The Motion Picture Association of America is trying to hack universities, suggests Techdirt's Mike Masnick. Alongside the proposed education bill that will force federally funded universities to foot the bill for legal file-sharing services, the MPAA is offering a toolkit to monitor network usage that also happens to reveal each user's browser history to anyone who knows where to look. [Techdirt]

With all this talk of Comcast and Canadian Internet service providers throttling file-sharing connections, serial entrepreneur and twinkle-toes Mark Cuban has decided, in big, bold letters, that ISPs should "BLOCK P2P NOW." Although he's not a Comcast subscriber, he supports its crusade to rid the Internet of "P2P freeloaders" because he doesn't want them eating up all his bandwidth. (As does Valleywag. Don't like it? Lay your own cable, pikers. Cuban is a billionaire from selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo, and could actually afford to take our advice.) But we're curious why he's suddenly decided he has a problem with peer-to-peer software.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is endorsing a plan that would ban the provision of Internet access to file sharers caught pirating three times. The plan would use information from ISPs on "high-volume users" to find file sharers. Serial offenders would see their accounts suspended or terminated after their third strike. Music and film industries, naturally, are in favor of the plan. A consumer group in France labeled it "very harsh, potentially repressive, antieconomic and against the grain of the digital age." Harsh words. Well, it could be worse. At least they aren't blocking la Bible. (Photo by AP/Michel Euler)

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police — Canadian cops with some of the sweetest uniforms in the world — have announced that they will not go after users who download files, music and movies for personal use. Instead, they will focus on organized crime and copyright violations related to medicine and physical products. [Slashdot]

Last month, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker told the nation's governing bodies they needed to make intellectual property theft a priority. Well, the House is fed up with the public berating and is finally doing something. A proposed education bill threatens to withhold federal aid from colleges and universities that don't proactively deter file sharing. Along with technical countermeasures, like network throttling, campuses will be asked to find file-sharing alternatives that will eventually wean students off their illicit ways. In other words: Force educational institutions to subsidize Napster's shareholders.

Whenever I read a story about security threats without numbers, my bullshit detector goes on high alert. And so it went with the Wall Street Journal's latest salvo on the perils of file sharing. The release of personal information to identity thieves over peer-to-peer networks is a "real and growing" problem. So real that "precise data on the incidence are hard to come by." Hundreds of millions of people use file-sharing networks, but the WSJ, by my count, only cites 52 actual cases of identity theft by this method. And then the kicker: A company called Tiversa, according to the Journal, charges $24.95 a month to monitor customers' computers for this ominous threat. Beep! I'm sure that the phenomenon of identity theft via peer-to-peer networks is real enough. But the possibility that a company is going to exploit this new security fear for undue gain? My detector says it's dead certain.

Canadian Internet service provider Bell Sympatico has admitted to throttling P2P file sharing during peak hours. You don't like it, eh? Go lay your own fiber, hoser. [Ars Technica]

A number of consumer groups are petitioning the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 for every customer affected by their BitTorrent-throttling practices. The FCC has said in the past that service providers can't "block" customers from using certain applications or websites, but it hasn't enforced that policy. Comcast has stated that they aren't "blocking" data transmissions, but are delaying them. Angry users aren't seeing much of a difference. We still think that government regulation is not the answer. You don't like what Comcast is doing? Let your wallet do the talking — change providers or lay your own fiber, bub. Or, considering that Comcast was caught blocking a digital version of the Bible, perhaps divine intervention is what called for. Down with the infidels! (Photo by AP/Douglas C. Pizac)

Trent Reznor, the Nine Inch Nails frontman who encouraged his fans to steal music, had a favorite site to steal from. It was Oink, the music-sharing site that got shut down last week, as he told New York:

The Swedish copyfighters at The Pirate Bay are working on a new protocol to replace BitTorrent. They feel that Bram Cohen's BitTorrent Inc. has too much influence on BitTorrent's technical direction. And then, too, there's the recent news that Comcast is intentionally slowing BitTorrent file transfers. The new protocol will be designed from the ground up to thwart spammers and antipiracy organizations from harassing users or tracking copyright violators. While the site rose to prominence thanks to BitTorrent, The Pirate Bay is the most influential organization in the file-sharing world. We suspect that other file-sharing sites will line up to support the new peer-to-peer protocol. A preliminary release is planned for next year.

