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424 Comments
- eviscerator, on 05/11/2009, -11/+508I don't know if i agree with TPB's methods, or if i don't - but i'm constantly amazed at their creativity.
- martoq, on 05/11/2009, -19/+342That is genius.
- djdigital, on 05/11/2009, -9/+293Pirate Bay Founder Devises DDo$ Attack
Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm (aka anakata) recieved a bill for the 30 million SEK that he, along with Peter Sunde (aka brokep), Fredrik Neij (aka TiAMO), and Carl Lundstrom, was fined in the verdict of the Pirate Bay trial just over three weeks ago. The bill inspired anakata to devise a plan involving sending money to Danowsky’s law firm, but not to pay the fine of course which they say will never be payed. Anakata’s clever plan is called internet-avgift, internet-fee in English. Anakata encourages all Internet users to pay extremely small sums around 1 SEK (0.13 USD) to Danowsky’s law firm, which represented the music companies at the Pirate Bay trial. The music companies will not benefit from this, instead it will cost them money to handle and process all the money.
The plan can be called a Distributed Denial of Dollars attack (DDo$). The plan is an away-from-keyboard DDoS attack. DDoS attacks involve lots of users overloading the victim with internet traffic damaging their ability to provide services. Money, instead of Internet traffic is used in this case. The victim is Danowsky’s law firm which represented the IFPI at the Pirate Bay trial.
A friend of anakata told Blog Pirate that the bank account to which the payments are directed has only 1000 free transfers, after which any transfers have a surcharge of 2 SEK for the account holder. Any internet-fee payments made after the first 1000, which includes the law firm’s ordinary transfers, will instead of giving 1 SEK, cost 1 SEK to the law firm. Since Danowsky & Partners Advokatbyrå is a small firm, all the transactions are handled by hand. Handling all payments will be time consuming, costing the law firm in productivity. Maybe it will even affect their success in other cases.
Make direct payments to
Danowsky & Partners Advokatbyrå KB. Plusgiro 79 31 21-5.
Additionally if after paying the internet-fee you determine that your payment was erroneous, Swedish law states that you can request the money back, putting an additional load on Danowsky’s law firm.
Since the Pirate Bay crew was provided with such clear, logical, and well explained methods for calculating the damages in the trial, an explanation on how the internet-fee was calculated is provided. Use the formula below, substituting anything anywhere, to check that the internet-fee really is 1 SEK.formel
The name internet-avgift, as well as the layout of the site is based on tv-avgift and they layout of its site. Radiojanst, a state owned company, is responsible for collecting TV license fees in Sweden. - SteveMax, on 05/11/2009, -16/+225"lawyers" "not the bad guys"?!
Does not compute. - bluesparks, on 05/11/2009, -45/+232I love the idea, but, unless there's something I don't know, the law firm's not the bad guys here, are they? They did a job. A sin of omission by not refusing to take the case isn't worth this kind of torture, I think. Maybe this will scare other law firms away, though I doubt it.
- UnnDunn, on 05/11/2009, -9/+187Big companies do this kind of thing all the time; use their high-priced lawyers to bury you in frivolous paperwork, increasing your lawyer's costs and thereby raising your legal fees beyond your ability to pay... then they'll come at you with a "generous" settlement offer which you'll have no choice but to take or risk financial ruin.
Turnabout is fair play IMHO.
I'm reminded of an episode a few years back when Sony filed separate suits against Lik-Sang in EVERY SINGLE EUROPEAN NATION SIMULTANEOUSLY to get them to stop importing Japanese PS3s and reselling them--a perfectly legal activity. Lik-Sang didn't have the resources to defend itself and went completely out of business.
To me, it really doesn't matter where the moral or legal compass points on this issue; courtrooms are bloody fields of combat, and you fight with the weapons you have. If TPB can successfully wield this weapon, more power to them. - rabidbob, on 05/11/2009, -3/+161They'll pass the costs on to the RIAA.
