Several UK Internet providers expanded their blockade of The Pirate Bay this week. Sky Broadband, Virgin Media and TalkTalk are now blocking user access to several IP-addresses the BitTorrent site added in recent weeks. Whether this will have any effect is doubtful. This weekend The Pirate Bay is getting ready to add a new address and meanwhile the hundreds of proxy sites remain accessible.
After months of uncertainty, broken promises and despair, the world’s biggest independent heavy metal label has ended its quest to force settlements from alleged music sharers in the United States. World Digital Rights, the copyright troll outfit hired by the Nuclear Blast label to hunt down and threaten fans of the band All Shall Perish – even without the band’s permission – have now thrown in the towel.
Kim Dotcom has just released his long-awaited new song ‘Mr. President’, directed at United States President Barack Obama. In the song Megaupload’s founder says that Hollywood is taking over politics and that the Government is killing innovation. Dotcom released the song and video on his newly launched website, and both can be shared for free.
People who obtain movies and TV shows from the Internet through unauthorized and often illegal channels would actually prefer not to do if they were given the chance. That’s one of the findings of a new survey into consumer habits which reveals that although lower cost is often cited as a tool for reducing piracy, three other issues are driving people to break the law – convenience, choice and availability.
The battle between Megaupload and the U.S. Government continues unabated. Megaupload’s legal team has submitted a rebuttal to the Government’s claims that Megaupload can be brought to justice in the U.S. They accuse the Department of Justice of making up its own rules to keep the criminal proceedings alive. The entire case should be dismissed instead, Megaupload’s legal team argues.
In their most recent filing the U.S. authorities have mentioned Grammy winning rapper/producer Swizz Beatz as a potential U.S. representative for Megaupload. In response to Megaupload’s motion to dismiss based on lack of jurisdiction, the feds are trying to find a way to serve the company on U.S. soil. Beatz, husband of R&B superstar Alicia Keys, was previously listed as Megaupload’s CEO but the authorities say he is refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
Google has suffered a setback in its case against the music industry group SNEP. Last week the French Supreme Court ruled that Google can be required to censor the search terms ‘Torrent’, ‘RapidShare’ and ‘Megaupload’ from its Instant and Autocomplete services. The court argued that Google indirectly facilitates copyright infringement by failing to filter these terms. The case is now going to the Appeals Court for a final decision.
The New Zealand judge handling the extradition case of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has dramatically stepped down from the role. Speaking at the NetHui conference last week, Judge David Harvey had voiced his feelings on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, describing the United States as “the enemy”. Accepting that the comments could lead people to question his impartiality in the case, Harvey has surrendered his role.
By indexing all copyright takedown requests online, Google is rapidly building the world’s largest database of links to pirated content. Just last week, a record-breaking 719,415 new URLs were added to the takedown database. Copyright holders are responding to this effort with a comical display of meta-censorship, in which Google is asked to remove links to takedown requests, because these link to sites that link to copyrighted material.
Five years ago a composer created music for use in a one-off anti-piracy video. However, without his permission it was used time and again on dozens of commercial DVDs such as Harry Potter. Even in the wake of a huge controversy over “corrupt” and “mafia-like” practices, the local music rights group that got involved in the case failed to pay him the money he was owed. The case went to court and this week the music rights group lost.
Last week, an online petition was started supporting former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde’s request for a pardon from the Swedish government. However, in an interesting twist, the site is now polling its own users as to whether the petition should be removed on the basis it might be “offensive, inflammatory or otherwise objectionable.” Well, that all depends on who you ask, doesn’t it?
OpenBitTorrent and PublicBitTorrent, the two largest BitTorrent trackers on the Internet, are on strike. Both trackers are going offline to protest the unresponsiveness of the makers of uTorrent who were asked to introduce a simple protocol enhancement that would save the non-profit trackers thousands of dollars. As a result of the protest, many people are having trouble downloading files on BitTorrent.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘American Reunion’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘The Raven. ‘Hijacked’ completes the top three.
Cord cutting will kill Hollywood. Cord cutting doesn’t exist. Cord cutting is the future. Cord cutting is only done by poor kids who will change their ways when they get a real job: These days, it seems like everyone is talking about cord cutting, the trend of people ditching their pay TV subscription for online alternatives.
Earlier this week news broke that rapper Lord Finesse is suing his colleague Mac Miller for “stealing” one of his beats. This prompted UK rapper Dan Bull to respond with a parody track, calling out Lord Finesse on his hypocritical stance. However, Finesse’s lawyers didn’t appreciate the criticism and managed to pull Bull’s clip off YouTube, essentially abusing copyright as a censorship tool. However, by doing so they seem to have made matters worse.
A coalition of artists has scored an important victory in their piracy lawsuit against CNET and CBS Interactive. The artists, joined by billionaire and FilmOn founder Alki David, accuse the media conglomerate of promoting piracy through websites like Download.com. CBS moved to dismiss the complaint, but federal Judge Dale Fischer upheld the artist’s claim that CNET induced piracy by demonstrating how file-sharing programs can be used to infringe copyright.
A German court has ruled that file-hosting services can be held liable for the copyright infringements of their users if certain conditions are met. The ruling was reached in a case involving Swiss-based RapidShare and video games company Atari, after the latter accused the former of providing unlawful access to the game Alone in the Dark.
More than a year after the MPAA and RIAA announced their groundbreaking anti-piracy deal with U.S. Internet providers, the first warning letters are yet to be sent out. Previously, July 2012 was coined as the start date but the responsible parties are still not ready to launch. While TorrentFreak has learned that various ISPs will start the implementation at different times, it remains a mystery which company will be spying on filesharers.
A lawyer who threatened countless individuals in copyright troll-style lawsuits has been slammed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The highly colorful Evan Stone sent subpoenas to ISPs without permission of the court in order to extract payments from alleged BitTorrent users, but will now take a huge hit to his reputation. On top of a fine and paying costs to the EFF and Public Citizen, he will have to inform all clients and judges he currently has cases with about this ruling against him.
A lawsuit against fans of the metal band All Shall Perish has faltered after it was revealed that the copyright troll plaintiff in the case has failed to register the required copyrights. World Digital Rights are pursuing BitTorrent users on behalf of Nuclear Blast, the band’s record label, but the band say they are absolutely against the process. Their manager told TorrentFreak this week that the whole process is “bullshit”.
Italian police have arrested the 49-old operator of a handful of file-sharing sites that were previously shut down. The man, known online under the pseudonym “Tex Willer”, allegedly made over half a million euros profit from the sites. Besides copyright infringement, tax evasion, forgery and fraud, he is also accused of selling the email addresses of 300,000 users.
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, the Netherlands and Belgium. However, in recent months evidence has started to stack up showing that these blocking efforts are futile. BitTorrent traffic is not decreasing and the blockades may actually be counterproductive.
Two years ago, Universal Music filed a lawsuit claiming that streaming music service Grooveshark carried unauthorized copies of the label’s pre-1972 music catalog on its servers. Universal’s angle was that because of the age of the music and the dating of legislation, DMCA safe harbors are not available to Grooveshark. Yesterday a judge disagreed, and this wasn’t Grooveshark’s only success. The company will now be allowed to push ahead with counterclaims said to be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Just hours after his extradition hearing was delayed until 2013, Kim Dotcom is offering the US Government an unusual deal. Growing tired of the “dirty games” being played, Megaupload’s founder says he will voluntarily go to the US if he and his colleagues are promised a fair trial and money to pay their legal and living expenses.
In recent weeks, PayPal has cut off many of the world’s largest filehosting sites from its service including MediaFire, Putlocker and DepositFiles. Growing concern over copyright infringement has resulted in an extremely strict and in some cases privacy-violating set of requirements being laid down by the payment processing company. Cyberlocker owners are disappointed with the apparent witch-hunt which in some cases is paralyzing their business.
Kim Dotcom’s extradition hearing has been delayed until 2013. The Megaupload founder and his alleged co-conspirators were due to appear in court on August 6 in a hearing scheduled to last 3 weeks, but legal issues including questions over evidence disclosure have put the event back until March next year. Dotcom has slammed the delay as “dirty delay tactics by the US.”
An unprecedented new report has detailed how the destruction of Napster chilled a decade’s worth of innovation in the music industry. Through interviews with 31 CEOs, company founders, and VPs who operated in digital music during the period, we hear how Big Music collapsed startups, turned down ‘blank check’ deals, and personally threatened innovators with ruination for both them and their families.
Hollywood’s battle against The Pirate Bay website continues in Europe with yet another injunction. A Dutch court has ordered the shutdown of a WordPress-based proxy operated by hosting company Greenhost. The company initially refused to take the proxy offline, but faced with a court order and the prospect of a 1,000 euro per day fine, Greenhost sees no other option than to throw in the towel.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘American Reunion’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Wrath of the Titans’. ‘The Three Stooges’ completes the top three.
It was revealed Friday that the Oron cyberlocker service agreed last month to hand over the full details of users alleged to have breached an adult studio’s copyright. Many observers pledged never to use the service again, branding Oron ‘snitches’ and the lowest of the low. But snitching in the anti-piracy world is nothing new, it’s just that we tend not to hear about it. Just how the snitches like it.
