News: U.K.'s SOCA Shuts Down RnBXclusive

Tricky

Quote:

A popular British music blog containing links to unlicensed music files has been shut down by the U.K. police agency SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency), with users of the urban music site threatened that they could face up to ten years imprisonment and an unlimited fine.

The shut down was put into effect Feb. 14 with a temporary holding message from SOCA posted on RnBXclusive's homepage stating: "SOCA has taken control of this domain name. The individuals behind this website have been arrested for fraud."

U.K. Music Industry Calls Gov't Copyright Law Reform Plan 'Unrealistic,' 'Overstated'

The SOCA statement went on to say that "the majority of music files that were available via this site were stolen from the artists." It also warned visitors that "if you have downloaded music using this website you may have committed a criminal offence which carries a maximum penalty of up to ten years imprisonment and an unlimited fine under U.K. law."

60,000 Germans Protest ACTA Anti-Piracy Legislation

The holding notice, which drew a barrage of criticism from the file-sharing and online community, has since been taken down and replaced with the rather less threatening: "SOCA has taken control of this domain name."

A man involved with the website has been arrested for conspiracy to defraud and is out on bail pending further enquiries, according to SOCA. The enforcement agency says that in the week leading up to its shut down RnBXclusive.com received 70,000 daily users, the majority of which were males aged 18 to 25 years. IFPI estimates losses to legitimate businesses and artists caused by the site - which specialized in urban music and has been running since 2008 - to be £15m (about $23.5 million) a year.

According to a statement on the SOCA homepage, the shut down operation was part of an "operational programmme aimed at protecting UK businesses and the wider economy." The action, which took place over 32 hours, has since resulted in three (iM1music + jams.to) other copyright infringing music sites adopting take-down measures, says SOCA.

"One has taken itself offline voluntarily, one claims to be considering taking itself offline, and another has posted a claim on its home page to now only be dealing in legal music files following the activity," according to SOCA, although the sites in quesiton were not identified.

While take-down measures for copyright infringing websites or web pages are common practice in the U.K., the overly aggressive stance from SOCA regarding RnBXclusive.com, including the threat of ten years imprisonment for users found guilty of downloading unlicensed content, is believed to relate to RnBXclusive.com hosting links to music tracks that were obtained illegally from music companies before they were commercially released, therefore making it a fraud case rather than standard copyright infringement.

Predictably, SOCA's action prompted outcry from online rights activists with Loz Kaye, leader of grass roots politcal party Pirate Party U.K. calling the take-down notice "alarming."

"This disappearance of this site leaves many questions," Kaye said in a statement, adding: "It would now appear that we have police-led site blocking in the U.K." London-based organisation the Open Rights Group has also said that it has requested a meeting with SOCA to discuss the case.

Source;
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/indus...06205552.story

Signs

They are going fine everone who used that site?

jomarr

^ I use that sometimes. I can live with it but

That's where I get some of my ****

Tricky

Quote:

Originally posted by Signs

They are going fine everone who used that site?

Well, the site had 2million visitors a month. So that would be.....difficult to fine everyone.

Swag

So they are taking control of the internet, welcome to 1984

Red

Quote:

The enforcement agency says that in the week leading up to its shut down RnBXclusive.com received 70,000 daily users

Quote:

Originally posted by Tricky

Well, the site had 2million visitors a month.

Something tells me that SOCA will not be able to sue/imprison EVERYONE who visited the site. Just a hunch.

babyboy44

This wont end well, hackers should get in .. and teach them a lesson..

and they should know that not everyone can buy music !!!

BadHabits

I think these leaking sites should be shut down because it damages the industry and it stops new talented from being invested in. If we like an album, we should have to buy it and not download it illegally.

Imagine if people downloaded musically legally, our faves could have 20-30 million album sales. Britney could have got 15mil with Circus and FF, even more and Adele could've got 20-30 million or more.

We will always find ways to get our leaks but stopping the downloading of albums is damaging the industry and there have to be ways for music to be affordable for people, who can't afford to buy them.

We should get like 5 tracks per month for free.

Superbitch

Oh no! They better not shut down mzhiphop.com

Rentboy

that notice is just scare tactics to try put people off downloading. They aint gonna start tracking people down. They just want the dealers not the users.

but its worrying theyre actually shutting sites down. We're at some kind of crossroads with the whole issue of online piracy. Its certainly getting harder to find those free goods.

Rentboy

Quote:

Originally posted by Willxw

Imagine if people downloaded musically legally, our faves could have 20-30 million album sales. Britney could have got 15mil with Circus and FF, even more and Adele could've got 20-30 million or more.

please tell me you don't mean Femme Fatale?

And Adele is already set for 20-30mill which kinda disproves your point. The buyers are still there for quality music.

LolMinaj

NEUTRON

Quote:

Originally posted by Willxw

I think these leaking sites should be shut down because it damages the industry and it stops new talented from being invested in. If we like an album, we should have to buy it and not download it illegally.

Imagine if people downloaded musically legally, our faves could have 20-30 million album sales. Britney could have got 15mil with Circus and FF, even more and Adele could've got 20-30 million or more.

We will always find ways to get our leaks but stopping the downloading of albums is damaging the industry and there have to be ways for music to be affordable for people, who can't afford to buy them.

We should get like 5 tracks per month for free.

Delusions.

The music industry leaks music allllll the time to see what kinda reception they're going to get. They're just as guilty as everyone else.

Siya

I use urbanmusicdaily anyway so...

zach

I've never used that site before.

Munich

Quote:

Originally posted by Siya

I use urbanmusicdaily anyway so...

yap me too. It still sucks tho

calumc

I normally only download songs from the internet if they're unreleased songs (leftover tracks, random leaks etc.) or if they they're not available on iTunes yet (and then i'll buy them when they are released). I guess it's still classed as "stealing", but if there's not a legal alternative (ie. not available on iTunes, amazon etc.) what are you supposed to do? If it's a good song I want it on my ipod.

Duca

Quote:

Originally posted by Rentboy

please tell me you don't mean Femme Fatale?

And Adele is already set for 20-30mill which kinda disproves your point. The buyers are still there for quality music.

'Femme Fatale' was the most illegally downloaded album of 2011 with over 10.7 million downloads.

Crazytowel

This is all getting quite scary now

PopBoi

Quote:

Originally posted by Rentboy

please tell me you don't mean Femme Fatale?

And Adele is already set for 20-30mill which kinda disproves your point. The buyers are still there for quality music.

No, the vast majority of Adele's audience don't illegally download. Circus and Femme Fatale wouldn't have sold 15 mill, but downloads have affected Britney's sales much more than Adele's.