Comcast's profit dropped 54 percent to $560 million on $7.8 billion in sales. That's what happens when you offer lame excuses after getting caught triple-playing around with its customers' Net connections. [AP]

Comcast has gotten a bitch-slap from Congressman Rick Boucher. Quick recap: Users said Comcast was screwing up file-sharing downloads via BitTorrent but no one believed them. Then the Associated Press did their own report, trying to download the Bible but failing. Comcast blundered through a denial, calling the wire report "web gossip." And it might get sued. All that and a pissed-off Congressman too? Not a good week for Philadelphia's cable guys.

It was only last week that Comcast was getting called the Antichrist for disrupting BitTorrent users on its network and preventing the Associated Press from downloading the Bible. Since then, Comcast has offered nothing but excuses. Now, Comcast might get sued.

First the Bible, now ... Lotus Notes? It seems the same technology that Comcast uses to slow down BitTorrent file sharing also prevents emails with large attachments from being sent through Lotus Notes. We pray that this gets fixed soon or we'll be forced to switch to an ISP that isn't quite so evil. And email software that doesn't completely suck. [Ars Technica]

The Motion Picture Association of America claims it lost $2.3 billion worldwide to Internet piracy in 2005. So you'd think they'd be willing to spend a couple extra grand to keep some of its more unsavory antipiracy methods quiet. But you'd be wrong. According to a Wired News story, the MPAA signed a $15,000 contract with hacker Mark Anderson to obtain the names, addresses and phone numbers of the owners of P2P site Torrentspy.com.

Amy Banse, an executive at bible-blocking cable company Comcast, admitted at the Web 2.0 Summit on Friday that the company intentionally disrupts BitTorrent traffic. She said the company does so because the "0.01 percent" of customers who engage in what Comcast calls "excessive use" are sending the equivalent of 18,000 emails an hour. Comcast got into this mess after the Associated Press tried and failed to transfer a copy of the Bible using BitTorrent software. The cause? A network analysis revealed deliberate service disruptions by Comcast. The Bible's author has yet respond to requests for comment. (Photo by dmuth)

Oh, god. For a few months, there have been rumblings of Comcast, the cable and Internet provider, intentionally disrupting BitTorrent traffic. The Associated Press verified the dusruption by trying to download a copy of the King James Bible via BitTorrent over Comcast-connected computers. A devilishly clever move, downloading a public-domain work unprotected by copyright, and suggesting that Comcast opposes the distribution of the Holy Book.

When all else fails, blame Napster. The file-sharing startup, in its first incarnation, pretty much gutted the music industry. The progeny it spawned has ruined the life of Minnesota single mom Jammie Thomas, who was fined a $222,000 fine for illegally downloading music. Now, reborn as a tedious iTunes wannabe, the company is ruining my morning with its latest bad idea. Napster 4.0 is a $10/mo. subscription service which ever so kindly allows users to access and play their music on any Internet-connected computer without downloading any software. The advantage, in short, is that you can hijack your friends' computers to play your own music. Tell you what, Napster: I'll keep my money and listen to Pandora for free instead.

Why did the jury in the RIAA file-sharing case return a $222,000 judgment against Jammie Thomas? "We wanted to send a message that you don't do this, that you have been warned," said one juror. Mmm, yes. That'll stop the pirates. The more likely lesson they'll draw? Don't get caught. [Threat Level]

Radiohead's experiment in distributing In Rainbows, allowing consumers to download the album for free, highlights a growing problem in the music business: Kids these days, thanks to BitTorrent, don't think they should pay for music. As more independent acts follow Radiohead's lead, opting to make their cash touring, the record industry will struggle to find a new business model. Surprisingly, suing its customers actually seems to be working out . [Telegraph]