A man from Sweden, the first in the country to be charged with sharing multiple unauthorized movies using BitTorrent, has been found guilty of copyright infringement. While the man is probably feeling fortunate he didn’t go to prison as prosecutors had demanded, it was by pure chance that he was caught at all – an important detail in this unusual case.
The world is witnessing the largest offline protest against copyright legislation today. Massive demonstrations against the draconian anti-piracy treaty ACTA are spanning four continents, with protests in more than 200 European cities alone. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to prevent their countries and the European Parliament from putting the free Internet at risk by ratifying ACTA,
In yet another episode in Hollywood’s year-long legal battle with one of the world’s biggest cyberlocker services, the MPAA has now drawn Google into the dispute. The MPAA says that Google holds valuable information on Hotfile and should produce it, but the search giant is refusing without the file-hoster’s consent. Hotfile says ‘no’ on the basis that the deadline for discovery expired last year.
A new academic paper by researchers from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College has examined the link between BitTorrent downloads and box office returns. Contrary to what’s often claimed by the movie industry, the researchers conclude that there is no evidence that BitTorrent piracy hurts US box office returns. Internationally, there is a link between downloads and revenues, which the researchers attribute to long release windows.
The main programmer of Megaupload was granted bail today on restricted grounds including a ban on Internet access and no contact with his “Mega Conspiracy” co-accused currently resident overseas. Meanwhile, the family home of Mega founder Kim Dotcom has been seized by New Zealand authorities. Dotcom’s heavily pregnant wife and the couple’s three children will be allowed to stay – for now.
Soon The Pirate Bay will stop linking to .torrent files. Instead, the world’s largest BitTorrent site will only list so-called magnet links. One of the advantages of the switch is that The Pirate Bay will be much more portable, and easier to copy. A new torrent listing all titles and magnet links on The Pirate Bay proves this point, as the public can download a copy that fits easily on a small USB stick – or even a few dozen floppies.
In a 2010 submission to the US Government, RapidShare was described by the RIAA and MPAA as a “notorious market” for pirated media. Just one year later the file-hosting service was given a tacit clean bill of health. TorrentFreak caught up with RapidShare attorney Daniel Raimer who explained that this achievement was down to a combination of education and industry-leading proactive anti-piracy measures.
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Left Quote“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
Peter Sunde Left Quote
A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.
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