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Good news indeed for the owners and originators of all web sites and especially our frindes in the spanking scene. Megaupload, one of the internet’s largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US. This site was a major repository for material stolen from spanking web sites all over the world. Used by criminals to line their own pockets these sites have for years worked hand in glove with the pirates to fleece the owners of all types of web sites of their hard earned money.
The site’s founders have been charged with violating piracy laws.
US Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material, yes we know that but they were equally diligent in ensuring that what was removed was replaced as soon as possible.
The US Justice Department said that Megaupload’s two co-founders Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and Mathias Ortmann were arrested in Auckland, New Zealand along with two other employees of the business at the request of US officials. It added that three other defendants were still at large.
“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States and directly targets the misuse of a public content storage and distribution site to commit and facilitate intellectual property crime,” saia a statement posted on its website.
Third-party sites
The charges included, conspiracies to commit racketeering, copyright infringement and money laundering. A federal court in Virginia ordered that 18 domain names associated with the Hong Kong-based firm be seized. The Justice Department said that more than 20 search warrants had been executed in nine countries, and that approximately $50m (£32m) in assets had been seized. It claimed that the accused had pursued a business model designed to promote the uploading of copyrighted works.
“The conspirators allegedly paid users whom they specifically knew uploaded infringing content, and publicised their links to users throughout the world,” a statement said. “By actively supporting the use of third-party linking sites to publicise infringing content, the conspirators did not need to publicise such content on the Megaupload site. “Instead, the indictment alleges that the conspirators manipulated the perception of content available on their servers by not providing a public search function on the Megaupload site and by not including popular infringing content on the publicly available lists of top content downloaded by its users.”
Before it was shut down the site posted a statement saying the allegations against it were “grotesquely overblown”. “The fact is that the vast majority of Mega’s internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay,” it added. Oh yeh!!! Let’s hope this is just the first of these parasitical sites to be put in the trash bin of life.
THE STORY UNFOLDS
Piracy is a continuing problem within our industry and kink just as much as the large music and film companies. What used to be the preserve of a few individuals who thought it was clever and their god given right to steal content from producers and share it with the world seems now to have been taken over by criminal gangs.
Criminal gangs have found that using stolen credit cards, mostly from the USA, to join web sites and then working in conjunction with file locker sites who we know are complicit in the pirates activities make money and clean money from their criminal activities. These nasty individuals are now going a step further, not content with using stolen credit cards to take films, these Pirates are now trying to coerce people into sharing their passwords with them. This is what they have said openly on one of their forums, oh yes they do communicate.
THE WORDS OF A CRIMINAL
“Dear members! Unfortunately, the password forum is not as active and popular as we want it to be. I’d like to make a couple remarks concerning passwords exchanging via PMs. While posting links to copyrighted material is a crime in some states, exchanging passes with friends is absolutely legal. If you buy a password and wish to give it to a friend for free, you have the right to do so. You can do almost whatever you want with the passes you buy. Yes, many sites say that they prohibit password sharing. But this is not a crime from the legal point of view and giving passes to a friend does not have any legal consequences. Exchanging passes is one of the best ways to make new friends”!
THE FACTS
Now I don’t want to go into the legalities of this statement save for one point, the pirates did not mention that when one takes a membership to a web site there is an agreement or contract with the web site owner that passwords will not be shared with others so there is breach of contract for starters.
What is the true picture as far as the user or member of spanking or other sex web sites is concerned? No spanking site will allow its members to share their passwords and many sites have security which prevents a password from being used from more than one ip address, as I said above this is a contractual understanding which is enforceable in law. If a password is shared by a site member that membership of a particular site will be cancelled and the members ip address will be passed onto CCBILL or other billing companies and it will be banned not just from the site shared from but from every site that CCBill or other billing companies take payment for.
