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Piracy Settlement-O-Matic
Former online cigarette salesmen now enforce copyright...
Taking their cue from Amazon's one-click ordering system and the RIAA's settlement-o-matic website, a company named Nexicon is developing a technology that tracks users who share music and film illegally, and then demands payment for the downloaded file. According to ZDNet, the company is currently conducting a test of the system using Frank Zappa tracks, and is actively monitoring some 19.6 billion file transmissions every day. The company claims that about half of the people contacted during their trial of the system have decided to pay. More on the collection method from the company's website:
quote:
Click for full size
With GetAmnesty, individuals who have violated copyright laws by downloading protected content, identified during the Monitor process and verified during the Analyze process, are offered an option to settle with the copyright holder and avoid any legal action. It begins with Nexicon sending the downloader’s ISP a DMCA notice which is auto-generated by MARC. The ISP is then legally obligated to forward this notice to the infringer. The user clicks a link within the email taking them to the GetAmnesty website, and in less than three clicks, the user can settle with the copyright holder for a nominal fee.
Targeted users are told they must pay not only for the copyrighted file, but they also must pay an unspecified "administrative fee." Interestingly, Wired notes that Nexicon used to be an online cigarette seller named Cyco.net that was sued for selling their product to minors, for failing to report cigarette sales and taxes; and for falsely advertising cigarettes as tax-free. Nexicon has already signed a deal with YouTube to be one of several firms monitoring site content for copyright violation, and the company's founder, Tommy Stiansen, was a one-time pirate who's now dedicated to creating a profit model for copyright infringement notices.
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AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

upload or download?

Are they going after downloaders, or people offering to upload files?
ctggzg
Premium Member
join:2005-02-11
USA

ctggzg

Premium Member

Re: upload or download?

What happened to reading comprehension?

"technology that tracks users who share music and film illegally"

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

Re: upload or download?

said by ctggzg:

What happened to reading comprehension?

"technology that tracks users who share music and film illegally"
If you keep reading:
quote:
Nexicon is developing a technology that tracks users who share music and film illegally, and then demands payment for the downloaded file.
I thought there was a legal problem with going after downloaders. I don't get this business model, how do they prove that the downloader dosen't have the rights to the music? If you go after the uploaders, it cuts into potential profits.

Noah Vail
Oh God please no.
Premium Member
join:2004-12-10
SouthAmerica

Noah Vail

Premium Member

Phish Stick It

So if I could see one of those emails, I could craft a similar spam. I might accuse IP addresses, allocated to the ISP I target, of DMCA violations.

I could even set up a phish page with the domain GetAnmesty.com, to collect fees or credit card information.

At the least, I could cause havoc just by accusing scores of folks of piracy and having their ISPs aid me in bulling innocent people into paying money to Nexicon.

If I could pay a congressman enough to get legislation passed that would legalize my scheme, I'd have TKJunkMail's defending me all across this very forum!

Cuz' then it'd be legal and the victims would be bad people cuz' the LAW do say they is.

NV

DaMaGeINC
The Lan Man
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Greenville, SC

1 edit

DaMaGeINC

Premium Member

HALF??

"The company claims that about half of the people contacted during their trial of the system have decided to pay. "

I call bullshit. I would never pay if caught. But only idiots get caught, so I guess the idiots are the ones paying. hahahaa. losers.

TechyDad
Premium Member
join:2001-07-13
USA

TechyDad

Premium Member

Re: HALF??

I've got to agree. If I got an e-mail that claimed that they caught me pirating music/movies (putting aside the fact that I don't pirate music/movies for a second) and I had to go to this website to pay up, I'd toss it into the ol' Spam bucket. We're always telling users not to click on links "randomly mailed" to them much less not to pay for anything from those links. What's to distinguish GetAmnesty from the inevitable spammer imitators that will arise? If they want me to pay (assuming that I actually did pirate something), then they'll have to do better than sending me an e-mail.

Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium Member
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX

Doctor Four

Premium Member

Re: HALF??

The MediaDefender impersonator emails that are really a
virus are a good example of this. Anyone who treats those
as spam will likely also treat any infringement notices
that come from this company the same way.

insomniac84
join:2002-01-03
Schererville, IN

insomniac84 to TechyDad

Member

to TechyDad
Better yet, don't use your ISP email and you wouldn't have to worry about ever seeing one.

