BitTorrent sites are continuing to frustrate anti-piracy groups in Spain. They are not illegal under current law, but with a 3 strikes-style regime ruled out in the country, the entertainment industry feels it has no choice but to go after them. They are now placing their bets on thawing US relations and a subsequent change in the law.
The results of a new poll reveal the extent of opposition to Lord Mandelson’s proposals for tough sanctions against alleged file-sharers. The survey, commissioned by the Open Rights Group, shows that not only is the public in favor of due process, but a third would be much less likely to vote for political parties supporting these proposals.
The Commissioning Editor for Education at the UK’s Channel 4 will publish an essay tomorrow that is guaranteed to cause controversy. Noting that people will never go back to paying for music, Alice Taylor vehemently opposes plans to disconnect Internet users on a simple accusation, labeling the entities calling for it as “dying behemoths”.
Two of the main judges appointed to the upcoming Pirate Bay appeal have been accused of a conflict of interest, since they have both been members of pro-copyright groups. The appeal court decided that the judges are not biased, but the defense has announced that it will take the case to the Supreme Court, which is likely to delay the trial.
The Finnish Pirate Party has condemned a massive claim for damages against the operator of a file-sharing hub. The individual is facing a claim of 3.6m euros ($5.4m) from an anti-piracy group, this despite claims that there is no evidence of any specific infringements, merely high bandwidth usage on the individual’s ISP account.
Day eight of the trial between anti-piracy group AFACT and Aussie ISP iiNet. Today’s proceedings centered around the quality of the evidence supplied to the court by AFACT. It was ascertained that AFACT likely counted breaches more than once, with one of their lawyers admitting that one method used was not 100% accurate.
Day seven of the trial between AFACT and Aussie ISP iiNet. In cross-examination of anti-piracy bosses from the movie studios, Paramount said it would complain to BitTorrent Inc about the unauthorized use of its logo, while AFACT’s boss was forced to admit his investigators could have themselves condoned infringements.
Earlier this month an article appeared on a German site, purporting to detail the manner in which hugely popular Usenet company UseNeXT conducts its business. The article, titled “UseNeXT: Legitimate downloading of pirated movies” caught the eye of UseNeXT, which immediately sent threats of legal action to the author.
Day six of the copyright infringement trial between anti-piracy group AFACT and Aussie ISP iiNet. In addition to ongoing cross-examination of a DtecNet anti-piracy boss, a forensic investigator and veteran of the KaZaA case took the stand, admitting that an IP address alone is insufficient to identify an exact individual.
Day five of the copyright infringement trial between anti-piracy group AFACT and Aussie ISP iiNet was marked by the cross examination of anti-piracy tracking firm DtecNet, partly in private. The company also made some very unusual claims about the habits of “ordinary” BitTorrent users, who apparently regularly filter who they connect to.
This week three Pirate Bay crew members appealed the negative verdict in their controversial case against Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN. The defendants’ lawyer claimed that the evidence presented by BREIN was faked in an attempt to mislead the court. Now these faked documents, including proof that they are, have now leaked onto The Pirate Bay.
