ir Piracy Shield Crisis Erupts as AGCOM Board Member Slams Huge Toll on Resources By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:53:02 +0000 Critics of Italy's Piracy Shield are not difficult to find but, with its powerful and influential proponents rarely far away, getting heard is a considerable challenge. Not to mention getting anything done. After calling for the platform's suspension and meeting resistance in the wake of the recent Google Drive blocking blunder, AGCOM board member Elisa Giomi has gone public with a laundry list of concerns. It pulls zero punches. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Anti-Piracy Site Blocking AGCOM Cloudflare DAZN google italy Piracy Shield Serie A
ir Braflix to Shut Down: Pirate Site Throws in the Towel Citing Legal Pressure By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:36:09 +0000 Pirate streaming site Braflix burst onto the scene last year, offering a vast library of movies and TV shows via a user-friendly interface. With millions of monthly visits the site was destined to profit from the demise of several large competitors. The opposite happened. Facing legal pressure, Braflix has decided to throw in the towel instead. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Piracy ACE braflix
ir Google Asked to Remove 10 Billion “Pirate” Search Results By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Tue, 05 Nov 2024 11:39:25 +0000 Rightsholders have asked Google to remove more than 10 billion 'copyright infringing' URLs from its search results. The search engine doesn't celebrate the milestone in any way, but the takedown notices document intriguing shifts in volume over time, as well as shifting takedown interests. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Piracy DMCA google
ir Pirate IPTV-Selling ‘Law Enforcement Officer’ Faces Wiretapping Claim By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Tue, 05 Nov 2024 19:00:29 +0000 A lawsuit filed in the U.S. claims that a pirate IPTV seller adopted a novel marketing strategy to support a business with 450,000 subscribers . According to the plaintiffs, the owner of the service "held himself out as a Chicago-area law enforcement officer" to "mitigate potential concerns" over the unlawfulness of his business. A theoretical damages claim of more than a billion dollars, plus an allegation of wiretapping, makes this case a little more spicy than most. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article IPTV and Streaming Lawsuits DISH iptv iptv resellers sling
ir IPTV Piracy Blocking at the Internet’s Core Routers Undergoes Testing By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:49:41 +0000 After 15+ years of blackholing IP addresses and making the Domain Name System tell more lies than Pinocchio, some may wonder whether site-blocking is harming prospects of a future open internet. Confirmation that piracy blocking tests are now being conducted at the internet's core routers isn't a surprise. It's only the internet's spinal column, so what could possibly go wrong? From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Anti-Piracy Site Blocking anatel Brazil core router internet backbone iptv
ir Cloudflare to EU: Anti-Piracy Measures Shouldn’t Harm Privacy and Security By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:54:21 +0000 Cloudflare is urging the EU Commission to exclude the company from its upcoming Piracy Watch List, despite requests from several rightsholder groups for its inclusion. The American company says it's committed to addressing piracy concerns but not at the expense of user privacy and security. Instead, the European Commission should ensure that its Piracy Watch List does not become a tool for advocating policy changes. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Law and Politics Cloudflare eu
ir Pirating “The Pirate Bay” TV Series is Ironically Difficult (Updated) By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 15:24:31 +0000 The Pirate Bay made its debut as a TV series on the Swedish streaming platform SVT Play earlier today. International viewers are left waiting until other services pick it up. In the meantime, some may be tempted to explore unofficial channels for pirated copies of the show. But finding a pirated copy is proving surprisingly difficult. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Piracy pirate bay tpb
ir Nintendo Sues Emulator Gamer Who Streamed Pirated Games Before Release By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Fri, 08 Nov 2024 20:38:13 +0000 Nintendo has filed a devastating lawsuit against a gamer who not only live-streamed games before their commercial release, but used emulators and pirated ROMs to do so. Jesse Keighin, aka EveryGameGuru, faces claims of unauthorized public performance and reproduction, contributory infringement and inducement for sharing links to emulators and pirated ROMs, plus violations of the anti-circumvention and circumvention device trafficking components of the DMCA. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Lawsuits DMCA Jesse Keighin Nintendo
ir Key Pirate Bay Figures Don’t Recognize Themselves in TV Series By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Sun, 10 Nov 2024 08:53:29 +0000 The Pirate Bay TV series is the entertainment industry's depiction of the torrent site's turbulent history. The creators don't take sides but mostly focus on the legal battle that only represents part of the story. According to Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde and Piratbyrån's Rasmus Fleischer, living though it all was a completely different experience. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Piracy pirate bay SVT tpb
ir DAZN’s Piracy Shield ‘Smart TV’ Block Revoked After IPTV Portal Complaint By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 13:04:46 +0000 After DAZN received a warning for the blunder that saw Google Drive blocked in Italy, a company behind a smart TV video player app had a DAZN-initiated blocking decision revoked after a successful appeal. That may seem like a win, but the finer details reveal a legal framework that favors rightsholders so strongly, online services incurring liability for the actions of users seems inevitable. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Anti-Piracy Site Blocking AGCOM DAZN iptv Piracy Shield Serie A
ir Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 11/11/2024 By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 19:09:40 +0000 Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Deadpool & Wolverine' tops the chart, followed by 'Joker: Folie à Deux'. 'The Substance' completes the top three. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article DVDrip
