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It is important to stress that this latest attack on file-sharing is sparked by the private initiative of a lawyer representing intellectual property owners. The State has not yet tipped its hand with regard to the attitude that it will assume, and indeed it is difficult to envisage a European Court convicting individiuals under criminal charges in advance of a US determination to similar effect.

In early June, for example, rumours of a swoop on Italian sharers circulated, claiming that 180 people were under investigation for copyright infringements relating to their use of p2p networks. This scare prompted a clarification by the police involved (Guardia di Finanzia) that the targets of the raid were active in commercial counterfieting rings that used p2p and ftp servers as part of their business, and that those who eployed the tools to share files were not the target of the operation. Elsewhhere in Europe during 2002 six eDonkey servers were shut down in Denmark were shut down by police under-pressure from industry groups, and letters of warning were issued to numerous German broadband users, who were informed that their traffic logs would be preserved in case of subsequent litigation by copyright owners.

As yet, however, there have been no state-instigated prosecutions of individuals for the collaborative sharing of media and knowledge that they call 'piracy.'


Spanish Firms Target File Traders

In what is being touted as the largest legal action of its kind, a Spanish law firm has announced plans to file a copyright-violation complaint against 4,000 individuals who allegedly have swapped illegal files over peer-to-peer networks in that country.

hydrarchist submits "
The following a revision of an article commissioned by Mute Magazine and was published in their most recent issue.


Dissembly Language: Unzipping the World Summit on the Information Society


The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has already attracted the attention of the
critical media community. Here, A.T. examines what's at stake at the Summit and how its agenda reflects changes in the post-
industrial location of power, describing some working strategies for intervention in the WSIS
process from 'independent' and contestatory communications groups formed outside last year's
European Social Forum


A TALE OF TWO TERMS


We begin with a tale of two terms: the well aired and well known 'Information Society', and its
rather furtive and less well known relation, 'intellectual property' (IP). One of the decade's great
shibboleths, 'Information Society' was a phrase recycled throughout the '90s by policy hacks,
academics and gurus alike. Employed variously to herald the expansion of digital networks, the
permeation of labour by information processes, and the shift from tangible to intangible goods,
'Information Society' seemed to imply something inexorable, a consequence of the massive
mediatisation of the preceding years, outside any one set of strategic interests - something, we
were constantly reminded, 'we would all have to adapt to.'

Stephen Cataldo writes "SpaceShare is a new environmental partnership. We've developed a set of web sites for rideshares and hotel accommodation matching for events & conferences.



What we're doing: we're looking for activist and cultural events that should have rideshares, and setting up sites for them (usually at no cost.) Let us know if you're setting up an event!



What we want to do: This project was started by two people. We've protyped it, beta-tested it, run it for a few events. Now, we want to find others to start an activist organization, where we can be the tech-team but others will help us make the contacts to get the sites into widespread use.



Anyone interested?



Contact Stephen:

cataldo-(at)-boutell.com

www.spaceshare.com"

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"Microsoft Plans Largest Full-Timers Lay-Off in Company's History"

Jeff Nachtigal, WashTech News

Hundreds of Call Center Jobs to be Offshored to India
and Canada


When Eric Poore began working as a customer service
representative for Microsoft's technical call-routing
center in 1997, he was told his advancement
opportunities were endless.


Two years into his Microsoft career Poore's hard work
paid off with a promotion to Outlook Technical Router,
where he managed technical questions about Microsoft?s
email program. But less than a year later, the
position was outsourced -- a handy euphemism for being
sent to India or elsewhere to cut labor costs -- and he
was demoted back to his original customer service job.


Four years after Poore lost his first position to
outsourcing, he is about to lose his six-year career
because Microsoft is in the process of a massive
relocation of Customer Central call center jobs to
India and Canada.


Employees estimate that Microsoft is planning to
eliminate at least 800 jobs in the next fiscal year at
the company's Las Colinas facility outside of Dallas,
Texas and shift the work offshore.


If this outsourcing goes as expected, it will be the
largest one-time firing of full-time Microsoft
employees in the company's history.


