TorrentFreak

Earlier this month Finland’s largest ever Internet piracy case ended with four men being found guilty of copyright infringement and two being exonerated. The case involved a so-called ‘topsite’ called Angel Falls and had an interesting twist. During the trial it was revealed that evidence gathered by a local anti-piracy group and the IFPI was also handed to a “senior MPAA executive” who tampered with the evidence before handing it to the police.

Since last year the Finnish public had the option to suggest what laws they want to live under. A recent modification of the national Constitution allows for citizens to make legislative proposals for the Parliament to vote on, providing it gets 50,000 supporters within 6 months. One of the proposals that has submitted since calls [...]

Finland’s largest ever Internet piracy case has come to an end with six men standing trial for running a so-called ‘topsite’. Two were cleared by the court but four others were found guilty of distributing movies, music, TV shows, software and other media. They received suspended jail sentences of up to six months but rightsholders are disappointed after their six million euro damages claim – 900,000 euros from Microsoft alone – was reduced to just 45,000 euros.

A Finnish anti-piracy group has copied the design of The Pirate Bay website for their latest anti-piracy campaign. The Pirate Bay is outraged by this move and says it will sue the group for breaking their site policy, which clearly states that organizations are not permitted to steal the site design for nefarious purposes. “People must understand what is right and wrong,” The Pirate Bay says.

In a surprise move several major record labels in Finland have asked the District Court of Helsinki to unblock Pirate Bay’s Promo Bay. The local anti-piracy group did so after confirming that the website did not facilitate copyright infringement, noting that it is eager “to allow digital consumers access to new legal alternatives to enjoy exciting new music.”

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 [...]

This week Netflix launched its popular on demand video streaming service in Finland, but not without controversy. To cater to the local audience, on some of its programming the company displayed “unauthorized” fansubs. Unlike regular subtitles, fansubs are created without permission from content owners and often used alongside pirated content. Netflix apologized for the use of the unauthorized subtitles and has promised to take them offline.