ir Per-Song or Per-Album? Record Labels Challenge Court’s Piracy Damages Ruling By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 21:13:02 +0000 Several major record labels are asking the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing en banc in their piracy lawsuit against Grande Communications. They argue that the court erred in holding that piracy damages should be calculated per album, rather than per song. They argue that this decision, which will lower the $47 million damages award, doesn't reflect the way that music is commercialized today. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Lawsuits Repeat Infringer grande Grande Communications RIAA
ir Piracy Kingpin Behind ‘Noonoo TV’ and ‘TVWiki’ Arrested in Korea By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 11:39:36 +0000 Korean authorities have shut down the popular video piracy service TVWIKI, which had millions of users. A special unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism arrested the alleged operator, who is also believed to be connected to other streaming platforms. These include OKTOON, which was also pulled offline, and piracy giant NoonooTV, which voluntarily threw in the towel last year. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Anti-Piracy Takedowns and Seizures noonootv OKTOON TVWIKI
ir Google’s “Negligent” Piracy Response Prevented Critic Deindexing Its Own Site By torrentfreak.com Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:08:15 +0000 Google is facing criticism in Spain and Italy for alleged anti-piracy failures. The latest claim accuses Google of ignoring notices that aim to remove pirate IPTV providers from search results. So here's the thing: why would a company take down 10 billion URLs from search but suddenly start acting differently? The public labeling of Google as "grossly negligent" deserves context too; two weeks ago, Google's diligence prevented one of its accusers from deindexing its own website. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Full Article Anti-Piracy deindexing google Piracy Shield Serie A
ir Record-breaking Iranian javelin thrower stripped of Paralympic gold over display of 'religious' flag By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Sun, 08 Sep 24 08:06:52 +0500 The turn of events altered the medal standings, upgrading the silver medal of India’s Navdeep Singh to gold. Full Article Sports
ir Campbell 'Pookie', Jett Puckett share glimpse of new born baby girl By www.geo.tv Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 11:41:00 +0500 Campbell ‘Pookie’ Puckett and her husband Jett Puckett welcomed their first child, a baby girl, just days after Jett gifted Campbell a $12,000 Hermes Kelly bag as a push present.In an emotional Instagram video shared on Tuesday, Campbell was seen tearfully cradling her new... Full Article
ir Leonardo DiCaprio treats himself with Mexican getaway on 50th birthday By www.geo.tv Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 12:40:00 +0500 Leonardo DiCaprio treats himself with Mexican getaway on 50th birthdayLeonardo DiCaprio and his girlfriend, Vittoria Ceretti, recently jetted off to Mexico to celebrate his milestone 50th birthday. The Oscar-winning actor was spotted boarding a private jet in Los Angeles with... Full Article
ir Pamela Anderson slays in classic style at ‘The Last Showgirl' screening By www.geo.tv Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:49:00 +0500 Pamela Anderson slays in classic style at ‘The Last Showgirl' screeningPamela Anderson exuded elegance in New York City, as she attended the special screening of The Last Showgirl.As reported by MailOnline, 57-year-old actress who attended the star-studded event at... Full Article
ir Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley showcase happiness after ‘long time' desire comes true By www.geo.tv Published On :: Wed, 13 Nov 2024 16:24:00 +0500 Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley showcase happiness after ‘long time' desire comes trueMargot Robbie and Tom Ackerley are “settling” into their roles after becoming parents for the first time.A source who is close to the couple candidly shared with People how the... Full Article
ir New coronavirus case emerges in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan's tally rises to 20 By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Wed, 11 Mar 20 09:27:47 +0500 The 14-year-old boy, a resident of Skardu, was held at an isolation centre where he tested positive for COVID-19 Full Article Pakistan Gilgit Baltistan
ir Tales of survivors: ‘Isolation, not coronavirus, was my worst nightmare’ By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Wed, 01 Apr 20 17:32:30 +0500 I was convinced that if my time is not up, this virus can never kill me Full Article Pakistan
ir US imposes sanctions on Chinese institute, firms for supporting Pakistan's ballistic missile program By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Thu, 12 Sep 24 17:55:38 +0500 Washington had sanctioned China-based companies in October 2023 for supplying missile-applicable items to Pakistan Full Article World
ir World leaders urged to help end Indian atrocities against Kashmiris By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Fri, 26 Jun 20 21:06:07 +0500 On International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, AJK president condemns BJP-RSS regime Full Article World Jammu & Kashmir
ir Virus cases in Indian Occupied Kashmir top 7,000 By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Sun, 28 Jun 20 23:11:02 +0500 2,700 infections, including 41 virus-linked deaths, confirmed in last 2 weeks Full Article World Jammu & Kashmir
ir First phase of HingIaj road construction completed By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Sun, 28 Jun 20 10:35:07 +0500 Project was approved at a cost of Rs120 million Full Article Balochistan
ir 2,179 people diagnosed with coronavirus in Sindh By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Sun, 28 Jun 20 23:50:45 +0500 CM Murad says province's daily testing capacity has been stretched to 12,000 Full Article Sindh
ir CJP Isa slams bureaucrats' job quota for children, calls for merit-based hiring By tribune.com.pk Published On :: Thu, 12 Sep 24 17:26:46 +0500 Supreme Court reviews a case concerning government jobs allocated through a statutory regulatory order (SRO) Full Article Pakistan