After being convicted for his role in operating The Pirate Bay, site co-founder Peter Sunde should soon serve eight month jail sentence in a Swedish prison. Serving this sentence would be a disgrace to the justice system and a personal disaster, says Sunde, who submitted an emotional plea for pardon to the Swedish authorities this week.
BitTorrent Inc., the people behind the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent, have just unveiled a new project that turns web browsers into fully fledged file-sharing hubs. “Torque” uses the new Btapp.js library and enables developers to code a wide variety of browser-based file-sharing apps. To show what it’s capable of, BitTorrent released a torrent client for Chrome and a browser-based file-sharing app.
A cyberlocker being sued for $34.8 million by an adult studio agreed in principle to a remarkable set of demands to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit. TorrentFreak has learned that file-hosting service Oron said it would turn over the IP addresses, banking details and email addresses of users alleged to have infringed copyright. The troubled cyberlocker then offered to assist plaintiff Liberty Media in civil prosecutions against its own customers.
This spring nearly all popular BitTorrent sites were blocked by Indian ISPs following a court order. The blockades were eventually lifted, but the many “Anonymous” groups who revolted are not done yet. The latest target is the anti-piracy group Copyright Labs, whose servers were painfully compromised this week. The hackers didn’t take the site down, but altered the message that is sent to website owners by their automated takedown tool.
By design the porn industry is often to be found at the extremes of the human race’s moral compass. So recently, when one industry man began a campaign with a stated aim of bringing the cyberlocker market to its knees, one might expect things to have gotten a little dirty. Well they have – absolutely filthy – just ask Putlocker, ExtaBit, TurboBit and a growing list of others, all victims of a concerted operation to strangle their finances and put them out of business.
After the Hollywood-funded anti-piracy group BREIN claimed victory against The Pirate Bay, Dutch Internet provider XS4All has spoiled the fun with a surprise announcement. The ISP claims that BitTorrent traffic increased after the Pirate Bay blockade was introduced, and adds that the entertainment industry’s witch hunt is alienating consumers. “Build a legal version of the Pirate Bay,” is their advice.
Following their legal action against The Pirate Bay, which resulted in a High Court order against some of UK’s largest ISPs, the record labels of the BPI are now preparing to target other leading torrent sites. Framing discussions around having The Pirate Bay blocked, the group is polling its members and affiliated groups to find out if they have any connections to a range of torrent sites including Demonoid, ExtraTorrent, H33T and TorrentReactor.
Today at 12:56 CET, the European Parliament decided whether ACTA would be ultimately rejected or whether it would drag on into uncertainty. In a 478 to 39 vote, the Parliament decided to reject ACTA once and for all. This means that the deceptive treaty is now dead globally.
Kim Dotcom says he knows who ordered the shutdown of his company and related sites. The Megaupload founder informs TorrentFreak that he has insider information which reveals that none other than Vice President Joe Biden directed attorney Neil MacBride to target the site. Biden is known to be one of the best friends of former Senator Chris Dodd, who’s now heading the MPAA.
Last month YouTube-MP3, one of the web’s largest YouTube conversion sites, was hit with legal threats from Google. Shut down in seven days, its lawyers ordered, or face legal repercussions. Now, after commissioning the legal opinions of two prominent German lawyers, the site’s owner is fighting back, and not without support. A Change.org petition which asks Google to allow conversion tools has already accumulated more than 220,000 signatures.
A New York federal court has ordered a rare default judgment in favor of John Wiley & Sons, one of the world’s largest book publishers. Robert Carpenter from Poughkeepsie, New York, has been ordered to pay the publisher $7,000 in damages for sharing a copy of “WordPress All-in-One For Dummies” on BitTorrent. According to Judge William Pauley, the man is guilty of both copyright and trademark infringement.
The plaintiffs in a massive copyright infringement lawsuit against a cyberlocker service are warning users of the site to back up their files. Corbin Fisher, the movie studio currently suing Oron for $34.8m, say that the file-hoster could collapse after a judge denied it access to additional funds to pay for their hosting. Is this another Megaupload-style data loss debacle in the making?
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘American Reunion’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Lockout’. ‘Wrath of the Titans’ completes the top three.
This is it. This is the week when ACTA lives or dies, globally. We have seen it coming. Now is the time for the very final push in contacting the European Parliament. On Wednesday, in the session between 12 noon and 14:00, the European Parliament votes on ACTA. If the European Parliament kills it, it dies globally.
Last night thousands of websites, including Reddit, ran into trouble due to the “leap second.” According to some reports The Pirate Bay also crashed due to this unfortunate bug, but this is certainly not the case. The Pirate Bay’s downtime was caused by other technical issues that have since been resolved.
It’s 2012 and “Piracy” is still a hot topic of conversation in the industry. People who torrent music or have a huge music library are accused of screwing over artists, stealing, and being entitled. Piracy is still cited as The Main Reason Why Artists Are Broke.
A webhost has come under pressure from Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN for providing a Wordpress-based anti-censorship tool which unblocks, among other sites, The Pirate Bay. The Hollywood-funded group says that in the face of the host’s refusal to comply with the takedown, it is now considering filing a criminal complaint. A lawyer specializing in IT law has today described the threat as “baseless.”
A United States District Judge indicated in a hearing today that a little more time is needed to consider the fate of data uploaded by a Megaupload user and lost when the file-hosting company was closed without warning by U.S. authorities. The user’s case is being championed by the EFF who heard today that an order would be issued “shortly”. Additionally, the judge said he would schedule a hearing to consider Megaupload’s motion to dismiss.
Kim Dotcom is currently involved in a high-profile criminal prosecution in the U.S., but that isn’t stopping him from preparing the launch of a revolutionary new music service. With Megabox, Dotcom aims to make piracy an issue of the past by introducing free music for all. Dotcom told TorrentFreak that some of the world’s top artists have already signed up for the launch, and more are expected to follow.
The ongoing avalanche of mass-BitTorrent lawsuits reveal that IP-addresses can get people into a heap of trouble and it’s not unusual for Internet subscribers to be wrongfully accused of sharing copyrighted material. This begs the question, for how long are these IP-addresses stored? To find out, TorrentFreak asked some of the largest Internet providers in the US about their logging practices.
Political activist group Demand Progress has filed a brief in the Megaupload case, urging the court to disregard the MPAA’s concerns over the return of data to former Megaupload users. The group argues that Hollywood lobbyists are out to make it impossible for Megaupload users to access their property, effectively using the court case as a backdoor SOPA.
Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner have secured a court order against a decision that had brought the music labels’ “3 strike” anti-filesharing mechanism to its knees. The four music giants will now reinstate the system at ISP Eircom and put renewed effort into spreading the practice to other ISPs in Ireland.
The search warrants used by police to raid the New Zealand home of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom have been ruled illegal. In addition, the data that was sent to the FBI was ruled to be unlawfully obtained. The decision by the High Court is the latest in a series of setbacks for prosecutors on both sides of the Pacific. Could this be the beginning of the end for the Megaupload trial?
The owner of TV streaming links site SurfTheChannel has been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Newcastle Crown Court today for “facilitating” copyright infringement . The landmark case follows a sting operation by the MPAA, who partnered with the Federation Against Copyright Theft to obtain evidence against site operator Anton Vickerman. He will be sentenced next month and faces up to 10 years in jail.
As part of the punitive measures against both The Pirate Bay and its founders, a Swedish court previously banned two of the torrent site’s founders from having anything to do with its future operations. Now, according to the Stockholm District Court, Fredrik Neij has violated that ban and will be fined. Neij told TorrentFreak that his only ‘crime’ was failing to prove a negative. In any event, no fines will be paid.
Dropbox has banned the new BitTorrent startup Boxopus from accessing its API. The company fears that BitTorrent’s piracy stigma may rub off on the successful cloud storage service. The Boxopus team is disappointed by this anti-innovation move. Thousands of dollars in developments costs have gone down the drain for what they believe is an irrational fear imposed by a growing copyright lobby.
UK communications regulatory body OFCOM has today published an amended version of its Initial Obligations Code, a set of rules relating to the anti-piracy provisions in the country’s controversial Digital Economy Act. OFCOM clarifies the obligations of rightsholders regarding the auditing of piracy tracking systems, and gives them three times longer to produce evidence. On Government order, subscriber right of appeal has been seriously reduced.
BitTorrent client FrostWire is striking back at “rogue” websites that abuse the company’s brand for commercial gain. The company has filed several WIPO domain disputes and recently scored its first victory against the domain name frostwirereview.com. The WIPO panel concluded that the domain was registered in bad faith, and ordered it transferred to FrostWire.
There are dozens of Pirate parties around the world and although run by different people, most have something in common – the proud use of the word ‘Pirate’ in their name. But for Taiwan’s Pirate Party the term is causing all kinds of problems. The High Administrative Court has just ruled that the Party cannot use the word ‘Pirate’ to describe themselves, since citizens will confuse the Party’s aims with those of sea-based criminals.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Wrath of the Titans’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Project X’. ’21 Jump Street’ completes the top three.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is helping Richard O’Dwyer, the UK-based ex-administrator of the video linking website TVShack, to prevent him from being extradited to the US for alleged copyright infringements. According to Wales, the case is an example of the ever-growing influence of the copyright lobby over the Internet. “Richard O’Dwyer is the human face of the battle between the content industry and the interests of the general public,” Wales states.
