welsh
Junkmaster
looks like pirate radio has learned about the internet.
Check this out. Pirate internet out of the West Bank?
Online music
Sex, lies and Earth Station 5
Dec 18th 2003
From The Economist print edition
A strange tale
THE centre of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank still looks like it has been hit by an earthquake, having been razed to the ground by the Israeli army last year in a bloody attempt to stop suicide bombings. So when an outfit called Earth Station 5 announced itself this year as a new peer-to-peer file-sharing service headquartered in the camp, internet downloaders and journalists paid attention. In the occupied Palestinian territories, says Steve Taylor, a spokesman, Earth Station 5 is safe from the music and film industries' campaign to stop people sharing content for free. When they complain, he told Salon.com, a website, “we tell them to go fuck off”.
For rebellious technophiles, Earth Station 5 seems a tantalising mix. Its management is made up of Jordanians, Palestinians, Russians and Israelis who “love and respect each other”, according to a press release. It thumbs its nose at big media firms and, in July, it pledged to mount an attack on the sex industry by giving ten internet sex channels away for nothing. It also claims to possess advanced technology that shields the identity of downloaders and so protects them from being sued.
Being in Jenin might have other advantages, if it really is in Jenin and if there is any truth to claims that Earth Station 5 is the creation of a fugitive from American justice. In 2000, Stephen Cohen, who had spent time in prison for fraud, was forced to hand over ownership of the internet address “sex.com” to its original owner, Gary Kremen, after Mr Kremen proved that Mr Cohen had stolen it from him by means of a forged letter. The court awarded Mr Kremen damages of $65m, a sum he never got because Mr Cohen went to Mexico to escape an arrest warrant.
A German technology magazine, c't, and two other German papers reported this week that they had traced a link between Stephen Cohen and Earth Station 5 via telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. In response, Earth Station 5 says that its Mexican internet-service provider purchased an internet domain from Stephen Cohen's old firm: that is the only reason, it says, that their spokesman, Mr Taylor, and Mr Cohen seem to have the same e-mail address. This week, Mr Kremen told The Economist that Mr Cohen has called him in the past six months and talked about Earth Station 5, his new venture in the Jenin refugee camp. Mr Cohen offered Mr Kremen a stake in Earth Station 5, he says, in exchange for dropping his $65m claim. He declined the offer. Mr Cohen could not be reached for comment.
At any one time, claims Mr Taylor, almost 19m people are using Earth Station 5, most in non-English-speaking countries. If true, that would make it the most popular peer-to-peer file-sharing portal in the world. At the moment, everything is free on the platform, and it has no advertising. According to Mr Taylor, its backers are spending $2m a month with little if any revenue coming in. Eventually, their plan is to make money from online gambling, sports betting and ads. Well, maybe. But almost everything about Earth Station 5 may be fiction. Perhaps the only certain thing is that, at least for The Economist, it works.
Check this out. Pirate internet out of the West Bank?
Online music
Sex, lies and Earth Station 5
Dec 18th 2003
From The Economist print edition
A strange tale
THE centre of the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank still looks like it has been hit by an earthquake, having been razed to the ground by the Israeli army last year in a bloody attempt to stop suicide bombings. So when an outfit called Earth Station 5 announced itself this year as a new peer-to-peer file-sharing service headquartered in the camp, internet downloaders and journalists paid attention. In the occupied Palestinian territories, says Steve Taylor, a spokesman, Earth Station 5 is safe from the music and film industries' campaign to stop people sharing content for free. When they complain, he told Salon.com, a website, “we tell them to go fuck off”.
For rebellious technophiles, Earth Station 5 seems a tantalising mix. Its management is made up of Jordanians, Palestinians, Russians and Israelis who “love and respect each other”, according to a press release. It thumbs its nose at big media firms and, in July, it pledged to mount an attack on the sex industry by giving ten internet sex channels away for nothing. It also claims to possess advanced technology that shields the identity of downloaders and so protects them from being sued.
Being in Jenin might have other advantages, if it really is in Jenin and if there is any truth to claims that Earth Station 5 is the creation of a fugitive from American justice. In 2000, Stephen Cohen, who had spent time in prison for fraud, was forced to hand over ownership of the internet address “sex.com” to its original owner, Gary Kremen, after Mr Kremen proved that Mr Cohen had stolen it from him by means of a forged letter. The court awarded Mr Kremen damages of $65m, a sum he never got because Mr Cohen went to Mexico to escape an arrest warrant.
A German technology magazine, c't, and two other German papers reported this week that they had traced a link between Stephen Cohen and Earth Station 5 via telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. In response, Earth Station 5 says that its Mexican internet-service provider purchased an internet domain from Stephen Cohen's old firm: that is the only reason, it says, that their spokesman, Mr Taylor, and Mr Cohen seem to have the same e-mail address. This week, Mr Kremen told The Economist that Mr Cohen has called him in the past six months and talked about Earth Station 5, his new venture in the Jenin refugee camp. Mr Cohen offered Mr Kremen a stake in Earth Station 5, he says, in exchange for dropping his $65m claim. He declined the offer. Mr Cohen could not be reached for comment.
At any one time, claims Mr Taylor, almost 19m people are using Earth Station 5, most in non-English-speaking countries. If true, that would make it the most popular peer-to-peer file-sharing portal in the world. At the moment, everything is free on the platform, and it has no advertising. According to Mr Taylor, its backers are spending $2m a month with little if any revenue coming in. Eventually, their plan is to make money from online gambling, sports betting and ads. Well, maybe. But almost everything about Earth Station 5 may be fiction. Perhaps the only certain thing is that, at least for The Economist, it works.
