While the major movie studios have all praised the demise of Megaupload, new data suggests that the shutdown has impacted part of the industry negatively. Extending previous work, European researchers show that the closure of the service had both positive and negative effects on box office revenues. Using weekly data…
All around the world the copyright lobby is pushing for increased censorship of ‘pirate’ websites, The Pirate Bay in particular. Thus far this has resulted in court-ordered blockades in several countries including the UK and the Netherlands. The question that remains is whether these measures have any effect. Researchers from…
In its ongoing battle to stem a tide of online piracy, the MPAA has more recently come to rely on voluntary agreements with the six strikes plan, which encompasses the major ISPs, as the shining example. However, Google and the world's leading tech companies are more hesitant to implement changes…
The City of Portland has great public toilets. So when restroom manufacturer Romtec started selling a similar design, the city had no other option than to protect their creative work in court. This week Portland filed a lawsuit at a federal court in Oregon accusing Romtec of selling pirated toilets.…
The IRS, the feared government agency that demands a chunk of everyone's income, is apparently depriving other organizations of their income by failing to get its house in order. During a recent audit it was discovered that the IRS was running two dozen software products that it could not produce…
Comcast has sent TorrentFreak a cease and desist letter, claiming copyright over contents of an article which revealed that Prenda Law was involved in operating a pirate honeypot. Failure to comply will result in a lawsuit in which the Internet provider will seek damages, a Comcast representative informs us. In…
Springer, one of the larger book publishers in the world, has informed its authors that the company has not seen any harmful effects from piracy and file-sharing on their eBook portfolio. The company further says that torrents "rarely present a threat to eBook content." The publisher is nevertheless committed to…
Following the introduction this month of a controversial anti-piracy law, rightsholders are now beginning to see the flaws and shortcomings of the new Russian system. Out of all the blocking requests submitted to authorities so far, 42% have been rejected after rightsholders couldn't come up with the correct paperwork. There…