From October, knowingly uploading or simply downloading copyrighted material from the Internet will be a criminal offense subject to jail sentences in Japan. But despite now having the ultimate deterrent, it’s still not enough for the Recording Industry Association of Japan. The group is now pressing for ISPs to install spying technologies that will automatically block unauthorized uploads.
Boxopus is a new service that enables people to download torrents directly to their Dropbox account. With clever use of Dropbox’s API, BitTorrent users can add torrent files totally anonymously and without the need for a BitTorrent client. Torrent sites can add Boxopus as a new download option for their users, which some already have.
The company behind YouPorn and PornHub has agreed to fund an anti-piracy outfit dedicated to bringing down ‘rogue’ cyberlockers and illicit file-sharing forums. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the Adult Content Industry United Foundation says they will be using the money to cut off funding to cyberlockers in the hope that hitting them in the pocket brings them to their knees. But are cyberlockers and so-called ‘tube’ sites facing the same issues?
PayPal is widely known for their aggressive stance towards BitTorrent sites and file-sharing services, and this policy has now been extended to VPN providers. TorGuard, a company that offers VPN and proxy services, has been banned from using the payment processor because of its affiliation with “BitTorrent.” As a result, thousands of dollars belonging to the company have been frozen.
The battle between Megaupload and the U.S. Government is heating up. In a new document filed at the federal court Megaupload’s legal team accuses the Department of Justice of making up its own rules, while disrespecting foreign sovereignty. The U.S. is intentionally maintaining “flawed criminal action” in a case that should be dismissed, they argue.
Despite the huge upheavals of the last few months, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has announced that his answer to the music industry’s outdated business model is coming soon. The Megabox service will shift the balance of power away from multi-billion dollar corporations to the artists who actually make the music. “Artists rejoice. It’s coming and it will unchain you,” Dotcom says.
Today, the final and ultimately responsible committee in the European Parliament gave its recommendation on ACTA. Its opinion was clear: Reject ACTA. This brings five recommendations to the European Parliament to reject and kill ACTA once and for all.
While the U.S. Government portrays Kim Dotcom as a dangerous criminal, others have no problem being associated with the Megaupload boss. Figures in the glitzy world of pop aside, Apple founder Steve Wozniak is a prime example. When Kim Dotcom was on house arrest, “Woz” came over to show his support.
After earlier attempts through other courts and processes, two of the key figures behind the creation of The Pirate Bay have announced what could be their last throw of the dice to avoid imprisonment. Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, two of the co-founders of the infamous torrent site, have now filed appeals with the European Court of Human Rights.
After seriously considering sending out “3 strikes” warning letters to file-sharers, today Denmark will officially announce the abandoning of the idea. Instead, the government and rightsholders will focus on the ‘Pirate Package’ initiative which will boost the development of legal services. In addition to many positive elements, the initiative also includes a mechanism to smooth the way towards easier website blocking.
Millions of Indians can today breathe a sigh of relief. They are once again able to access their favorite file-sharing sites, including The Pirate Bay and Torrentz.eu, after a consortium of ISPs appealed a broad censorship order. The Madras High Court specified an earlier decision and ruled that Internet providers no longer have to block entire websites to prevent a single movie from being shared online.
Today, BT became the last major UK Internet provider to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The ISP has gone further than other providers since it also restricts access to the new IP-addresses added by the deviant BitTorrent site in recent weeks. Nevertheless, even these additional efforts were quickly neutralized. Immediately after the block kicked in Pirate Bay added a set of new IP addresses to allow BT subscribers access again – for now at least.
According to a letter seen by TorrentFreak, Google are threatening action against one of the web’s largest YouTube conversion sites. The site, which according to Google’s own stats is pulling in 1.3 million visitors every day, extracts MP3 audio from YouTube videos and makes it available for users to download. Google’s lawyers say this must stop, and have given the site seven days to comply.
In the coming months U.S. Internet providers will begin to warn and punish copyright infringers. Since the “six strikes” plan was announced, a lot has been said about the temporary disconnections and throttled connections subscribers might be subjected to. But there is an even scarier outlook for persistent BitTorrent pirates, as the MPAA and RIAA have negotiated the right to demand the details of repeat infringers should they decide to take legal action.
The government agency that administers France’s controversial 3 strikes anti-piracy scheme is mulling taking its message to the youngest minds in the country. According to a letter it sent today to rightsholders, Hadopi is proposing a stand at the Kidexpo exhibition in Paris later this year where it will spread its message directly to 150,000 children.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Wrath of the Titans’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Project X’. ‘Wanderlust’ completes the top three.
The ACTA treaty is coming to its showdown two and a half weeks from today. The vote on the floor of the European Parliament is where the treaty lives or dies. But the next important event takes place as early as this Thursday.
One of the law firms involved in the ongoing mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in the U.S. is deploying a new tool to threaten alleged pirates. Prenda Law is contacting the defendants through robocalls, announcing that a lawsuit will be filed against them because they failed to settle the case. While the new tactic might be effective, critics are pointing out that the way they are carried out might be against the law.
While Hollywood paints file-hosting sites as the new piracy havens, a new study shows that these services are indispensable to many employees. A survey among 4,119 respondents from a wide range of companies shows that 66% use free file-sharing sites to share and store work documents. Among those working in professional services the percentage is as high as 87%.
After being ordered to block its subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay, ISP Elisa indicated it would fight the court ruling by taking it to appeal. Yesterday the Court of Appeal delivered an initial blow to the Finnish service provider by upholding the original ruling handed down in 2011. Undeterred, Elisa says it will take its case all the way to the country’s Supreme Court.
Across the world initiatives are appearing with an aim to increase Internet monitoring. In the U.S. file-sharers will soon be monitored and reported on behalf of the MPAA and RIAA, and in the UK there are plans to monitor and store all Internet communications. Countering this increased surveillance people are turning en masse to VPN services to ensure their privacy. This begs the question; how long before VPNs become illegal?
The founder of one of Europe’s former leading illicit movie streaming portals has been convicted. The man, known as Dirk B, received a reduced sentence after giving a full confession and apology for this activities on Kino.to, the site hit by a massive international police operation in 2011. Despite his overtures, Dirk B received a 4.5 year jail sentence and was ordered to forfeit $4.7m of the claimed $8m he earned from the site.
Popular direct links download site OneDDL has announced its immediate closure. The site, which has been around for the best part of seven years, is the latest casualty in the ongoing cyberlocker and linking controversy. What was once a legal gray area – the indexing and linking of copyright works – has now become a matter of black and white, the site’s owner reports.
The U.S. Government has responded to Megaupload’s request to dismiss the criminal proceedings, and to return the money that was seized by the authorities. The U.S. attorney argues that it’s not a problem that Megaupload was not served and notes that it would be unprecedented to dismiss the case at this time. The Government further objects to returning any funds to aid Mega’s defense, as this money was “stolen” from the entertainment industries.
A large European media group recently broadcast a TV show which reported on the activities of two major BitTorrent trackers. The show was panned by opponents who criticized the creators for misleading the audience with biased reporting. One critic, a reporter who took the time to create a 30 minute podcast, found himself censored after the TV network had his report removed from YouTube on copyright grounds.
In the shadows of the criminal case against Megaupload, another popular cyberlocker is quietly ending its own legal dispute. DepositFiles has settled the million dollar lawsuit adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 brought against them. The latter accused DepositFiles of engaging in and facilitating mass-copyright infringement and demanded a minimum of $5m in damages.
Comcast has run out of patience with the avalanche of BitTorrent lawsuits in the United States. The ISP is now refusing to comply with court-ordered subpoenas, arguing that they are intended to “shake down” subscribers by coercing them to pay settlements. Copyright holders have responded furiously to Comcast’s new stance, claiming that the ISP is denying copyright holders the opportunity to protect their works.
In a strange developing story the FunnyJunk image site is threatening to sue popular humor site The Oatmeal. The war between the pair dates back a year when The Oatmeal accused FunnyJunk of profiting from its copyrighted images, but now FunnyJunk is demanding $20,000 to end a defamation lawsuit. The Oatmeal say they won’t pay and have instead gathered huge support from fans, who in less than 24 hours have donated more than $90,000 to charity. Is there an interesting lesson in here for copyright holders?
The U.S. Government says it’s in no way responsible for the millions of Megaupload users who have lost access to their files due to the criminal proceedings against the file-sharing site. Responding to a motion from one of the site’s users, the Government explains that no “irreparable harm” has been done. Instead of targeting the Government, disadvantaged users should sue Megaupload or its hosting company Carpathia for damages.
In response to a court order handed down at the end of April, today TalkTalk became the latest UK ISP to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. But even with this action the Europe-wide wave of blocking orders isn’t letting up. This morning yet another European court ruled that in order to protect rightholders, two more ISPs should prevent their customers from accessing the site.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Wrath of the Titans’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Project X’. ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ completes the top three.
A new patent granted this week aims to stop students from sharing textbooks, both off and online. The patent awarded to economics professor Joseph Henry Vogel hopes to embed the publishing world even further into academia. Under his proposal, students can only participate in courses when they buy an online access code which allows them to use the course book. No access code means a lower grade, all in the best interests of science.
Since its founding half-a-decade ago, the influence of the Pirate Party has been felt across the globe. Now the file-sharing movement has touched down downunder and while it fights for recognition and acceptance, Australia’s capital city presents the party with a unique opportunity to gain seats in a parliament election.