ir Analog Equivalent Rights (2/21): The analog, anonymous letter and The Pirate Bay By falkvinge.net Published On :: Mon, 18 Dec 2017 18:00:38 +0000 Privacy: Our parents were taking liberties for granted in their analog world, liberties that are not passed down to our children in the transition to digital — such as the simple right to send an anonymous letter. Sometimes when speaking, I ask the audience how many would be okay with sites like The Pirate Bay, even if it means that artists are losing money from their operation. (Do note that this assertion is disputed: I’m asking the question on the basis of what-if the assertion is true.) Some people raise their hands, the proportion varying with audience and venue. The copyright industry asserts that the offline laws don’t apply on the Internet when they want to sue and prosecute people sharing knowledge and culture. They’re right, but not in the way they think. They’re right that copyright law does apply online as well. But privacy laws don’t, and they should. In the offline world, an analog letter was given a certain level of protection. This was not intended to cover just the physical letter as such, but correspondence in general; it was just that the letter was the only form of such correspondence when these liberties were drafted. First, the letter was anonymous. It was your prerogative entirely whether you identified yourself as sender of the letter on the outside of the envelope, on the inside of the letter (so not even the postal service knew who sent it, only the recipient), or not at all. Further, the letter was untracked in transit. The only governments tracking people’s correspondence were those we looked down on with enormous contempt. Third, the letter was secret. The envelope would never we broken in transit. Fourth, the carrier was never responsible for the contents, of nothing else for the simple reason they were not allowed to examine the content in the first place. But even if they could, like with a envelopeless postcard, they were never liable for executing their courier duties — this principle, the courier immunity or messenger immunity, is a principle that dates as far back as the Roman Empire. These principles, the liberties of correspondence, should apply to offline correspondence (the letter) just as it should to online correspondence. But it doesn’t. You don’t have the right to send anything you like to anybody you like online, because it might be a copyright infringement — even though our parents had exactly this right in their offline world. So the copyright industry is right – sending a copied drawing in a letter is a copyright infringement, and sending a copied piece of music over the net is the same kind of copyright infringement. But offline, there are checks and balances to these laws – even though it’s a copyright infringement, nobody is allowed to open the letter in transit just to see if it violates the law, because the secrecy of private correspondence is considered more important than discovering copyright infringements. This is key. This set of checks and balances has not been carried over into the digital environment. The only time a letter is opened and prevented is when somebody is under individual and prior suspicion of a serious crime. The words “individual” and “prior” are important here — opening letters just to see if they contain a non-serious crime in progress, like copyright infringement, is simply not permitted in the slightest. There is no reason for the offline liberties of our parents to not be carried over into the same online liberties for our children, regardless of whether that means somebody doesn’t know how to run a business anymore. After highlighting these points, I repeat the question whether the audience would be okay with sites like The Pirate Bay, even if it means an artist is losing income. And after making these points, basically everybody raises their hand to say they would be fine with it; they would be fine with our children having the same liberty as our parents, and the checks and balances of the offline world to also apply online. Next in the series, we’re going to look at a related topic – public anonymous announcements and the important role the city square soapbox filled in shaping liberty. Privacy remains your own responsibility. Full Article Privacy
ir Analog Equivalent Rights (8/21): Using Third-Party Services Should Not Void Expectation of Privacy By falkvinge.net Published On :: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 18:00:49 +0000 Privacy: Ross Ulbricht handed in his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court last week, highlighting an important Analog Equivalent Privacy Right in the process: Just because you’re using equipment that makes a third party aware of your circumstances, does that really nullify any expectation of privacy? In most constitutions, there’s a protection of privacy of some kind. In the European Charter of Human Rights, this is specified as having the right to private and family life, home, and correspondence. In the U.S. Constitution, it’s framed slightly differently, but with the same outcome: it’s a ban for the government to invade privacy without good cause (“unreasonable search and seizure”). U.S. Courts have long held, that if you have voluntarily given up some part of your digitally-stored privacy to a third party, then you can no longer expect to have privacy in that area. When looking at analog equivalence for privacy rights, this doctrine is atrocious, and in order to understand just how atrocious, we need to go back to the dawn of the manual telephone switchboards. At the beginning of the telephone age, switchboards were fully manual. When you requested a telephone call, a manual switchboard operator would manually connect the wire from your telephone to the wire of the receiver’s telephone, and crank a mechanism that would make that telephone ring. The operators could hear every call if they wanted and knew who had been talking to whom and when. Did you give up your privacy to a third party when using this manual telephone service? Yes, arguably, you did. Under the digital doctrine applied now, phonecalls would have no privacy at all, under any circumstance. But as we know, phonecalls are private. In fact, the phonecall operators were oathsworn to never utter the smallest part of what they learned on the job about people’s private dealings — so seriously was privacy considered, even by the companies running the switchboards. Interestingly enough, this “third-party surrender of privacy” doctrine seems to have appeared the moment the last switchboard operator left their job for today’s automated phone-circuit switches. This was as late as 1983, just at the dawn of digital consumer-level technology such as the Commodore 64. This false equivalence alone should be sufficient to scuttle the doctrine of “voluntarily” surrendering privacy to a third party in the digital world, and therefore giving up expectation of privacy: the equivalence in the analog world was the direct opposite. But there’s more to the analog equivalent of third-party-service privacy. Somewhere in this concept is the notion that you’re voluntarily choosing to give up your privacy, as an active informed act — in particular, an act that stands out of the