- hagerman, on 05/11/2009, -3/+135Mirror:
http://rorr.im/digg.com/tech_news/pirate_bay_found ... - EricAnderton, on 05/11/2009, -25/+157So much for taking the high road. I give them credit for having the balls to do this, but it's ultimately a really bad idea.
I get that the trial should probably be declared a mistrial given that the judge had entanglements that effected his impartiality. However, I fail to see how effectively DDos-ing a third party accomplishes anything other than demonstrating how TPB has this internet mob at it's disposal. It crosses a line from being found guilty of a non-crime, into organizing disruptive online behavior; it will likely trigger another suit, with even more damages. - MWeather, on 05/11/2009, -5/+108The only reason you'd ever need a lawyer is because of lawyers.
- tonicboy, on 05/11/2009, -9/+103Open your mouth, let me see your tongue. I knew it, totally red from the Kool-Aid. You do realize that it's the RIAA that's been looting money for decades, right? They couldn't care less about musician's rights, they've found an extremely profitable business model in extorting alleged file sharers. They've made nearly $100mil from lawsuits, not a single goddamn penny of which has gone back to musicians. Heroes my ass.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/6332/riaa_profits_nea ... - inactive, on 05/11/2009, -4/+94id like to do it through her account... if you know what i mean
- JQP123, on 05/11/2009, -34/+112Not only childish but may actually be illegal when done in an intentional and coordinated way meant to cause harm.
- Spem, on 05/11/2009, -0/+75I dugg you up because your comment is a great mirror of the previous comment, which is useful in case his comment ever goes down.
- Frostek, on 05/11/2009, -36/+101Not impressed with this type of antic.
They're undermining their own cause also. - srs2000, on 05/11/2009, -6/+65Fight fair?
You've never met a lawyer, have you? - Tbags, on 05/11/2009, -5/+63Just like taking pictures at the museum is like stealing paintings.
Makes perfect sense... - thecosmicpope, on 05/11/2009, -23/+76Probably not the best way to react to being found guilty. It is in the interests of everybody that the battles are fought in a legitimate way, otherwise the actions of TPB will be used as a precedent in other torrent trials.
Fight fair or don't fight at all. - shark72, on 05/11/2009, -2/+55You win the prize.
Since the organizer of the attack knows that it will cause financial harm -- and is attempting to cause financial harm -- this is actionable. The simple fact that he's calling it an "attack" shows that he knows what he's doing. - demitio, on 05/11/2009, -19/+71Mirror:
http://rorr.im/digg.com/tech_news/pirate_bay_found ... - ninja0, on 05/11/2009, -1/+52I often find myself in the same dilemma. I just think it's amazing how a group is really pushing back for what they believe are their rights.
I support that. - SteveMax, on 05/11/2009, -4/+53@Myonosken
So? Sue me, then :-)
Honestly, if you you can't take a joke about your profession, being a lawyer was a terrible career choice. - Avaseal, on 05/11/2009, -2/+49Though they don't mention it in the article, pretty sure that's part of of their tactic, which is genius.
- Emused, on 05/11/2009, -4/+50Tipping their hand, will surely give the accountants at both the law firm and the bank, a reason to strike up a separate agreement in this case.After all, lawyers and bankers are just weasels in tweed.
- raydeen, on 05/11/2009, -1/+47Wait...I can watch MTV for my music? Really? When exactly do they play music videos anymore? All I ever see is ***** reality TV.
- UrineEngineer, on 05/11/2009, -0/+44You don't mind if I open her up and make a deposit?
- turkeyssr, on 05/11/2009, -16/+59Not really. It's quite brilliant. The law firm failed to recognize a potential loophole in requesting payment. TPB found a method to exploit said loophole. It is the law firms job to make certain all aspects of a law suit are air tight, otherwise you have situations such as these.
