I will post links to various news article of interests here.  Got something you want to share?  Post the link here.  

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7th Circuit Affirms Early Dismissal Based on Fair Use in “South Park” Parody Case – Not a copyright troll case we are used to, but still interesting.  Judge dismisses the case because he could see the allegation with BS.

Interview of April Brown – The Dash Poem Copyright Trolling Scam    Talk Across America article

Glimmer of Hope

Torrent Freak Article, 15 May 12 - IP-Address Can’t Even Identify a State, BitTorrent Judge Rules

Ars Technica Article, 8 May 12 – Judge nixes “Oil Orgy” scheme to scare P2P users into quick settlements

Denver CO news story – Hundreds Sued For Downloading Porn

YouTube – New York judge rules an IP address is not a person

Ars Technica Article – 3 May 12 Furious judge decries “blizzard” of copyright troll lawsuits    NY Court Order – ORR_03995(NY)  AND You Tube – Adult Filmmakers get Legal Smackdown!

Torrent Freak Article – Hollywood Lawyers Threaten ‘Hobbit’ Pub, 13 Mar 12

Film producer Saul Zaentz owns the film, stage and merchandising rights to JRR Tolkien classics such as The Hobbit. Ostensibly to protect those rights, lawyers for the company are now threatening small businesses across the UK with ruinous legal action if they don’t stop using the term ‘Hobbit’ – a word that may not even have been created by Tolkien.

https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheHobbitSouthampton - Save The Hobbit Pub, Southampton, England

Help Net Security Article -Users don’t bother changing default passwords, 22 Feb 12

Interesting security article based on a survey conducted by a computer security & data recovery firm.  The survey found that on average, only 28.15% of those polled did not change default passwords on various devices/systems/application.  I bet that is pretty close to the same percentage of people who don’t change the default password on their WiFi Firewall/Router.

Tactical Network Solutions Article – Cracking WiFi Protected Set-Up (WPS), 28 Dec 11.

Reaver is an Open Source attack tool capable of breaking WPS pins and recovering the plain text WPA/WPA2 passphrase of the target access point (Your WiFi Firewall/Router, etc.) in approximately 4-10 hours (attack time varies based on the access point).

Torrent Freak Article – “The Copyright Industry – A Century Of Deceit,” 27 Nov 11

The past 100 years have seen a vast array of technical advances in broadcasting, multiplication and transmissions of culture, but equally much misguided legislators who sought to preserve the old at expense of the new, just because the old was complaining. First, let’s take a look at what the copyright industry tried to ban and outlaw, or at least receive taxpayer money in compensation for its existence:

ComputerWorld Article – “Google, Yahoo join opposition to rogue website legislation,” 15 Nov 11.

Google, Yahoo, Facebook and several other large Web companies today joined a growing chorus of strong opposition to proposed legislation that aims to curb online IP and copyright theft by foreign sites.

The opponents contend that the two proposed laws, the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) and the PROTECT IP Act (S.968), would result in Internet censorship.

TechDirt Article – “The Only Way To Stop File Sharing Is To Stop Private Communications,” 11 Oct 11, Mark Masnick

When public libraries were introduced in Europe 150 years ago, the book publishers were very much opposed to this. The argument they used was the same one that is being used today in the file sharing debate: If people could get access to books for free, authors would not be able to make a living, and no new books would be written.

We now know that the arguments against public libraries were wrong. It quite obviously did not lead to a situation where no new books were written, and it did not make it impossible for authors to earn money from writing. On the contrary, free access to culture proved to be not only a boon to society at large, but also turned out to be beneficial to authors.

ARS Technica Article – Judge blasts personal-injury lawyer for running P2P “shake down”, 6 Oct 11‏ – http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/judge-blasts-personal-injury-lawyer-for-running-p2p-shake-down.ars

Torrent Freak Article – Who Are MCGIP And Why Are They Suing For Other People’s  Movies?, 25 Sep 11

http://torrentfreak.com/who-are-mcgip-and-why-are-they-suing-for-other-people%E2%80%99s-movies-110925/

Good article concerning Steele Hansmeier and MCGIP – Need to add some of this information to the motions.

Today we take a look at a tangled web of copyright trolls who have set their sights on thousands of BitTorrent users. More specifically, the law firm Steele Hansmeier, the BitTorrent tracking company led by Hansmeier’s brother and the mysterious company MCGIP, which sued BitTorrent users for movies they didn’t make.

Here is a screenshot from a comment made by the “Pirate Slayer,” John Steele in response to this article.  It must be noted that I can’t verify it was actually John Steele, but I doubt you will hear him deny it either.

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Torrent Freak Article – Open Wifi and Pirates – Why Copyright Negligence Won’t Fly, 28 Aug 11

https://torrentfreak.com/open-wifi-and-pirates-why-copyright-negligence-won%E2%80%99t-fly-110827/

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“Wi-Fi-hacking neighbor sentenced to 18 years”, By David Kravets, Wired, 13 Jul 2011, http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/07/13/wifi.hacking.neighbor.sentenced.wired/index.html

Another news article showing that home Wifi connections have been hacked and abused.  The neighbor used the Wifi connection to try and frame the owner because of a dispute.

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Older Article – A Canadian BitTorrent user has been ordered to pay $60,000 by a U.S. District Court judge, 15 Jun 11, TorrentFreak Web site -

https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-bittorrent-user-fined-60000-by-u-s-court-110615/

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“New Hacking Tools Pose Bigger Threats to Wi-Fi Users.” By KATE MURPHY.  Published: February 16, 2011, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/technology/personaltech/17basics.html

Good general article on Wifi threats – Mentions how easily it is for home Wifi to be hacked and abuse.

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“Feds: Wi-Fi hacking burglars targeted dozens of Seattle-area businesses”

Three indicted in years-long scheme; trio accused in 41 burglaries, 13 network intrusions

By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF Published 10:15 p.m., Monday, September 19, 2011

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Feds-Wi-Fi-hacking-burglars-targeted-dozens-of-2178421.php#ixzz1YWd6SYZB

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