ordinary, since the Constitutions of the world are very clear that the ordinary default case is that you have an expectation of privacy. In other words, since people’s everyday lives are covered by expectations of privacy, there must be something outside of the ordinary that a government can claim gives it the right to take away somebody’s privacy. And this “outside the ordinary” has been that the people in question were carrying a cellphone, and so “voluntarily” gave up their right to privacy, as the cellphone gives away their location to the network operator by contacting cellphone towers. But carrying a cellphone is expected behavior today. It is completely within the boundaries of “ordinary”. In terms of expectations, this doesn’t differ much from wearing jeans or a jacket. This leads us to the question; in the thought experiment that yesterday’s jeans manufacturers had been able to pinpoint your location, had it been reasonable for the government to argue that you give up any expectation of privacy when you’re wearing jeans? No. No, of course it hadn’t. It’s not like you’re carrying a wilderness tracking device for the express purpose of rescue services to find you during a dangerous hike. In such a circumstance, it could be argued that you’re voluntarily carrying a locator device. But not when carrying something that everybody is expected to carry — indeed, something that everybody must carry in order to even function in today’s society. When the only alternative to having your Constitutionally-guaranteed privacy is exile from modern society, a government should have a really thin case. Especially when the analog equivalent — analog phone switchboards — was never fair game in any case. People deserve Analog Equivalent Privacy Rights. Until a government recognizes this and voluntarily surrenders a power it has taken itself, which isn’t something people should hold their breath over, privacy remains your own responsibility. Full Article Privacy
ir Analog Equivalent Rights (12/21): Our parents bought things untracked, their footsteps in store weren’t recorded By falkvinge.net Published On :: Fri, 26 Jan 2018 18:00:45 +0000 Privacy: In the last article, we focused on how people are tracked today when using credit cards instead of cash. But few pay attention to the fact that we’re tracked when using cash today, too. Few people pay attention to the little sign on the revolving door on Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It says that wi-fi and bluetooth tracking of every single individual is taking place in the airport. What sets Schiphol Airport apart isn’t that they track individual people’s movements to the sub-footstep level in a commercial area. (It’s for commercial purposes, not security purposes.) No, what sets Schiphol apart is that they bother to tell people about it. (The Netherlands tend to take privacy seriously, as does Germany, and for the same reason.) Locator beacons are practically a standard in bigger commercial areas now. They ping your phone using wi-fi and bluetooth, and using signal strength triangulation, a grid of locator beacons is able to show how every single individual is moving in realtime at the sub-footstep level. This is used to “optimize marketing” — in other words, find ways to trick people’s brains to spend resources they otherwise wouldn’t have. Our own loss of privacy is being turned against us, as it always is. Where do people stop for a while, what catches their attention, what doesn’t catch their attention, what’s a roadblock for more sales? These are legitimate questions. However, taking away people’s privacy in order to answer those questions is not a legitimate method to answer them. This kind of mass individual tracking has even been deployed at city levels, which happened in complete silence until the Privacy Oversight Board of a remote government sounded the alarms. The city of Västerås got the green light to continue tracking once some formal criteria were met. Yes, this kind of people tracking is documented to have been already rolled out citywide in at least one small city in a remote part of the world (Västerås, Sweden). With the government’s Privacy Oversight Board having shrugged and said “fine, whatever”, don’t expect this to stay in the small town of Västerås. Correction, wrong tense: don’t expect it to have stayed in just Västerås, where it was greenlit three years ago. Our analog parents had the ability to walk around untracked in the city and street of their choice, without it being used or held against them. It’s not unreasonable that our digital children should have the same ability. There’s one other way to buy things with cash which avoids this kind of tracking, and that’s paying cash-on-delivery when ordering something online or over the phone to your door — in which case your purchase is also logged and recorded, just in another type of system. This isn’t only used against the ordinary citizen for marketing purposes, of course. It’s used against the ordinary citizen for every conceivable purpose. But we’ll be returning to that in a later article in the series. Privacy remains your own responsibility. Full Article Privacy
ir Analog Equivalent Rights (21/21): Conclusion, privacy has been all but eliminated from the digital environment By falkvinge.net Published On :: Fri, 18 May 2018 18:00:41 +0000 Privacy: In a series of posts on this blog, we have shown how practically everything our parents took for granted with regards to privacy has been completely eliminated for our children, just because they use digital tools instead of analog, and the people interpreting the laws are saying that privacy only applies to the old, analog environment of our parents. Once you agree with the observation that privacy seems to simply not apply for our children, merely for living in a digitally-powered environment instead of our parents’ analog-powered one, surprise turns to shock turns to anger, and it’s easy to want to assign blame to someone for essentially erasing five generations’ fight for civil liberties while people were looking the other way. So whose fault is it, then? It’s more than one actor at work here, but part of the blame must be assigned to the illusion that that nothing has changed, just because our digital children can use old-fashioned and obsolete technology to obtain the rights they should always have by law and constitution, regardless of which method they use to talk to friends and exercise their privacy rights. We’ve all heard these excuses. “You still have privacy of correspondence, just use the old analog letter”. As if the Internet generation would. You might as well tell our analog parents that they would need to send a wired telegram to enjoy some basic rights. “You can still use a library freely.” Well, only an analog one, not