is stupid vs. an intelligence agency site. Neither are right, but the theft
of copywritten material is the worst of it. How many books would any CF
author write if you can just go onto some site and download it? And that's
just a book that may take a few months to write. What about a movie that
takes millions to make?
I'm no fan of the RIAA (they suck moldy moose balls) but there's something
to be said about the sharing of copywritten material. Maybe it helps sales
(as seen by some in the case of music) but in other cases (books), it hurts
sales. No money, one less reason to write, fewer books, less information,
society is lowered by a notch or two.
But then again, there are those who have tried it the 'free digital and pay
print' way and have succeeded. The industry is still young. But back on
topic, the choice is the copywrite owners, not some punks running Earth
Station V.
> Ok,
>
> So what's your response to this?
>
> Techno-Rebels in West Bank?
> File Swapping Firm Claims Odd Hide-Out
>
> By John Ward Anderson
> Washington Post Foreign Service
> Sunday, February 22, 2004; Page A29
>
>
> JENIN, West Bank -- Somewhere in this beleaguered town, Palestinian
computer
> whizzes from a company called Earth Station V have launched a high-tech
> assault on the U.S. entertainment industry, with a defiant message for
those
> trying to stop the downloading of music and movies: "Resistance is
futile."
>
> That, at least, is what the company wants people to believe, and it has
> cooked up an elaborate ruse that has made Earth Station V and its claim to
> hide downloaders' identities the buzz of the moment in the online
universe.
>
> But seemingly no one in this town of 34,000 -- the scene of some of the
> heaviest fighting in the three-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict --
has
> heard of Earth Station V. Computer salesmen and technicians, Internet
> providers, Internet cafe workers and customers and community and
Palestinian
> militant leaders said they knew of no one who works for the company.
> Questions about its founder and president, who calls himself Ras Kabir --
> Arabic for "Big Head" -- drew laughter.
>
> Yet someone has gone to enormous trouble and expense to create complicated
> software programs and a sophisticated Web site that offers X-rated movies,
> long-distance calling, a dating service, the downloading of music,
first-run
> movies and computer software -- all free and all supposedly augmented with
> stealth technology that hides a user's identity. And all with no
> advertisements or other visible means of generating revenue, despite
monthly
> operating costs that the company says amount to $1.5 million.
>
> In recent years, downloading music has become one of the biggest and most
> controversial activities on the Internet -- one that many computer experts
> say could transform the U.S. entertainment industry. Even if laws could be
> written fast enough to keep up with changing technology, experts say,
online
> file swapping and downloading are virtually unstoppable.
>
> With entertainment industry agencies -- particularly the Recording
Industry
> Association of America (RIAA) -- using tough U.S. laws to shut down other
> Internet platforms used for copying music, most Web sites that specialize
in
> music downloads have gone low-profile. But Earth Station V is openly
> rallying people to engage in digital music and movie swapping. Its
operators
> have crafted a finely honed bad-boy image that seems to taunt officials to
> discover who they are and to catch 'em if they can.
>
> The company claims to have its headquarters in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip
> to take advantage of loose Palestinian copyright and intellectual property
> laws that it says can keep U.S. legal hounds at bay.
>
> No Paper Trail
>
> The real boon for Earth Station V, however, seems to be the publicity
> bonanza that comes from claiming that such a cutting-edge Internet company
> is being run by a multiethnic band of techno-rebels in besieged and
> impoverished Palestinian refugee camps.
>
> But the company's business and Internet paper trails don't support that
> claim. The West Bank and Gaza addresses the company lists for its offices
> don't exist, the telephone numbers don't answer, company officials refuse
to
> meet with reporters and they communicate only by e-mails and call-backs.
> Reporters are not allowed to visit Earth Station V offices or talk to
> workers.
>
> In several telephone interviews, a spokesman for Earth Station V, Steve
> Taylor, said the company has about 100 employees in the West Bank and Gaza
> Strip. But he declined a reporter's request to visit their work sites,
> saying that Palestinian militant groups did not approve of Earth Station
V's
> activities -- particularly its broadcast of pornographic movies -- and
were
> threatening the company's operations and employees. Militants also were
> angry, he claimed, that the company had Jewish partners.
>
> Computer sleuths have traced some of Earth Station V's Internet providers
to
> Israel; computer experts agree that from there, the service could be
routed
> into the Palestinian territories. But even if that is the case, experts
> agree, the electronic veil offered by the Internet is so impermeable that
> the company's employees could be sitting at desks almost anywhere in the
> world, while using the West Bank as their electronic address.
>
> "They are making it very difficult for anyone to find who they are, where
> they are and how they operate," said Ghassan Anabtawi, marketing director
> for Paltel, the monopoly telephone company in the Palestinian territories.
> Paltel has no record of providing voice or Internet service to Earth
Station
> V. "It's something fishy and weird -- they are very professional in
conning
> people," Anabtawi said.
>
> The company might be receiving Internet service from a Palestinian
provider,
> he said, but none had claimed it as a client.
>
> In addition to Jenin and Gaza, said Taylor, the Earth Station V spokesman,
> the company has offices in the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Nablus and
> Bethlehem. Computer specialists in each town said they were not familiar
> with Earth Station V.
