TorrentFreak

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.

The U.S. Government has just submitted its objections to Megaupload’s motion to dismiss the case against the company. Megaupload’s lawyers have pointed out that the Department of Justice is trying to change the law to legitimize the destruction of Megaupload. However, the Government refutes this assertion and asks the court to deny Megaupload’s motion, fearing that otherwise the entire case may fall apart.

In a continuation of the website blocking phenomenon, an anti-piracy group fresh to the action has applied to have several major torrent sites blocked at the ISP level in Greece. AEPI, the Greek Society for the Protection of Intellectual Property, has filed at court to have KickAssTorrents, isoHunt, 1337x and H33T all rendered inaccessible to subscribers. Sources inform TorrentFreak that The Pirate Bay will also be targeted later this month.

Belgian music rights group SABAM is continuing its efforts to make Internet providers responsible for copyright-infringing material passing through their networks . This week the group sued three Internet providers alongside demands for a 3.4 percent cut of all subscriber fees. SABAM claims it is entitled to this compensation based on existing copyright law, but the Internet providers disagree.

Norway has moved an important – some say unstoppable – step towards legislative change that will enable the aggressive tackling of online copyright infringement. Proposed amendments to the Copyright Act, which will make it easier for rightsholders to monitor file-sharers and have sites such as The Pirate Bay blocked at the ISP level, received broad support in parliament this week and look almost certain to be passed into law.