a digital one like The Pirate Bay, which differs from an analog library only in efficiency, and not in anything else. “You can still discuss anything you like.” Yes, but only in the analog streets and squares, not in the digital streets and squares. “You can still date someone without the government knowing your dating preferences.” Only if I prefer to date like our parents did, in the unsafe analog world, as opposed to the safe digital environment where predators vanish at the click of a “block” button, an option our analog parents didn’t have in shady bars. The laws aren’t different for the analog and the digital. The law doesn’t make a difference between analog and digital. But no law is above the people who interpret it in the courts, and the way people interpret those laws means the privacy rights always apply to the analog world, but never to the digital world. It’s not rocket science to demand the same laws to apply offline and online. This includes copyright law, as well as the fact that privacy of correspondence takes precedence over copyright law (in other words, you’re not allowed to open and examine private correspondence for infringements in the analog world, not without prior and individual warrants — our law books are full of these checks and balances; they should apply in the digital too, but don’t today). Going back to blame, that’s one actor right there: the copyright industry. They have successfully argued that their monopoly laws should apply online just as it does offline, and in doing so, has completely ignored all the checks and balances that apply to the copyright monopoly laws in the analog world. And since copying movies and music has now moved into the same communications channels as we use for private correspondence, the copyright monopoly as such has become fundamentally incompatible with private correspondence at the conceptual level. The copyright industry has been aware of this conflict and has been continuously pushing for eroded and eliminated privacy to prop up their crumbling and obsolete monopolies, such as pushing for the hated (and now court-axed) Data Retention Directive in Europe. They would use this federal law (or European equivalent thereof) to literally get more powers than the Police themselves in pursuing individual people who were simply sharing music and movies, sharing in the way everybody does. There are two other major factors at work. The second factor is marketing. The reason we’re tracked at the sub-footstep level in airports and other busy commercial centers is simply to sell us more crap we don’t need. This comes at the expense of privacy that our analog parents took for granted. Don’t even get started on Facebook and Google. Last but not least are the surveillance hawks — the politicians who want to look “Tough on Crime”, or “Tough on Terrorism”, or whatever the word of choice is this week. These were the ones who pushed the Data Retention Directive into law. The copyright industry were the ones who basically wrote it for them. These three factors have working together, and they’ve been very busy. It’s going to be a long uphill battle to win back the liberties that were slowly won by our ancestors over about six generations, and which have been all but abolished in a decade. It’s not rocket science that our children should have at least the same set of civil liberties in their digital environment, as our parents had in their analog environment. And yet, this is not happening. Our children are right to demand Analog Equivalent Privacy Rights — the civil liberties our parents not just enjoyed, but took for granted. I fear the failure to pass on the civil liberties from our parents to our children is going to be seen as the greatest failure of this particular current generation, regardless of all the good we also accomplish. Surveillance societies can be erected in just ten years, but can take centuries to roll back. Privacy remains your own responsibility today. We all need to take it back merely by exercising our privacy rights, with whatever tools are at our disposal. Image from the movie “Nineteen-Eighty Four”; used under fair use for political commentary. Full Article Privacy
ir Pirate Party enters parliament in Luxembourg, gets 17% in Prague By falkvinge.net Published On :: Wed, 17 Oct 2018 11:22:34 +0000 Pirate Parties: This past weekend, elections were held in Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. The Pirate Party of Luxembourg tripled their support and entered the Luxembourg Parliament with two MPs, and in the Czech Republic, the Pirate Party increased their support further – now receiving a full 17% in Prague. With 6.45% of the votes of the final tally, the Luxembourg Pirate Party is entering its national Parliament, being the fifth Pirate Party to enter a national or supranational legislature (after Sweden, Germany, Iceland, and the Czech Republic). This may not seem like much, but it is a very big deal, for reasons I’ll elaborate on later. A big congratulations to Sven Clement and Marc Goergen, new Members of Parliament for Luxembourg! Further, the Czech Republic has had municipal elections, and the Czech Pirate Party showed a full 17.1% support in Prague, the Czech capital, making the Pirates the second biggest party with a very narrow gap to the first place (at 17.9%). This may or may not translate to votes for the Czech national legislature, but is nevertheless the highest score recorded so far for a Pirate Party election day. I understand the Czech Pirates have as many as 275 (two hundred and seventy-five!) newly-elected members of city councils, up from 21 (twenty-one). Well done, well done indeed! For people in a winner-takes-all system, like the UK or United States, this may sound like a mediocre result. In those countries, there are usually only two parties, and the loser with 49% of the vote gets nothing. However, most of Europe have so-called proportional systems, where 5% of the nationwide votes gives you 5% of the national legislation seats. In these systems, the parties elected to Parliament negotiate between themselves to find a ruling majority coalition of 51%+ of the seats, trying to negotiate common positions between parties that are reasonably close to each other in policy. This usually requires a few weeks of intense negotiations between the elections and the presentation of a successfully negotiated majority coalition. Further, it could reasonable be asked what kind of difference the Czech Republic or Luxembourg could possibly make on their own in the global information repression. The answer is, a whole lot. The key here is realizing that one country is sufficient to break the global repression of information; the repression is completely dependent on every single country keeping watertight doors. If one single