Site members must also remember that it is THEIR NAME AND ADDRESS on the site owners records, not those of the pirates so any legal action decided upon would be against the member. Is it really worth taking the risk to help these leeches? If you have bought a membership to any spank site then you should enjoy it yourself. Online piracy is a crime and one which is being addressed in the courts at the moment. The people who are asking for the passes are not spank fans they are just after making a quick buck or two off of our backs. Don’t allow yourself to be used by them and aid their criminal activities.
Many of the file locker sites now want the consumer to pay for faster downloads, just think about this, these companies are operating in a criminal environment, dealing with criminals, do you want to give them your credit card details? The irony of it is that if you do this it could be you paying for the next criminal membership of a web site.
The end of another year of pain and misery for most of you reading this, doom and gloom in the financial world, houses being re-possessed, folk thrown out of work, on the scrap heap of life as soon as they come out of university, old folk left to die in cold houses without the means to either eat or heat, more children in poverty than before records began almost.
We have countries at war within their own borders, tyrants ruling others with an iron fist and as usual our governments condoning the killing and abuse of ordinary citizens as long as it suits our financial of military aims. Big business, banks and the multinationals have come together to exert pressure on governments where and when needed to achieve their goals and so the circle is almost complete. What else to bring to the party? How about fear, fear of what? Fear of anything they can use to help control and cajole the masses into accepting that this is the only way forward, the only way that our way of life will survive.
We look at the elections of tin pot dictators in far flung countries and scorn their barbaric use of force to achieve an end but yet we accept the more subtle use of the powers that can be wielded by our own “civilised” governments. We in the UK do not have the possibility of getting shot of the bunch of clowns ruling over us for a few more years, in the USA they have elections next year and may ditch the only person who seems to have some humanity in him in favour of someone promoted by a bunch of right wing lunatics who would not, in a more civilised society be given the time of day to espouse their creed of hate.
We have the power of the press, totally unfettered and left to do pretty much as it pleases, hack into people’s phone conversations, trick their way into our bank accounts and other financial situations, look into the bedrooms of not only the rich and famous but also anyone who dares to challenge them, yes it’s tight that there should be a free press but with this right comes responsibility, not only for their own standards but the feelings, privacy and rights of other human beings.
Would it be too much to ask that in the year 2012 we look to our fellow man and try to behave in a humane, kind and caring way, that we all try that little bit harder to make the life of those less fortunate a little easier and that we all take a look around and see what is being done in our names and say STOP it’s enough now.
The Brit Spanks awards are now open at Spanking England.
Spanking Sarah one of our favourite spanking models told us she wanted a spanking award for UK Spank sites and spankers. Sarah is the only British spanking web site owner who keeps in touch with us regularly, so don’t blame me if we feature her more than most, you all have the same chance to publicise your work and your sites,
 Asked why she felt the need to start a British Spanking Award scheme she said “British spanking websites often seem to lose out to their larger American cousins when the voting takes place and being a patriotic type of girl I have decided to start my own awards”. Sarah said “There are a number of such awards for American sites, one of the main ones being from Brushstrokes at The Spanking Spot and I thought that our British style of doing things really should be recognised so what better way than an award for the best in the various categories I have picked”.
There are all sorts of categories among them Best M/F or F/F British Spanking Website, Best M/M or F/M British Spanking Website, Best British Blog (Commercial),Best British Blog (Non Commercial),Best Female British Spanker, Best British Female Spankees, Best Male Spanker, Hardest spanking scene, Best Spanking Film, Best British New comer. The nominations are she tells me coming in thick and fast so get along there and cast your votes now. Just click here to vote or click the picture.
We thought we would bring you this rather nice interview from Spanking England, this is a spanking Blog which reviews other web sites, films and also does some pretty good interviews with the spanking models. We were struck by the honesty of this interview so, have a look and let us know what you think.
1, Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hola Amigos{the limit of my Spanish -which I had to find out on Google translate}……my name is Dani. I am 20 years young and I am a spanking model{or drama queen depending on how much I cry and rub my bottom!}. I got into spanking unexpectedly as I started off by modelling. I then saw an advert to be in a spanking video –I must mention that I was never spanked as a child! I believe in trying all things once so I thought I would give it a go. It was advertised by Redstripe films and the filming took place in October 2010.
