TorrentFreak

The most recent dispute between The Pirate Bay and a Finnish anti-piracy group appears to be over. CIAPC, known locally as TTVK, lifted the code of The Pirate Bay’s home page in order to promote their own anti-piracy message but were called out over their double standards. Now, in an unusual move the anti-piracy group has withdrawn the campaign, even though they say it was extremely successful. Attention has now shifted to claims by TTVK that they achieved an 81% reduction in The Pirate Bay’s traffic.

France may be stepping up their HADOPI scheme, but not every European country is heading the same way. In Finland, a new procedure, passed last year might bring a radical change to the copyright law. The secret is public participation. There is some history of public participation schemes in several countries already. The US government [...]

The story in Finland of a 9-year-old girl raided by the police over a single music download has come to a head-spinning end. Despite criticizing the heavy handedness of the authorities and describing an anti-piracy group’s demands for cash settlement as “mafia-like”, the father of the child has chosen to pay up to make possible legal action go away. Anti-piracy group CIAPC says it is happy with the 300 euro cash payment.

This week, at the behest of an anti-piracy group, police executed a search warrant against an alleged file-sharer. Not only did the police feel it was measured and appropriate to take action against an individual who downloaded a single album worth a few euros, but even carried on once they knew their target was a 9-year-old child. Of course there has been outcry, but let’s look at this from a different angle for a moment. Isn’t this some of the best news all year?

An anti-piracy company has found itself in the middle of a huge controversy. CIAPC, the company that had The Pirate Bay blocked by ISPs in Finland, tracked an alleged file-sharer and demanded a cash settlement. However, the Internet account holder refused to pay which escalated things to an unprecedented level. In response, this week police raided the home of the 9-year-old suspect and confiscated her Winnie the Pooh laptop.

CIAPC, the anti-piracy group that has successfully forced ISPs in Finland to block The Pirate Bay, has threatened to sue the ISPs themselves over alleged TV show piracy. Local ISPs such as Elisa and TeliaSonera offer cloud services where their customers can store TV shows for later viewing over the Internet. CIAPC says the services fall outside the scope of private copying “fair use” and therefore require a license to operate legally. The ISPs are ignoring demands to shut down the services and now face legal action.

An investigator who worked for the anti-piracy outfit behind Finland’s Pirate Bay ISP blockage and two file-sharing cases where defendants collected huge fines, has been speaking of his lack of training at the organization. The man also says that he was so uncomfortable with the heavy modification of file-sharing related witness statements he created for the police, in the end he refused to sign them.