country decides to allow the free movement of culture and knowledge, then all such distribution will immediately be based there. The copyright industry lobby in other countries will protest, quite loudly, but there’s not really anything they can do about it. And since the problem from a policymaking standpoint has been that the industry-age era politicians consider the Internet-related policy areas completely peripheral in the first place, conceding those policy areas will be seen as very cheap price to bind those votes to a majority coalition. “One country is sufficient to break the global repression of information.” A relevant comparison is how Canada has now legalized cannabis at the country level, following many state-level initiatives here and there in the world, and at once, the floodgates are open. Not just for the illegal distribution networks, but more importantly, for legalization everywhere else. As a German politician dryly said today, “what’s possible in Canada is also possible in Germany”, proposing that cannabis should be legalized outright in Germany. I would imagine the tone is similar in most places — or, importantly, many enough places. The Luxembourg and Prague coalition talks have just started, with an outcome typically expected in a few weeks. Full Article Pirate Parties
ir Health Circumstances Demand a Longer, Deeper Timeout By falkvinge.net Published On :: Wed, 14 Aug 2019 16:29:19 +0000 Personal: I ran headfirst into a bit of a classic burnout two years ago. I’m still recovering from it. I’ve been trying to maintain a presence and not make this condition show too much, but I need to scale down the rest of my presence too for a while in order to reset and recharge. I’ve been starting and re-starting writing this post way too many times now. I’ve decided to just post it as a stream of consciousness, readable or not as it may be, rather than my usual bar of having some sort of clear red thread with step-by-step logical coherence. Two years ago, while moving from Stockholm to Berlin, I hit the infamous brick wall. I became incapable of most work that required any form of vehicular travel — I was literally limited to walking distance. Yes, it felt as ridiculous as it sounds, but it was just a matter of accepting the lay of the land and working with it. At the time, I was able to maintain some illusion of normality while starting to wind down and recover behind the scenes, thanks to being able to work remotely. I’ve since stopped working altogether — or so I thought, at least — and focusing on recharging. When you drive a solar-powered rover too aggressively in Kerbal Space Program and the sun goes down, the batteries deplete quickly. You can’t start driving the rover again when the sun goes up from its state of depleted batteries, not even at its rated speed; you have to wait until the batteries have recharged, even if the circumstances (i.e. shining sun) should otherwise make you able to operate nominally. This is a little bit the state I’m in: I should nominally be fine, with most of the everyday load reduced significantly, but my batteries are still not recharging at the rate I had expected them to. (Yes, I’m impatient, which is admittedly part of the problem in the first place.) So to all people who have written to me over this past time that I haven’t responded to: Please accept my apologies. It’s not out of malice or disinterest I haven’t responded, I’m simply getting done in a month what I used to get done in a day, and even that is a marked improvement. The “need to respond” queue is silly long by now, and includes conference invites and whatnot, that I would normally have responded to within minutes. It includes pings from near friends, that I had hoped to spend a lot more time with here in Berlin, as well as distant friends. A close friend of mine pointed at a recent study about stress, a study looking at burnout symptoms in places with very good work-to-life balance, and the study concluded that the body doesn’t make a difference between obligations for work or obligations that are felt outside of work for any other reason than money. And she’s right: I’ve been feeling a pressure to shoot video, to code open-source projects, to participate in the community. I need to, bluntly speaking, drop all of these expectations for the foreseeable future. “Go off-grid” is a little too harsh, but I’ll need to turn off the expectation heartbeat on literally everything. I’ll do random things from time to time when I have the energy and desire for it, which unfortunately won’t be most of the time. These recoveries basically take whatever damn time they please. I could have recharged batteries in six months, in a year, in ten years. I have honestly no idea and therefore I’m not setting any expectations, in either direction. Time for a deeper and longer break. I’d like to say “I’ll be back”, but I don’t think the person on the other side of this recovery is going to be the same person I am today. I am sure I will still want to change the world for the better, somehow. I just can’t tell today how I’ll be wanting to change the world tomorrow. So even though I’ll very likely be back doing something, it’ll very likely not be the exact same things I’ve done up until this point. Full Article Personal
ir BMX Dirt - Simon Moratz X kunstform By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2016-06-12 16:31:30 BMX Dirt - Simon Moratz X kunstform We're very proud to present you here a BMX Dirt edit of Simon Moratz. Simon is a real awesome buddy with a very positiv attitude. He runs his own dirtpark in Unterholzhäuseln a nice village next to munich which you will see in that edit and push BMX with his mobil ramps on nearly every bike festival. Simon Moratz was reppin kunstform BMX Shop for the season 2014/15 and our friend Marcus Adam from www.eyetrip.de took some footage of that time and created that Simon Moratz X kunstform clip. We're very happy that we could support on of the finest BMX Dirt rider in germany and wish you a lot of fun with that edit. If you're interessted to run a BMX Ramp / Dirt Show at your BMX festival, then you should checkout the page of www.showtimebmx.de Follow Simon Moratz on: Instagram - www.instagram.com/simonmoratz Facebook - www.facebook.com/SimonMoratzOfficialFanpage Web - www.simonmoratz.com Kamera & Edit: Markus Adam (www.eyetrip.de) Rider: Simon Moratz (www.simonmoratz.com) Music: MYNTH - NIGHTLIGHT (https://www.facebook.com/mynthmusic) Full Article
ir Felix Prangenberg - Birthday Jam 2018 By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2018-05-23 12:05:51 On the 26.05.2018, Felix Prangenberg will celebrate his 20th birthday at the "Salatschüssel Skatepark" in Köln-Ehrenfeld. Come over and enjoy this special day with your Idol Felix Prangenberg! Requirement: Ride BMX and trink some Beers! All the best, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! What: Felix Prangenberg - Birthday Jam 2018 When: 26th May 13pm (local time) Where: Salatschüssel Skatepark Subbelrather Str. 488 50825 Köln-Ehrenfeld Full Article
