TorrentFreak

Earlier this week MPAA chief Chris Dodd delivered a keynote speech to The National Association of Theatre Owners at their CinemaCon conference in Las Vegas. He began by noting that global box office receipts for 2012 had climbed to $34.7 billion, a 6 percent increase over 2011, but according to the Senator it’s not all [...]

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.

The MPAA and file-hosting service Hotfile are gearing up for their trial in a U.S. court later this year. This week the movie studios told the court that Hotfile does not qualify for safe harbor protection as it knew about the “massive infringing use” of its service, citing last week’s verdict against BitTorrent site isoHunt. The file-hosting site disputes the allegations and says that there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing on their part.

The MPAA, RIAA and the Internet providers participating in the “six strikes” anti-piracy scheme have informed the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee about their plans. The MPAA’s Marianne Grant gave a detailed overview explaining how they gather evidence against illegal file-sharers. She further explained that the MPAA is particularly interested in tracking BitTorrent since it’s the best way for P2P file-sharers to download movies and TV-shows.

IsoHunt lost its appeal against the MPAA today, with the Ninth Circuit upholding the 2010 ruling that the website does not qualify for safe harbor under the DMCA. The verdict means that isoHunt will have to keep filtering its search results. For the site’s users all will remain the same, as the site has been filtering keywords on a list provided by the MPAA since the initial injunction was issued.

Last week the European Court of Human Rights rejected an application to hear the cases of Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij, two of the co-founders of The Pirate Bay. The MPAA has now come out to applaud the decision, claiming that they are tired of pirates hijacking the term “freedom of expression.” Criminals shouldn’t hide behind such basic rights, the Hollywood group believes.

The latest MPAA tax filing shows that the revenue generated by the anti-piracy group has started growing again after several years of decline. As a result the MPAA was able to double its legal spending and increase wages. After some earlier speculation, the filing reveals that MPAA boss and former Senator Chris Dodd earns a healthy income of more than $2.4 million a year.