p2pnet - rss feed: Swedish anti-p2p site hacked: more
p2pnet.net News Feature:- Henrik Ponten runs the movie studio cartel’s Swedish anti-p2p organization Svenska AntipiratbyrÃ¥n.
Dean Garfield is the Hollywood-owned MPAA’s (Motion Picture Association of America) director of legal affairs.
The MPAA’s latest triumph was to con Swedish police units into raiding Bahnhof, an important Swedish ISP.
Below, from the recently hacked Svenska Antipiratbyrån web site, is a warm congratulatory email from Dean to Pontén:
From: Garfield, Dean
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 12:02 PM
To: Ponten, Henrik
Cc: Tilbury, Chad
Subject: FW: EREC-05-007: Sweden: Authorities seize major pirate servers at Stockholm ISP
Henrik, this is truly phenomenal. We are all very proud of you. I am sure you are a bit unpopular with the pirate community in Sweden right now. Great work.
Also in the loop was MPAA mouthpiece John Malcolm.
Two suspects suspended
The major movie studios, record labels and software manufacturers can apparently do whatever the hell they want and get away with it.
Their pseudo-cop alphabet organizations such as the MPAA, BPI, RIAA, CRIA, IFPI, BSA, ARIA, etc, etc, routinely use tax-payer funded national and local police forces around the world to further their owners’ purely commercial interests to bring the Net under their exclusive and total control.
And no one, least of all the governments concerned which sometimes actually brag about the involvement, seems to think there’s anything in the least strange about this.
“We spoke with Jon Karlung the CEO of Bahnhof Internet, the ISP raided by the Swedish police yesterday,†says the p2p weblog, going on:.
‘He said that the raid came as a surprise as, apparently, some employees were maintaining the servers. Still there’s no proof yet but to be on the safe side the company has suspended the 2 suspect staffers while the police investigation continues. ‘I feel very sorry for this and in the end it might turn out that they are completely innocent. We do not have any material to respond to yet from the police’, Jon said.
‘I have very strong principal feelings about the witch hunt now going on’ Jon continues while trying to be careful on what to say as some of his employees are under suspicion.
‘I cannot argue in a more principal way about it. I can just say that this - no matter what happens - innocent or non innocent comes as a complete blow to us as one of Sweden oldest and independent ISP’s. It feels like they have gone after us since we are not a big telco - and we are independent. Maybe we are a more easy target.
‘But since we at this stage can not be completely sure of our own employees I have to be very strict and formal. We take the situation very serious.’
Name the traitor
Did a Bahnhof employee rat the company out?
Sweden’s Arga Unga Hackare (Angry Young Hackers) certainly believe that’s the case. So they hacked the country’s Antipiracy Agency servers in a bid to name the traitor, says a Pirate Bay press release. It’s in Swedish, but Zeropaid has a translation here.
In the meanwhile, thanks to Arga Unga Hackare, the ‘antipiracy bureau web site is online for all to see. We’ve also posted a permanent copy here (for historical purposes, of course :�) and here are two more English-language missives.
From: peter@anti-piracy.se
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 9:29
To: Tilbury, Chad; Seymour, Dan; Winter, Craig
Subject: Swedish pirates busted!
Hi guys!
After 2 years of infiltrations our work finally paid of today with a successful raid on Sweden’s oldest and largest ISP named Bahnhof. Bahnhof has been a source for top level piracy for several years and hosting some of the biggest and fastest servers in Europe.
And:
From: Mac Greevy, Dara
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 10:08 AM
To: Sunderland, Jane
Cc: Malcolm, John; Garfield, Dean; Tilbury, Chad
Subject: RE: EREC-05-007: Sweden: Authorities seize major pirate servers at Stockholm ISP
Dear Jane
“The Swede” was central to this operation. He even shared coffee at one stage with the operators of the servers at the ISP’s premises (ironically located in the same building as the Swedish program)!
And no doubt MPAA boss Dan ‘I don’t know how funny I am. I think I’m funny’ Glickman, who prides himself on his sense of humour, was in on the fun.
‘It’s really hard to kill someone with a carrot’
The undated clips below are from Defamer.
“The MPAA, the rabid lobbyists who ensure that Shall We Dance? can never be viewed without proper respect to copyrights, are finally ready to start suing broadband-enabled movie pirates back into the days of the Commodore 64. New MPAA Head Pirate Hunter in Charge Dan Glickman will announce the opening volley of lawsuits later today. Quick, everyone uninstall BitTorrent and throw your computers into the nearest body of water to avoid their wrath! At least Glickman seems to be paying lip-service to a somewhat less bloodthirsty approach than his predecessor, Jack Valenti.