 2, As many of our readers know, I am involved in the shooting for the Redstripe films site and I will be honest with you, when you made your first spanking film, I felt it may be your last! What made you decide to pursue spanking as a career?
I like a challenge! I found my shoot with Redstripe very very VERY difficult. We were initially meant to film 3 scenes, however I thought my body would break into two pieces after the second clip was filmed. I remember that when the cameras stopped rolling I turned around sheepishly and asked if my bottom was bleeding. I was in agony, I felt very embarrassed as I always thought I had a high pain tolerance, that was until Remington Steel put me in my place for being a naughty maid! I don’t like failing at things, and even though it took me a few more months before I attempted spanking again, I knew I wanted to take a good thwacking and produce good videos.
3, I have worked with you since that first shoot and found your limits have increased quite dramatically, was this a gradual process?
Yes this was very gradual, I raised my limits with hand spanking first,then gradually progressed onto the slipper, paddle, strap, belt, and a few other implements before trying MR WHIPPY!{and I don’t mean the ice cream}
4,Do you actually enjoy being spanked?
I personally enjoy being hand spanked, I find that it can be quite intimate. I can see how others could be sexually attracted to it. I must say I enjoy being hand spanked more than having implements used on me, maybe that’s because there is an upper limit with spanking??
5, You travel up and down the country to have your bottom spanked for 121′s do you take any security precautions? Is there anything you would like to share with other girls who maybe thinking about this?
A lot of the 1-2-1′s I do are in London. Regarding personal security I think you can tell a lot about a person in the way they contact you. For example, I had one email saying ‘I have always wanted to punish a little black bitch like you’…………CREEPY! Needless to say I didn’t do a session with the guy. I also find that spankers who mention other girls that I could contact for reassurance are very trustworthy. My advice to other girls would be don’t be afraid to say ‘no’…. or ‘HELL NO ‘if the guy didn’t stop at no. Yes it is the spankers session but at the end of the day it is your bottom. I let people know when they stray with an implement and I let people know when I think they are going too hard. I would also advise that when girls haven’t tried a certain style of spanking they let the spanker know. I had an email from a spanker saying he would like to do a session of ‘wet spanking ‘in the shower. I said I had not done this before and wanted to know I would be bruised more so?etc. Though I felt a bit foolish admitting I didn’t know about wet spanking he replied saying he admired my honesty. I can say that the session went well. Happy days!
6, Do you have a spanking 121 ‘horror story’
I think I have two…..aaaa! The man with breath so bad he almost made me cry as he spent the whole hour session about an inch from my face. I don’t know if this is worse that the man who punished my right bum cheek only. AAAAAA!
6, Apart from Redstripe films,who else have you made spanking films with? Where can we find you?
I have filmed for Wellspanked whose videos can be seen on spanking tube and clips4sale.com. I have also filmed with the ‘Dutch Genius’ Spanked -in-uniform By the end of the year I am working with an additional 3 websites.
7, Do you have a favourite spanking implement?
I personally like the paddle and the strap….and the belt. I think this is because it they have a large surface area.
8, How about the implement you most dread and why?
The Hairbrush. The hairbrush is like a WMD –weapon of mass destruction that belongs in the pits of hell. I find it very stingy. I would say that the hairbrush can make me cry instantly, which I cannot say for all other implements.
9, How about spanking position?
I hate to reveal that I am a traditionalist, I like over-the-knee spanking most! I think that’s because people have more control in this position when hand spanking{which I prefer above implements}. On the other side I LOATHE the diaper position. A normal whack in the over the knee position is 20 times harder when doing the diaper position.
10, What is next for Danielle Hunt?
WORLD DOMINATION. My face on coins and chocolate bars, my bum plastered on billboards………..watch this space
Danielle Hunt will be at Spanking Sarah early in the New Year
I want to take just a moment to warn you about visiting sites hosting pirated material. I could tell you just how bad these sites and the activities of these pirates are for those legitimate producers of spanking films who, contrary to popular opinion do not make fortunes from their honest endeavours but I won’t.
