Details In Mulve Arrest Highlight How Weak The Case Is

from the so-why-so-quick-on-the-arrest? dept

Last week, in talking about how one of the guys behind Mulve was arrested by UK police, we noted the similarities to the arrest a few years ago of OiNK administrator Alan Ellis on "conspiracy to defraud" charges that were eventually thrown out as Ellis didn't actually break the law.

TorrentFreak now has the details of the Mulve arrest, where police are using the exact same charges, even with a failure to get those charges to stick against Ellis. And, the article details why such charges are even weaker against the Mulve guy they arrested. First of all, he had nothing to do with the software itself, but merely registered the domain and created the video highlighting how to use the software. But, much more interesting are the details behind Mulve. It's not even a search engine by itself. It's simply an interface for an existing search engine on a Russian social network, which anyone could sign up for and get access to already. In other words, going after Mulve totally misses the point, and it's difficult to see how Mulve itself actually violates UK law.

Of course, in pushing authorities to arrest the Mulve guy, it appears that all that's really happened is the recording industry has drawn a lot more attention to how Mulve works, leading to multiple clones of the software quickly popping up. You would think the industry would know by now how this whole hydra process works, but apparently they still haven't gotten the message.

Filed Under: arrest, conspiracy to defraud, interface, mulve, search engines, uk
Companies: ifpi, mulve

Canadian Real Estate Site Wants To Remain Unusable; Threatens Those Who Improve It

from the this-again? dept

In the past, we've written about various organizations who break out the lawyers immediately when someone else makes their own poorly designed sites work better. This has happened with sites like the Ellis Island site and a movie theater chain in the UK. In both cases, some folks who got fed up with the poorly designed official site stepped up and created a better interface to the data hidden within. That same situation appears to be happening in Canada. Joe writes in to let us know that the Multiple Listing Service in Canada (which is basically the core database listing homes for sale) has a poorly designed website. Some enterprising individuals in Toronto made a much nicer interface, creating a mashup that pulled in other data (such as Google maps info). Rather than, say, recognize how useful the better interface was and talk to the developers about how MLS could use that work themselves, it sent a cease and desist, forcing the site to shut down. The site's creators were doing this as a hobby to improve the usefulness of MLS's data. And now it's gone. That's no way to run a business.

Filed Under: canada, cease and desist, interface, mls
Companies: multiple listing service