ir Felix Prangenberg - Birthday Jam Video 2018 By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2018-06-05 16:16:23 Felix Prangenberg celebrated his 20th birthday with his homies at the Schüssel Skatepark in Köln-Ehrenfeld. Although it was actually too hot for riding, it was still a great day! Check the full video now on Freedombmx. Enjoy the Video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Video: Freedombmx Subscribe our youtube channel: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/kunstformbmxshop Full Article
ir Markus Schwital over the roofs of Garmisch-Partenkirchen By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2018-07-06 13:29:21 Markus Schwital was recently in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for a video shoot. The location for this was the shell of the new youth hostel moun10, which is next to the Alps. The new modern moun10 youth hostel will open at the end of 2018. Since the start of construction, it has repeatedly served as a location for modern trend sports. If you want to win a free weekend for four people in moun10 with breakfast, sauna and free drinks, you should participate until 15 July 2018 on www.moun10-garmisch-jugendherberge.de. Enjoy the Video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Video: Moun10 Subscribe our youtube channel: https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/kunstformbmxshop Full Article
ir Maxxis Tires - In stock! By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2018-07-23 13:23:01 We got all Maxxis tires in stock, like for example the Maxxis "Grifter" BMX Tire, which is a super high pressure allround tire with low V-profile and available in 1.85"and 2.10". It has a high graded and durable rubber mixture and also offers you strong sidewalls at a low weight. Also now in stock, the Maxxis "DTH Kevlar" BMX Tire (foldable) is super-light to accelerate like no other BMX tire, yet holds up to the abuse you dish out. The dual-compound tread corners incomparably on hard-packed tracks and rolls fast on the straights. The Maxxis "DTH Kevlar" BMX Tire (foldable) is very light and foldable by the use of Kevlar instead of wire. With these features, it fits in any backpack and is perfect as a spare tire on the go. Check our online-shop for more new Maxxis products! Have fun! All the best, Your kunstform BMX Shop Team Full Article
ir Dirt Jam Brackenheim (Heilbronn) By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2018-09-20 13:06:01 From the 22th September 2018, the BRICKYARDTRAILS SEASON-ENDER-JAM will take place at the Dirt Park Brackenheim in Brackenheim. The Jam will start at 2pm and they will organize a few competitions like for example a Best Trick, Whip off and Highest Air Contest but you'll have fun also without a bike, so come over and have a good time! Watch now the Highlight video from 2016: All the best, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Registration: on-site What: BRICKYARDTRAILS SEASON-ENDER-JAM When: 22th of September 2018 Where: Brickyardtrails Brackenheim 74336 Brackenheim More infos on Facebook. Full Article
ir Dirtpark Opening & 20Inch Trophy 2018 By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2018-10-09 14:36:41 At the 13th October 2018, the Dirtpark Opening & 20Inch Trophy 2018 Contest will take place at the brand new Dirt Park in Innsbruck, which is next to the Baggersee/Rossau. You can participate in two challenges like for example a Fun race and a best trick Contest for BMX & MTB. Refreshments will be available, as well as live music and an after party, which will take place in the Dachsbau. Arrival is possible on Friday All the best, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Registration: on-site What: Dirtpark Opening & 20Inch Trophy 2018 When: 13th of October 2018 Where: Dirt Park Innsbruck 6020 Innsbruck More infos on Facebook. Full Article
ir The Shadow Conspiracy - Back in stock! By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2018-11-09 18:59:12 We got The Shadow Conspiracy back in stock, like for example the Subrosa X Shadow "Featherweight" Helmet, which got a In-Mold technology to make a custom shape and fit utilizing a thin outer shell covers and protects high density EPS foam. Also back in stock, The Shadow Conspiracy "Crow Straight Gauge 4PC" BMX Bar, which is Johnny Devlin's Signature bar and uses Straight Gauge Chromoly Tubing (tube-wall of uniform thickness). It got after welding heat treatment and the crossbar has a unique tear shape. The The Shadow Conspiracy "Crow Straight Gauge 4PC" BMX Bar comes with a width of 29" (73.66 cm) and a backsweep of 10°. Check our online-shop for more new The Shadow Conspiracy products! Have fun! All the best, Your kunstform BMX Shop Team Full Article
ir Subrosa Tiro 2019 BMX Bikes - back in stock By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2019-02-26 13:13:19 Yeah, we just got again a delivery of the popular Subrosa Bikes "Tiro" 2019 BMX bikes, which are especially good for beginners. Related links: all products of Subrosa Bikes Full Article
ir BMX Event: Stuttgart Kessel Festival 2019 - BMX Miniramp Session By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2019-05-20 13:02:01 The Kessel Festival is Stuttgart's Music, Sport and Culture Festival and takes place on 01.06 - 02.06.2019. International top stars of the music scene on the main stage, young musicians on the up-and-coming stage, sports and fun sports areas to join in and watch, sustainability to touch in the integrated day after tomorrow market and an interactive children and family program make the Kessel Festival something special for visitors of all ages. Together with the STUTTPARK skate hall, there will be a mini ramp with skateboard session on 01.06.2019 and a BMX session on 02.06.2019 . If you want to participate actively as a rider in the BMX session, please register in advance via Email contact@kunstform.org . A contest with the groups AM and Profi is planned. You can expect lavish prizes, which are provided by kunstform. Depending on how many riders are coming, the following schedule is fixed: Groups: amateurs professional Schedule: 10:00 - 12:00: Amateurs - Pratice & Qualification (Cut to 8 riders) 12:00 - 14:00: Professional Pratice & Qualification (Cut to 8 riders) 14:00 - 15:00: Open Session 15:00 - 16:00: Amateurs Finale (Battle-Format) 16:00 - 17:00: Profi Finale (Battle-Format) 18:00: Awards ceremony Amateure & Profi 18:00 - 20:00: Open Session What: Kessel Festival 2019 - BMX Miniramp Session When: 02.06.2019 from 10:00 o'clock Where: On the grounds of the Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart For more information about the event, visit www.kesselfestival.de . Please register in advance via Email contact@kunstform.org! We are happy that you're coming, Your kunstform BMX Shop Team Full Article