I could tell you just how hard it is to find the right young ladies, those we know you really want to see spanked and who maybe have never been spanked before, but I won’t. I could tell you that most producers of good quality spanking material are quite small concerns, often just one man and his wife or girlfriend doing their best to bring you exciting and captivating spanking films and pictures, very often in a unique way, the site designed to appeal to themselves and to the select few who share their views on spanking, but I won’t
Instead I want to tell you about the plethora of so called ‘free’ spanking boards and other such rip off sites. These are sites set up with the sole aim of pirating the work of the legitimate producers, those people I have described above. What can happen when you visit these pirate spanking boards and free hosting sites? They do not give you something for nothing that’s for sure; these thieves are in the business to make money out of you and out of the legitimate producers without even a thought to the fact that they can be destroying someone’s business and maybe landing you in more trouble than you realise. You will have to pay for poor quality ripped off product. NOT ONLY THAT! They are also planting malicious mal ware and spyware and viruses on your computer with the aim of collecting sensitive information or as in many cases just causing mayhem on your computer.
You may have antivirus checkers and programs but please be warned, when you visit these sites and download there stolen product you are putting not only your computer at risk but also any data you may have on it, so, please think before you try to get cheap pirated films from these individuals. Trust your regular spanking web site to give you good quality, safe, honest spanking films. The producers and owners of these sites are spanking enthusiasts just like you, they want you to have the best so, help them give it to you.
We hope Spanking Sarah will not mind but we have taken the latest post (20/08/2011) from her Spanking England web site and reprinted it below. It will have a resonance with many web masters and web site owners and points to a problem that is effecting not just the spanking film world but the livelihood of just about anyone who produces media that is available on the internet.
Pirates! This has always been the name given to a rather nasty group of individuals and they are none the less nasty today because they do not use knives and cutlasses. They are thieves and opportunists of little or no discernable talent, usually socially immature individuals who are by nature under achievers. Their claim to fame is that they are able to steal the work of others and make money from it. Enough said, let Sarah tell it from the producers point of view.
“As you know, I am on holiday in Spain with my not so little ones for a week. A week to spend some time to relax and laze by the pool. Having your own spanking website is like a dream come true, right? I have pots of money and drive a flashy car? Those of you who know me and have come along for a spanking session know this is not the case. Yes, of course I earn money from my website, but I have like you a home to maintain and some not so little ones to keep in food and trainers. I am not poor, far from it but I am not stinking rich either. As do all other spanking website producers, I work bloody hard.
It is not all about smacking bottoms. My work much as I love it often takes me away from my family and can be very stressful. Now, I am not expecting you to cry me a river or anything like that. What I am asking you to do is to think twice before you watch spanking material, be it mine or anybody elses, without having joined the site that has produced it. Pirates are killing our spanking sites. They join for a month, download all our material and then upload it and make money from our hard work. We then have to spend our time looking on the web for it and issuing notices for said material to be taken down.
I would estimate that I am online for at least an hour a day on my holiday looking for this and there has not been a day so far when I have not found illegal uploads of my and others great spanking films. It does not take a rocket scientist to realise that if this piracy is allowed to continue, then some of the spanking sites will just not be able to survive.
There is a theory that the people who watch the illegal downloads would never join a site so we are not losing anything but my fear is that as times get harder, normal honest guys and girls who do usually pay will see this as almost a ‘faceless ‘crime and commit it without really thinking about the consequences. Piracy is a crime and it is one that is destroying our spanking websites. Some have already fallen and I predict more will over the next twelve to eighteen months. I know of at least one spanking website which is hanging on by its fingertips. As Gloria Gaynor said ‘I will survive ‘and I am pretty sure many others will as well but guys, if you contribute to the pirates pockets you are responsible and not just for putting some great guys out of business.
