The Pirate Bay has announced that it will file a complaint to ask for compensation from the IFPI for the traffic which was destined for its site, but blocked by the Danish ISP Tele2. If they win, the money will be spent on funding independent artists who share their music for free on filesharing sites.
Any organization reaching a major anniversary would be proud of this fact, with press releases, interviews and celebration. The IFPI hasn’t said anything about reaching its 75th birthday. Instead, one of their staff has edited their Wikipedia page to keep their roots a secret. So what exactly do they want to hide?
The IFPI has announced that it demands $2.5 million from the Pirate Bay in the upcoming court case, to cover the damages they suffered from 24 music albums that were made available on the popular BitTorrent tracker.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is said to be planning a BitTorrent clampdown. The trade association, previously heavily involved in the shutdown of OiNK, says that BitTorrent has become “too easy” and is taking aim at what it refers to as ‘larger networks’.
After forcing a single ISP in Denmark to block The Pirate Bay, it now appears that the IFPI has a plan to sue all of the major Swedish ISPs to force them to do the same. Telia Sonera, a large Swedish ISP is refusing to be bullied, stating that such blocking and filtering actions are illegal under EU law.
Last week a court ruled that Israel’s largest ISPs should block access to HttpShare, a BitTorrent and http hyperlink site. Thanks to what the owners call “IFPI advertising”, the site is now so busy they’ve had to upgrade their hardware. TorrentFreak caught up with them as they cracked open the champagne.
The ‘Big Four’ record labels - EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner have started legal proceedings to force an ISP to end piracy on its network. The action, brought against Irish ISP, Eircom, is the first of its kind.
After originally threatening to leave, London-based EMI Records has confirmed it will remain a member of the IFPI. With its self-imposed deadline of March 31st 2008 looming, the company has struck a deal so that EMI - together with other members - will now contribute less to anti-piracy activities.
The Pirate Bay has just launched jesperbay.org as a countermeasure to the Danish ISP block that was announced yesterday. The site is named after Jesper Bay, the head of the Danish IFPI and gives detailed instructions for affected customers on how to regain access to The Pirate Bay.