ir Video: Miniramp Highlights @ Kessel Festival Stuttgart 2019 By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2019-06-25 18:29:22 At the beginning of June, the Kessel Festival, Stuttgart's music, sports and culture festival took place. As part of this event, a miniramp contest went down, under very hot temperatures. Whether our guys and the locals have survived the heat, you'll find out in the video. Enjoy, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Video: Justin Rudd Related links: all products of kunstform Full Article
ir Felix Prangenberg - The First Cut BMX Video By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2020-03-07 10:53:21 Our bro Felix Prangenberg recently dropped a massive BMX Video Edit for Eclat & DIG BMX Magazine. I am lost for words here. I guess BMX Street meets tech & speed describes it all. Don't wait for it, push play! Have fun with the video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Video: DIG/Eclat Related links: all signature parts of Felix Prangenberg all products of Eclat all products of kunstform Full Article
ir Vans "The Circle" BMX Shop Video Contest By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2020-10-11 21:29:41 VANS should already be known for to set up massive BMX events for the scene. In keeping with the current situation, things are going a little differently this time. With the video contest "The Circle" Vans would like to support the local BMX shops as well as their scene and riders. 10 BMX shops from Europe will take part, which will compete for a total of 20,000 euros in prize money. We are also invited with the kunstform BMX Shop Stuttgart and are really looking forward to the project! You can find the official press release from VANS below. We will of course keep you up to date. Vans Europe are excited to announce a new initiative to support local BMX stores, their riders and their communities. The Circle is a brand new Vans BMX filming competition where 10 BMX shops from across the UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Russia will go head to head for the chance to win up to €10,000 in prize money. Filmed entirely at their local spots, The Circle will be a real chance for local BMX communities to showcase their crew of talent to viewers across the world – pros, ams, local heroes, creatives – everyone who contributes to their scene and makes their BMX circle what it is. All full edits will be available to view on DIGBMX.com from November 6th for the public to vote on their “Fan Favourite”, before The Circle will culminate in a live one-hour online screening on 14th November. Vans will bring together some of the most prolific names in the BMX world to judge the competition – including Dakota Roche, Alex Valentino, Peter Adam, Jon Taylor. Keep your fingers crossed, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Related links: all products of VANS Full Article
ir Vans "The Circle" Meet The Teams Video By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2020-10-12 22:07:51 In post # 2 of the VANS "The Circle" series, it's our turn now. In our "Meet The Teams" video, Daniel Fuhrmann introduces the kunstform BMX Shop Stuttgart and the team of riders that will take part in the VANS video contest . Have fun with the video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Related links: all products of VANS all VANS "The Circle" videos on Youtube Full Article
ir Vans "The Circle" Final Team Video By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2020-11-08 18:54:11 The VANS "The Circle" BMX Shop Online Video Contest is in full swing. Our video from Stuttgart is now also published on www.digbmx.com. A huge thanks to Flawless Issues for the awesome track, David Schaller for filming and editing and of course to our team riders Felix Prangenberg, Miguel Smajli, Felix Donat, Artur Meister and Daniel Fuhrmann. Vote for your BMX shop on www.digbmx.com Have fun with the video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! all products of VANS all VANS "The Circle" videos on Youtube Full Article
ir Vans "The Circle" BMX Shop Video Contest By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2021-10-04 11:16:30 VANS is known for putting on awesome BMX events for the scene. After the Vans "The Circle" contest was a huge success last year, the contest is back in an even bigger version this year! With the video contest "The Circle" Vans would like to support the local BMX shops as well as their scene and drivers. 19 BMX shops from all over the world will take part, which will compete for a total of 20,000 euros in prize money. We are also a part of it with the kunstform BMX Shop Berlin and are really looking forward to the project! Our team riders Felix Prangenberg, Miguel Smajli, Robin Kachfi, Justin Rudd, Elias Bauer, Konsty Rudobashta and Paul Thölen are extremely motivated to go in! If you are curious to learn more about it check the interview with Thommy Ebeling and Daniel Fuhrmann on Dig BMX. You can find the official press release from VANS below. We will of course keep you up to date. We're stoked to announce that Vans 'The Circle' is back for 2021 and this year it's even bigger and better than ever with 19 shops competing from around the globe, and the addition of a photography award to add some extra creative juice into the mix. Filmed entirely at their local spots, The Circle will be a real chance for local BMX communities to showcase their crew of talent to viewers across the world – pros, ams, local heroes, creatives – everyone who contributes to their scene and makes their BMX circle what it is. All full edits will be available to view on DIGBMX.com from October 13th for the public to vote. Vans will bring together some of the most prolific names in the BMX world to judge the competition – including Dennis Enarson, Dan Lacey, Angie Marino, Calvin Kosovich. Root for us, Your kunstform BMX Shop Team! Related links: DIG BMX Interview all products of VANS Full Article
ir Vans "The Circle" 2021 - Vote for kunstform By www.kunstform.org Published On :: 2021-10-13 23:34:40 The VANS "The Circle" BMX Shop Online Video Contest is in full swing. Our video from Berlin is now also published on www.digbmx.com. A huge thanks to Happy Diving for the awesome track, Felix Prangenberg for filming and editing and of course to our team riders Paul Thölen, Miguel Smajli, Robin Kachfi, Justin Rudd, Konsty Rudobashta and Elias Bauer. Vote for your BMX shop on www.digbmx.com Have fun with the video, your kunstform BMX Shop Team! all products of VANS Full Article