TorrentFreak

The “six strikes” copyright alert system has claimed its first victory today. Tipped off by a copyright alert, a father found out that his kid was secretly sharing pirated material. The deviant behavior did not go unpunished and the parent in question ordered the teen to write a “note of apology” to the copyright holder, or else.

With several movie studios gearing up to sue thousands of ‘pirating’ Internet subscribers in Canada, the local Pirate Party decided to take a look at the downloading habits of the Canadian police and Government. As it turns out, there are plenty of downloaders to be found on the law’s side. However, unlike individual citizens it is doubtful that the guardians of the law will get in trouble for their alleged defiance.

The Center for Copyright Information, a partnership between the RIAA, MPAA and several major Internet providers, has had its company status revoked. The CCI, who are leading the “six strikes” anti-piracy scheme in the US, has violated state laws and is unable to conduct any official business anywhere in the United States. In addition the outfit faces civil penalties and risks losing its name to a third-party company.

In their ongoing battle against websites said to infringe music copyrights, record labels have initiated a fresh wave of actions aimed at forcing UK ISPs to carry out domain blocking. This third wave is set to be the biggest so far, affecting as many as 25 domains and including some of the world’s largest torrent sites and file-hosting search engines. Furthermore, the BPI – the entity coordinating the action – will ask courts to block US-based music streaming operation, Grooveshark.

Canadian anti-piracy company Canipre has been teaming up with film studios to hunt down and sue alleged BitTorrent pirates. They want to change people’s attitudes toward piracy and make a few bucks in the process. However, it appears that the attitude change should start closer to home, as their own website blatantly uses photos that have been ripped-off from independent photographers.

A Swedish Pirate Bay user who was accidentally caught sharing 57 movies during a friend’s house search will face prison time if the authorities get their way. The man was previously ordered to pay a fine, but the prosecutor has now submitted the case to the Supreme Court, hoping to get the man jailed. The prosecutor’s office says a prison sentence is needed so the police can legitimately raid the homes of file-sharers.

Mired in controversy since its inception but held up as an example by entertainment companies looking to spread the model worldwide, France’s Hadopi anti-piracy law now looks set to be scrapped. A just-published government-commissioned report recommends that the graduated response system, which promised fines and disconnections for errant file-sharers, should be shelved and replaced with 60 euro per time automated fines.