>
> "I've never heard of the company, and I should have heard of it," said
Yahya
> Salqan, general secretary of the Palestinian Information Technology
> Association. He said he sent e-mails to the 75 members of his association
> asking if any knew of Earth Station V, and "nobody had."
>
> Business registration papers filed with the Palestinian Authority in
> Ramallah and other company documents reviewed by The Washington Post list
an
> Internet pornography king, Stephen Michael Cohen, as the "sole director"
of
> Earth Station V. Taylor said Cohen was a "consultant" who "brings a lot to
> the table because of his expertise."
>
> Cohen has been listed as a fugitive from the United States since 2001 for
> failing to appear in a court case in which he was ordered to pay $65
million
> in damages for stealing the Internet domain sex.com. According to the
> judgment, in 1995 Cohen forged a letter by the real owner of sex.com
> instructing the agency that registered domains to transfer ownership to
him.
> Cohen controlled the domain name for five years, building sex.com into
what
> reportedly was one of world's most visited and profitable Web sites.
>
> Taylor said Earth Station V had about $1.5 million per month in operating
> costs but no revenues. He said the company's investors, whom he declined
to
> name, were willing to lose money in the short term to attract users but
> planned to add potentially huge money-making ventures to the Web site in
the
> near future, including online auctioning and gambling.
>
> A Widespread Practice
>
> But its biggest draw is offering a platform for Internet users to download
> music, a practice that has become so widespread that many experts expect
it
> to revolutionize the relationship between Americans and the performing
arts.
> Internet experts estimate that 60 million Americans swap files online. A
> report in August by the Internet technology firm Forrester Research found
> that 49 percent of 12- to 22-year-olds had downloaded music in the
previous
> month.
>
> In September, the RIAA filed lawsuits against 261 people for copying music
> over the Internet, saying the practice violated U.S. copyright laws.
> According to the RIAA, about 2.6 billion copyrighted files, mostly songs,
> are downloaded over the Internet per month, which the organization says is
> the leading cause of the worldwide decline in music industry sales from
$40
> billion in 2000 to $26 billion in 2002.
>
> Marc Andreessen, who helped create the Netscape Web browser and is
> considered one of the fathers of the Internet, said at a conference in
Palm
> Beach in November that Earth Station V and file-sharing companies like it
> were on the verge of making the downloading of music and other
intellectual
> property virtually unstoppable, no matter the law.
>
> Such predictions hinge on whether Earth Station V really has found a way
for
> users to conduct online music swapping with impunity. Computer experts and
> music industry officials scoff at the company's claim that it can hide the
> identities of the site's users.
>
> "It's a sophisticated protocol, but it's not set up for all the claims
they
> make," said Mark Ishikawa, the head of BayTSP, an Internet security
company
> that investigates piracy for record companies and other high-tech
> industries. "We looked at them, and the people who were downloading files
> were not anonymous."
>
> "We can easily target infringers on their network," said Matt Oppenheim,
> senior vice president of the RIAA. He said Earth Station V "was throwing
> stones at us because that's how they get more press and grow their pirate
> network."
>
> 'At War' With Associations
>
> Taylor, the company spokesman, said Earth Station V has roughly 710
> employees in several countries, including Russia. Their software is
> available in 28 languages, he said, although the Web site listed only
about
> 15, and none was Arabic, the language spoken by Palestinians.
>
> Business registration documents filed in June with the Palestinian Economy
> Ministry said Earth Station V had $2.75 million in start-up capital and
was
> established to conduct "transactions in financial documents." The papers
> listed Rony Hanouna, the owner of several cellular telephone stores in the
> West Bank, as the company's representative in the West Bank town of
> Bethlehem.
>
> Hanouna said in an interview that he had no knowledge of Earth Station V's
> activities and expressed surprise that the company was conducting
business,
> saying that as far as he knew, it existed only on paper.
>
> Hanouna said he was approached by several people about 10 months ago and
> asked to open an office for Earth Station V. But after filling out the
> paperwork, Hanouna said, he never heard back from the people.
>
> Initially, much of the publicity about the Earth Station V Web site came
> from company statements distributed by PR Newswire, a public relations
firm.
> In one such statement, Earth Station V declared it was "at war" with the
> RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), asserting that
> "resistance is futile and we are in control now."
>
> The Earth Station V Web site asserts that the RIAA and MPAA "have
absolutely
> no jurisdiction" over the company because "Palestine is not a signee of
the
> Intellectual Property Agreements."
>
> --
> Timothy Heald
> Web Portfolio Manager
> Overseas Security Advisory Council
> U.S. Department of State
> 571.345.2319
>
> The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S.
> Department of State or any affiliated organization(s). Nor have these
> opinions been approved or sanctioned by these organizations. This e-mail
is
> unclassified based on the definitions in E.O. 12958.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin Graeme [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 9:08 AM
> To: CF-Community
> Subject: Re: Youth cleared of trying to hack Mossad Web site
>
>
> This of course begs the question of would there have been an acquittal if
it
> had been a Palestinian youth?
>
> -Kevin
>
> > The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court acquitted Sunday an Israeli youth
charged
> > with attempting to hack the Web site of the Mossad secret service.
> Presiding
> > judge Abraham Tennenbaum, who found that Avi Mizrahi had not attempted
to
> > break into the site, but had merely been attempting to assess the
security
> > level, even praised the defendant for "acting in the public good."
> _____
>
>
>
>
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