Boricua
Premium Member
join:2002-01-26
Sacramuerto

Boricua

Premium Member

Re: HALF??

said by insomniac84:

Better yet, don't use your ISP email and you wouldn't have to worry about ever seeing one.
I was about to say something to that effect. My e-mails come from another outfit and not from my ISP. It just came to mind how much e-mails are burgeoning their server(s) since I started with them in November 2007. It never occurred to me to even check. Now I am wondering .
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88 to insomniac84

Member

to insomniac84
DMCA notices get mailed to you on paper. The email would just be a courtesy by your ISP.

cho0b
join:2006-09-26
united state

cho0b

Member

Re: HALF??

Heh, they don't need to be sent on paper. A digital copy of a DMCA is all that is required. Trust me, I know.

The DMCA is abused by so many people everyday. I have to stop talking about it right now before I go off on a rant and get pissed off.

GlobalMind
Domino Dude, POWER Systems Guy
Premium Member
join:2001-10-29
Indianapolis, IN

GlobalMind to TechyDad

Premium Member

to TechyDad
said by TechyDad:

... If they want me to pay (assuming that I actually did pirate something), then they'll have to do better than sending me an e-mail.
Exactly. Any REAL legal challenge would come via an actual certified letter.

Outside of that, they can send email if they like but I wouldn't take action on it.

Thaler
Premium Member
join:2004-02-02
Los Angeles, CA

Thaler to DaMaGeINC

Premium Member

to DaMaGeINC
What I don't get, is if they're putting this much innovation and effort to track-&-fine offenders on the fly...then...

WHY DON'T THEY GO AFTER THE %&@#ING UPLOADERS?

Seriously, I thought the RIAA was selling all this ramped-up piracy BS case in hopes to eradicate the offenders offering up the unauthorized copies? Making a "fast-pass" express lane to prosecute future downloaders is almost screaming cartel-like money grab at this point.
envision
join:2007-10-30

envision

Member

Re: HALF??

they wont go after the uploaders, because they have to upload the files themselves. and i can almost say that all the files they have, they don't have written permission from the artists, writers, directors to upload to begin with.

cdru
Go Colts
MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN

cdru to Thaler

MVM

to Thaler
said by Thaler:

What I don't get, is if they're putting this much innovation and effort to track-&-fine offenders on the fly...then...

WHY DON'T THEY GO AFTER THE %&@#ING UPLOADERS?
Why go after your bread and butter? They are essentially making money off of the pirates. Without them, there is no business model.
ctggzg
Premium Member
join:2005-02-11
USA

ctggzg to DaMaGeINC

Premium Member

to DaMaGeINC
Criminals who are lucky enough not to get caught are still idiots.

DaMaGeINC
The Lan Man
Premium Member
join:2002-06-08
Greenville, SC

DaMaGeINC

Premium Member

Re: HALF??

By your accusation, more than half of America are criminals.

SLD
Premium Member
join:2002-04-17
San Francisco, CA

1 edit

SLD

Premium Member

Re: HALF??

criminals == idiots?
Well, Bush did get elected to a second term...

Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium Member
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX

1 recommendation

Doctor Four

Premium Member

Sounds like more snakeoil

As is virtually every other anti-piracy "technology" to
date.

I predict an epic fail on this one.
Bill03
Premium Member
join:2007-11-26
Richmond, VA

Bill03

Premium Member

Re: Sounds like more snakeoil

Also sounds an awful lot like a protection racket. Looks like a RICO case in the making to me.
ctggzg
Premium Member
join:2005-02-11
USA

ctggzg to Doctor Four

Premium Member

to Doctor Four
said by Doctor Four:

I predict an epic fail on this one.
Running out of stupid, unfunny geek buzz phrases to overuse?

Kylemaul
Lovin' My Firefox
Premium Member
join:2001-03-30
Puyallup, WA

Kylemaul

Premium Member

20 Billion Frank Zappa tracks??

They may as well have said 20 gazillion. What a load of crap.

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

ropeguru

Premium Member

Re: 20 Billion Frank Zappa tracks??

Maybe more like 20 Billion packets a day. But I cannot see that many downloads every day. Espicially when the world population is only estimated to be 6.721 billion.

They are most certainly full of crap...

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wo ··· pulation
firewire9999
join:2004-07-11
Livonia, MI

firewire9999

Member

Re: 20 Billion Frank Zappa tracks??

Hmm may not be crap. Could be referring to the Frank Zappa song "Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow"?????????

hurfy
Premium Member
join:2002-08-06
Spokane, WA

hurfy to Kylemaul

Premium Member

to Kylemaul
It said they Monitor 19.6 billion downloads (to find the 4 frank zappa downloads that 2 people settled on)

Ok, i made up the other numbers but half of how many people settled, 1 of 2? How many of those billions could be the songs they are looking for? Frank Zappa doesn't really sound like a hot item.