[...] full story at Techs Unite

This is the beginning of the essay "Behind the Blip: Software as Culture
(Some Routes into “Software Criticism,” More Ways Out)" from Matthew Fuller's new collection of essays, Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software. For a pdf version of the entire essay along with supporting materials from the book (388K), please click here.


Software Criticism?

There are two questions which I would like to begin with. First, what kind of critical and inventive thinking is required to take the various movements in software forward into those areas which are necessary if software oligopolies are to be undermined? But further, how are we to develop the capacity for unleashing the unexpected upon software and the certainties which form it?

The following is the introduction to the subRosa anthology Domain Errors!. For a pdf version of this material as well as other supporting material from the book (688K), please click here.

"Practicing Cyberfeminisms: Introduction to Domain Errors, by subRosa and the editors

It is also true that every new movement, when it first elaborates its theory and policy, begins by finding support in the preceding movement, though it may be in direct contradiction with the latter. It begins by suiting itself to the forms found at hand and by speaking the language spoken hereto. In time…the new movement finds its forms and its own language.
—Rosa Luxemburg, 1900

Anonymous Comrade submits:

A Call to Join and Contribute to the Establishment of a
Video-Sharing Syndicate/Network


Project Description
:

For some time now the idea of utilising peer2peer
structures to assemble a user-built distribution
platform has been circulating. Recently, in the run-up
to the G8 meeting in Evian, a concrete proposal has
been made to establish a system for the sharing of
video. Long-term we believe that we can assemble a
sustainable and scalable platform for audio-visual
materials of a critical and independent nature. This
is an appeal to groups/individuals to get involved, dedicate some
resources, support and expand the project generally.

Works to be distributed over the system will vary from
somewhat edited footage suitable for use as a stock
archive to finished documentaries/films. Each file
will be accompanied by metadata in an xml .info file
and produced as an searchable RSS feed for people to
integrate into their own sites and published on its
own website (where there will also be a manifesto,
how-to's. contact info for participating groups etc.)
Amongst the metadata fields will be a specification
for the nature of the license under which the
materials may be used (e.g. Creative Commons
share-alike)

Cyberlodge" Union Movement for Open-Source Organizing

http://www.cyberlodge.org/


What We're About

Work Today

The workforce isn't what it used to be. Our parents parents went to school, got a job, and stayed at that job for decades. When they retired they got a pension.

Not any more.

hydrarchist submits "This story is actually wildly inaccurate as Jeffrey Gerard Levy, a 22 year old student at the University of Oregaon was charged with criminal offences under the No Electronic Theft (NEt) Act as long ago as August 1999. Nonetheless, given that these strategies unfold ina global context, these recent charges indeed indicate a significant shift.

Australian students nailed in world's first Net piracy criminal charges


Three Australian students have acquired a distinction they'd rather not have.


Tommy Lee, 21, Charles Cok-Hau Ng, 20, and Peter Tran, 20, all from Sydney, are the first people to face criminal charges for alleged internet music piracy.

salamander writes "

We could all have gone our whole lives without knowing about tactical shopping, good thing Walmart is spreading the word. They have issued an incredibly broad letter to the ISP hosting re-code.com, demanding that the ISP shut down the re-code site, reveal the name of the person behind the site and identify any other project maintained by that person/persons. Certainly worth reading (at Re-Code.com), and the site itself is very well done.


What is Re-Code.com?

Re-Code.com is designed to stimulate discussion about the prices of products and goods as they might relate to corporate and governmental agendas. Re-Code.com does not advocate relabeling items in stores. Re-Code.com servers do not store any barcode images only the data entered by our customers which is not verified by re-code.com to be accurate. Any image of a barcode you see on your screen is generated and visible only to you the user on your local machine. The video commercial on Re-Code.com's site is a dramatization and we have been assured by the anonymous videographers that no actual items were mislabeled or mispriced during the taping of the commercial. We have received several suggestions for conceptual options for tactical shopping and re-coding. The options are discussed below.

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