Axis and Allies, Jan 18, 2010.

Allies

 1. Google – The undisputed king of the virtual world has begun it’s stare down with one of the emerging powers of the real world: China. For sometime China has demanded Google censor search results on topics such as Thiamin Square. Google has complied.

    However, after China’s recent assault on the email accounts of Human Rights advocates in the country, Google has flexed its moral muscle and revoked its services.

    Although it is unlikely that China will back down – at least not quickly or easily – Google’s actions are a bold first step. Other major sites, such as eBay, have had similar spats with China. In those cases however, the companies simply outsourced their services, instead of denying them.

    The Vanguard applauds Google’s strength in being the first major company to stand up to China’s Human Rights violations as well as being a proponent of an uncensored internet.

2. Alan Ellies  - The Internets second largest file proliferating site – Oink – had its lead engineer acquitted on Thursday by a unanimous jury. Alan Ellies is the first person to be prosecuted in the UK for filling sharing. His case marks a new precedent for the digital movement in the UK, and may result in the death of the Digital Economy Bill currently being debated in Parliament. 

A spokesman for the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) said of the verdict, “It’s hugely disappointing. The Defendant made nearly £200,000 by exploiting other people’s work without permission. The case shows that artist and music companies need better protection”

   We disagree. The BPI is essentially a coalition of the four major recording companies (Warner Music, EMI, Sony, and Universal), the same companies who have already been accused of price fixing this week, and do not have a good track record for paying their artist a fair percentage of record and ticket sales.  

   If the people who’s culture produce the art do not have fair access to the media it produces, The Vanguard will continue to support the Robin Hooding of that media.

3.  Sam Raimi - When Sony tried to wrestle director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man 1-3) into a 2011 release date for 4, he walked. Raimi hated the screenplay and wanted the villain to be the Vulture (played by John Malkovich.) We applaud Raimi for sticking with his Spider-man 4, not Sony’s. So thanks Raimi, we didn’t need this again: 

 Axis

 1. The RIAA - The Recording Industry of America is trying to pressure the FCC to lax its stance on net neutrally and allow for policing of file-sharing sites. If the FCC acts on the comments made by the RIAA, they may change the rules on how they govern ISP and their network traffic.  An exert of the RIAA’s comments:

         “Peer-to-peer file-sharing services -- a favorite means of unlawfully stealing copyrighted material -- represent a huge portion of the traffic on the Internet today. Based on recent estimates, peer-to-peer file-sharing applications represent over 20% of the total bytes that traverse the Internet and 17% of the bandwidth used during peak hours. Moreover, in an average month, the top 1% of subscribers account for 25% of total Internet traffic, and 40% of the upstream traffic; over 46% of top subscribers' traffic comes from file-sharing applications. So too in the mobile context, where, by recent estimates, peer-to-peer file-sharing is the "single largest factor leading to cell congestion," taking up 21% of bandwidth on the average cell and 42% in the top 5% of cells. Put bluntly, huge amounts of the Internet's bandwidth are tied up in unlawful traffic. Piracy wastes scarce network resources and crowds out legitimate uses of the network. It costs more to bring broadband to additional areas because of this inflated bandwidth usage. As we, along with our partners launch music services depending on higher bandwidth, we have a particularly strong interest in ensuring an Internet in which media applications -- which, unlike file-sharing applications, have a low tolerance for network delay - can function smoothly and without the network congestion caused by piracy-inflated traffic.”  

Even if the FCC dose compromise its net neutrally ethics, the A.D.C appeals court may determine they lack the authority to implement such regulation. This is due to the Comcast case - discussed last Axis and Allies - where Comcast  was forced to settle a claim they regulated use of Bittorrent.

2.The  BPI -  As mentioned earlier, there is a bill in British Parliament designed by the media oligarchy to police file-sharing. The bill has cross party support – simply meaning the purse strings of the BPI are non-partisan.

Aside from out obvious complaints, the bill does more than simply limit P2P files sharing. The process of regulating these sites would be in the hands of the record labels, and film studios themselves. They would even have the power to force internet providers to cut off service to its members at their discretion.

   As the bill is written, the burden of proof is on the accused; Pretty backwards.

The kicker: the prices of the regulation will be paid for by the people, with a £2 per month fee!

3.   Bono The U2 front man doesn’t like it that you downloaded your copy of Joshua Tree for your special edition U2 iPod. We think that is kinda lame, so here you go Bono.

   He claims it isn't about his bottom line, he is sticking up for the little guy. That idea is getting harder to protect however with more and more bands using filesharing as a way to make a name for themselves. We think it worked out OK for The Arctic Monkeys.