Is that the only copyright holder they could get on board? That would be my guess
That also seems to say more about it than we can......

dirtwarrior
join:2008-03-21

dirtwarrior

Member

omg

this is ridiculous pretty soon we will have to pay for everything and that will kill the inernet,

Grail Knight

Premium Member
join:2003-05-31
Valhalla

1 recommendation

Grail Knight

Premium Member

Re: omg

Well paying for music and movies is nothing new so I doubt it will not kill the Internet.

Do you think everything should be free?

dnorthman
@teldta.com

dnorthman

Anon

Frank Zappa LOL

LOL frank Zappa tracks...what there not telling you is there tracking the number of Vinel Records getting handed around on the internet LOL
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch

Member

If this gets popular...

...the phishers will have a field day sending out millions of fake (well, more fake than the ones the RIAA has been known to send) infringement notices demanding that recipients follow a link and pay a certain amount.

Actually, I'm surprised this hasn't already happened.

But on the larger issue of piracy, it seems to me that it's time for the music and movie industries to have to admit that their entire business model is dying. I'm not advocating piracy here, but when a product becomes so ridiculously easy to copy, you're fighting a losing battle trying to stop it. Businesses and entire industries come and go, and it looks to me like the sale of music and movies may be becoming a non-viable business, or, at least that piracy is something that the RIAA and MPAA will simply have to live with. Of course, it might be much less of a problem if they hadn't done everything they could to fight against offering reasonably-priced downloadable media. That wouldn't have stopped it, but it sure would have avoided lots of very bad blood between these industries and their customers.

tapeloop
Not bad at all, really.
Premium Member
join:2004-06-27
Airstrip One

tapeloop

Premium Member

Re: If this gets popular...

Wasn't there already a string of phishes something like "NOTICE FROM THE IRS" or "You've been downloading adult material"? Replace that with "RIAA NOTICE," and there ya go.

Does anyone have any data or a link showing how much total revenue the RIAA/MPAA has garnered since their file sharing lawsuit push?
nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD

nasadude to ISurfTooMuch

Member

to ISurfTooMuch
said by ISurfTooMuch:

...it seems to me that it's time for the music and movie industries to have to admit that their entire business model is dying. ...
they won't die until ALL sales drop significantly. consumers can hasten this day by NOT BUYING MUSIC except directly from the artist.

I haven't bought music (except directly from the artist) in years and refuse to buy anything DRMed.

until a substantial portion of people do this, the RIAA will just keep using lawsuits as their business model.

TimeToPay
@comcast.net

1 recommendation

TimeToPay

Anon

It's just a matter of time...

...before the roof falls in on piracy. It's pretty obvious that copyright protected material can be tracked and those responsible for the illegal dissemination of same will be prosecuted. The more pirates that end up in jail, the better off society will be.

••••••••••••••••

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

FU** them

FU** them fu** them all

exocet_cm
Writing
Premium Member
join:2003-03-23
Brooklyn, NY

exocet_cm

Premium Member

Marc Anti Privacy Platform

Sorry, thought that said the "Karl Marx" anti privacy platform. Mis-read the photo.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

4 edits

FFH5

Premium Member

Nominal fee?

The nominal fee is per file downloaded. That could add up to a large non-nominal bill for the average P2P downloader who downloads 100's if not thousands of songs and perhaps dozens of movies. »www.nexiconinc.com/getam ··· ty.shtml
The GetAmnesty program provides a way for users who have illegally downloaded copyrighted files to settle with the copyright owner by paying a nominal fee each downloaded file.

----------------
The stock is traded as "pink sheets" and is selling for less than a nickel a share. »finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NXCO.PK
»answers.yahoo.com/questi ··· 2AAwgkct
quote:
PNK stands for "pink Sheets"
This is an "UNREGULATED" market, these stocks are often of no value, are constantly being hyped and manipulated by the controlling directors.

The float (Amount of shares in the market) is controlled by the principals and the price is hyped, the principals sell their shares into the market and then the market crashes when there is no public interest in a worthless organization.
Last qtrly financials were reported in 2005:
»finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=nxco.pk
They lost $596,000 on sales of $166,000
---------------------

The deal with Youtube is NOT for the "Get Amnesty" program but for the "Digital Ranger" product. That is to pull down offending content and not to go after downloaders, but uploaders.
»biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080 ··· l?.v=101
»www.nexiconinc.com/digit ··· er.shtml

The deal depends on copyright owners to contract with Nexicon for Nexicon to make revenue. The deal with Youtube probably gets them NOTHING from YouTube/Google. I doubt this is bringing them in much money.
chigowolfs
Wolfie Is Here
join:2003-04-18
Chicago, IL

chigowolfs

Member

interesting company

HOW IT WORKSThe MARC Anti-Piracy Platform monitors Internet traffic via a variety of Internet protocols and stores the collected data in data warehouses. With the DataView product, customers extract the raw data in their preferred format such as .csv, XML, or .xls and receive it via secure FTP. Nexicon clients can then manipulate the data by using their own metrics and analytics packages.