One of the big draws of BitTorrent is that there are few barriers to entry, not least because it’s free to use. There are other downloading options of course, Usenet being one, but it can be a complex and relatively expensive option. However, thanks to a new service, anyone can enjoy simplified newsgroup downloading using just a web browser. Best of all, it’s completely free of charge.
A student who ran a site which enabled the download of a million movie and TV show subtitle files has been found guilty of copyright infringement offenses. Despite it being acknowledged that the 25-year-old made no money from the three-year-old operation, prosecutors demanded a jail sentence. After struggling due to a lack of case law, in the end the court settle on a fine.
With nearly 4 million downloads per episode, the HBO hit series Game of Thrones is the most pirated TV-show of the season. Worldwide hype combined with restricted availability are the key ingredients for the staggering number of unauthorized downloads. How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory complete the top three, albeit with significantly fewer downloads than the chart topper.
In the UK and the Netherlands The Pirate Bay is widely censored, but that doesn’t mean the site is entirely unavailable. In fact, The Pirate Bay is enjoying the whack-a-mole game they’re playing. After several ISPs added the site’s new IP-address to their filters, the infamous torrent site has just added another, plus an IPv6 address. Meanwhile, the site’s operators are wondering how much court filings cost each time an IP address has to be blocked.
As the music labels of the RIAA prepare to launch their six-strikes initiative in the United States, elsewhere in the world their strategies are somewhat different. In Europe, labels including EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner are pumping money into an anti-piracy company who do everything from cyberlocker takedowns to the dirtiest of all anti-piracy tactics – extracting cash settlements from Internet users. According to an insider, the company employees dozens of students as pirate hunters.
In his presentation to the “The Future of Audio” hearing yesterday, RIAA chief Cary Sherman spoke of the music industry more frequently steering towards voluntary agreements for dealing with online infringement, such as the “six strikes” deal struck with ISPs recently. But what can happen when agreements can’t be reached? After Hollywood couldn’t get an ISP to voluntarily play ball they sued – and lost – and now find themselves being chastised by the ISP in public.
Almost half a year has passed since Megaupload’s servers were raided by the U.S. Government, and still there is no agreement on how former users can retrieve their files. Previously the authorities and MPAA have objected against such a mass retrieval, but in a filing at the court today the movie industry changed its tone. The MPAA states that users can have their files back as long as access to copyrighted files is blocked.
In a testimony before Congress on “The Future of Audio” today, RIAA CEO Cary Sherman will stress that more needs to be done to stop online piracy. In particular, search engines such as Google and Bing have to take responsibility and come up with appropriate technological solutions. The RIAA wants these search engines to censor pirate sites from their search results while giving priority to legitimate music services.
The MPAA and RIAA, helped by all major Internet providers in the United States, will begin to warn and punish copyright infringers in the months to come. Those caught sharing copyright works will receive several warning messages and subsequent punishment if they continue to infringe. Today we provide an overview of the upcoming scheme, busting some of the scary myths floating around online, and confirming others.
A man from Sweden has been handed a jail sentence for offenses he committed while running a BitTorrent site. The former administrator of the PowerBits private tracker was found guilty of copyright infringement and tax and accounting fraud after he failed to register donations provided by the site’s users as income with the tax authorities. He will serve one year in prison.
After a few turbulent years Filesoup – the oldest surviving BitTorrent site – has announced that it will close its doors for good. The UK-based site gained mainstream attention in 2009 when it was raided and two of its administrators were arrested. Both men eventually walked free last year after their case was dismissed, but the resulting exodus of users now leads to the closure of the site.
Sites such as isoHunt, KickAssTorrents and Extratorrent are often characterized as lawless piracy havens that disregard the rights of content creators. But is this really the case? Not according to the site owners who say they are no different from Google. All the BitTorrent sites contacted by TorrentFreak say they remove content when they’re notified, with the number of requests processed ranging from just a handful to 1,680 per day.
Installous, currently resident on millions of jailbroken iPhones and other iDevices, has undergone an interesting upgrade. This piece of software, which is designed to allow the installation of cracked apps, has until now relied on users pulling those apps from cyberlockers. Now, thanks to some nifty coding, Installous can now pull packages from torrent swarms by utilizing magnet links.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Project X’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Safe House’. ‘Big Miracle’ completes the top three.
The draconian ACTA agreement is coming to a global showdown. In the United States, Congress won’t have a say in its ratification. In many small countries, citizens are rightfully furious. But it is in Strasbourg, in the European Parliament’s session on July 2-5, that ACTA will ultimately live or die.
Sites selling cheap MP3s have been around for many years and the music industry has long complained that they operate illegally. In Russia, where many originate, they see the legal angle somewhat differently, arguing that on home soil they are entirely legal. Whatever the truth, some of these sites appear to have interesting ‘wholesale’ suppliers.
Movies.io is a new torrent search engine dedicated to movies, but one that goes above and beyond the average torrent site. Movies.io combines a pleasant and great-looking user interface with all the functionality needed to find and collect the best films out there. In a way it’s both a threat and inspiration to Hollywood.
When it comes to entitlement, few private companies can match the RIAA. The latest cause of their whines is Google. After Google published their report last week on DMCA takedowns, the RIAA is determined to make out that Google is the problem, because almost 1.25 million removed links in one year wasn’t enough, and it’s all Google’s fault, despite the search giant having absolutely no hand in putting any of them online.
Researchers at Delft University of Technology have taken up the ambitious challenge of creating a BitTorrent client which secures the privacy of its users. Their Tribler client is already completely decentralized, meaning it will still work even in the event that all BitTorrent sites are shut down. Anonymity is the next big step in its evolution. “We’re going to take Internet privacy to the next level,” the lead researcher says about the upcoming release.
Speaking at a University of Melbourne seminar, Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft chief Neil Gane conceded that Australians are no longer content to tail behind the rest of the world when it comes to viewing TV shows like Game of Thrones. However, despite this clear ‘buying’ signal, Gane said that AFACT members consider this impatience to view content as “unreasonable”. Piracy will continue, he said, no matter what providers do.
Internet provider Verizon has successfully defended the privacy of several subscribers who were accused of sharing copyrighted material on BitTorrent. The ISP refused to comply with a court-ordered subpoena obtained by book publisher John Wiley and Sons in one of their mass-BitTorrent lawsuits. Initially, Wiley responded to this move by asking the court to compel Verizon to cooperate, but this request and the subpoenas have now been withdrawn.
Today, exactly six years have passed since The Pirate Bay was raided by the Swedish police. At the time the entertainment industries hoped that this would silence the deviant BitTorrent site for good, but in hindsight we can conclude that they had actually awakened a monster. The raid and the ongoing battle that later unfolded reads like a script for an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster. The Pirate Bay team have already coined an appropriate title: Pirate Independence Day.
Megaupload is challenging the U.S. Government’s possession of millions of dollars in assets it seized from the company and its operators in January. The newly-filed and eye-opening motion slams the U.S. for holding the defendants liable for alleged offenses that aren’t even a crime, ignoring laws designed to offer them protection, failing to provide any detail whatsoever on alleged infringements, and pushing U.S. law far beyond its borders.
For the first time Megaupload has filed a motion in response to the U.S. indictment. Kim Dotcom’s legal team has asked a Virginia federal court to dismiss the criminal case the U.S. Government started in January. The defense argues that the U.S. violated Megaupload’s due process rights by destroying its business, without having properly served the company. If granted, this means the Megaupload case will be over.
A new report released today has revealed the scale of ISP traffic management practices that result in restrictions to the open Internet. The EU report, which covers 381 ISPs serving in excess of 340 million subscribers, reveals that 21% of fixed-line broadband users across Europe are affected by ISPs restricting P2P traffic, rising to 36% in the mobile market.
A New Zealand court has ruled that the U.S. Government must hand over the evidence they have against Megaupload so Kim Dotcom and other employees can properly defend themselves against the pending extradition request. The U.S. refused to comply but Judge Harvey concluded that this would be unfair. He further noted that the entire U.S. case stands or falls on the strength of the alleged copyright infringement charges.
Every day copyright holders send out countless notices which order BitTorrent indexes, cyberlockers, forums, blogs and search engines to remove links to allegedly infringing content. The process is time consuming for everyone involved. So, since time is money, shouldn’t those being burdened by the actions of third parties be compensated for their work? One anti-piracy company says charging for takedowns amounts to extortion.
Newly unredacted European Commission notes for four of the negotiation rounds for ACTA show that the Commission failed to negotiate effectively on behalf of European citizens and businesses. That’s the assessment of digital rights organization EDRi and AccessNow, who gained access to the previously censored documents.
Last week The Pirate Bay added a new IP-address which allows users to circumvent the many court-ordered blockades against the site. While this proved to be quite effective, the Hollywood backed anti-piracy group BREIN has already been to court to demand a block against this new address. But that won’t deter The Pirate Bay, who say they are fully prepared for an extended game of whac-a-mole using the hundreds of IP addresses they have available.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Safe House’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘John Carter’. ‘The Avengers’ completes the top three.
In recent weeks the anti-piracy antics of Microsoft have made the news on a few occasions. From censoring The Pirate Bay to funding BitTorrent poisoning startups, the software giant is determined to attack piracy head-on. But perhaps the company should make a start by educating its own employees first. In Microsoft’s offices around the world many company employees are using BitTorrent to download and share pirated movies.
