Voltage Pictures dismisses 90 percent of defendants in Hurt Locker file-sharing lawsuit originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Warner Bros. UK is offering an internship to “IT literate” students that requires them to spy on fellow file-sharers. The intern will have to maintain accounts on private BitTorrent sites, as well as procure new accounts, in order to supply Warner Bros. UK with information on how that whole “world” works. Not a bad idea from Warner’s perspective.

The internship, which lasts one year, has students running around the various dark alleyways of the Internet: private BitTorrent sites, IRC, you name it. How one kid is going to keep an eye on all of that is beyond me, but you get the feeling that Warner Bros. just wants as much low level intel as it can get.

This is a paid internship, with the student taking home around $26,000 for his troubles. You also have to be studying an IT-related field; you can’t be a art history major and apply. That does’t make sense to me at all: if you’re Warner Bros. UK, why would you want to limit your potential talent pool only to IT guys? Who’s to say the kid who’s studying Chinese history doesn’t know his way around the Internet and computers?

Here’s the full job description:

During the 12 month internship, duties will include: monitoring local Internet forums and IRC for pirated WB and NBCU content and in order to gather information on pirate sites, pirate groups and other pirate activities; finding new and maintaining existing accounts on private sites; scanning for links to hosted pirated WB and NBCU content and using tools to issue takedown requests; maintaining and developing bots for Internet link scanning system (training provided); preparing sending of infringement notices and logging feedback; performing trap purchases of pirated product and logging results; inputting pirate hard goods data and other intelligence into the forensics database; selecting local keywords and submitting local filenames for monitoring and countermeasure campaigns and periodically producing research documents on piracy related technological developments. Various training will be provided.

I’ve seen worse ideas from these companies—at least Warner is trying to connect with the youth on some level rather than wishing they would all just magically disappear. Get inside their heads, so to speak.

The figures suggest that file-sharers “try-before-they-buy”, and are happy to support bands and artists whose downloaded music they enjoy.

I know that many, especially those associated with making money out of music, feel that pirates who share files should be made to walk the plank to the rhythm of Fiona Apple’s “Criminal.”

However, a survey commissioned by the professional cogitators at Demos …

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

The ban hammer is about to smash UK file-sharers. Legislation there is set to take effect in April that would, as a last resort, kick illegal file-sharers off the Internet. Very exciting~!

The deal is that the Government, ISPs, and intellectual property owners will work together to kindly remind you that not all forms of file-sharing are on the up and up. If they find you sharing something that you shouldn’t be, you’ll be sent a letter saying, essentially, “please stop.”

You’ll recall this was a hot-button issue during that Digital Britain debate.

That’s phase one. Authorities will check back one year later to see if the letters were effective in stopping illegal file-sharing. If it’s determined that the letters haven’t cut the piracy rate by 70 percent (man, set a high bar much?) then out comes the ban hammer.

You’ll then receive up to two “please stop” letters before you’re disconnected from your ISP.

All well and good, but wait till Brussels hears about this. Appeal, appeal, delay, appeal.

Nothing’s sure yet, but a recent Apple patent application details an in-OS advertising system that could conceivably “disable some aspect of [the OS'] operation to prompt the operator to pay attention to the advertisement.” Eeek!

European Parliament says: feel to cut off persistent file-sharers from the Internet, member states!

Good advice: if you no longer need a SIM, destroy it by breaking it in half. Not if you want to “protect” your hot girlfriend from potential suitors.

If you’ve never bothered researching the history of the Internet, this easy-to-digest slide show should help.

I’m a Nokia fan, but I still scratch my head over news that the Finnish maker is suing Apple for reportedly up to $1 Billion over the iPhone.

2020 Projection: A 2.5″ hard disk will be able to store 14TB and cost only $40!

Goodbye Geocities!

First US open-source election software debuts; I doubt the government will be eager to adopt it, for some reason.

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