“Glickman said ‘a holistic approach’ was needed to combat piracy, including educational efforts, criminal prosecution and lawsuits against infringers. ‘You need the stick and you need the carrot both,’ he said. ‘You can’t just have one without the other.’
“Glickman took a reflective pause before explaining, ‘See, the way it works is we dangle the carrot, then when a file-sharer reaches for the it, we wiggle the stick so they know what we’re packing, We ask them, *Are you sure you want to do that? Didn’t you see the stick?* And if they insist on going for the carrot, we beat them to death with the stick, you know, just until we can see a little brain through the skull. That’s why you need the stick and the carrot both. It’s really hard to kill someone with a carrot’.’
(Thanks Lars and thanks terrabyte)
Jon Newton
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
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See:-
Henrik Ponten - Sweden and Denmark join anti-pirate frenzy, p2pnet
raiding Bahnhof - MPAA goes after Swedish ISP, p2pnet, March 14, 2005
p2p weblog - Bahnhof Internet’s CEO point of view on the raid of their servers, March 12, 2005
Pirate Bay - Antipiratbyr�n avsl�jade av hackare, March 13, 2005
sense of humour - New MPAA boss a comedian, p2pnet, July 2, 2004
Defamer - MPAA�Readey to sue pirates
March 15th, 2005 at 6:29 pm
“And if they insist on going for the carrot, we beat them to death with the stick, you know, just until we can see a little brain through the skull”
Unbelievable quote.
This is who is buying the congress to pass laws that will guarnatee profits.
There have been a FEW industries in the United State’s past that have been subsidized and helped out by the goverment for the interest of the country’s well being: Farmers, Steel, Airlines, etc.
The Music & Movie industry should NOT be one of them.
-terrabyte
March 16th, 2005 at 2:50 pm
Dropping docs on the enemy is fair game. It may be illegal, but I actively encourage it. Just think about it, how many cartels trade docs about you without you knowlege or consent? How many times are you forced to ‘consent’ just so that you can get a house or a car? I highly resent these companies buying and selling my private information, yet I have no way of opting out. Why do the governments make it legal for cartels and not for us? The simple answer is money. Cartels contribute much more to political campaigns then you and I could ever dream of. It is time for information revolution! I would like to see a database of personal information made publically available for all people in positions of power at these cartels as well as personal information of every politician and law enforcement member. Maybe when we start freely trading information about them as they do us, they will understand people’s right to privacy.
Polluting cartel databases is nice too. This can be done easily in many cases by warranty cards. False names can be used with real addressess (just not yours). I have no medical insurance, so doctors’ officeses do not need by National Identification Number (Some call it a Social Security Number). They get a fake one. Use fake information on shoppers discount cards as well. If ID is required to get one of these cards (provided you don’t have fake id) try swapping with other people. I think licence plate swapping might provide a bit of recreation as well. Just do it . Imagine a cop running lawyers’ Mercedes license plate number and finding it coming back as belonging to a drug dealer. Think of all the fun that can be had turning one cartel enforcer against another cartel. Let’s figure out a strategy on how to divide and conquer these b4st4rds.
Ever hear of operation shutdown? This can occur when a building’s door locks are glued shut, a shaft is wedged in the fan blade of an external heating/air conditioning unit, the power meter pulled out, water main turned off, and the telephone wires cut. It will take the better part of a day to get a building functional.
March 18th, 2005 at 6:27 pm
scum
March 19th, 2005 at 9:23 am
i know of even better ways to cause damage, but the methods of these companies has not become tyrranical enough to demand such extreme measures.
Funny, ghost in the shell takes place in the late 21’st century.. in the early 2020’s in this fictional universe, there were strings of anticorporate terrorism campaigns (unfortunately followed by totalitarian rule across the globe).
hopefully none of these things will become necessary, but i would rather see anticorporate terrorist rings arise than simply have people fall docile below the feet of these megaconglomerates.
March 19th, 2005 at 9:28 am
it seems like satire to me.. because it’s so damned funny, truly reflective of their consumer repellant tactics, and runs counter to what theyre trying to do by “inducing people” with the stick to go for the carrot that is “legitimate movie purchases”.
If it’s real, it’s still funny, but also rather disturbing.
June 1st, 2006 at 5:13 pm
“…even better ways to cause damage…”
Let’s have them, pls
June 5th, 2006 at 2:25 am
just a site note:
Ponten is IIRC not the head of APB but their legalcouncel and “public face” gay for them.
(Admin should delete THIS sitenote when it is no longer necessary)