During the first half of the last decade, people downloading movies from the Internet would very often be looking for the same things as they are now. They wanted movies that were only available officially in theaters but not only that, they wanted them in the absolute finest quality. There was one group that met all of these requirements, a group so influential that the FBI mounted a massive operation to catch them. That group was called Centropy.
In the high-stakes debate over control of the Internet, it is common to hear how the free flow of information is crucial to development of humanity. For North Korea, a country that has almost zero Internet access and is repressed beyond anything experienced in the West, the free flow of information is a distant concept. But according to a new report, the sharing of pirate TV shows and music among the citizens of the country is challenging the DPRK regimes’ depiction of the outside world.
Months after the Megaupload raids and arrests, the fate of the data stored on the site’s 1,103 seized servers is still unclear. Many Megaupload users want their accounts returned because they contain irreplaceable information, but they have been waiting in vain. Today the EFF has filed a motion on behalf of Megaupload user Kyle Goodwin, which demands that the court finally comes up with a solution.
Yesterday Google kindly published a database of takedown requests sent to the search giant on copyright grounds. The DMCA notices are supposed to help protect legitimate sales but entertainment companies sending them are clearly having problems. Witness some of the world’s biggest music and movie companies taking down everything from news articles promoting their latest releases, to their very own marketing content.
Google has published detailed information on the wide variety of DMCA takedown requests the company receives for its search engine. During the last month alone Google was asked to remove 1,246,713 links across 24,129 domains, including many torrent sites and cyberlockers. Interestingly enough, Google receives the most takedowns for FilesTube, a colleague search-engine which by itself honors DMCA takedown requests and already removes even more links than Google does.
In the U.S., BitTorrent’s share of total Internet traffic is falling sharply and the aggregate share of all P2P sharing applications is now at an all-time low of 12.7 percent. In other parts of the world, however, this trend is noticeably absent. In Europe and the Asia-Pacific region BitTorrent continues to surge. In part this difference can be explained by the lack of legal alternatives.
KickAssTorrents, one of the most popular BitTorrent websites on the Internet today, is facing a total blackout in Italy. Following an investigation by the country’s cybercrime police, an ISP blocking order has now been granted against a site which authorities say is run by criminals generating millions of dollars. The move follows similar blockades against both The Pirate Bay and the now-defunct BTjunkie.
In recent days The Pirate Bay announced the addition of a new proxy-friendly version of their site supported by a new IP address. This means that customers of ISPs that had previously implemented a court-ordered blockade could now access the site again. In the Netherlands, anti-piracy group BREIN is already battling to have that censored too. However, it seems that some ISPs are refusing to play ball, and several are challenging the entire blockade.
It’s possibly one of the most popular ever memes in the history of the Internet but today it lies in tatters. The Rickroll phenomenon, whereby people are promised one thing but given “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley instead, has been ended by a copyright takedown request by AVG Technologies. It’s a brave move – Rickrolling was invented by 4chan and who knows how they’re going to react.
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is demanding access to 135 computers and hard drives that were seized from his home in January, so the data can be used for his defense. Until then, he refuses to give up passwords to encrypted data stored on the machines. Dotcom’s legal team is challenging the legality of the search warrants at the High Court in Auckland and is accusing the US Government of an unfair fight.
In their ongoing effort to circumvent the court mandated blockades in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, The Pirate Bay has added a new website. The site in question is operating from a new IP-address which makes it available directly to blocked subscribers. In addition, the new site is optimized to work with proxies in case the IP-address is blocked in the future.
New and tougher laws are always on the agendas of rightsholders. They tend to believe that through legislative change and the strict application of law the habits of millions of file-sharers can be changed. But a new survey of 15 to 25 year-olds shows that despite the threats, file-sharing levels remain stable because those carrying it out feel they are doing nothing wrong.
A British couple are facing imprisonment after an MPAA sting operation revealed they were the owners of streaming links site SurfTheChannel. Aside from the use of an undercover agent who gained access to the defendants’ house under false pretenses, the case also involves an unprecedented involvement of the US authorities with a UK court case, in which a defendant in the US was offered a deal after agreeing to cooperate and testify in a trial overseas.
Following in the footsteps of other courts around Europe, a Greek court has ordered the country’s ISPs to start censoring sites that allegedly infringe copyright. The blockades, which were requested by music rights organizations against two specific sites, will be implemented by DNS record tampering and IP address filtering.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘John Carter’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island’. ‘The Avengers’ completes the top three.
With over 3 million downloads per episode, the HBO hit series Game of Thrones is without doubt the most pirated TV-show of the season. Data gathered by TorrentFreak shows that most of the pirates come from Australia, while London tops the list of pirate cities. But why have these people turned to BitTorrent?
Despite protests from the band All Shall Perish, the identities of 80 alleged file-sharers of their music are set to be handed over to a Panama-based copyright troll. The manager of the band says he is shocked and angry that the troll had obtained the rights to All Shall Perish’s music and has ordered the band’s German-based label to call off the dogs. “The band, their attorney and myself have and will continue to take any steps to protect fans, yes, even those who file trade,” he told us.
In recent weeks alarm bells sounded at Poland’s Computer Emergency Response Team when it was discovered that an unknown entity is sending massive amounts of forged data packets and posing a threat to BitTorrent users worldwide. A detailed analysis reveals that anti-piracy outfits may be initiating these attacks to prevent movies from being downloaded. According to security experts, the legality of these attacks is doubtful.
BitTorrent Inc., the company behind the BitTorrent protocol and the world famous uTorrent client, has taken legal action against a company attempting to trade on the company’s brand. In a lawsuit against a German-based company calling itself BitTorrent Marketing GMBH, US-based BitTorrent Inc. is claiming damages for trademark infringement, unfair competition and cybersquatting.
Soon the file-sharing habits of millions of BitTorrent users in the United States will be monitored as part of an agreement between the MPAA, RIAA, and all the major ISPs. Those caught sharing copyright works will receive several warning messages and will be punished if they continue to infringe. However, it now appears that the much-discussed July start date will have to wait until later in the year as the parties involved may fail to meet the provisional deadline.
The court-ordered ISP blockade of The Pirate Bay immediately backfired earlier this month when it massively raised awareness and caused the site to receive millions of extra visitors. Now, and as a direct result of the Pirate Bay ban, the website of the UK Pirate Party is benefiting hugely too. In just over three weeks it has jumped more than 100,000 places in the UK rankings and any moment now will become the 1,500th most-visited website in the country.
A new paper published by researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology reveals that people with depressive symptoms are more avid file-sharers than those without them. The research in question was conducted among students whose connections to the campus network were monitored. Perhaps more worrying than the results themselves, the lead researcher suggests that it might be a good idea to monitor people’s file-sharing habits for use as a diagnostic tool.
A new academic paper by a researcher from the North Carolina State University has examined the link between BitTorrent downloads and music album sales. Contrary to what’s often claimed by the major record labels, the paper concludes that there is absolutely no evidence that unauthorized downloads negatively impact sales. Instead, the research finds that more piracy directly leads to more album sales.
Last month the feds arrested four alleged members of the prominent BitTorrent release group IMAGiNE . One of them has struck a deal with the US Government and pleads guilty to one of the charges. The remaining three plead not guilty. Recent documents filed at court further reveal that the MPAA was the tipster that initiated the investigation.
With court-ordered ISP blockades popping up all over Europe, The Pirate Bay is no stranger to being silenced. However, for the last 24 hours the site has been largely inaccessible world wide due to a completely different type of censorship. After the site openly criticized Anonymous last week for DDoS’ing UK ISP Virgin Media, The Pirate Bay itself is now under attack.
The mass-BitTorrent lawsuits that are sweeping the United States are in a heap of trouble. After a Florida judge ruled that an IP-address is not a person, a Californian colleague has gone even further in protecting the First Amendment rights of BitTorrent users. The judge in question points out that geolocation tools are far from accurate and that it’s therefore uncertain that his court has jurisdiction over cases involving alleged BitTorrent pirates. As a result, 15 of these mass-BitTorrent lawsuits were dismissed.
The internet is built of services. One of the core services, and a major choke-point for control, is domain name resolution. There have been some alternates come and go, but one of the strongest has been OpenNIC, and they’ve just launched a new top level domain – .pirate
Dependant on the side they’re representing, lawyers around the world have taken opposing stances when it comes to liability for infringement via open WiFi. When representing plaintiffs they speak of ‘a duty of care’ to rightsholders and when defending Internet users they insist that holding individuals responsible for the actions of others is a step too far. In a landmark case in Finland, a court has just agreed with the latter.
American rock band Counting Crows have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, but this success hasn’t caused them to overlook the changing landscape of the music business. Today the band releases four tracks from their new album for free on BitTorrent. Talking to TorrentFreak, Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz says BitTorrent is the new and improved radio.
Having being found guilty of copyright infringement offenses and subsequently denied the opportunity to be heard by Sweden’s Supreme Court, one of the founders of The Pirate Bay is taking his case to the European Court. The lawyer of Fredrik Neij believes that the function of The Pirate Bay is protected by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ’21 Jump Street’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Ger The Gringo’. ‘The Avengers’ completes the top three.