You will be stopping spanking models from getting work. The pirates sure as hell are not going to pay them and how can we if our revenue is being ripped off? Plus you are limiting how many films and the type of films available. You are hurting us but in the long run, you will be hurting yourselves. The pirates make money every time one of OUR films is downloaded. If you don’t watch, they won’t bother. So today’s post is an SOS. SAVE OUR SPANKS!”
Reprinted from Fetlife but with our added condolencies to his family. We have used
his products and admired his expertise for sometime now and will miss him.
Always a smiling face and happy to see you Sunday at the BBB will not be quite
the same.
It is with the deepest regrets and sorrow I have been asked to announce the
passing of Andy, better known to many as Kinky Cobbler from the popular stall
@LeatherDelights.
Many of us will remember him fondly for his enthusiasm and creativity and for creating
an amazing array of wonderful products. Further
details will be posted once the family have had time to make arrangements. A
book of condolences will be opened at the next possible event.
Please spend a few minutes remembering him and keeping his family in your thoughts at this difficult time.
Google have closed the spanksalot.blogspot.com blog after it was reported to them for repeated copyright violations under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) regulations.
This blog had repeatedly published copyrighted images they had taken from spanking sites from which they had removed copyright watermarks and site identifiers despite written warnings from the copyright owners.
Whilst we all have seen blogs that show images taken from other sites, it is only proper if due attribution is given to the copyright holder and that a suitable link is given back to the originating site.
If the owner of spanksalot had obeyed this ‘rule’, even if they linked back via an affiliate program to the originating site, then they probably would not have lost their site.
The use of a site’s copyrighted material, without alteration, in a manner that mutually benefits both parties is acceptable, the blatant infringement of copyright is not.
It is nice to have proof that Google also support that view.
So, if you want to use a site’s images on your blog then please follow these guidelines to avoid DMCA notices which will have your blog closed down.
- Ask the originating site owner or join their affiliate scheme!
- NEVER remove copyright information of site identifying logos from the images.
- Always provide a link back to the originating site. Site owners generally have no problems with people helping to advertise their sites.
- NEVER use one site’s material to try and promote traffic to another site, this WILL antagonise the legitimate content owners!
Follow these guidelines and you could have a content rich, and possibly profitable blog!
Not spanking related, we nicked it from the BBC who nicked it from someone else who…well you get the message. Nice to know there are still some crazy people around!
Austrian driver’s religious headgear strains credulity Having received his driving licence, Niko Alm now wants to get pastafarianism officially recognised.
An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as “religious headgear”. Niko Alm first applied for the licence three years ago after reading that headgear was allowed in official pictures only for confessional reasons. Mr Alm said the sieve was a requirement of his religion, pastafarianism. The Austrian authorities required him to obtain a doctor’s certificate that he was “psychologically fit” to drive. The idea came into Mr Alm’s noodle three years ago as a way of making a serious, if ironic, point. A self-confessed atheist, Mr Alm says he belongs to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light-hearted faith whose members call themselves pastafarians.
The group’s website states that “the only dogma allowed in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the rejection of dogma”. In response to pressure for American schools to teach the Christian theory known as intelligent design, as an alternative to natural selection, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster wrote to the Kansas School Board asking for the pastafarian version of intelligent design to be taught to schoolchildren, as an alternative to the Christian theory. Mental fitness check In the same spirit, Mr Alm’s pastafarian-style application for a driving licence was a response to the Austrian recognition of confessional headgear in official photographs.
The licence took three years to come through and, according to Mr Alm, he was asked to submit to a medical interview to check on his mental fitness to drive but – straining credulity – his efforts have finally paid off. It is the police who issue driving licences in Austria, and they have duly issued a laminated card showing Mr Alm in his unorthodox item of religious headgear. The next step, Mr Alm told the Austrian news agency APA, is to apply to the Austrian authorities for pastafarianism to become an officially recognised faith.
It seems that there are spanking review sites springing up all around the place, all telling us what in their opinion is the best spanking site for us to spend our hard earned $s & £s on, well I for one don’t mind that at all. If someone is willing to go out there and spend their time actually looking at spanking sites every week, reporting on updates and value for money in general then I am all for it. However I do expect that the reviews will be unbiased and honest and it has to be said that is not always the way.
