A federal judge in Mexico has suspended the ban on sales and imports of Roku media players, at least temporarily. Roku is happy with the decision and says it will continue to work with entertainment industry stakeholders on a variety of anti-piracy measures.
'Pirate' sites Sci-Hub and LibGen have been ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages to Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers. A New York District Court granted Elsevier's request for a default judgment of $15 million in damages. Sci-Hub's founder says that she can't pay the damages even if she wanted to, and for now, the "Pirate Bay for science" isn't going anywhere.
In an effort to regain control over millions of dollars in seized assets, Kim Dotcom's legal team has filed a brief at the Supreme Court, countering the US Government's position. The US uses the fugitive claims as a coercive weapon, which offends due process and fundamental fairness, according to the Megaupload founder.
Three men from the UK have been sentenced after pleading guilty to providing unauthorized access to pirate movies, music, games, and books. The main player, who allegedly made £500,000 over a number of years, was handed a 24 month suspended sentence. The other pair received 12 months each.
The MPAA and RIAA have made their positions clear in submissions to the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Both want allies Canada and Mexico to commit to tightened copyright law, including restrictions on safe harbor provisions that go beyond current US practice.
A District Court in Texas has granted a series of subpoenas to Dish Network, aimed at identifying the people behind the TVAddons website and the ZemTV Kodi addon. This allows Dish to request detailed information on associated accounts of the alleged copyright infringers at services including Amazon, Github, Google, Twitter, Facebook and PayPal.
The US Embassy in Costa Rica has threatened to have the country's domain registry shut down unless it suspends ThePirateBay.cr. The registry says it won't comply without a court order and has written to the ICANN organization to complain about harassment and personal insults.
Internet Provider Grande Communications has asked a Texas federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the music group RIAA earlier this year. According to Grande, the Rightscorp notices the RIAA provides as evidence do not prove actual infringement. Even if they did, the ISP says it is a victim of piracy, not a perpetrator.
A Mexican court has ordered local retailers to stop importing and selling Roku media players, as these allow the public to access pirated content. In addition, several banks are prohibited from processing payments that are linked to piracy services on the Roku platform.