Entertainment Giants Turn to Web Sherriff John Giacobbi to Stop Music Piracy

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Parent Category: Science / Technology

Category: Tech Industry News

Published on Sunday, 05 February 2012 17:16

Written by Janet Walker

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John Giacobbi, Web Sheriff, has worked with the biggest names in entertainment including Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Adele, Bryan Adams and the Estate of Michael Jackson in the quest to stop pre-release music leaks, theft and internet piracy.

From the launch of Web Sheriff, Giacobbi , a London based entrepreneur, attorney and web expert, has been a very busy man with every major record label utilizing his services at one time or another. His expertise has grown over the years and he is considered an industry authority often called for expert testimony in criminal cases.

Giacobbi, describing how the idea for Web Sheriff came about, began working with major record labels and artists early in his career doing the standard “record deals, distribution deals and so forth.” Continuing, he added “It really was then the clients and I stated to have internet related problems in the very, very early days of the internet, in fact pre MP3 days, and that’s where the germ of the idea for Web Sheriff came from.” 

As entertainment music attorneys are often known for their “hard line” and heavy handed approach in the beginning of their quest to retain control and dominance over infringements, piracy and the “inevitable leaks” they often find themselves in embarrassing and reputation damaging situations including suing children as young as eight who find the lawsuits more of a affirmation of their skills and hacking talents than a concern and leave music giants red-faced and struggling with court precedents. 

Giacobbi, has several methods he utilizes when his services are retained and is known to create strategies that maximize the talents fan base. To cut down on piracy he suggests engaging the fan in any promotion effort by releasing a snippet of the title, or property, prior to release and engage the fan in assisting with the promotion effort encouraging the free use and distribution of the snippet with a “OK to share” tag or label.

While entertainment related piracy is his mainstay when asked to describe his most memorable cases Giacobbi explains particular opportunities he’s had to support the judicial process including being retained by the prosecution to assist in pursuing justice in the murder of a London based school teacher who went on a blind date. The prosecution’s case used Giacobbi‘s Web Sheriff to trace the killer’s visits to websites that depicted strangling women for sexual gratification which is how the victim died.

Additionally, he describes due to “having been featured in the media frequently”, a case that came up where Western Hostages were being executed on websites in Iraq and was offered to Giacobbi. He decided to “give it a go” and see if they could find the host and have the sites taken down.  He explained, “These videos were on the website but they weren’t actually hosted on it. They bounced around a few links and were hosted on micro sites in Japan one micro site per video and they do that,” he clarified, “to make finding the source difficult to take them down. “

He continued, “The middle connection between Japan and Iraq was an American IP, a major company in the Midwest where hosting these links and the name connecting these websites were HeadlessAmerican.com 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So we notified them to take the videos down saying your customer is infringing your acceptable use policy, your terms and conditions, and these videos incite racial hatred, they incite religious hatred and they incite violence.”

Initially the American company used Freedom of Speech to retain the web hosting of terrorists decapitating western hostages but in the end Giacobbi was able to get his man after a “very strenuous 48 hour” legal volley the host relented and removed the sites.

Adhering to terms and conditions posted on one’s own site can often be the clincher in having a site removed. If a users terms and conditions call for anti-violence and the user posts violence or depictions of violence than by his own admissions he violates his terms and conditions and the user will be terminated and the same goes for the site owner. Should terms and conditions call for anti-violence and the site owner creates clear usages or depictions of violence by virtue of his own phrasing at the onset the site can be removed.

Having trouble with email? Giacobbi can trace your web travel with ease. The Web Sherriff can recreate a user’s path and show occurrence and reoccurrences of sites visited.

Beware all you internet pirates, thieves and web hackers: There’s a new Sherriff in town. 

For more information on the Web Sherriff: http://www.websheriff.com/