YouTube has just been unbanned by the Moroccan government after citizens were unable to access the popular video-sharing website, owned by Google, for about five days. The site reportedly was unavailable in the country from May 25th after videos were posted by the Western Saharan independence movement that showed Moroccan police beating female independence protesters.

Many videos with different political views on the country are available on YouTube, some calling for independence and others calling for continued violence against protests. The country’s King is also mocked in many of the videos. Maroc Telecom, owned by the Government, claimed that the site was unavailable due to a “tecnical fault” however.

Many have been left asking how exactly a technical fault would leave just one website inaccessible for five straight days. It is fairly clear to the people that the site was banned due to the videos. Reporters San Frontieres welcomed the change of heart from the government

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/30/youtube_morocco_ban_ends/

Yesterday, the electronics giant LG patented a washing machine that can play MP3s.

Now, families around the country can enjoy their favorite tunes and wash their dirty laundry with the same machine, which I’m sure has been the dream of many.

As LG describes their invention, “The washing device comprises: an input/output terminal for physically connecting the washing device with the MP3 player for data communication with the MP3 player; a connector for physically connecting the washing device with the MP3 player to receive an audio signal outputted from the MP3 player; a key input unit for inputting washing or drying mode conditions and a control command for the MP3 player from a user; a display unit for displaying information regarding an operation of a washing or drying mode and information regarding an operation of the MP3 player; an audio output unit for outputting a mode state in the form of an audio signal and the audio signal from the MP3 player received through the connector; and a controller for, in response to a control of the user through the key input unit, controlling the operation of the washing or drying mode, and controlling the operation of the MP3 player by performing the data communication with the MP3 player through the input/output terminal.”

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/9901.cfm

A Tokyo district court has found that a service allowing users to store their music online was infringing copyright. Image City allowed users to store their music from CDs on an off-site server, allowing them to later download them to mobile phones while on-the-go. The Japanese music copyright association (JASRAC) attacked the service and claimed it was obviously infringing copyrights.

JASRAC demanded that the service be taken offline. Image City denied any wrong doing, saying that the music stored on its servers was owned by the customer that uploaded it. The company believed that since users and the company were not copying the music for other people’s use, they were essentially doing nothing wrong.

The Judge disagreed and ruled in favor of the Japanese music copyright association.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/9892.cfm

French antiP2P agency CoPeerRight has been distributing flyers to advertise their new services to film makers and executives at the Cannes Film Festival. Titled “Bytes Corrupted”, the company claims it can “protect your rights, before and after the digital piracy of your films.”

A closer look at their claims reveals it is nothing more than a standard IP trace and obfuscation technique. Their first step is to log the IP’s of those sharing it, reporting this to both the ISP of the users, and the service producers. The second, to attempt to flood the system with fake versions of those files.

How the thinking behind this goes to protect any rights before it’s been released onto the internet is unknown. Pretty much the only way to do this is to have a watchdog in the agency’s employ overseeing every single screening of those films – it’s well known that the vast majority of “film piracy” is committed by so-called industry insiders, and those are also the people entrusted to keep the copies secure, as well as being in the best position to make high quality copies of them.

The second phase of the Bytes Corrupted plan is a method that’s been around for more than 10 years, and is suggested by the plans name. In essence, it is the same plan that the RIAA tried years ago with Napster, in that they attempt to flood the networks with fake/corrupt versions of the file, hiding the real ones. The only problem is that this isn’t 1997 any more, and sites like Mininova have user accounts, where uploaders can attach a user name to the upload, giving a sort of ‘badge of quality’ to the torrent, that copycat fake uploaders can’t match. It already helps on Mininova to identify fake axxo film, as well as EZTV & VTV TV-torrent uploads.

Ultimately, its another 3rd rate anti-p2p effort undertaken by someone with no head for the fluid and dynamic world of file sharing, and probably more business acumen than techknowlege, and is doomed to be as impotent as most of these other techniques and services offered by a plethora of other anti-p2p companies.

http://torrentfreak.com/company-offers-to-sabotage-pirates/

This is not the first time that The Pirate Bay is rebranding their site to piss off content owners. When Apple’s OSX x86 leaked. in July 2005, they renamed the site to the Pear Bay, and linked to the leaked torrent. Back in July 2005 The Pirate Bay put up a logo inspired on Grand Theft Auto for the release of their new website, the Grand Theft Bay. Apart from being creative with their logo’s TPB is known for their hilarious responses to copyright owners who request takedowns.

This pirate attitude is picked up by more mainstream media, and as a result the TPB admins have a chance to ventilate their opinions in the Sunday Times, Vanity Fair, and Forbes to name a few. The Pirate Bay fares well thanks to all this publicity and is currently tracking over 4 Million torrents. Moreover, it is estimated that approximately 50% of the public .torrent files are now tracked by TPB trackers.

http://torrentfreak.com/pirates-of-the-internet-at-intellectual-propertys-end/