China adheres to its policy of restricting access to file-sharing sites, having recently added the Canada-based BitTorrent site IsoHunt to the country’s infamous Great Firewall. Since the order has entered in effect, the number of IsoHunt Chinese visitors has spiraled down dramatically, with site reports indicating a 99% drop in traffic.
According to experts, the statistically registered decrease in traffic is so pronounced that any technical difficulties have to be excluded from the overall picture. By the end of last week, IsoHunt had only received 1,349 visitors from China compared to 131,362 a few days before.
Curiously, the Chinese authorities have made no public statements regarding the ban of IsoHunt, although there is speculation that this decision to block access to the site may be linked to the P2P site mass closedown program undergoing in China.
Gary Fung, the man behind IsoHunt, announced on the TorrentFreak blog that he advises Chinese users who want to access the site further should connect using a foreign proxy. Despite admitting that China never produced a substantial amount of traffic to the site, Fung strongly opposes the authorities’ decision to deprive Chinese users of the site’s services, and considers that the ban will have a major impact upon the controversial net censorship plan instituted by the local government.
Fung encourages P2P site users to take stance and publicly express their discontentment regarding the ban of IsoHunt. Pointing out that Chinese authorities are known to have oscillated between enforcing and canceling site ban orders over the last few years, he believes that by exerting pressure against the decision through public opinion could be effective, giving the Wikipedia case as an example.
At least for now, other popular foreign BitTorrent sites such as The Pirate Bay and BTjunkie remain untouched by the grasp of the Great Firewall and can still be accessed by Chinese users, although these online resources are permanently held in check by the local authorities’ censorship movement.
Olé!
Spain could become an icon for what many internet users and operators call "free culture" due to its tolerance towards non-profit file sharing.
The entertainment industry in Spain (especially) is probably biting its nails right now learning that file sharing will not be outlawed – a Barcelona judge has dismissed a complaint against a small site, elrincondejesus.com, (which offered a link to the eDonkey file-sharing network) made by the giant collecting society SGAE.
Why is this decision so important? Well, because this ruling meant not only the rejection of the SGAE's demand but also green light to non-commercial file sharing. The judge considered that Web sites, with links that merely offer the possibility of downloading via a P2P network, do "not mean either distribution, or reproduction, or public communication of the works subject to intellectual property, since it is a mere index that facilitates the search for P2P files to exchange via the system of menus, posters or covers with the titles of films or musical works."
That is, once again, the Spanish stance on online piracy is that it is not illegal if there is no profit motive.
Jesus Guerra, the owner of Elrincondejesus.com, was more than happy hearing the judge Raul N Garcia saying: "The system of links constitutes the very basis of the Internet and a multitude of sites and search facilities (such as Google), allowing the technical possibility of doing precisely what this procedure is trying to prohibit, which is linking P2P networks."
While SGAE hasn’t commented the decision so far, it’s more than likely they will appeal.
I’ve always liked Spain but now I think I’m really in love with it!
Filed under Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, Legal P2P News & Issues by 
An active rival of the anti-file-sharing plans proposed by the UK government, broadband provider TalkTalk has made another move to re-enforce its stand with respect to the issue. The company partnered with Dan Bull, the musician who responded to Lily Allen’s anti-piracy comments with an Open Letter Song, in creating another music video, a parody of the music industry’s flawed approach to illegal file sharing.
TalkTalk draws a parallel between the home taping phenomenon back in the 80s which didn’t bring the end of music industry after all with the latter embracing the Compact Disc technology and file-sharing which should inspire new business models and not draconian measures against internet users.
"We’ve consistently made it clear that we don’t encourage illegal filesharing. But in our view, the government’s filesharing proposals won’t change a thing – persistent filesharers will find another way of getting songs, movies and software illegally. It’s a never-ending game of cat and mouse," said Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk’s Director of Strategy and Regulation, quoted by ISPreview.
Let’s watch the video below:
Filed under Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues by
