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Viralg and BMG to be investigated?

21 April 2005 13:16 by Jari Ketola | 5 comments

A request for investigation has been filed against Viralg and BMG Finland by a Finnish musician. The musician, Pekka Sallinen has asked both the police department of Helsinki as well as the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate whether the use of technology developed by Viralg and used by BMG Finland is illegal.

Specifically Mr Sallinen asks the police to investigate whether or not the companies are in violation of the Finnish criminal law which strictly prohibits any kinds of interference with telecommunications. Viralg manufactures and markets a product which, according to them, breaks P2P downloads by injecting "bad data" to people downloading copyrighted material. According to Viralg, BMG Finland has been successfully using their technology since 2003.

Even though Viralg's technique of faking file hashes works only with some of the old peer-to-peer applications, such as Kazaa, it is nevertheless illegal to take matters into one's own hands when fighting against copyright infringements. Furthermore, downloading or copying music and video files for personal use via P2P networks (or any other means) is still perfectly legal in Finland. In his request for investigation Mr Sallinen reminds the investigators that action should be taken before companies take up a habit in defending their rights by illegal means.

Source:
Request for investigation by Pekka Sallinen (in Finnish)

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Viralg claims it can stop 99% of illegal file sharing (16 April 2005)

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Dela (Staff Member) 21 April 2005 13:21
I was thinking that the mothod Viralg sed should have been challenged. You cant just jump into the mddle of someone's multi-source download and try corrupt it to shit! [ + quote]
GrayArea (Member) 21 April 2005 15:39
Well Dela, I agree with you, but I am very suspicious of what the courts might decide when it comes to "protecting" intellectual property. http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/6287.cfm "...the first-instance district court of Munich I ruled that the protection on intellectual property goes before the freedom of speech." Money above all else... [ + quote]
bzboarder (Member) 21 April 2005 23:21
good for pekka sallinen! although im not familiar with finnish music at all (so im not sure if hes a big musician there), im glad that a musician is standing up to record companies. something thats extremely rare here in the states. its good that some people realize there are things more important than money in life. [ + quote]
Letukka (Member) 22 April 2005 0:35
Well, let�s just say that I�ve lived here in finland for 18 years and I have probably never heard of Pekka Sallinen. But that music he plays is not my cup of tea so he might be very known and popular at the scene he�s dealing with. But Im also very glad that a MUSICIAN took some stand on this subject at hand. [ + quote]
Ghostdog (Senior Member) 22 April 2005 5:03
Yeah... It sends out the right kind of message. [ + quote]