THE TECHNOLOGYThe “Monitor” portion of the MARC Anti-Piracy Platform collects billions of illegal and legal copyright downloads each day. MARC’s rating engine then sifts through and analyzes all of this data to validate which of the millions of downloads are indeed infringements

Hmm are they now playing big brother mointering the internet traffice around the world??? And we thought google was bad?

•••
Babaganooosh
join:2008-03-18
Belmar, NJ

Babaganooosh

Member

What the F does this mean??

Nexicon confirms that the files downloaded violate a copyright through its technology platforms’ artificial intelligence and Automated Human Visual Verification (AHVV) technology

What is Automated Human Visual Verification??????? Do they send autonomous robots from the planet Cybertron to your window to peek in and see what your downloading?
b10010011
Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
united state

b10010011

Member

I can see the next big Phishing scheme coming

It's going to be disguised as a Nexicon DMCA notice.

This alone would make me ignore any email of this type I received.

funchords
Hello
MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA

funchords

MVM

Profit Model

1. Sign "Some Studio" as a customer
2. Put up FTP servers and HTTP servers that you own and spam links to them, seed current P2P networks, put up search engines that lead to NNTP network
3. Send a DMCA notice to anyone clicking on a link leading to a download, showing up as a peer on a P2P list, or otherwise -- regardless of whether a download completed)
4. Collect $$$$ from the gullible

Reactions: It's the ISPs that are being exploited.

A. ISP ought to charge a handling fee for handling a DMCA notice. Once this happens, the business goes under.
B. ISPs cannot assume that a DMCA notice means a violation of any kind has occurred. There are several reasons that this is true -- not the least of which is the fact that Nexicom itself will appear in swarms and they're not infringing.
C. Some might think of this as turning infringers into customers, but the money paid isn't a license to keep sharing it. You don't own it after you pay the money. It's some kind of pre-litigation settlement.

••••

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

Extortion-o-Matic? Rackateering-O-Matic?

Anyone else see a problem with sending people notices saying "You're guilty of a crime.... xxxx. We know. Cut us a check or else?".....
ReneM
join:2003-07-18
Cockeysville, MD

ReneM

Member

Company profile

Fair warning, you might choke on your drink laughing your ass off

MarketWatch:

Nexicon IncNXCO (OTHER OTC) $0.05
Shares Out:132.61M
Market Cap:$6.50M
52-Wk High:09/19 at $0.20
This ticker does not currently have a company profile.

lost 75% of it's value this year, looks very much like one of those penny stock scams to me.
travelguy
join:1999-09-03
Bismarck, ND

travelguy

Member

MARC, which rhymes with....

Narc!!!!
wispalord
join:2007-09-20
Farmington, MO

wispalord

Member

lol

this is extortion, no matter how you slice it.
jerseyjoe123
join:2008-04-28
Picton, ON

1 edit

jerseyjoe123

Member

What the musicians are saying...

On getting the money that the RIAA claims they sue people for:

»torrentfreak.com/riaa-ke ··· -080228/

What the RIAA says:

»www.publicknowledge.org/ ··· ode/1419

And how the record companies are sooo supportive of their new talent:

»www.arancidamoeba.com/mr ··· sic.html

A musician friend of mine told me about a friend of his that got a record deal:

"I'm friends with a guy who signed a deal with Biv 10 Records, back from 1994 to 1996, which was a sub division of Motown back in the early to late 90's, and run by Michael Bivens, formerly of New Edition and Bell Biv Devoe (obviously it was an R&B label), Boy 2 Men was on the label. Long story short, between limos, expensive hotels, hours of recording with one of the top 3 producers in R&B back then, etc..., he ended up in debt, in excess of 400 grand, to everyone involved, over those 2 years. And worse yet, as an artist, he had the music that HE wrote stolen, they owned his songs, and they never released the cd, and they owned the recording. At the end of the day, 6 of his songs appeared on the cd's of 2 different people, fairly big R&B stars, and he hasn't even seen a penny from that."
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