I Own My Music

Dream Pinball 3D. That name ring any bells? Sounds like a pretty average PC game. And yes, it is. However, it might just end up being the world’s most expensive pinball videogame for one UK woman, who has found herself in the middle of a filesharing debacle after being ordered to pay about $32,000 for sharing the game over filesharing networks.

The woman, who remains unnamed, was taken to court by Topware and ordered to pay a fine and costs. It’s alleged that the woman made the game available for download over P2P filesharing networks.

However, the pinball fiasco doesn’t stop there as there are another 100 people in the firing line who are suspected of uploading the game to filesharing networks. This is something of a landmark case in the UK and could well pave the way for similar rulings in the future.

We actually had to look up exactly what “Hobe Sound” is. Call us ignorant, but it sure doesn’t sound like the name of a town. Regardless, a woman from Hobe Sound stands accused of distributing 419 copyrighted songs through filesharing networks.

Among the free music downloads on this music fan’s hard drive were N*SYNC and American Idol nutcase Paula Abdul. Stephanie Wielinski apparently used filesharing networks to distribute the songs in April last year.

With all the fuss being made about the Jammie Thomas case at the moment, it’s anybody’s guess what will happen to the hapless Hobe Sound resident. Filesharing cases are gradually becoming more and more bizarre and increasingly muddled.

If a woman in a place called Hobe Sound can be prosecuted for free music downloads, that doesn’t leave much hope for the rest of us. We’re here to stand up for Hobe Sound in the name of free music downloads.

Shifting the emphasis from students to universities, it’s come out that schools and unis in America could lose funding if they do not police their students in an attempt to crackdown on filesharing and downloading copyrighted material.

The US Senate and House of Representatives announced that funding will be cut to institutions that the entertainment industry claims are not doing their part in supplying the names and ads of students suspected of downloading copyright material.

This is BS because it gives the music industry power over university funding and it has been well documented that the RIAA is reluctant to go after Ivy League schools.

This news is madness whichever way you look at it. Where would you draw the line between schools that do and do not deserve funding? And why should funding for education be determined by Internet downloads? It’s just silly. The MPAA is in on the act, claiming that 44% of all movie piracy is committed on campus.

There has been a tonne of pressure put on UK ISPs recently with regards to filesharing and cracking down on illegal music downloads. As if all the negative publicity wasn’t enough, it has now been revealed that the top three ISPs in the UK are responsible for 65% of the UK’s filesharing.

There are about six million people in the UK who partake in filesharing activities. The three main ISPs in question are Virgin Media, BT and the Carphone Warehouse. This news comes about a week after it was announced that the UK’s top six ISPs will now send warning letters to people suspected of using filesharing services to download copyrighted material.

Virgin Media has already started sending out letters to its subscribers, but there’s no word on what kind of impact this is expected to have on filesharing activity. The heat is on for the UK’s top ISPs.

One filesharing user being sued by the RIAA has turned the system on its head by admitting to the charges presented, only to then challenge those very same laws that have led to her being charged.

Denise Barker stands accused of sharing the unholy sum of eight songs on filesharing network Kazaa. If found guilty, she could be fined up to $1.2 million. We hope they are good songs to warrant such a high price tag.

Denise took the huge risk of not settling out of court, admitting to the charges and then standing up against those charges and the excessive fine she may be slapped with.

Her lawyer is arguing that each track is worth about $3.50 and therefore Denise should only face a fine of $252 going by the 9-to-1 rule. If this all stands up in court, it could go some way to outlining the cost of fines in the future. People typically settle out of court for a few thousand dollars. If they can go to court and only be fined a few hundred, it makes it a whole different ball game.

More filesharing news related to the Dark Knight today. Warner Bros somehow managed to keep the Dark Knight off filesharing networks for 38 hours after the movie’s release. Though that may not seem like a huge amount of time, Warner Bros says it was enough to protect ticket sales on the first week of the movie’s launch.

With the movie doing so well over its opening weekend, you have to think there’s some truth to this. By delaying the movie being leaked onto filesharing networks, Warner Bros stopped bootleggers from logging on to make dodgy copies of the movie to sell around the world.

Those 38 hours were the result of a six-month anti-piracy plan with the sole aim of keeping the movie off of filesharing networks. This plan included keeping the reel from movie theaters until the last minute. The Dark Knight looks set to break the $300 million mark soon.

Following on from Virgin teaming up with the BPI to bother its subscribers with letters warning them for using filesharing services to get illegal music downloads, six more ISPs have joined up with the UK government and will send 1,000 letter a week to filesharing subscribers.

The ISPs will also help to develop and promote legal music downloads. There’s no word on exactly what these letters will say and what implications receiving one might have.

It may be that this is the first step towards the three-strikes-and-your-out approach, which would see repeated filesharing violators cut off from the Internet after a third offense.

Virgin and BT have already begun threatening to cut users off from the Net, but ISPs aren’t known for being fond of this resource- and fund-consuming approach. Regardless, the UK’s ISPs are all set to begin tackling the issue of filesharing in accordance with the government’s vision.

If nothing else, this is clearly a step at educating the general public, but is it too little to late?

So the Dark Knight has been in movie theaters for a few days now. In the midst of movie companies, as well as record labels, complaining about filesharing destroying the industry, the new Batman movie earned a reported $155.3 million in its first weekend.

Tight security of the movie meant that only one cam version surfaced on filesharing networks – and it wasn’t a very good version at that. What this proves is that filesharing is not killing the movie industry. People will still pay for stuff if it’s good.

The problem comes with the bar being raised so high. People have access to every movie and every album ever released and so they are becoming increasingly picky about what they pay for. It takes a blockbuster smash such as Batman to motivate people to go to the cinema.

With the advent of the Internet, people just don’t bother to watch bad movies or listen to bad music and they certainly won’t pay to do so.

The self-proclaimed “music industry champion”, the UK culture secretary Andy Burnham, recently said that he is determined to bring results to the creative industries. What this means is that Burnham is putting his foot down on a number of issues, including filesharing.

Filesharing is under the spotlight in the UK with ISPs and record labels trying to iron out a way to deal with filesharing and the sharing of copyrighted material. Burnham said that a voluntary solution to the issue of filesharing would be the ideal solution.

From the sounds of it, there are some serious talks going on with regards to filesharing and some decisions look set to be made in the very near future. This isn’t good news for UK filesharing fans.

Burnham added that he is in a rush to deal with such issues as filesharing because of the number of other issues on the table. The real winners here will likely be the record companies.

According to Microsoft, school children are the UK’s worst filesharing offenders for downloading copyrighted material such as free music. A new study by Microsoft of 270 kids and 1,200 adults reveals that 54% of children from 11 to 16 years old partake in filesharing. This compares with only 15% of adults.

While we don’t want to discredit Microsoft’s survey, 15% is clearly nowhere near the real figure. Microsoft also said that 61% of kids have bought illegal goods online, while about a quarter of the kids are keen on fake items.

The real kicker is that 60% of the kids said that regular music and movies are too expensive. When you’re young a carefree and can easily get away with downloading copyrighted material, what’s to stop you when companies all around are touting the latest MP3 players, DVD burners and whatnot? The kids are just doing what seems natural to them.