The U.S. Copyright Alert System is hailed as an educational program that respects the privacy of Internet subscribers, but unwittingly it's now at the center of a copyright lawsuit. A federal court in Indiana has ordered Comcast to hand over all DMCA notices and six-strikes alerts received by an alleged…
A video service labeled a "rogue site" by the United States Trade Representative was formally presented with a $42m copyright fine yesterday, but already a face-off has begun. China-based QVOD is allowed to appeal the record-breaking decision by local authorities but in the meantime must pay the fine anyway, something…
The popularity of music streaming services has grown explosively in recent years. There are many competing services around, but there's also a huge untapped market of people who pirate music. In the years to come Spotify hopes to convert a large chunk of the latter group into paying consumers.
The paid informants program of the Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing Adobe, Apple and Microsoft, is a great success. The group recruits informants through Facebook and other venues, offering them hard cash in return for a successful tip. According to a BSA executive, this approach has put a…
The fight between a movie studio and an Australian ISP has today taken another odd turn. Village Roadshow's co-CEO now suggests that iiNet must take responsibility for piracy in the same way a car manufacturer apparently would if one of its vehicles killed someone while being driven by a customer.…
UK ISPs have agreed to send their customers warning letters when they pirate movies, music and TV shows, but before the scheme starts thoughts are turning to its potential failure. The Prime Minister's IP advisor says 'VCAP' needs to be followed by something more enforceable, including disconnections, fines and jail…
Kim Dotcom's Internet Party has proposed drastic changes to New Zealand's "outdated" copyright law. One of the key proposals is to legalize the circumvention of geo-blocking restrictions, so that Hollywood has an incentive to release content globally. In addition, the party also wants to get rid of Internet disconnections under…
A 2010 decision by Switzerland's highest court to acknowledge the privacy rights of file-sharers effectively outlawed the tracking of BitTorrent users. That position means that the country occupies the new 2014 Watch List of the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus on Capitol Hill along with other problem nations China, Russia…