 The latest review site I have found is run by Sarah from SPANKINGSARAH and I at first questioned her impartiality, would she be able to accurately and honestly judge other peoples output. Well her site SPANKINGENGLAND has been up and running for a couple of weeks now and I have been keeping a pretty keen eye on it. As one would expect she has done reviews of the output of those sites she is acquainted with, this includes her own. For the most part she seems to like what she sees in those sites that update regularly; her reviews of the films seem to be quite fair and they show that she does actually watch the films.
The other part to her site is where she interviews spanking models, yes I know this is already being done and most of these ladies also have their own blogs which tell us something about them but I always want to know more about the motivation.
Sarah seems to have worked with all those she has interviewed so far and they include Clover, Nimue, Katie Didit and a young lady who is new to me, Holly. From her insider position she should therefore be able to ask questions arising from her ‘intimate’ knowledge of the lady in question and get some honest answers, well I found the interviews to be frank and fair and interesting although I would have liked a bit more depth and a few more searching questions, for me this is one area that could be strengthened.
The latest part of the site to become active is the review of spanking sites, now with only one review posted it is hard to tell which way Sarah will be going, will she be brutally honest or will she be grateful that she has an insight into the site and give glowing reviews to all? I take it that the only sites she can review are those where the owners give her a members pass, well you would not spend your own hard earned cash promote someone else’s business!
Her review of SPANKED IN UNIFORM is all praise, if that’s what it deserves then fair enough, I will take a membership on her say so just to see if I agree with her.
For myself I hope she is honest, if a site does fall down somewhere then let’s hear about it. The great thing is as far as all the reviews and Sarah’s site in general are concerned is that Sarah knows the business, she knows it well, she is smart and has an opportunity to tell it as it is, I hope she does not waste that chance.
As part of our Spanking News service we run a free contact section and, well we marvel at the optimism of some of the advertisers. Take this advert, placed no doubt by a real optimist who is probably still sitting waiting for his phone to ring:
“First thing is I cant accomodate so dont reply unless you can arrange overnight accomodation for me. Any age, sex, size considered (even couples). You will be ordered to strip and stand nose to wall with hands on head as I prepare to spank you. Otk (hand, brush & slipper) to warm up then you will feel the strap, cane and maybe crop across your bared bottom. Can tie and/or gag you if u wish to be at my mercy! No fees either way except a contribution towards my travel costs would be appreciated”.
Well, spelling and grammar apart, one of our regular lady contributors thought this was just the most amazing advert she had ever read and thanks to her for pointing it out. No accommodation so ladies you will have to sort this at your expense, told what you will have to do, surely some form of communication and exchange of ideas would be a good thing? Tie and gag and at his mercy! Not advised on a first meeting and to cap it all he wants a contribution towards his expenses.
Now, we would love to hear from anyone who thinks this is the way to word an advert so let’s look at another:
“Ladies/women/girls/bottoms/subs/spankees? Which do you prefer to be called? Mature academic spanker with BDSM inclinations offers bespoke tailored pic-n-mix spanking recipe designed just for you. Unlike many Doms I am not happy unless I understand YOU and just how you want your play to be created – just for you. Role-play? Schoolgirl/student? Poor performance PA? overspending housewife? Guilt/stress relief? Mentoring? Support? Once we are sure about that I am happy to deliver. No fees either way. Try me. Talk to me. Am told I am a good listener. Top Tony”.
Much better and maybe this guy has some chance of finding that very elusive person the female spankee. So what is the lesson, pretty obvious, there is a distinct shortage of willing spankees out there so we need to cherish and to look after those who are willing and wanting, put a sensible advert, discuss the needs of your spankee, be open to her requirements, you may think you are all man and all Dom but you may never get a chance to prove this if you don’t get the basics right.
