Looks like SOCA are doing a fine job of fighting serious crime and protecting the public.
UK crime-busters knock hiphop site off the Internet
The UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has moved on a popular hip-hop news and track-exchange site, RnB Xclusive, and is threatening those trying to access the site with criminal investigation. The site, described by TorrentFreak as a popular blog posting news, commentary and links to music, has been seized by SOCA and …
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This post has been deleted by its author
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 11:01 GMT Dr. Mouse
For anyone who wants to leave them a message
Assuming you are running Linux:
Put your message, using only alphanumeric characters and spaces, into a file called socamessage, then run the following command:
cat socamessage | sed -e 's/\s/_/g' | (while read L; do wget -O /dev/null "http://webwarper.net/ww/rnbxclusive.com/$L"; done)
If you have a long message to send, it can be split over several lines.
This will also anonymise, although only through a single proxy.
My own just let them know my displeasure at the Serious Organised Crime Agency threatening to investgate the probably innocent visitors to the site, and asking why they don't have better things to do (like investigating SERIOUS ORGANISED crime)
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 11:36 GMT Arrrggghh-otron
Communications Act 2003?
I've just realised that it isn't just me that thinks the message displayed is threatening, and I had never been to or heard of the site before today...
Does this mean that the CPS will be prosecuting whoever at SOCA was responsible for the threatening web page? I mean if it works for a twitter joke with no intent then why not this? Or is a threat to enforce legal powers that (I'm told) doesn't exist, exempt it from being threatening?
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 02:19 GMT Anonymous Coward
That, and that every farm, inside a 50 mile radius of my current location, has had some sort of heavy machinery stolen (we're talking tractors and jbc's.. 100k+ items), in the last 8 months.. but crack on guys, go find the software and entermaint pirates.. nevermind that we have 3 or 4 civilain patrols, circling our farms and industrial areas, with not a word from the local cops.... and god help anyone they stop that looks a bit suspicious...
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 10:06 GMT Anonymous Coward
Similarly fuel theft. Just about every transport firm and building site round here has been targeted.
A pair of lads came unstuck one night at a local lorry park though when they got spotted by a driver having a kip in his cab.
I gather they had a pretty sophisticated set up - a transit van full of drums and electric pumps.
According to one of the drivers they got a "severe kicking" and their van trashed. He said they didn't bother involving telling the police as they would have turned up far too late and charged the drivers with assault.
These lads were well known locally for selling cheap diesel, so it probably wouldn't have been the hardest crime to investigate.
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Tuesday 14th February 2012 23:40 GMT Anonymous Coward
Sad really, when Robert Peel invented the police force, it was this exact sort of behaviour he was trying to wipe out. Peel's police men were assembled to replace the ad-hoc city guards and watchmen, who were usually beholden to the local magistrate and were generally a bunch of bullyboys and criminals, who would gladly take payment to lock up people for being in some rich idiot's bad books.
Full circle...
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 11:53 GMT Eddie Edwards
Yeah, the "SOCA press office confirms genuine" meme is on Slashdot too. So who called them? I'm not seeing an actual *quote* from the SOCA press office in this story, or anywhere else.
This is so obviously a hoax I can't believe people are giving it the time of day. SOCA wittering on about young musician's rights? "Fraud" in the first place (for a link site)? "Recordings stolen from the artists"? Stolen? I thought it was fraud? And then "visit pro-music.org". Please. This is a blatant troll. And boy did it work well.
People of the internet, turn your bullshit filters back on.
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 09:00 GMT Paul_Murphy
>Is downloading a file from a website a criminal offence?
My understanding is no, but making a copy-right protected file available for others to download is.
Of course others such as Cory Doctorow and Jonathon Coulton or Woodie Guthrie have no issues with their files being spread far and wide since it means more fans.
I wonder how long before the mafRIAA try to get downloading a file to be a crime though - you can bet they want it to be.
ttfn
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 12:59 GMT Vic
> Is downloading a file from a website a criminal offence?
