isoHunt Loses Appeal Against the MPAA, Keyword Filter Remains

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,…

Fresh Calls to Congress to Make Movie and Music Streaming a Felony

Last time there was an attempt to turn streaming copyrighted content into a felony the effort was crushed when the Internet rose up and defeated SOPA. But this week the thorny issue was again raised before Congress, with a suggestion that until the offense is considered a felony rather than…

UK ISPs Start Blocking KickassTorrents, H33T and Fenopy

BT, Virgin Media, O2 and Be There have started to block access to three of the world's largest BitTorrent sites. The blockades were put in place following a High Court order earlier this year, which ruled that KickassTorrents, H33T and Fenopy were facilitating copyright infringement. With the sites no longer…

Google Further Highlights Wrongful DMCA Takedowns

As the tsunami of DMCA takedowns sent to Google breaks yet another record, there are signs that the search engine is beginning to make rightsholders who have their requests denied a little more visible. As it reinstates Torrentz's homepage after an earlier takedown against content that doesn't exist, Google is…

Hitler Goes Nuts Over Prenda Copyright Troll Debacle

The Prenda copyright trolling fiasco is about to enter another critical phase. After their no-show earlier this month the world’s most famous trolls will now have to appear in court April 2 for what FightCopyrightTrolls is calling the Prendacalypse. And as if matters couldn’t get any worse, Hitler just found…

New York Public Library Blocks The Pirate Bay (and TorrentFreak)

The New York Public Library is a bastion of public information and knowledge. While this may be true "on paper", the library has a surprisingly restrictive Internet filter. The result is that many websites are censored in NYPL's network, including The Pirate Bay and, curiously enough, TorrentFreak.

Pirate Movie Indexing Site Operator Sentenced To Five Months Jail

The former operator of an unauthorized movie linking site has been fined and sentenced to jail by a court in Italy. The Court of Arezzo found that the 43-year-old man had operated Vedogratis, a site that supplied links to movies on streaming portals. The site was founded in 2008 and…

“Wee Man” Not Happy With Copyright Troll Lawsuits

Jason 'Wee Man' Acuna of Jackass fame is not amused that hundreds of people are sued for allegedly downloaded a movie he starred in. The film, Elf-Man, premiered on DVD late last year and its makers are now trying to boost their revenues through mass-lawsuits targeted at alleged BitTorrent users.…