 Just a small bit of news but it’s good news and it comes from Sarah who runs Spanking Sarah. She is one of these people who loves the iphone and always seems to have it to her ear so she thought it would be a good idea to encode her new videos to stream directly onto the iphone or other smart phones and MP4 players. Said Sarah “If you have a goof 3G connection then there is no reason why you can’t play the films direct from the MP4 section of my web site, there is no excuse for not taking me with you now wherever you go”.
We understand you can also download to your desktop and load the file onto your phone if you want to save bandwidth. This could be the ideal thing to watch whilst waiting at the dentist. We have taken a look at the first film and the quality is absolutely great so, good luck Sarah.
We also understand that Sarah is now dishing out a lot of the spankings to the lovely ladies she finds for her site, we think this is a great idea, if anyone knows how to give and take a hard spanking it has to be Sarah. Just one thing Sarah, please do not stop bending over to take it yourself!
Have a look at the site here
Hotfile, 1000 Users and PayPal Named In Piracy Lawsuit
Hotfile, 1000 Users and PayPal Named In Piracy Lawsuit
Good news for all legitimate web site owners, the scourge of any producer is the pirate, that particularly obnoxious individual who seems to think that what others create he can steel and use for his own purposes. We know that within the spanking web site community in the UK there is a group actively seeking out these rats and taking the appropriate action against them, legal and in other ways which we of course do not condone! Names of those who pirate and then republish onto ‘cyber locker’ type sites are now being traces through new technology so maybe some legal action will be forthcoming.
The article below is reprinted from http://www.piracynetwork.com/
Liberty Media, the company involved in achieving the largest headline settlement against a BitTorrent user last month, has widened its net to include cyberlocker-based infringement. The movie studio has now filed suit against file-hosting site Hotfile and 1000 of its users. PayPal is also named in the suit alongside calls for it to freeze Hotfile’s account. The court is asked to seize Hotfile’s domain name.
A lawsuit filed by Liberty Media Holdings 6th January 2011 sets out the basis for a potentially large and important case against file-hosting site, Hotfile.
Liberty describes Hotfile Corp as a Panamanian company with no physical presence there and one that takes steps to “obfuscate the facts of its location, address, and principals.” The studio states that Hotfile’s owner is a Russian named Anton Titov, who may or may not be a resident of Bulgaria and/or The Netherlands, and who also may have a residence in Florida.
A company called Lemuria Communications is also listed as a defendant. The company is claimed to be Hotfile’s webhost and an alter ego of Anton Titov. Hotfile is said to operate servers in Dallas, Texas and Florida.
The studio goes on to list 1000 ‘John Doe’ defendants who it’s claimed “jointly and severally, with actual or constructive knowledge of or with willful blindness, reproduced and distributed certain LIBERTY-owned works through www.Hotfile.com.”
PayPal is also named as a defendant on the basis that it offers financial services to Hotfile, Titov and Lemuria. Liberty demands that the court freezes defendants’ assets held by PayPal pending the outcome of the case.
Liberty Media says that while Hotfile may have legitimate uses, its aim is “to profit from the illegal sharing of copyrighted materials, many of which are the intellectual property of LIBERTY,” material which the studio says is placed there by “an army of assistants.”
These assistants, Liberty claims, are otherwise known as affiliates which together form a business model described as a “massive pyramid” of cascading payments from which Hotfile, but not copyright holders, profit.
Liberty says it discovered more than 2,400 links to 800 of its titles stored on Hotfile and that the file-hoster used Lemuria Communications’ servers to achieve its “unlawful goals”.
“Hotfile.com cleverly avoids cataloging or indexing the files in order to be willfully blind to their users’ uploads and downloads, while profiting from the site’s web traffic,” the lawsuit states, adding:
“Demonstrating that Defendant Hotfile.com is aware of the illegality of its conduct, it offers two methods for download services. For its first option, Defendant Hotfile.com permits its partners to download a stolen movie at a very slow transfer speed for no charge. The other option allows users to pay a premium to download the movie ten times faster.”
