TorrentFreak

Anyone obtaining and sharing files on the Internet should be aware of the risk that someone, somewhere, might consider their behavior to constitute a breach of their rights. If people are eventually held to account, painful monetary fines can be the outcome. However, a new initiative by the youth division of the Swedish Pirate Party aims to soften the blow for those unlucky enough to get caught by paying their copyright infringement fines.

Another member of the movie piracy release group IMAGiNE has been sentenced to prison. Javier E. Ferrer, known online as bigdaddykane, admitted to camming pre-release movies such as Captain America: The First Avenger and Fright Night, and being involved in the operations of UnleashTheNet, a private torrent site run by IMAGiNE. He was ordered to serve 23 months in a federal prison and pay compensation to the MPAA.

As Russia tries to find a balanced solution to the thorny issue of Internet piracy, the head of a government department responsible for communications and information technology says that attacking Internet users is not the solution. Speaking at the launch of a nationwide campaign to promote legal eBook purchases, Vladimir Grigoryev said that the government has no intention of holding downloaders liable or having them sent to court.

Last month BitTorrent site isoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA, meaning that the site has to continue filtering movie and TV related terms from its search engine. However, isoHunt founder Gary Fung is not giving up just yet and has asked for a jury to decide on the case. In a petition filed this week isoHunt argues that, among other things, the Ninth Circuit decision chills innovation and threatens free speech online.

When content is removed from the Internet following a DMCA complaint filed by a rightsholder the user who uploaded the content gets a chance to file a counter-claim. If successful this should reinstate the content but on YouTube things now appear to be working somewhat differently. It transpires that YouTube has a special deal with Universal which sees content taken down at the record label’s request and DMCA counter notices blocked with no chance of appeal.

When the lawsuit against the Pirate Bay began, hip-hop artist Max Peezay found out that his album was being used by the IFPI as evidence to claim damages from the founders. Peezay, however, wanted nothing to do with the case and never gave the record labels permission to use his work. In an interview released today the artist looks back on the events and describes how he eventually managed to disconnect from the lawsuit, but not without consequence.

A report from Sweden’s National Police Board proposes changes to the country’s handling of copyright infringement and file-sharing offenses. The proposals have developed from meetings with entertainment company rightsholders and include the creation of a single team focusing on intellectual property crimes, plus more accessible forensic resources in order to successfully prosecute cases.