegal rips of audio CDs, TV shows and movies, as well as software and video games.

When asked to confirm how they got the domain name, Pirate Bay administrator Brokeup told TorrentFreak:

"It's not a hack. Someone just gave us the domain name. We have no idea how they got it, but it's ours and we're keeping it."


tech.co.uk