In respect of safe harbor, Liberty Media claims that while Lemuria had a registered agent as required under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) at the time of the infringements, Hotfile did not. As such it is “not entitled to the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions for the complained of infringements.”
Liberty describes Hotfile as a massive copyright infringer which encourages affiliates to upload copyright material in order to attract further visitors to its website from which both the company and affiliates profit.
With demands for a jury trial, Liberty Media claims Hotfile is guilty of inducing, contributory and vicarious infringement and wants statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work.
Furthermore, Liberty requests that the court seizes Hotfile’s domain name pending the outcome of the case.
END
Once again in the land of the free we have to watch our backs, and just about everything else. The guardians of our morals who sit in Parliament are trying to curtail another and maybe in this age of the instant dissemination of information the most important of our freedoms, the freedom to look at porn on the internet, for it will NOT stop there.
GRUNT AND GROAN
Now you may not be an avid watcher of the grunt and groan films but this will also affect those interested in watching spanking movies or anything that our betters decide is questionable. Now, it could be argued that there are some things out there that we would be better off not seeing but let’s just stop and think; do we really want to give our politicians the right to ban what they don’t want us to see?
LADY CHATTERLEY
Those of you who are old enough will remember the Lady Chatterley trial, thankfully the outcome was a victory for common sense but don’t forget how and why the case was brought, the prosecution was ridiculed for being out of touch with changing social norms when the chief prosecutor, Mervyn Griffith-Jones, asked if it were the kind of book “you would wish your wife or servants to read”, maybe it won’t be long before the same case is being argued but with the words changed, “is this the sort of material YOU want the freedom to watch”. We all know that once restrictive legislation is adopted it has the nature to creep, it creeps into the most unexpected of places and pretty soon we will be letting them ban anything they don’t think we should see.
We have taken the article below from The Guardian Thanks to them.
“Internet service providers are to be asked by the government to tighten up on website pornography to try to combat the early sexualisation of children.
Ministers believe broadband providers should consider automatically blocking sex sites, with individuals being required to opt in to receive them, rather than opt out and use the available computer parental controls.
Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, is to meet internet providers, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, “in the near future” to discuss changing the way pornography enters private homes, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed. The move is designed to protect children from being exposed to pornography on the net.
“This is a very serious matter. I think it is very important that it’s the ISPs that some up with solutions to protect children,” Vaizey told the Sunday Times.
“I’m hoping they will get their acts together so that we don’t have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years.”
The action follows the success of moves by most British internet providers to prevent people inadvertently viewing child pornography websites.”
Now ministers want to see adult pornography controlled with similar technology, with sites blocked unless people specifically request access to them. Internet providers had said implementing the scheme would be technically difficult and cost too much. However, some now seem willing to implement the scheme voluntarily.
Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk’s executive director of strategy and regulation, told the newspaper: “Our objective was not to do what the politicians want us but to do what is right for our customers. If other companies aren’t going to do it of their own volition, then maybe they should be leant on.”
Virgin Media said that it had already implemented the technology on its mobile service, but said that parents can control what their children see at home and online. A BT spokesman said they had a “clean feed” system to stop access to illegal sites.
In a parliamentary debate last month, Claire Perry, a Conservative MP who has campaigned for tighter controls, said that 60% of nine- to 19-year-olds had found porn online, while only 15% of computer-literate parents knew how to use filters to block access to certain sites.
The MP said six companies – BT, Virgin, Talk Talk, BSkyB, Orange and 02 – streamed the internet to 90% of homes in the UK. Perry called on the government to put pressure on those companies to install default measures to stop children accessing pornography online.
WATCH OUT
Watch out, there’s a thief about and it’s your freedom they are going to steel, tell your ISP to keep their nose out of your business, tell them now before you cant because this is the slippery road to state control of what you can see and do on the internet. Easy to start with sex, all the usual suspects will jump on the band wagon all the old arguments will be drawn out and used. It really is quite fundamental though to our way of life that we do have the right, as adults to see whatever we want to see in books and on the internet.
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