Defeat in a single battle in the war over net liberty doesn’t concern me too much. I know that the net freedom forces have the strategic and intellectual upper hand in this war over our freedom, but there is something else that concerns me gravely. Why are people seriously thinking that the copyright industries have the final say in shaping society?
The Russian based “Pirate Pay” startup is promising the entertainment industry a pirate-free future. With help from Microsoft, the developers have built a system that claims to track and shut down the distribution of copyrighted works on BitTorrent. Their first project successfully stopped tens of thousands of downloads.
On May 13th, 2002 a new filesharing client called eMule entered into our world of sharing. Ten years later we’d like to take this anniversary as an opportunity to look back at some major technical achievements of filesharing applications since then and what might come in the years ahead. With further innovation, even the mighty BitTorrent can be improved to become impossible to shut down.
This week yet another court order was handed down in Europe with the aim of censoring The Pirate Bay. The ruling forbids the Dutch Pirate Party from not only running a direct proxy, but also telling people how to circumvent an earlier court ordered blockade. However, according to Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge, the judge in the case has a history of corruption relating to another file-sharing case he presided over in the Netherlands.
The MPAA is outraged and offended by “The Pirate Bay and their apologists” who “seek to justify profiting from digital theft” by referring to Hollywood’s founders as pirates. Not true, they claim. Instead, the early inhabitants of Hollywood were independent filmmakers who were censored by a copyright monopoly. They were freedom fighters who saw no other option than to infringe patents for the sake of creativity.
In its lawsuits against hundreds of alleged BitTorrent users, book publisher John Wiley and Sons has met unexpected resistance from Internet provider Verizon. For a variety of reasons including privacy concerns, the ISP is refusing to comply with a subpoena which orders the company to hand over the personal details of subscribers who are accused of pirating “For Dummies” books.
After being found guilty of copyright offenses in connection with the operations of The Pirate Bay, site co-founder Peter Sunde should now be beginning an 8 month jail sentence in a Swedish prison. However, in a last-ditch attempt to maintain his freedom, Sunde has asked the Swedish government for clemency citing health and business concerns.
The Court of The Hague has handed down another ruling that restricts access to The Pirate Bay website. The Court has forbidden the Dutch Pirate Party from linking to, operating or listing websites that allow the public to circumvent a local Pirate Bay blockade. The political party is further ordered to shutdown its reverse proxy indefinitely and block Pirate Bay domains and IP-addresses from its generic proxy.
Following an earlier court ruling that ordered two of the largest ISPs in the Netherlands to block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay, today anti-piracy group BREIN has scored another success. The Court of The Hague has just ordered a further five ISPs to block TPB IP addresses and 20 domain names. Failure to do so within 10 days will result in fines of up to 250,000 euros.
After 8 years the legal battle between Google and adult magazine publisher Perfect 10 has been put to rest. The latter accused the search giant of a variety of copyright infringement breaches which included Google’s use of cached images. In a final attempt to save the case, Perfect 10 offered a $25,000 bounty to anyone who could prove wrongdoing on Google’s part but the initiative failed. The case has now been dismissed without the option for further appeal.
Following a complaint made by HBO, an administrator of a popular streaming TV show and movie portal was arrested by authorities in Chile during March this year. The 26-year-old student was subsequently charged with breaches of copyright law and forbidden from leaving the country. Now he’s been set free due to lack of evidence but is banned from accessing his former site and has to give copyright lectures in schools.
The Pirate Bay has partnered with the Cybernorms research group at Sweden’s Lund University to carry out the second round of the largest file-sharing survey in history. Through the survey the researchers examine the norms of file-sharers, and how they respond to increased censorship and tougher laws. One of the main goals of the research project is to give a counterweight to entertainment industry propaganda.
Later this month an individual who allegedly uploaded thousands of movies and TV shows to cyberlocker services will face trial and a possible 5 year prison sentence. The 29-year-old, who was also the moderator of a warez forum, committed the alleged infringements over a period of more than 4 years. The movie industry claims he cost them nearly $4.2m but the Pirate Party reject the damages calculations as “simply ridiculous.”
Despite the widespread availability of pirated releases, The Avengers just scored a record-breaking $200 million opening weekend at the box office. While some are baffled to see that piracy failed to crush the movie’s profits, it’s really not that surprising. Claiming a camcorded copy of a movie seriously impacts box office attendance is the same as arguing that concert bootlegs stop people from seeing artists on stage.
During the past several weeks, with blockades of The Pirate Bay biting in both the Netherlands and the UK, sites which facilitate access to the world’s most famous torrent site have been popping up in their dozens. However, not all of these sites have users’ best interests at heart. Several, flying in the face of the very fiber of The Pirate Bay, have had the temerity to do the unthinkable – charge for free downloads.
Earlier this year the Church of Kopimism was approved by the authorities as an official religion. Since then, the movement has gathered thousands of believers across the world and two of them have now entered into a “Kopimist” marriage. The Church encourages the newlyweds to “copy and remix some DNA-cells and create a new human being.”
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘This Means War’ tops the chart this week, followed by ’21 Jump Street’. ‘The Avengers’ completes the top three.
Now that The Pirate Bay is being blocked by ISPs in the UK, millions of people have a new interest in accessing the site, even if they didn’t before. The reasons for this are simple. Not only do people hate being told what they can and can’t do, people – especially geeks – love solving problems and puzzles. Unlocking The Pirate Bay with a straightforward proxy is just too boring, so just for fun let’s go the hard way round.
File-sharing was firmly on the agenda when the head of the US Department of Homeland Security touched down in the Australian capital last week. The four new agreements – promptly signed before Secretary Janet Napolitano flew back out of Canberra – were less about sharing season two of Game of Thrones and more about sharing the private, government held information of Australian citizens with US authorities.
When the latest alpha version of uTorrent was released earlier this week several users spotted something unusual in the ‘about’ window. For years the uTorrent client belonged to BitTorrent Inc., but all of a sudden ownership was being credited to an unknown company named Gyre Inc. The uTorrent team was quick to fix this ‘coding mistake,’ but they couldn’t wipe out a trail of evidence suggesting that BitTorrent might rebrand itself in the near future.
Continuing a recent trend, The Pirate Bay and other large BitTorrent sites are now being blocked by Internet providers in India. Visitors who try to access the sites are redirected to a banner which informs them that the Department of Telecommunications ordered a blackout. Torrent sites are not the only target, as the blockade also censors the video sharing site Vimeo, one of the largest communities of indie filmmakers.
In November 2010, Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized dozens of domain names allegedly connected to copyright infringement. One of them, hip-hop blog Dajaz1, lay in limbo for more than a year after its lawyer was stalled at every turn in his quest for information. Eventually the domain was given back, but why the delay? Unsealed court papers reveal that after effectively ordering the takedown, the RIAA failed to deliver any evidence of infringement.
According to a report from a leading UK law firm, nearly 30% of UK file-sharers say they intend to pirate more movies, music, games and ebooks during the next 12 months. The entertainment industries shouldn’t be too disappointed though – 36% and 34% of paying music and movie customers say they’ll consume more in the year to come.
A landmark ruling in one of the many mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in the US has delivered a severe blow to a thus far lucrative business. Among other things, New York Judge Gary Brown explains in great detail why an IP-address is not sufficient evidence to identify copyright infringers. According to the Judge this lack of specific evidence means that many alleged BitTorrent pirates have been wrongfully accused by copyright holders.
Last week the UK High Court ruled that several of the country’s leading ISPs must block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The decision is designed to limit traffic to the world’s leading BitTorrent site but in the short-term it had the opposite effect. Yesterday, The Pirate Bay had 12 million more visitors than it has ever had, providing a golden opportunity to educate users on how to circumvent blocks. “We should write a thank you letter to the BPI,” a site insider told TorrentFreak.
Yet another law expert has slammed the US Government’s decision to launch a criminal case against Megaupload. Law Professor Eric Goldman argues that the Megaupload prosecution is a “depressing display of abuse of government authority” that ignores basic constitutional rights in order to protect private commercial interests.
Starting this summer millions of BitTorrent users in the United States will be tracked as part of a voluntary agreement between the MPAA, RIAA and all the major ISPs. Those who are caught sharing copyrighted works will receive several warning messages and eventual punishment if they continue to infringe. Commenting on the plans, Comcast Vice President Gerard Lewis praised the cooperation as a good model that safeguards privacy, while educating the public.
A new survey has revealed that young people are responding to tough legislation and increasing levels of online spying by investing in VPN services. The study, carried out by the Cybernorms research group at Sweden’s Lund University, found that when compared to figures from late 2009, 40% more 15 to 25-year-olds are now hiding their activities online.
The High Court has ruled that several UK ISPs including Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must censor The Pirate Bay website. This means that millions of Internet users will be prevented from accessing the popular BitTorrent site in the weeks to come. The Pirate Bay say they aren’t concerned by yet another court-ordered blockade, and point out that there are plenty of ways to circumvent such censorship.
A file-sharing prosecution that has been dragging on for six long years has finally come to an end. The original complaint, filed by the Portuguese Phonographic Association in 2006, targeted a then 17-year-old. Now 23, their target has just received a suspended jail sentence and a fine of 880 euros. None of this has helped the country’s music industry – physical product sales nosedived more than 34% last year.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Chronicle’. ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ completes the top three.