It can be.
The notorious section 107 of CDPA88 turns copyright infringement into a criminal offence if it is performed in a commercial context.
Quote why SOCA is wasting valuable resources investigating civil infringements is beyond me, though.
Vic.
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 02:30 GMT Keep Refrigerated
Seriously?
This take-down notice looks like it was written by a 12 year old. No reference even to the statute upon which the site was taken down? Some vague statement about young penniless artists.
What's the betting that the site owner is going to be released and charges dropped after a real judge looks into this? The only thing that surprises me is its not accompanied by a press release to The Sun that the site owner may have child porn stored on his servers.
Really, this just makes SOCA look like amateur stooges hired by the MAFIAA. Not professional at all. But I suppose theres no danger of Tony Blair writing a letter to drop the investigation here, is there?
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 02:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
I'm concerned that even the fusking police think that the songs were "stolen" from the artists. I'm even more concerned that, despite this apparent grand-scale theft of songs, there is still a metric shit-tonne of mass-produced, lowest common denominator, well, shit being pushed out by "artists" every day. You'd think they'd be locking up their songs in bank safes to prevent this kind of crime happening (coincidently also preventing the crime of these songs being inflicted on the general public).
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 02:56 GMT Anonymous Coward
Looks like BS to me
As others have noted, the text looks like it was written by someone quite young. Aside from that, the nameservers never changed, so it's still with rackspace.
Look at every site that the UK/US government have taken over in the past and you'll note that they redirect the nameservers, and THAT is how they "take over" the website.
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 07:43 GMT irish donkey
SOCA Crime Figures
Last year we solved 1 million crimes. Give us all a bonus please.
One million downloads stopped. = 1 million crimes solved.
Never mind the low level crime like car theft, scrap metal theft, low level fraud, pissed teenagers kicking off, child abuse, wife beating and MegaCorp tax fraud. You know the stuff the that really pisses people off
SOCA because we go after the real criminals.
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 07:50 GMT mitch 4
Web Standards
Well for one they don't follow web standards. The new "SOCA" site is littered with errors, some of them don't even make syntactic sense.
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rnbxclusive.com%2F
I would think if they are going be posting professional messags about how they can trace you they could at least make a attempt to look professional and do things right.
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 08:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Straight Outta Suffolk
It's true, there is an epidemic of agricultural machinery theft. Where I live pieces of machinery & fuel is regularly stolen (sometimes from inside secure areas- thieves will cut through locks easily enough). Only at the end of last year our family farm had a load of spare parts taken from a shed to the value of £6000 for scrap. No-one saw anything. The police never seem to catch anyone or bother to investigate (the some of the thieves are probably from outside the local area).
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Wednesday 15th February 2012 08:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
I really don't think this is genuine.
"The majority of music files that were available via this site were stolen from the artists."
I can't see SOCA making this absolute statement no crime has been proven and copyright infringement is not theft. surely SOCA would know this.
" If you have downloaded music using this website you may have committed a criminal offence which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine under UK law.
Utterly untrue.
"SOCA has the capability to monitor and investigate you, and can inform your internet service provider of these infringements."
Visiting a site proves nothing so this threat is baseless and surely no government organisation would say something so ridiculous.. Also WTF is my ISP supposed to do?
"You may be liable for prosecution and the fact that you have received this message does not preclude you from prosecution."
Another baseless threat straight out of the TV licensing's playbook.
"As a result of illegal downloads young, emerging artists may have had their careers damaged. If you have illegally downloaded music you will have damaged the future of the music industry.
As a result of illegal downloads young, emerging artists may have had their careers damaged. If you have illegally downloaded music you will have damaged the future of the music industry.
Visit pro-music.org for a list of legal music sites on the web."
Blatant MPAA style propaganda and an advert for an industry website?
Please don't make me laugh.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
