Unfunded adware accusations propagated by Symantec threaten to undermine the credibility of popular music subscription service Kazaa
Kazaa, now a legitimate online music subscription service that offers users access to an extensive database of licensed songs for a monthly subscription fee is still having difficulties in shedding its past reputation, shadowed by copyright related lawsuits and promotion of adware containing software.
Not long ago, Kazaa once again attracted suspicions on itself, this time from the company Symantec, which labeled the service’s desktop client application as high-risk adware. The questionable accusations weren’t well received by Brilliant Digital Entertainment, now in charge of operating Kazaa, which issued a special notice aimed at reassuring its costumers that the claims weren’t true.
According to Kazaa officials, Symantec’s security software has misidentified its desktop client as being high-risk not once, but twice over the course of a few weeks. The company’s representatives have all reasons to be upset, as Symantec’s accusations are tainting Kazaa’s public image, causing customers to turn away from the music subscription service.
The erroneous response from Symantec was apparently triggered by the files used for promoting advertisements as part of Kazaa’s music plug-in application, which the company claims to be risk-free. Kazaa supports the idea that like most anti-virus companies out there, Symantec favors an overzealous approach in its effort to unmask and pursue online piracy, approach that lures it into the trap of submitting false accusations following any suspicions of illegitimate activity, without proper factual investigation.
Kazaa brought the Spotify case into the picture, also wrongfully accused by Symantec of supporting high-risk applications. Following the incident, Symantec had to admit its mistake and later apologize on Twitter. Judging by this precedent, chances are Symantec will soon decide to also withdraw its claims against Kazaa and face the consequences of committing yet another error.
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Honoring the invitation from Channel 4 News to participate in a broadcast, security expert Matt Roburgh, member of the team behind Internet service provider TalkTalk, seized the opportunity to educate the public on WiFi safety and the threat posed by WiFi hacking.
Roburgh directed the discussion towards the limitations of today’s network safety solutions and hackers’ ability to constantly reinvent their methods of tackling existing security measures. Admitting he had also been a victim of WiFi hacking, the expert explained that although protection of WiFi connections with passwords is highly recommendable, this measure alone might not always be enough to block hacking attempts. To demonstrate WiFi hackers’ ingenuity, the news clip included footage of the improvised "Cantenna" device, one of the latest tools used for snatching users’ connections.
Contesting the approach adopted by the Government to battle online piracy, Roburgh pointed out to the flaws in the much-disputed “three strikes” policy, which could result in disconnecting the wrong people.
The security expert also informed the public about the latest methods used by downloaders to source copyrighted material and suggested that the Government should not limit their efforts to monitoring peer-to-peer use when it comes to fighting online piracy. Roburgh explained that there are many online piracy threats currently not properly addressed by the authorities, some in the form of dedicated ripping sites, which impede Internet service providers’ attempts to track copyright infringement. According to Roburgh, the Government should consider creating an effective strategy to block this kind of online resources.
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Responsible for boosting the popularity and, implicitly, the earnings of independent movie “Ink”(a film P2PON has recommended when it first hit the p2p networks), online piracy is once again into the spotlight; this time, however, for the completely different reasons.
The creators behind the film production admitted in an interview that the unexpected success achieved by the initially unpresuming project is primarily owed to the intensive download activity registered on BitTorrent networks, which propelled the title into the top 20 movies on iMDb, despite all expectations.
Invited by the press to comment on the recently achieved success, Jamin and Kiowa Winans, the creators of Ink, didn’t hesitate to praise the BitTorrent download community for increasing the film’s exposure, as well as DVD and Blu-ray sales. Later statements from the two revealed the same initial enthusiasm regarding their new conquered “pirate fans”.
When asked to translate the hundreds of thousands of downloads into effective sales, Kiowa said it was difficult to quantify the financial gain generated by the activity on BitTorrent trackers, but admitted that DVD and Blu-ray sales have definitely gone up.
The unexpected financial success enjoyed by the production also came from other sources. Thanks to its popularity on BitTorrent, members of the downloading community supported the idea that fans should donate money via the film’s official website. Kiowa complemented on the generosity of German fans, who she claimed to have been twice as benevolent as fans from the US.
Asked if she considered the film to be a victim to piracy, Kiowa responded: “I think to say victim is to characterize piracy as an all-together awful thing. The piracy of Ink is unquestionably responsible for its popularity around the world. Sure our trailers have been out for over a year and have had plenty of views outside the US, but we think that 70% of the illegal downloads are coming from outside of the US and we do get a good number of international buyers at our online store every day.”
Kiowa suggested that the movie industry needed to change and adopt an effective strategy to ensure the deserved revenue for filmmakers, and satisfy film enthusiasts’ needs in terms of availability and affordability at the same time. As for online piracy,
Kiowa explained that it would be best to focus on exploiting the phenomenon for producing positive effects, pointing out once again to the success of the film Ink, owed to the thousands of downloaders on BitTorrent.
(via TorrentFreak)
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