The net changes the world’s power structures in a much more fundamental way than changing the way a few groups of entrepreneurs are able to make money. The net is the greatest equalizer that humankind has ever invented. It is either the greatest invention since the printing press, or the greatest invention since written language. The battles we see are not a result of loss of money; they are caused by a loss of the power of narratives.
If further proof is needed that copyright trolls are only interested in money and couldn’t care less about artists or their reputations, read on. A lawsuit, filed against fans of the band All Shall Perish, caused chaos in the past 48 hours when the horrified band revealed they know nothing about it. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the band’s manager says they are “gutted” by the news and have no idea what is going on.
It’s no secret that the entertainment industry can be rather one-sided in their views when it comes to piracy and copyright. This week, however, MPAA chairman Chris Dodd took this spin to the extreme. In a speech he referenced Hollywood’s history to argue how important copyright protection is. But, he forgot to mention that the US movie industry was actually built by rogue filmmakers, ‘thieves’ and ‘pirates’.
Kim Dotcom booked a valuable victory this week when a court ruled that $750,000 in funds and cars should be returned to the Megaupload founder. Among other things, Dotcom regained possession of a $301,000 bank account and his Mercedes-Benz G55AMG. Other property that was seized based on an order from the US District Court remains in the hands of the New Zealand authorities for the time being.
In what appears to be the first action of its type since the RIAA abandoned its controversial anti-filesharing campaign, Internet users sharing music are again being targeted in the United States. In a lawsuit filed in Florida the identities of 80 individuals are being sought with one aim in mind – to threaten them with $150,000 damages awards in order to force settlement of a few thousand dollars.
Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom and the Pirate movement’s founder Rick Falkvinge presented their views on copyright reform to the European Parliament this week. The Pirates want to bust the myth that their ideas only center around legalizing file-sharing and offer what they see as sensible alternatives to draconian legislation such as ACTA and SOPA.
Pirates across the globe are working on an attempt to raid the music single charts, and with help from the most notorious BitTorrent site these efforts are paying off. Embracing Pirate Bay’s mantra, Dan Bull’s track “Sharing is Caring” now appears in a variety of daily download lists, setting course for a spot in the official weekly music charts around the globe this weekend.
After being busted last year following an ICE Homeland Security investigation, four alleged members of the movie release group IMAGiNE have now been indicted. The defendants, all US residents aged between 27 and 57 years old, face up to five years in prison for criminal copyright infringement. Rumors persist that they were led to the slaughter by a rival release group with a grudge.
The elimination of camcorder movie piracy has been high on the agenda of movie studios for many years, particularly so during the last decade. Many approaches have been tried and there are signs that in the past 5 years the problem has significantly reduced. The latest anti-cam system claims to be the most unobtrusive yet, negating the need for bag searches, cell phone confiscations or the employment of security guards.
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) in the European Parliament have just confirmed that they will reject ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Leader of the Alliance, Guy Verhofstadt, said that while supporting the protection of intellectual property rights, ALDE believes that ACTA falls short on a number of counts.
The Hollywood-backed anti-piracy outfit BREIN is going all out to make The Pirate Bay inaccessible to the Dutch public. After successfully blocking The Pirate Bay through court, and then censoring proxy sites that linked to it, they are now demanding that the Pirate Party should be banned from “discussing” how easily Internet censorship can be circumvented. The political party is baffled by the proposed gag-order and has asked the court to lift all censorship efforts.
Australian police are involved in a massive piracy lawsuit. Software company Micro Focus is claiming that the police are making unauthorized use of its ViewNow software, which they use to access the COPS criminal intelligence database. In addition, it’s alleged that the police shared the proprietary software with third parties. Micro Focus is fighting the case in court and is demanding at least $10 million in damages.
A copyright complaint involving a movie script enthusiast site, Universal Studios, and Repo Man writer Alex Cox, has developed into a war of words. Following a DMCA takedown against a 3rd party that even Cox himself disputes, the writer has branded Universal a criminal enterprise that along with other studios operates an illegal blacklist as part of a price-fixing cartel.
Chasing down individual file-sharers is something the major labels largely left behind several years ago, but in an unusual development the IFPI has now won the right to identify dozens of Pirate Bay users that allegedly downloaded and shared an album before its official release. The CEO of Universal, the label behind the action, says infringers could be taken to court.
Voltage Pictures, the makers of the Oscar-winning movie The Hurt Locker, have filed a new lawsuit at a federal court in Florida. By targeting at least 2,514 alleged BitTorrent users, Voltage Pictures hopes to recoup several million dollars in settlements to compensate the studio for piracy-related losses. In total, more than a quarter million people have now been sued in the US for alleged copyright infringements via BitTorrent.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Haywire’. ‘Contraband’ completes the top three.
This week, with support from a Promo Bay campaign on The Pirate Bay, UK rap artist Dan Bull is aiming to send a message to the mainstream entertainment industry. With the release of a brand new track called “Sharing is Caring”, Dan will attempt to break into the UK and international singles charts without the backing of a label and show that with the help of a free Internet and BitTorrent, there is another way.
Last century filesharing was a fringe hobby, only for geeks who were lucky enough to own a computer that could dial into the World Wide Web. How different is that today, where filesharing has become daily routine for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. In just a few years swapping files has become mainstream. Time to take a step back and see how it all came about.
File-hosting service Mediafire decided to block all incoming traffic from the popular media search engine FilesTube. Commenting on the move Mediafire’s co-founder explains that it was a logical step as their service was never intended to be indexed in public.
This week, file-hosting service RapidShare published an anti-piracy manifesto with guidelines on how cyberlocker and cloud hosting sites should conduct their business going forward. But the proposals from the Swiss-based service, which go far beyond their requirements under the law, received a lukewarm reception from rightsholders who say they don’t go far enough. RapidShare believes that they do, and that rightsholders should focus on sites that deliberately generate revenue from infringement.
The US judge handling the Megaupload case noted today that it may never be tried due to a procedural error, a comment that has sparked the anger of Megaupload’s founder. Kim Dotcom is furious with the US Government for destroying his businesses and rendering hundreds of people unemployed. According to Dotcom the case is the result of “corruption on the highest political level, serving the interests of the copyright extremists in Hollywood.”
A US judge has put a bomb under the Megaupload case by informing the FBI that a trial in the United States may never happen. The cyberlocker was never formally served with the appropriate paperwork by the US authorities, as it is impossible to serve a foreign company with criminal charges.
A court in Germany has ruled that YouTube is responsible when its users post videos containing copyright music. On top of its existing ContentID systems, the court in Hamburg now wants YouTube to install additional keyword-based filters that detect when copyrighted material is uploaded.
A few months ago Google quietly expanded its search blacklist to include many of the top file-sharing sites on the Internet, including The Pirate Bay. A review of search volumes before and after this change shows that the number of people searching for “Pirate Bay” has been cut in half. However, other and uncensored variations quickly took the place of these blocked terms, suggesting that the filter is a futile attempt to discourage interest in the site.
After an epic four year legal battle, the Australian High Court has upheld previous rulings that ISP iiNet is not responsible for the copyright infringements of its customers. Despite today’s huge defeat for Hollywood, the chief of local anti-piracy group AFACT insists that the landscape has changed since the case began, with legislators and courts around the world now recognizing that ISPs have a role in preventing piracy.
Swiss-based file-hosting service RapidShare has released an anti-piracy manifesto to serve as a guideline for cyberlocker and cloud hosting sites. Partly motivated by the criminal indictment of Megaupload, RapidShare stresses that they will do all they can to counter piracy, even if this is at the expense of user privacy and convenience.
A dispute over whether a Swedish ISP can be forced to hand over the details of one its subscribers to an anti-piracy group has just received its long-awaited ruling from the Europe’s highest court. A few moments ago the ECJ announced that there are no EU barriers which prevent the ISP handing over its customers’ private details to copyright holders.
John Wiley & Sons, one of the world’s largest book publishers, is continuing its efforts to crack down on BitTorrent piracy. The company has now named several people who allegedly shared Wiley titles online, and is demanding a jury trial against them. If these actually go ahead it will be the first time that BitTorrent-related evidence is tested in a US court.
Following the introduction of new legislation last September which would see alleged Kiwi file-sharers monitored, warned, and eventually punished for their infringements, the first so-called ’3rd strike’ has been issued. The ‘enforcement’ notice was delivered on behalf of the music industry but even after more than 6 months, their movie industry counterparts are yet to send even one initial warning.
When copyright trolls speak, they usually do so only through their lawyers. For the driving force behind a new wave of anti-BitTorrent settlement letters about to hit the UK, things are a little different. Out goes the stuffy legal jargon and in comes the basics – BitTorrent users are ‘tight’ and the upcoming campaign is about making even more money.
Before Megaupload was shutdown the company was preparing to go public and enter the US stock market with a multi-billion dollar IPO. While the US authorities were conducting their criminal investigation, Megaupload had discussions with some of the ‘Big Four’ auditors and several of the world’s largest investments banks. The top of the financial world was looking at a huge potential tech IPO with a billion dollar valuation, but these plans ended abruptly in January.
I just attended the Pirate Party International’s (PPI) annual meeting, which was held in the beautiful city of Prague in the Czech Republic this year. I regard myself as a little crazy in terms of disrespect for opinions about things that can’t be done, but the growth of the Pirate Party movement outperforms my wildest dreams.