I don't see a link to make a contribution for English users, but I would love to help them out! It would, at the very least, be fun. - redwire, on 05/11/2009, -7/+46I think I have heard a similar defence it went "We were only following orders".
Didn't work for them either. - RocketGib, on 05/11/2009, -15/+53TPB ftw!!!!
- rbabiak, on 05/11/2009, -2/+39Generally accepted accounting practices don't allow for company to disregard any funds received. If they do then they will get in trouble with the tax man. They can have a policy that they don't accept amounts less than 100 SEK, but will the bank enforce this?
I don't know. - alexforcefive, on 05/11/2009, -2/+37Who's digging him down? What is this, nazi germany?
- DarkCloud515, on 05/11/2009, -14/+45I guess it's Ok when MegaCorp or GovernmentX does this to the average person. But when the average person decides to bite back, it's a bad idea.
- pe5t1lence, on 05/11/2009, -0/+30We passed then.
- nshady, on 05/11/2009, -0/+30I dugg you up because I figure the previous post wasn't made when you wrote your comment.
- pthers, on 05/11/2009, -2/+32yes, Now is now
- Stoyanov, on 05/11/2009, -3/+32@computershack, it is people like them and computer hackers that the Internet has become such a secure place. Think about it.
- leonidas333, on 05/11/2009, -6/+35Ok, so when this happens, how do we 'donate' our 13 cents?
- bmatherlyjr, on 05/11/2009, -0/+28when?
- fallingdamage, on 05/11/2009, -3/+31That law firm stood to make money off the case. They didnt do it as a charity for the MPAA/RIAA.
They made the decisions, calculated the costs, and suggested the fines.
Now they can deal with the fallout. The media industry had a tantrum, this firm decided to give them what they wanted. Now they can pay the price. - LemurDaddy, on 05/11/2009, -1/+29That's just the kind of thing HITLER would say.
- shark72, on 05/11/2009, -1/+29Sorry -- JQP123 is right. This is in the realm of what's called "tortuous interference" and is one of those basic things that's integral to all modern legal systems. By coordinating the attack and acknowledging that he's intending to cause financial harm, he's opening himself up to liability here.
- kurosen, on 05/11/2009, -1/+28what happened to then?
- nelsondelmonte, on 05/11/2009, -1/+27just now
- badlogik, on 05/11/2009, -5/+31The higher road? You mean go to jail after losing a biased and unfair trial and not being able to pay back ridiculous damages? Did you even think before posting?
- Diomeneus, on 05/11/2009, -1/+26when will then become now?
- richlw, on 05/11/2009, -1/+25just now
- Culyt, on 05/11/2009, -4/+28I kind of think this was a bad move, I'm sure its probably illegal to set this up and its not going to look good in court, they went from claiming they where operating within the law, to using underhanded tactics.
Also the lawyers can just explain the situation to the banks and get them to either:
* Get them to waive the fee charges due to the circumstances (they are lawyers after all). Then they could get to keep the money too.
* Let the bank keep the money in exchange for not charging the fees
* Close or freeze the account
* Drop all payments below a specific amount [seems a thread above says it might not be possible for legal reasons]
Remember banks will generally want to keep their clients happy, even if it means they are losing out on some transfer payments this could be bad PR for them, not to mention they are lawyers.
Also this isn't going to hurt the IFPI, just they lawyers they employ. Even if they go bankrupt there are other lawfirms. - Goph09, on 05/11/2009, -0/+24bitches got trolled
- eleete, on 05/11/2009, -6/+30I think it is sheer genius. If the law says the fine must be paid and they think it is fundamentally unfair, why not simply pay up the fine. It's creative, it says you may have won, but be careful what you wish for. It also adds a disincentive for attorneys to work for the greedy media companies. Extortion will cost ya. Touche
- Stoyanov, on 05/11/2009, -9/+33I prefer childish than RIAA's practices any day. Also, turkeyssr is completely right.
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