In just a few weeks the UK government will announce their new anti-piracy legislation that aims to put an end to most illegal file-sharing. The exact nature of the proposals are still unknown, but installing “speed bumps” for pirates is a good option according to the film industry.
A study conducted by PRS, the British music royalty collection agency, looked into the downloading habits of the average user of file-sharing networks. They found that the most downloaded tracks mimic the music charts. That is, people tend to download music that’s already popular.
College students have always been prime targets for anti-piracy outfits such as the RIAA. Despite inundating students with mountains of threats and legal action, the number of copyright infringements committed by them have not declined. What did change though is the positioning of various universities in the list of most infringing establishments.
During recent years technology has evolved up to a point where the rebroadcasting of TV-signals in high quality can be done with a few clicks. This poses an increasing threat to broadcasters of live sporting events, who have now joined the ‘war on piracy’ by hiring BayTSP to track down illegal live streams.
BitTorrent users are often referred to as pirates, even though there are plenty of legal uses for the most used file sharing protocol. Even for those who use BitTorrent to download copyrighted content, the motivation to do so varies. Through this poll we would like to discover why you use BitTorrent.
The movie industry leaves no stone unturned in its quest to eliminate movie piracy, particularly illegal camcording in theaters. Unfortunately, it’s the public that has to deal with the negative consequences. In some parts of the world, it means that you’ll have to wait a few extra weeks or months before a movie premieres.
The Get a Mac campaign is famous for comparing the troublesome PC with the much hipper Mac. In a series of commercials the Mac displays its superiority over the Windows based PC. Unsurprisingly, the ads never covered BitTorrent etiquette, because Windows users are better ‘pirates’ compared to their Mac counterparts.
Commissioned by the Dutch government, a recently published report concludes that file-sharing has a positive effect on the economy, both on the long and short term. A massive 30% of the Dutch population uses file-sharing software to download music, games, movies and other forms of entertainment, which is now considered to be a ‘good thing’.
The Internet has been a blessing for the music industry. Although the RIAA and IFPI frequently complain about piracy, their own research shows that only 10% of all illegal downloads are considered to be a loss in sales. Meanwhile, piracy has shown them how to monetize music online, and turn it into profit.
In line with its new strategy of trying to force ISPs to take responsibility for the actions of their customers, in 2008 the ‘Big Four’ record labels, headed up by the IFPI, announced they would take Ireland’s largest ISP to court. The case began yesterday and is already proving controversial.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) currently being discussed by several of the world’s leading countries, will undoubtedly lead to stricter ant-piracy legislation. The problem though, is that nobody really knows what it will entail. The EU refuses to make the drafts public, which makes it impossible for the public to review the documents before they are signed.