The Dutch Pirate Party is taking local anti-piracy group BREIN to court in the hope of overturning a recent order that prohibits the Party from operating a Pirate Bay proxy site. The Pirates claim that the Hollywood backed group is guilty of “legal harassment” and “trampling people’s freedoms.” They demand that the court overturns the previous ‘ex parte’ verdict to allow the Pirate Party to be heard.
In a new interview where he outlines his fears for the future of freedom on the Internet, Google co-founder Sergey Brin slams the entertainment industry for its response to piracy. While lobbying for Chinese and Iranian-style censorship measures, Brin says the music and movie companies have failed to understand that it is their approach to making content available that fuels the problems.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Contraband’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’. ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’ completes the top three.
At a federal court hearing where several parties hoped to get a clear answer on the fate of Megaupload’s user data, the US Government’s attorney slammed hosting company Carpathia. The US says the hosting provider may be partly responsible for the copyright infringements that occurred through Megaupload and said Carpathia may even become the target of a civil lawsuit.
From being a niche product used by the few, in the past few years VPN services have hit the big time. These days more and more Internet users see running a privacy enhancing service as a requirement rather than just a luxury. Today we take a look at a few tips and tricks that can enhance the security of any VPN.
While hardly a week passes without news of a file-sharing site or service meeting its demise, it’s far more unusual to hear of their adversaries biting the dust. The MPAA has many anti-piracy affiliates around the world and one of those, a long-standing outfit based in Ireland, was recently linked to the downfall of a large file-sharing site. But now, just a handful of months later, it has completely and inexplicably disappeared.
Last week the Dutch Pirate Party refused to cave in to the demands of Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group BREIN, who ordered the political party to take their Pirate Bay proxy offline. As expected, BREIN didn’t let the case rest.The group obtained an injunction from the Court of The Hague which ordered the Pirates to shutter the proxy within 6 hours, or face a fine of 10,000 euros per day.
In an effort to combat online piracy, entertainment industry groups all over the world are pushing censorship of The Pirate Bay website. In the Netherlands such a Pirate Bay block went into effect earlier this year, but without the desired effect. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam have now revealed that the court-ordered Pirate Bay block has had no impact on the number of BitTorrent pirates.
After a legal process lasting more than three years, the alleged administrator of The Student Bay, a Swedish website dedicated to indexing textbooks, has been acquitted today. The court ruled that there was no evidence that the 23-year-old had created or administered the website, or had any direct role in copyright infringement.
It took more than half a decade, but there’s finally something we can agree on with the RIAA. After suing college students, shutting down LimeWire and pushing for draconian anti-piracy laws, the RIAA now finally admits that the best answer to illegal downloading is innovation. A milestone, but unfortunately also a message that is bundled with the usual creative statistics that have to be debunked.
Last week it was revealed that Megaupload had retained the services of Andrew Schapiro, the lawyer who led YouTube to a summary judgment in its copyright trial against Viacom. But now the US government has filed papers objecting to Schapiro’s law firm working on Megaupload’s defense, citing conflicts of interest involving Google, YouTube, Disney, Fox and other movie, TV show and software companies.
In the ongoing court battle between the MPAA and the cyberlocker Hotfile, Duke University Law Professor James Boyle has filed an important expert report. Countering claims from the movie industry that Hotfile has few non-infringing uses, the Professor shows that the most downloaded files on the cyberlocker are Open Source software. In addition, he argues that affiliate programs are useful for compensating content creators for their efforts.
Following a key arrest on Monday, authorities say they have charged three individuals said to be the administrators of a very large file-sharing site. The Greek forum, which carried links to material hosted on cyberlocker sites including Megaupload, had more than half a million members. According to the police the suspects generated substantial revenue from donations and gambling ads and cost copyright holders more than $85 million.
The popularity of the Pirate Party in Germany is soaring to unprecedented heights. In a recent poll the Party received 13% of the total vote, which makes it the third largest party in the country for the first time. In neighboring Austria, citizens are also warming to the Pirate Party agenda. With 7% of the total vote, the Austrian Pirate Party has a serious shot at entering the national parliament.
Months after the Megaupload raids and arrests, the fate of the 1,103 servers hosted at Carpathia is still undecided. While the feds won’t mind if the servers are wiped clean, Megaupload, the EFF and the MPAA want the data to be preserved because it contains critical evidence and irreplaceable user data. Carpathia is sympathetic to these concerns and has put the fate of Megaupload’s data in the hands of Judge O’Grady.
The cyber crime department of Russia’s Interior Ministry says it intends to get tough on the country’s ISPs when their customers share copyrighted or otherwise illegal material. Authorities say they are currently carrying out nationwide checks on ISPs’ local networks and could bring prosecutions as early as next month.
After the SOPA and PIPA uproar the Internet has become increasingly aware of the US Government’s attempts at meddling with the web. In recent days the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has moved to the forefront. Critics of the bill point out that it would allow companies to spy on Internet users, and as it’s written CISPA would further allow ISPs to block allegedly infringing transfers and report pirating users to a variety of organizations.
As the battle over the DMCA’s requirements and boundaries heats up, Google, Facebook, the EFF, Public Knowledge and now the MPAA have become involved in a copyright case currently being heard by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Is it enough for a site to perform takedowns when copyright holders demand them, or must it also take additional steps to remove repeat infringers?
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Contraband’. ‘We Bought a Zoo’ completes the top three.
Efforts by anti-piracy groups to make The Pirate Bay inaccessible have turned into a proxy war, quite literally. After the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN managed to shutter several proxy sites, their Belgian colleagues at BAF are now attempting to do the same. The group has threatened to sue the owner of a proxy if his site stays online, but thus far the threat hasn’t had the desired effect.
The MPAA and RIAA, helped by all the major Internet providers in the United States, will soon start to warn and punish copyright infringers. The entertainment industry hopes this will eliminate nearly all BitTorrent piracy. However, looking at the many options people have to escape being ‘caught’, it is doubtful whether the “six-strikes” plan will be very effective. In fact, the MPAA and RIAA may directly boost the revenues of VPN services and competing downloading platforms such as cyberlockers.
For the last couple of years discussion around censorship of websites in the West has become as prolific as the that around already established blockades in countries such as China and Iran. While meddling with the Internet’s DNS is the weapon of choice for censors, a new P2P system called ODDNS hopes to put control back in the hands of the people.
Following a US court decision BitTorrent search engine isoHunt was ordered to implement a site-wide keyword filter provided by the MPAA. According to isoHunt’s owner the ruling would result in mass censorship of legitimate content, and recent evidence shows that this is indeed the case. The MPAA’s mandatory filter is accidentally censoring thousands of public domain songs and even an independent film which was uploaded by the filmmaker himself.
In yet another mass lawsuit against alleged file-sharers, a California court has said that while it’s sympathetic towards the plight of the copyright holder, it will not assist it to identify BitTorrent users. It’s a shame that technology that enables infringement has outpaced technology that prevents it, the judge wrote, but added that his court won’t work with copyright holders who pursue settlement programs with no intention to litigate.
In a most unusual turn of events, the intellectual property section of the Court of Milan has moved to protect the identity of the official Italian Pirate Party after an unrelated group began calling themselves the Pirate Party, using official Pirate Party logos, and generally causing trouble. According to the founder of the official Pirate Party, dark pro-copyright forces are at work.
Record labels and Hollywood have described The Pirate Bay as one of the biggest threats to their business, but thousands of artists clearly disagree with this view. In recent weeks more than 5000 independent artists have signed up to be promoted by the world’s largest torrent site. Those who were lucky enough to be featured are overwhelmed by the career boost and the positive responses from the public.
Hollywood hopes that the criminal case against Megaupload is the first in a line of many. Last week Paramount Pictures branded Fileserve, MediaFire, Wupload, Putlocker and Depositfiles as rogue sites and prime targets that should be shuttered next. Responding to this allegation, MediaFire co-founder Tom Langridge says he’s shocked and disappointed by the movie studio’s claims.
With the ongoing success of the world’s Pirate parties, I’ve seen the copyright industry start to push back, claiming that copyright enforcement can’t be tied to civil liberties; that they are two separate issues. That’s not a true statement from the copyright industry. The whole point of the fight for net liberties is that the copyright monopoly cannot be enforced without cutting down civil liberties. Here’s why.
Spain’s Ministry of Culture has just reported on the first month’s activities following the introduction of the country’s ‘Sinde’ anti-piracy law. The controversial legislation, described by some as a Spanish version of SOPA, took effect March 1st and since that time rightsholders have been busy filing notices. Almost 300 complaints have been filed in total including 79 site takedown requests.
In their ongoing efforts to make The Pirate Bay inaccessible, the Hollywood-backed anti-piracy outfit BREIN is now going after the Dutch Pirate Party. BREIN is demanding that the political party ceases operating a proxy site, and is threatening to sue. The Pirate Party is not impressed by the demands and has sent BREIN their response as a torrent, fittingly hosted at The Pirate Bay.
Last week Paramount Pictures’ identified five leading cyberlocker services as prime targets for future action. One of the services, UK-based PutLocker, has spoken with TorrentFreak refuting claims that it is some kind of “rogue site”. Another spotlighted file-hosting site, Wupload, has taken drastic action in the last few hours by announcing it has left the file-sharing business.
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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
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