involvement
Another “Love Guru” Uploader to Plead Guilty
Mischa Wynhausen, 31, of Irvine, CA agrees to plead guilty to one felony count of illegally uploading a screener copy of the comedy “The Love Guru.” Mischa Wynhausen, 31, of Irvine, California has agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of uploading a screener copy of “The Love Guru” to a website operated by a piracy group that made the movie widely available on the Internet. Facing 3 years in prison he decided to cooperate with authorities who then agreed to seek a lower sentence of three years probation instead. Wynhausen is the second person to plead guilty so far in connection with the case, joining Jack Yates, 28yo, of Porter Ranch, CA who last year was sentenced to 6 months in prison for his involvement.
Continue reading »Spotify Isn’t Ripping Off Artists, The Labels Are
By allowing its users to access millions of songs for free, the music streaming Spotify has revolutionized the music industry by handing them a potential competitor to illegal downloading. Unfortunately, the labels themselves are not as enthusiastic as most users are, as they doubt the service’s ability to generate enough revenue. Indeed, if we take a look at the numbers relating to Lady Gaga that we reported a few days ago, Spotify is barely generating more revenue than most artists make from illicit file-sharing.
Continue reading »Ethics Committee Staffer Leaks Secrets On File-Sharing Network
A staff member of the House Ethics Committee is being blamed for accidentally leaking a sensitive document over a peer-to-peer network from her home computer. The 22-page, confidential document, listing the names of more than 30 lawmakers who are under investigation by the Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics, found its way to the Washington Post after a now ex-employee inadvertently placed it in a file-sharing folder on her home computer, according to Politico.com. Some of the probes involve congressional representatives linked to a now-defunct lobbying firm that was under criminal investigation by the Justice Department for issues related to defense spending and influence peddling.
Continue reading »Climate lobbying group ignored its own science advisors
One of the major players in last decade’s arguments over anthropogenic climate change and its policy implications was the Global Climate Coalition, which received funding from both individual companies and industry groups. Now, documents from that era have come to light thanks to the involvement of one of the GCC members, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, in a suit that has attempted to block California’s efforts to regulate automotive greenhouse gas emissions. During discovery for the suit, a memo came to light in which the GCC’s scientific advisors suggested that certain aspects of climate science simply weren’t controversial; that memo was leaked to The New York Times , which has placed it online .
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